Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Mr. Y2K has the perfect recipes for midges, too
David Knowles can ‘engineer’ successful flies and lots of them
David Knowles can explain in great detail what he calls his complete lack of creativity.
“Engineers are not creative,” he said. “Engineers don’t try to re-invent the wheel. So almost all of my flies had some sort of influence from others.”
Engineer or not, Knowles the fly tier has rich creations with great influence on all of the great Arkansas trout fisheries. And, if you will try them, they’ll work anywhere else where there are trout. He’s a commercial production tier and a retired University of Arkansas professor.
Knowles was born in Wibaux, Mont., and lived his early days in Texas and Georgia. He learned bass fishing in Texas, fly fishing in Georgia. He’s got two degrees from Georgia Tech and a Ph. D. from the University of Texas. He taught at Texas A&M for nine years and Arkansas, the latter for 25 years, including 14 as professor.
There was discussion of his Georgia time when he got into fly fishing, finally diving in full bore with a purchase of a Heddon fiberglass rod, then later a Ted Williams model from Montgomery Ward.
It wasn’t until his time teaching at Arkansas when fly tying became a necessity. Another UA teacher showed him a fly that was good on local trout streams that wasn’t available at any shops.
“He’d give me some, but I broke off so many on light tippet that I got tired of asking him for more,” Knowles said. “So I bought a Thompson vise and tied some poor quality versions.”
Fast forward to 15 years when Knowles was by then tying commercially, just after retiring in 2001. It was sometime around 2001 when a sports writer got into fly fishing. One of the first places local shop owner Bill Tennison touted was a deep pool below a riffle on the upper end of the Beaver tailwater.
“It’s called the Y2K hole,” Tennison said, walking over to a fly bin at the old White River Angler Shop.
It was actually a row of bins with a variety of colors in the signature Knowles fly, the Y2K egg pattern.
Knowles smiled broadly when this was mentioned during a two-hour lunch interview.
“I don’t know why they called it that,” the modest engineer said.
Oh, I do. That fly was money as soon as Knowles created it late in 1999. In fact, it still is good in that spot. Well, it’s good almost anywhere.
It was just as good in north Georgia where competition for it in several fly shops eventually convinced Umpqua Feather Merchants to sign Knowles as a preferred tier and mass produced his Y2K.
It’s not your typical egg. It is tied in a multi-colored wedge with a gold bead, at the suggestion of Tennison.
“I started testing a version of the Y2K after fishing beside a man who was catching trout on an egg tied on a jig with orange and yellow yarn,” Knowles said. “He was catching fish and I wasn’t.
“The problem I always had was that I couldn’t really tie eggs perfectly round. So I came up with a wedge shape that I could duplicate. Then, Bill told me to put a bead on it.
“It was developed in November and December of 1999. There was all this concern about what was going to happen with computers when the calendar hit 2000. So I wasn’t very creative and called it my Y2K. I’d written a lot of software so I understood the fear in what was going to happen.”
The Y2K worked especially well on the north Georgia trout fisheries. “Unicoa Outfitters made the Y2K famous,” Knowles said. “It’s the reason Umpqua picked it up. I got a lot more publicity from Unicoa than anywhere.
There was another shop in Georgia that wanted it and I think that had a lot to do with Umpqua calling me.”
The Y2K may be famous in Georgia, but it’s a series of productive midges that have become the staples in Arkansas shops. Knowles studied Midge Magic, a book by Don Holbrook and Ed Koch. Their midges fished in the Pennsylvania limestone streams fascinated Knowles.
“They tied with embroidery floss, with holographic tinsel,” Knowles said. “I took some of their colors and ideas for the diamond midge, but I used beads. And, that seemed to work on our tailwaters.”
Indeed, the Knowles version of the diamond midge replaced zebra midges as staples on the White River tailwaters below Beaver, Bull Shoals and Norfork dams.
“I’d seen that red midges seem to work below Table Rock,” Knowles said. “So I thought maybe you could put red holographic tinsel instead of silver. I was using a dark bead, nickel color. Then, it was suggested to me by (Clay Henry) that bright silver was better.
“Like I said, I’m not very creative, but I do try to solve the issues and take the ideas of others.”
Thus, the ruby midge was born and it’s proven effective in Arkansas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Montana fisheries.
“Then, the root beer midge came along,” Knowles said, noting it’s been his go-to midge on his trips back to his native Montana for about the last five summers.
“I probably haven’t fished other flies enough because I’m fishing the root beer midge almost all of the time.”
The root of the root beer came from former Arkansas accounting professor Mel O’Connor, one of Knowles best fishing buddies.
“Mel tied it with a glass root beer colored bead,” Knowles said. “I switched it to a copper bead and it seemed to do better.”
That fly took off after Knowles shared it with a sports writer and a column touted it. Local fly shops clamored for it and big browns were soon taking it in a big way on the White River. It caught big trout in Pennsylvania, East Tennessee and Montana, too.
“I really think the root beer will work anywhere,” Knowles said. “I don’t know a place where it’s been tried that it didn’t work well. I have never fished a river it doesn’t work.”
Knowles ties his midges on Tiemco 100 size 18 hooks, but admits that others have success with curved hooks.
“I am convinced the trout disregard things like the bend in a hook,” Knowles said. “I am convinced that a straight dry fly hook is just fine for all midges.
“I’m also convinced that simple flies work better than fancy and they are a heckuva lot easier to tie.”
Since he’s a production tier, simple is important.
“The root beer is the easiest to tie,” he said. “It’s brown floss over brown holographic tinsel and how many wraps are not important to the fish. Imperfections don’t show up.
“The recipe for a ruby that I sell to shops calls for six wraps of black floss. You can see the red lots of red between the black wraps on a ruby a lot easier than brown over brown. So the ruby must be tied more carefully and that takes longer.”
Knowles has tied for as many as six fly shops at one time, but has had eight or nine regular shops over the 25 years that he’s been a production tier.
“I really wish I could turn back the clock and kept a diary of my tying,” he said. “I’d especially like to know how many Y2K flies I’ve tied.
“There are some neat stories about times when Unicoa would run out. People would get upset and I’d get a call for an emergency order. I don’t know how many Y2K flies I’ve tied. Thousands and thousands.”
It’s not an easy fly to duplicate. Knowles has some special tricks on how to anchor the yarn against the bead so it stays together on a productive day on the river.
“I’ve showed a lot of tiers how, but Mel O’Connor is the only person I know who can tie them to look and hold up like mine,” Knowles said. “It’s not easy to make them look like mine.”
There have been shops that found others aside from Knowles to tie the Y2K.
“They look like hell,” Knowles said, stopping to chuckle.
Better to get them from the inventor, said John Sturgis, Trout Unlimited’s state council for the last three years.
“David Knowles is Mr. Y2K,” Sturgis said. “But I call him the fly whisperer.
“I’ve seen him float down the river in his kick boat and hand out flies to those having trouble as they wade fish. He has a huge heart.”
Sturgis relies on the Knowles midges and has fished them with great success in spots on Montana rivers suggested by Knowles. And, if Knowles hands him flies, Sturgis promise to field test them.
“It’s been my experience that I work for David Knowles when I fish Beaver tailwater,” Sturgis said. “I’m his field tester and that’s fine by me. It’s going to be a good day.”
Knowles said tying his signature midges is not nearly as difficult as the Y2K. He does have a funny story about changing the ruby to the silver bead.
“I knew it worked better than the nickel, so I switched,” he said. “Steve Dally’s shop in Cotter sent a batch back because they weren’t to the proper recipe. I told him the silver worked better.”
Finally, some of his clients asked for the silver and Dally relented. It’s been bright silver ever since at all of the Arkansas shops.
“Now, I will say that I tie my own ruby midges with eight wraps of black floss,” Knowles said. “But those for the shops are still tied with the original recipe, six wraps. I have come to find out with my field testing that the darker ruby midges – with more black wraps — work better.
“Brock Dixon, a guide on our Arkansas tailwaters, suggested I put an orange or red collar on it and that works well, too. I take suggestions and adapt to what works. Steve Dally had put a red collar on my diamond midge when he was working at the Beaver Dam Store. He called it the red-neck diamond midge. That worked, too.”
There are other midges with holo
graphic tinsel that have shown promise, but lack proper field testing.
“I’m pleased with my emerald midge, that probably could replace the serendipity on the Madison River in Montana,” he said. “It’s green tinsel under black wrap of floss with a silver bead. I think it will fish well in a caddis hatch.
“I just haven’t tested it enough to say for sure. I’ve fished it in our Arkansas tailwaters and it’s really good.
“But so is the root beer. And, I know that the copper beaded ruby has gotten good results, too.
“Then, there is a black holographic tinsel midge that I really like. I have not named it yet. The holographic effect is green/black. How can that not be a good combination? It works well, but I haven’t fished it enough.”
Knowles is quick to hand out his new creations to get feedback.
“If I’m on the river and I see someone struggling, I’m going to give them flies,” he said. “Then, I want feedback.
“Of course, the best field testing there is from a local shop. I’m going to get instant feedback.”
Yes, if the bins are empty in a hurry and the repeat customers ask for a Knowles fly, it’s sweet music.
You might say it’s money in the bank, but that’s hardly true. Knowles said his fly tying just stokes his hobby. He’ll tie for store credit and buy fly rods. The real benefactor is Trout Unlimited.
“I love to buy new fly rods,” he said. And after a few trips to the river, many of the fancy new rods wind up as auction items at Trout Unlimited fund raising dinners. They aren’t cheap rods, either. Many have been top of the line Winstons, the rod usually fished by Knowles. He’s also got an extensive bamboo collection.
“I tie flies for my toys,” he said. “I buy from the local fly shops, too. I tell people that the fly shop owners need us. I don’t ever see a fly shop owner driving an Escalade. The few that do didn’t make their money from a fly shop.
“I’ve probably donated 10 or 15 fly rods to the TU dinners to be auctioned. I think there were another 10 that I donated to a local fly fishing club at a middle school.”
Knowles donated around 1,000 flies to be given away to TU travelers who signed up to fish during the national conference.
“I wanted to do it,” he said. “I wasn’t born and raised in Arkansas, but I’m proud to be a resident. I’m proud of the fly fishing we have here.
“Is fishing in Arkansas better than in Montana? No, it’s just different. But I’ll say this, of all the places I’ve fished, Arkansas and Montana are the two best.
“I’m excited that TU is having its national conference here. I want to show off our state. I am proud that this is a place that is home to companies like Walmart, Tyson, J.B. Hunt and home to the University of Arkansas. We have a great place, Northwest Arkansas. I want people to enjoy themselves while they are here.”
The box that Knowles donated for each of the fly fishers who signed up for the TU trip during the week contains 36 flies. The Y2K, root beer and ruby are front and center.
The box of flies would probably retail for about $70 in the local shop. Knowles is tickled that the $2 threshold has finally broken since he’s never changed his pricing to shops.
“I stopped in a shop in Leadville, Colo., a few years ago to see $2.75 prices for a fly,” he said. “That $2 mark was a psychological block. I recall that they went to $2.10 one summer at a Henry’s Fork shop, then the next summer they were back to $1.95. They couldn’t sell them.
“I haven’t changed my price in the 20 years that I’ve been tying for shops. It’s just not important for me to make money. I want the shop owners to make money.
“The shop owners like Michael McLellan here in Fayetteville are the ones who do the selling and deserve the money. They tell the stories behind the flies and that’s why they sell. Michael can tell his clients the back story on my flies and how they are fishing and that’s why they sell.”
Knowles is intense in his beliefs of what fool trout. He dies his fly line black.
He’s also still learning what flies catch the most fish. He thinks there are some common traits of a good fly. There are four characteristics of a bug that triggers a trout to eat. All the triggers are in his midges.
“One, it’s always small,” Knowles said. “Two, it’s shiny. You don’t find dull bugs.
“Three, the body is always segmented. Four, almost always it has some legs.
“If I can get these four things on a fly, it almost always triggers a response. A trout has an extremely small brain and it relies almost entirely on instinct.”
He thinks tying with holographic tinsel and cotton embroidery floss is important.
“I think the cotton gets fuzzy after a few fish and it gets buggier,” he said. “I think that helps it. So I like cotton.
“I think there are a lot of similarities between my midges and the zebra midges. The two big differences, the ruby and root beer have more shine because of the holographic tinsel. And, there is that fuzz from the cotton floss. I think when you hold these midges to the light, the fuzz stands out. Like I said, simple works.”
Knowles will be 81 in March. He isn’t going to stop tying for shops anytime soon.
“I tie when I get orders,” he said. “I don’t stock up. And, when I get the order, I get them filled in a week, or sooner.”
Knowles can tie two dozen Y2Ks in one hour. He can tie three dozen ruby midges in one hour. About 3.5 dozen root beer midges pile up in one hour.
The biggest orders come from Dally in Cotter.
“I think he ordered 48 dozen midges once,” he said. “That was 24 dozen ruby, 24 dozen root beer. I got that filled in less than one week. I don’t like to be behind.”
There are no issues with tying. There is a thumb that has signs of arthritis, but Aleve takes care of that in short order.
Knowles does take breaks. There is an annual fishing trip to Montana, usually solo. He drives in his Suburban with a one-man pontoon, a tent and plenty of fly rods. He might spend a few nights in a motel to catch up on the world and rest. He loves the Missouri, Beaverhead, Big Hole, Madison and anything in between. He knows the state and has been a wonderful resource for plenty of Arkansas travelers headed to Montana.
“I cut it from three weeks to two weeks this year,” he said. “My body is starting to feel old. I used to fish 10 or 12 hours a day on the Montana trip. Now it’s four or five hours. I’ve made that trip the last 33 years.”
Someone suggested that he cut it short this year to begin tying for the TU conference. Knowles shut down that theory. Getting 1,000 flies ready for a conference is a labor of love and handled in quick fashion.
David Knowles wanted to be ready for another batch of field testers.