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3. trico broods, Page 2

I've never fished a trico hatch before, but I've heard that those bugs are pretty tough to fish. Many guys don't even bother w/ em cause of the size of the flies(20-26). Although I have a few patterns in my box, I've never used them. Is it worth it to fish the tricos?

It just depends on how you look at the idea. I love 'em because they challenge me and I get to test my skills. Plus, I can fish them in the daylight and the hatch can last for months with the right weather. I like competing against them, if one can look at it that way. It's not easy, but I think it's great fun. The small tippet, small flies, the casting that needs to be pretty good, and the absence of micro drag, makes it challenging.

Bruce,

Well put mister! Many of your points would fairly well discribe why we fly fish in the first place. If someone read your short discription they would have a good view of what it's all about.

Spence

What Bruce said.

I understand and agree w/ you. Someday, hopefully, oppurtunity will present itself for me to fish them! In the meantime, I have another question: is it the size of the fly that makes it harder to prevent what you guys call "microdrag" as compared to say, fishing a Iso hatch with a 12-16 or so on? Also, why do they say the casting must be more precise than other hatches like Iso?

Thanks,
Adirman

A-man,

A 7X tippet on a #24 fly is proportionally thicker/stiffer than, say, a 5X tippet on a #14. (The #24 is less than half the size of the #14, but the 7X tippet diameter is reduced by only about one third over 5X.) This often causes the tippet to negatively influence the drift: it is harder to create appropriate slack in the tippet, and it behaves more like a rope as it interacts with minute current variations, dragging the little fly. As a consequence, some trico anglers use even finer tippets (8X-10X), but tactics of casting position, placement, and angle are also very important for getting a good drift, and these can sometimes be used to compensate for the effects of a thicker tippet.

Casting accuracy is at a premium because the "attraction distance" (the distance a fish will move to the fly) is often significantly reduced with small flies. The timing of casts can also be critical because many fish will develop a feeding rhythm when lots of flies are on the water. Casts that present the fly (accurately) in sync with that rhythm are more likely to succeed than casts that are out of sync. Accuracy and timing can be especially important with the larger fish.

I understand and than you. So, I imagine that long distance casts are pretty much out of the question when fishing small flies due to these micro-currents as well?