A wildflower by any other name is just a damned weed.

Back around 1992 or 93 my dear friend Ed Sutryn (McMurray Ant) and I were constant companions, fishing the local stream together most every day.

I was a member at that time of the ff@ listserv and another member, Hans Weilenmann, had posted his pattern the CDC & Elk. Thinking I had memorized the tying sequence I set out one day to tie one. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I made an immediate error and tied the CDC feather in by the butt rather then by the tip. When I got to the eye of the hook, I recognized my mistake and being a frugal (well make that cheap) type I simply tied the feather off and rather then discard it, tossed it in my chest pack.

A month or two later Ed and I were fishing over some very picky trout that refused all of our offerings. In desperation I tied on the "CDC on a hook" and much to our surprise, one of the fish that had spurned us, serenely took the fly! Ed was looking at me like I had just thrown "the magic fly" at a trout. Even more stunning was that after drying it out and about a dozen casts later, another trout, equally confidently took the fly.

Ed asked what I was using and I said it was just a ball of fluff made of a CDC feather. Ed commented that it should be kept a secret or "they" would want to outlaw it and related how his initial attempts to market the McMurray Ant were met by attempts to ban it as a lure rather then a fly and then said to be sure and tie some more for tomorrow's fishing, which I did. We used it for weeks after that with great success. Ed said nothing should be so easy to tie and catch so many fish.

At the same time, a cyber friend of mine from the ff@, Sue K. was relating how she was having difficulties seeing dry flies so I sent her a couple of my concoctions for her to try. She also had success not only in seeing it on the water but in seeing fish taking it. When she asked the fly's name I responded "a ball of fluff" That was unacceptable to her and she kept urging that I give it a "proper" name.

In several exchanges I told of Ed's commentary, mentioning that "it oughta be outlawed" but referring to the fly as an IOBO. We had a great deal of fun with that and it finally stuck. Sometime later, Sue also wanted me to tie some in a size 18 and I had no suitable feathers. So instead of tying the feather butt in at the bend I reversed the sequence by tying in the feather butt at the eye and winding to the rear where I tied off with a couple of half hitches and pulled the remaining feather forward and retied the wing. Thus the IOBO Humpy was created. Sue showed that fly to Hans and he had some success with it. Hans has instructions for tying it at his excellent website with photos far superior to mine.

"No fly should be so quick and easy to tie and catch so many fish;