Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”

by Rusty Dunn

Have you ever thought about the technology that con­nects you to a running trout?  Your rod is a mar­vel of engineering.  It is a hollow tube of graphite composites embedded in epoxy and pre­cisely ta­pered.  It is as light as a feather and stronger than steel.  Your fly line floats on miracle plastics infused with micro-bub­bles and coated with a secret sauce more slippery than black ice.  Your leader blends nylon and other synthetics into a co­polymer filament stronger than Spider­man’s web.  The complete outfit is a wonder of petro­chemical en­gi­neering.  But what about the fly you tie to the busi­ness end of the leader?  How much pet­rochemistry does it contain?  If you are an ex­treme purist or an avowed geezer, your flies are likely tied only of fur and feather – just the way Isaak Walton intended.  But if you learned to fly fish in the last 30 or 40 years, your flies probably con­tain a good dose of syn­thetic ma­terials.  Indeed, many flies today owe more to the influence of DuPont Chem­ical than Isaak Walton. Read More