Forgotten '52
Is the '52 Buick better than a Doc Spratley?
Let
me put it this way: If you are planning a mid-summer fishing
trip to any of the Kamloops area lakes, don't forget to pack your 52
Buicks! Sound like a memorable quote from the 1980's? I
mean, when was the last time anyone ever recommended that ancient
fly? Well, when asked by another angler on a Kamloops lake
last summer about what fly to use, that was the the first fly on my
list.
It's hard to believe that the 52 Buick is sometimes referred to as a
useless Doc Spratley without a wing. In my experience, the 52
Buick has out-fished the good ol' Doc Spratley at least three to
one. I never liked that overwing anyways. I'll give it
some credit, you can imitate many insects or invertebrates with a
Doc Spratley in certain sizes or colors. So if I was to tell
the Spratley to rest in peace, and retire from my fly box, many
anglers would probably call me crazy; but, these are the people who
I would badly out-fish with the much more practical 52 Buick.
Okay,
the Doc Spratley has paid its dues, caught fish throughout the
years, but why not have ten 52 Buicks tied up in your box instead of
tying up five or six doc spratleys? The 52 Buick is easy to
tie, using only four materials, which most people have in their fly
tying box. The use of lemon died mallard flank, olive dubbing,
peacock herl, and most importantly, oval tinsel to tie up the 52
Buick, creates one fly to be reckoned with.
Do not tie this fly without oval tinsel, unless tying to
specifically represent a caddis pupa, because one of the most
noticeable features of this fly in the water is the oval tinsel
ribbing. Hold it up to a dragonfly nymph, and you will notice
the oval tinsel gives it an ultra-realistic profile in the water.
Last summer, when nothing else worked (including the doc spratley),
this fly came through. Even during the warmest, sunniest days.
During one trip, Tim and I would make a loop in our pontoon boats
while trolling the 52 Buick on an intermediate sink line, and the
second we would hit a certain spot, it was an automatic hook-up.
This included a nice 21" Kamloops rainbow which broke in Tim's reel
nicely.
To conclude, I am going to say the opposite of a New York mobster
about the 52 Buick: "DON'T forget about it."
Written by: Andy Tchir