Sometimes casting to a selective trout can be like pitching to a batter. Like going inside to get the hitter’s attention and then throwing heat down the middle on the next pitch. When a fish fails to respond to your offering, a standard fly-fishing maxim is to go a size smaller, and after a few more casts I do just that, switching to a #22 fly, with only a wisp of cdc for a wing, a pattern that has worked well for me on suspicious brown trout. Nevertheless, the fish digs in its fins, continuing to feed as the damn dimple mocks my efforts to prevail.
Looking closely, I spot a few olives on the water. Their wings lie flush with the surface. I switch to a pattern meant to imitate a spent mayfly, one that has died after mating. The wings of my choice of fly mimic those of the insects floating under the maple tree. Predictably, the fish ignores it. Fly fishing, like baseball, is not as easy as it might first appear.
No worries. I switch to a pattern known as an emerger. Same insect, different stage, a fly created to simulate an aquatic insect as it “emerges” through the surface. It’s a pitch that is tough for a batter to lay off, even a trout as selective as the late Thurman Munson.
The fish follows. I watch it rise, but then it falls back, letting my offer drift across the plate…
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