Don't Lose It I'm Not Tying Anymore for Another Year!

March 19, 2024

It rained the day before we headed out, not sure how it was going to affect the fishing but it was worth giving it a go.  I had tied a Dagur's Sweet Home Alabama fly for myself and one for Luc.  It's a fly version of an Alabama rig (A-rig).  I told Luc when I handed it to him, "Don't lose it; I'm not tying anymore for a year!"  It took me about twenty minutes to tie one of those flies.  Not because it involves any difficult techniques but because it's a bit fiddly to work on.  Getting the arms to align properly is the biggest issue.  Also I have to switch from a tube vice to a traditional one in the middle of the process.  Personally I find the whole process annoying and not very fun.  I'm sure if I started tying more of them I could become more efficient at it but I'm not sure that's going to happen anytime soon.  Unless, of course I find the fly to be killing it then I could be motivated to tie more.

With spring around the corner and daylight savings now in effect, we are starting earlier than our previous outings which means I'm waking up at 5am to at Luc's by 6:30.  As it warms it's only going to be earlier so I better get used to the lack of sleep.  From the start I was rigged withe the A-rig attached to a shad colored Diamond Hair Minnow.  I thought it would be an epic day after his first cast, Luc was already on a bass.  He would get a few more after that.  I would get a few strikes on my set up but failed to connect on any.  Once we moved from our first location the day became a slog.  After a couple hours of unrewarded casts Luc broke the monotony with a crappie.  From there we moved to deeper water and we began to get on fish.  After not connecting on several strikes I decided to abandon the A-rig and simply fish the Diamond Hair by itself.  Luc managed another bass and while I was watching him land the fish I started to roll cast my fly out of the water and saw a bass aggressively charge the fly.  I was pissed.  Few cast later  miss another strike and while lifting my rod to start my next retrieve I get slammed.  Finally I'm on for the day.  Fished for another hour or so before calling it a day. 

Alone the following day, Luc tried the A-rig I tied for him.  He managed to get a very nice one early in the day when he metered a school of shad but for the rest of the day he went blank after giving the new fly a serious try out.  On his next outing he would blank on the fly. 

For the both of us the jury is still out on this fly.  I rarely tie tube flies and my Renzetti tube vice is only about a year old so I don't have much time behind it.  I had forgotten the vice comes with multiple pins of various diameters and lengths.  I tied my A-rig on the smallest pin which means its the shortest length.  On my next ties I'll use the larger ones so I can tie it longer.  One of the main issues I think is that the arms are too close to my fly.  I'm think I should use a smaller fly to accommodate for the issue.  More testing is needed.