The good old Hare’s Ear … every fly box has a few (or should, by God). Of late, I’m seeing a lot of folks at the vise adding their own little touches of goodness to this venerable patterns, but Matt Callies, who ties for Loon Outdoors, has produced what has quickly become my favorite.
Generally speaking, Hare’s Ears are mayfly nymphs, and the fly is among the most consistent trout producers on virtually any river or stream that hosts mayfly hatches. Tied in fairly common sizes — say, 12 to 16 — these nymphs are excellent searching patterns and work wonders under high-floating indicators in just about any stretch of trout water.
Above, Matt ties a fairly simple variation of the classic pattern, adding in a few specialty ingredients (tungsten bead, some plastic “thin skin” and, of course, the “hot spot” bubble of UV-activated resin (seriously, if you’re not tying with this stuff, you need to be!).
The result is a clean, buggy nymph pattern that should work in just about any trout-fishing situation where hatches aren’t abundantly obvious. Tied in smaller sizes and in different colors, this pattern could conceivably imitate shoulder-season BWO hatches, or tied with lighter dubbing, it could be a reasonable stand-in for a PMD nymph, a green drake nymph or even a March Brown nymph.
Check it out and see if you don’t like the way it looks.