The first time my dad showed it to me , I turned my nose up like I had smelled a long dead piece of road kill .
No way would I fish that , I thought to myself . The fly was all wrong , constructed completely backwards to traditional intruder style flies that we fish on our steelhead rivers when the water temperatures drop and a sink tip presentation is needed .
Apparently , steelhead don ’ t have the same opinion .
Fay Mills , my father , is known mostly by his nickname , “ Old Man River .” OMR for short . He ’ s a guy who just exudes fishy juju and has a tendency to be a bit of a fish vacuum on the river . If at all possible , don ’ t fish behind him because watching him hook and land fish will get old pretty quick . I ’ ve seen it happen way , way too much . Like I said before , his bug , dubbed “ OMR ’ s
Dancing Lady ,” was all wrong . Imagine a typical sink tip steelhead fly and you ’ ll see about 99 % of them with what we call a three section construction . The rear section , which consists of a small silhouette , a section to give it length in the middle and the front section that gives it the bulk , action and form that steelhead key in on . Beyond that , there ’ s something else that bite on steelhead flies . Steelhead fishermen .
You have to consider the aspect of bin appeal . The visual presentation that gets people to buy flies completely factors in on what you see in production flies . If the fly looks the part , it sells . Some of the best flies have zero bin appeal at the shop , in turn they don ’ t sell , and out of production they go .
OMR ’ s Dancing Lady falls into the category of zero bin appeal . It ’ s backwards , with the bulk of the silhouette occurring at the back
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