Sparkle Daggers. the fly you love to hate

It has no natural materials, its obnoxious top look at, but it does get em. You learn a lot when guiding. I like to help with fly selection for my guests, but if they are sold on a fly for proven reasons, I like to let them roll with it a bit. There's an old saying, "Confidence is the best fly in the box." I've learned a lot that way. I've learned a lot from guests' successes and failures alike. A few years back, during a period of fishing where it appeared the fish knew the fly's names, a client fished an unusually large and obnoxious "Prom Dress". He had some good success with it in low clear water, which is the kind of the opposite of how you think it might go. The prom dress has been around for quite a few years and people have different views on it. Some say, "why not fish a spoon" others love them and others refuse. The Sparkle dagger draws inspiration from a few different places. One being the prom dress and the other being one of my favourite flies, the reverse marabou tube. I made some changes which often start from an economic standpoint and turn out to be some of the magic of a fly. Flashabou is expensive and the prom dress uses staggering amounts of it. I tightened up on the flashabou use, added a few twists of my own and came up with the Sparkle dagger. I've had great success with this fly on steelhead and chinook salmon. I'm sure that it would work on other species of salmon and trout as well. I will say it also tends to get "eaten." doesn't seem to get plucked and pulled as often and is more often getting smashed. It’s an easy casting, fish moving, unique and durable fly.