(Note: Dave Hughes, the most prolific author of fly fishing books in the universe, will do occasional blogs exclusively for Westfly.)
Last week I went to Central Oregon's Grass Valley to fish some ponds that are full of the kind of trout that get big feeding mostly on small midges.
I took a fellow named Scott Richmond. Good thing I did, because I because I accidentally took my wife's little flippers, which wouldn't fit over my feet. But Scott had an extra set, and loaned them to me. The ponds are so surrounded by cattails and other vegetables that without those fins I'd not have been able to launch my tube and go fishing. Other than that, Scott was pretty bad company.
The midges didn't happen during the day like they're supposed to, so we had slow fishing right up until evening, when as usual it began to get dark when the sun went down. Then a herd of adult midges tromped out of the cattails and sagebrush and began scooting around on the water in the way that makes the Brits call them buzzers.
Trout always seem to appreciate it when midges do that. But some new midges usually emerge at the same time the old ones buzz about, so I use a stillborn pattern just as often as I use one I can skate.
This stillborn pattern is called the Ugly Duckling. Gary Anderson, a lake expert from East Wenatchee, Washington, originated it. Gary fishes the seep lakes and other stillwaters in his area. He knows more about fishing stillwaters than anybody I've ever fished with, including a guy named Rick Hafele, whoever he is.
Gary Anderson on Washington's Quail Lake.
Gary's Ugly Duckling is a simple contraption with a stick-like brown or black foam body, a tuft of white polypro tied across and clipped short in front of the body for gills, and a bit of orange foam sticking up at the head, looking as if it's peering around. Gary ties it on a size 16 TMC 206 hook. It floats so flush in the film you have to strain to see it, even with the orange head.
Ugly Duckling
The Ugly Duckling lies in the surface film like a tiny stick. When viewed from under water, as most trout get their ganders at insects they're about to eat, emerging midges look exactly like Gary's pattern, which is why I suspect the thing fools so many trout during midge hatches.
Trout's-eye view of an emerging midge.
In a bit of contrition for having to borrow Scott's flippers, I gave him a couple of Ugly Ducklings just before we launched. He put them in his box and went on fishing with whatever it was he was already using at the time. Neither of us caught much of consequence until the sun got gone, then I suddenly caught a nice trout on the Ugly Duckling. I coaxed the trout into jumping right in front of Scott, which felt good, though I'd have felt even better if I could have gotten it to splash him.
Then that was the end of it for me. I kept on with the same pattern, expecting to kill them, but caught no more. I did what we all do: went through a litany of fly pattern changes that got more and more desperate and difficult as the last of the light leaked out of the day.
Richmond proving why he's bad company.
Then Scott caught a trout, fought it, released it, cast and almost immediately hooked another. He let it go, cast again, and a few minutes later caught one last trout. By then I was flippering to the takeout in disgust. I'd given up on whatever fly I'd tried last, and it was too dark to tie on another. Scott caught up with me. I asked him what he'd been catching all those trout on.
"That fly you gave me," he said, "whatever it is." It was the same Ugly Duckling I'd given up on about an hour earlier.
Dave Hughes is the author of over 30 fly fishing books, including his newest book, Nymphs for Streams and Stillwaters. He has been editor of Fly Fishing and Tying Journal, as well as contributing editor to Fly Rod and Reel and Field and Stream. Dave is a popular speaker at fly club meetings and seminars; see his website for more information. Dave Hughes was a founder and first president of the conservation organization Oregon Trout. Dave regrets that his writing activities prevent him from responding to private message or emails.
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