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Squid Squid have the ability to change their color to blend with their surroundings. They can instantaneously merge into a checkerboard pattern if they have the need. They can blink colors on and off like a strobe light, going from blue to amber to violet to red to clear and they can do it in less time than it takes to register in your mind. Squid come in every color and they change these colors at will. Their natural color is a translucent amber and it is the color they display when they are at ease. Their shape is always the same. It is an elongated cigar or banana shape, pointed at both ends with the eyes and tentacles at the front. Squid use their tentacles which are held tightly together as a forward facing steering rudder. They propel themselves by undulating their fins and steer from the front where their eyes are located. Their translucency makes them hard to see in the water. They appear as a vague shape with a slight glow, very indefinite in appearance. Their vagueness is their trademark and flies tied to imitate them should reflect this appearance when in the water. R.L.S. Amber Squidazzle Hook: 253NA Eagle Claw. Platform: Honey bucktail tied as a base to support the flat hackle tail. Tail: Stiff light gray hackle curve side up---under pale yellow saddle---under two gold strips of Flashabou---under a gray saddle---under two strips of red flashabou---under a ginger saddle---under two strips of pearl Flashabou---under a light pink saddle---under two strips of light blue Flashabou. Body: Light violet body braid. Wing: One wide medium brown saddle or neck hackle, 5 to 7 to 9 inches long. Collar: Long and sparse honey bucktail with orange and blue and chartreuse accents tied to surround the fly 360 degrees and to flare slightly. Cheek: Golden pheasant or Lady Amherst tippet feathers tied in on either side. (optional) Eyes: Jungle Cock placed to center against the pheasant tippet feather. Shrimp In the spring, on the New Moon, shrimp come to the surface to mate. They are carried along by the currents and are preyed upon by stripers and other gamefish. Stripers that are feeding on these mating shrimp hold in feeding stations. They position themselves in the current and sip in the shrimp as they drift down over their feeding station. A floating line with a dead drift presentation will catch these fish. The fly should be high in the water, as close to the surface as possible. Greasing the leader and fly helps. With the dead drift presentation the fly should be cast above the rising fish and allowed to float over his position in the current. This maneuver can be executed either upstream, cross-stream, downstream and everyplace in-between. You will have to tend your line differently depending on what direction you choose. If you choose to fish upstream you will have to gather in the line as the line and the fly come down the current towards you. If you choose to fish cross-stream then you will have to mend the line so that drag does not pull the fly out of the fish's feeding lane. If you choose to fish downstream then you will have to have slack line in hand and be prepared to feed this line into the drift to allow the fly to drift over the fish naturally. When fishing the downstream drift one has to learn how to hook fish consistently. The fish do not aggressively pursue the fly and engulf it, they simply rise and sip it in. The tightness of the line prevents the fly from entering their mouth as a free floating shrimp would and when they close their mouth there is nothing in it. When the angler attempts to set the hook after seeing the rise or after having felt the bump of the fish's attempt to suck the shrimp in, there is no fish there to hook. Often the angler concludes that the fish has struck short but this is seldom the case the tension on the line is the force that prevents the fish from completing the take. The secret is in finding the balance of just enough slack in the leader and just enough patience to wait for the fish to turn down with the fly securely within it's mouth. R.L.S. River Shrimp Hook: Any light wire 2X long carbon steel hook. Tail: Barred wood duck or golden pheasant tippet. Underbody: Gold or silver flat tinsel. Overbody: Amber Swannandeze. Underwing: Bronze mallard. Overwing: Gray Fox or woodchuck guard hair. Head: Spun deer hair clipped flat on the bottom and very short. The top and sides are clipped short and angled back to conform to the shape to the tail section of a shrimp. This fly can be greased to suspend in or just under the surface film and is effective when fished with a dead drift or greased line presentation.

Also see Kenny's piece: The Magic of Fly Design

Copyright 1998 Kenny Adams

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