My dad gave me a copy of Dave Hughes' Taking Trout (2002) Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.
Among other nuggets, Hughes shares a pattern that worked wonders on our beloved Western Wisconsin spring creeks:
"I would never be without a supply of a certain beadhead nymph that, as far as I know, doesn't even own a name. I first tied a dozen of them on a picnic table beneath the spreading leaves of a shade tree in the back yard of Andy and Marie Davidson's home in the rolling limestone hills near Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. The whimsical size 12 tie has a brass beadhead, olive dubbed body, and yellow thread rib. That's it.
It took an enjoyable hour to tie those dozen on the Davidsons' picnic table, listening to the birds sing. Later in the week, I met Ted Leeson, author of Habit of Rivers, and we fished the spring streams rising from those limestone hills. It took just two days to lose those dozen beadhead nymphs to fat trout."
I'm off to tie a few myself. But what to call it? How about Hughes' Whimsical?
