Lickety Split

Nearly every trout river on Earth holds small dark mayflies. Gilbert Rowley is almost never without one on his nymph rig — and most of the time, it's a Lickety Split. He began developing the fly around a decade ago, searching for a split-case pattern that was durable in the color schemes he had found most productive. After months at the vise he landed on the black-and-pink combination that is still his favorite. It's the most durable split-case emerger he has ever fished — fish after fish fail to mangle it. As a side note, it was also his first pattern picked up commercially by Rainy's Flies.