In today’s ever changing landscape of fly tying, it seems the new norm is to attach as many materials to a hook as is humanly possible, with the goal of enticing more “likes” on social media than “eats” in the actual water. While many of these what I call “eye candy” patterns may seem cool at first glance, the experienced angler quickly recognizes what patterns are designed to catch more anglers than fish. Often the aesthetics of these “eye candy” flies trumps the importance of the materials—a problem because a fly’s materials can determine whether your time on the water is enjoyable or resembles something like work. Casting a well-designed fly that jettisons through the air with ease is much more pleasant than attempting to fling a sandbag.
The beauty of tying your own flies is that you can tinker, tweak and fine tune pretty much any aspect of the fly. And if you take people fishing for a living, you can add another layer to that equation, as day in and day out you will have a very wide spectrum of experience to make observations from. Having such a backlog of knowledge gives you an edge in designing universally effective fly patterns that fish well over a broad spectrum of angler skill sets.
I truly enjoy fishing streamers, and I have grown even fonder of those that have a natural swimming action to them. There is just something about a fly that slinks, darts and serpentines through the water column as the angler imparts a variety of actions through the manipulation of the fly line. I guess you could say if the angler likes the way the fly looks in the water, there is a higher probability that they will have confidence in its success and keep it where it needs to be—in the water. But contrary to popular belief, it isn’t always necessary to build a multitude of sections into a fly pattern to get this enticing action; it can be achieved on a single platform or a two-part platform very easily.
The Alter Ego, like flyfishing itself, is a streamer pattern that can be as simple or complex as you like. You alone control how far down the rabbit hole you choose to go. Personally, I prefer streamer patterns that have mutiple dimensions of appeal built into their design, and the Alter Ego is one that articulates that theme on a variety of levels. The broad profiled deer hair head and collar is the first thing that immediatley comes to mind. This head design is the catalyst for the actions that can be achieved from this fly, as once wet you will see that this pattern shimmies and shakes with even the subtlest of manipulations. But there are other dimensions of appeal that can be altered when constructing the body of this pattern.
For example, although a solid color base fishes extremely well, I often prefer to blend a variety of colors into the head, collar and tails sections of this pattern, as this approach offers a new layer of appeal with only a little more effort and time. Ultimately, experimentation is left to the person sitting at the vise, but remember that less is often more so when tying this fly: please listen carefully when I emphasize keeping materials at a minimum. This alone will vastly enhance your love of this fly, as its castability will be greatly increased for even novice anglers.
The Alter Ego is not what I would term a species-specific fly pattern; in fact it has fooled fish from a variety of locations both in fresh and saltwater. One could argue that this pattern falls into that category of “predator food” as its action in the water provokes predatory reactions from just about any fish. As you can see, it can be tied on a variety of hook configurations, so adjust accordingly to whatever you are targeting. A majority of my time fishing this fly is spent targeting larger brown trout and smallmouth bass, so I typically tie the bulk of these in a 4-6 inch size range. But you can go smaller or much larger as well.
As a result of it’s neutrally bouyant design, the Alter Ego fishes best on any type of integrated sinking line with a 3-6 foot (or more) leader tapered to 12-16 pound test. I prefer a sink tip of 25-30 feet, and as of late I use flourocarbon in the construction of my leaders as it stretches less and holds up better than standard monofiliment. These are just reference points to start experimenting from. An intermediate line works well too in the proper situations, and I have also been known to use this pattern in an all-black configuration with a greased leader and floating line for large nocturnal browns as well.