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Some time ago, when I shared posted a photo of the Rainbow Nymph on my Facebook page somebody asked, “What bug does that match?” The answer, of course, was none.

While it's true that matching the hatch or matching underwater insects is an important factor when we fly fish, there may be days when there may not be any apparent hatches or days when, no matter what imitation you toss, the trout just seem uninterested. Those are the days when you may need to dig into your fly box and tie on an attractor pattern.

Attractor patterns do not represent any particular insect. When Lee Wulff was asked what his fly, the famous Royal Wulff, represented he stated that it did not look like anything in particular but that nonetheless the fish ate it. Such is the case of many other well known attractor patterns, such as the copper john, hare's ear nymph, and humpies.

Review: Redington Butter Stick Fly Rod

Redington's fiberglass offering is a joy for small-stream angling
Redington Butter Stick

So, that sweet little “crick stick” wasn’t under the tree, huh? The family is under the mistaken assumption that you already possess enough fly fishing gear — and plenty of rods, in particular.

Yeah, you asked for a tight little backcountry rod — a supple, glass number that’s almost as intuitive as you are when it comes time to read a little hidden stream somewhere well off the pavement. But you got a sweater, instead. Or a pair of fuzzy slippers.

Whatever. You knew this would happen, right? You ask for something to enhance your “vice,” and instead get a bottle of cologne and a beef stick. Such is life.

Don’t fret. That little implement isn’t too far out of reach, and, frankly, it’s not nearly as pricey as you might think.

The new Tenkara USA Sato.

Earlier this month, Tenkara USA announced it would be adding two new rod offerings in time for holiday gift giving. Those two new rods, the Sato and the Rhodo, differ from the other tenkara rods in Tenkara USA's lineup in that they are designed to be fished at three different lengths. Tenkara USA is calling this new feature "triple-zoom" technology.

In regards to the Sato, which is named for a famous mountaineer that is responsible for the first recorded information about Tenkara, Tenkara USA notes, "with several years of design experience under our belt and feedback from our users, we feel we have achieved what we set out to do: give you a rod that is super light-weight, durable, versatile and feels very precise. Plus, we wanted to design a rod that would make it easy to answer "which tenkara rod should I get?" The Sato can be fished at 10’8”, 11’10” or 12’9”.

The down-and-across swing is the favorite tool of the mousing fly fisherman, and it's hard to imagine a more entertaining way to catch a fish (photo: Chad Shmukler).

Most certainly this was the first fly fishing tactic. At its genesis, fly fishing was a hunter/gatherer tactic, not a sport, although I suspect that its first practitioners found it to be just as much fun as those of us that have ever caught a fish on a fly that he/she tied. It was not practiced with a rod and reel and line and leader; it was very much a "pole and (horse-hair) string" business. There was no shooting line, no double haul, not even any real "casting" per se. It was just a "flop it out there" process, with perhaps the occasional dapping. The currents would have dragged the fly almost instantly, but that could have been an effective method when the fish were taking adult caddis and midges, which the first recorded fly design seems to have suggested.

From the vantage point of long flies -- minnows and leeches, frogs and mice, poppers and gurglers, tubes and hair bugs and so on -- it is with these imitations that the down-and-across swing really shines, because while drag is a nuisance with dead-drifted dries, emergers and other flies of the film, drag can definitely be the long-fly fisher's friend.

As the name clearly indicates, the fly is presented to the fish on a down-and-across cast; typically a 30- to 45-degree angle downstream. The currents are then allowed to swing the fly back across stream until it is hanging straight downstream from the caster. It's a very easy tactic that can yield surprisingly good results. I especially like this tactic in smaller streams that I can easily cast across. I put the fly as tight to the far bank as possible -- right onto the shore if that's feasible -- and allow it to drag across. If there are fish in the near-shore waters along the far bank, they'll hit the fly as it drops into the water and heads off across stream. If there are fish along the angler's bank, they come running as the imitation shoots out of the mid-stream currents and into the quiet shallows.

Releasing a wild steelhead on Oregon's Deschutes River

Though the title is intentionally a bit tongue-in-cheek, the results of a recent study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE suggest that not only are hatchery-reared steelhead less intelligent than their wild counterparts but that they exhibit defects in the structure and composition of their lateral lines. These two findings are a likely explanation for why hatchery-reared juvenile steelhead exhibit a significantly reduced survival rate to adulthood than wild born steelhead do.

If you're at all familiar with fish biology, you've likely heard of the lateral line. If you haven't, the lateral line is sensory organ system that is arguably more important to a fish than any other aspect of its biology. The reason for this is that the lateral line of a fish is its primary tool for sensing and reacting to its environment. Cell clusters, called neuromasts, located along a fish's lateral line allow the fish to sense changes in stream flow rate, direction and other hydrodynamic fluctuations. It plays a crucial role in a fish's ability to catch prey, avoid predators, interact socially (including spawning) and communicate with other fish and orient and hold station in currents.

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