Most new fly-ties flop, but Chute, some are hot

In my last column, I wrote about experienced fly-tiers coming up with variations of old patterns that sometimes prove to be just as good, if not better, than the originals.

Sometimes tiers can also come up with completely new patterns that prove effective.

Three or four years ago, my television tying partner Carolyn Sells gave me a fly she calls Carolyn's Chute. The fly looked like it would catch fish, but I was not overly impressed with the pattern.

It had a silver or light-gray floss body with a bright-red polypropylene wing and grizzly hackle. She told me the pattern could be tied in many different colors. She ties it in brown, tan, yellow and sometimes even black to imitate a midge. But she said it must always have a red wing post.

I put it in my fly box and promised Sells I would give it a try. I must admit, I placed her fly in a corner of the box rather than the center where it would be more noticeable. I'm not sure how long it stayed in my box untested. But I finally gave it a try during a slow day on Kelly Creek.

I didn't catch anything on the first few casts but a trout came up and missed the fly. So I started paying more attention to the placement of my casts and my drifts.

The chute worked. I caught several fish that afternoon as I worked back downstream toward my pickup. I was afraid I might lose the chute, so I took it off, put it back in my box and tied several more when I got home.

Since that first test day, I've used the chute successfully on several rivers around our area and in a couple of streams in Canada. One evening on the Lochsa, it caught more fish for me than all the other patterns I used that day. It made me wish I would have started out with the chute instead of waiting until evening.

While I was tying, I thought of the other colors Sells told me she uses and tried a few variations. I now have some brown and yellow chutes in my box and am eager to give them a try.

I sometimes think a fly like Carolyn's Chute might be so attractive to fish because it's different than the patterns sold by local shops that they have seen many times before. It's also proof that creative new patterns can be the hot fly of the day or even the year.

So try and come up with a pattern of your own and see what happens. Every tier does this eventually, me included. Many of them fail, but I keep trying. I have also had some winners that have been used all over the country and been written about in books and magazines.

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Hyatt is an avid fly tier who lives in Lewiston. He can be contacted at city@lmtribune.com.