Quality Long Hair Bucktail

The fly Fish Hate

The WPLJ is an effective fly in stillwater, but has never been put to the test in a river.
After fishing a beat a few weeks ago, I decided to try it out on the way back. Just below a weir, there is a big deep pool, and standing above the wier I cast downstream. Letting the current move the flyline and without a retrieve, a customer was expected pretty soon. But nothing, not even a tire kicker. After experimenting with a number of retrieves and different parts of the pool, there still wasn't even a car in the car park.
Being of stubborn disposition I moved to the side of the pool, and did a 'drown and across' thing. This is where it got interesting.
The multiple currents made a few curves in the line, and my line went out from the rod & curved back towards me with the fly close and visible. A trout swam up to the fly, picked it up, swam away, then spat it out. And I didnt feel a thing on the line!

This is wake up call time, as in don't make assumptions. The assumption was that because the current is causing the curves in the line, the line is relatively 'tight' and you will feel the takes. NO WAY!
LESSON: If you are downstream nymphing, keep the line as short as you can. Rather hide away than use a long line.
Something else I noticed was the fly was swimming a little hook down, which it wasn't supposed to do. This was because I had used a down-eye hook instead fo a straight-eye, so watch out for that.

After shortening the line, I got a bass, after which my attention was drawn to two trout at the tail of the pool who were in the perfect position for me to see their reaction to the fly. My cast spooked the one, but the other followed the fly until I ran out space, never touching it.
In a lower pool I hooked a few, but the real action came later in a faster run, where the same fish attacked it three times without getting hooked. As the fly went upstream past the fish it would wait a while then dash furiously at the fly, attacking it with gusto.
Vindication was mine, the fish absolutely hate this fly! Especially in fast water.

Now this is a good thing, because they attack flies they hate, rather than given them the nose up haughty disdain they reserve for some of our dry flies. The fish further downstream hated it too, even one rather large bass, but unfortunately the hook up to landing ratio was very poor, something that would be remedied by straightening the eye

Looking at the fly, I realised that there is not much movement in Quality Long Bucktail, so the next logical step was to substitute the deer hair with marabou. It looked pretty good, but I was still noy satisfied with the fly, more movement was required and it needed a bead head to get some depth. In the next sequence, sequins were added, to create some turbulence in front of the fly. Turbulence alone can be a fish attractor, so turbulence and movement must make a killer fly.

Quality Long Hair Bucktail