spittendrigh wrote:
On Nov 21, 3:01 pm, rw wrote:

spittendrigh wrote:

On Nov 21, 10:02 am, rw wrote:

The Duck Lake Special certainly isn't a forgotten fly in Idaho.

The one time I fished the Duck Lake Reservation (Lake Billy Shaw) I
tried the Duck Lake Special, but didn't have much luck with it. I had my
best success with a Skip's Nymph drifted (by wind drag) through the
drowned sagebrush. That was deadly.

Idaho seems to hang on to traditions longer. There are more
wooden driftboats in Idaho, per boat owner, than even Oregon,
where they came from. I haven't seen a Duck Lake Special in
a Montana Fly shop in years.

Duck Lake Reservation is just over the Idaho border in Nevada,
convenient to Boise and Twin Falls. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the
inventor of the Duck Lake Special is an Idahoan, although I can't recall
or Google-up his name. Those facts (if the second is actually a fact)
probably account for much of the continued popularity of the Duck Lake
Special in Idaho.

It looks like a nondescript, unexceptional, anodyne fly to me -- no
better or worse than many other similar flies. I doubt that I'll ever
fish it again (unless I'm desperate). It's disproportionate success
represented at Bailey's is probably due to a long reign as the "it" fly.

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Cut "to the chase" for my email address.


I'm not saying I know better. I may have the wrong information.
But I always assumed the Duck Lake Special
was invented for, and named for Duck Lake on the Blackfeet
Reservation in Montana. At Dan Bailey's there are at least
20 outlines of large fish hanging on the wall, caught on Duck
Lake Specials, where the annotation specifically says the fish
were caught from Duck Lake (east of Browning).



You must be right. I'm always confusing Duck Lake and Duck Valley (both
Indian reservations). At any rate, the Duck Lake Special is one of the
highly recommended patterns for Duck Valley.

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Cut "to the chase" for my email address.