Finalized in 2020 after many years of development, the Thing is as all great flies are, an intelligent blend of purposeful features which exist in other flies... constructed to be effective in widely varying circumstances, fished with many techniques, for a surprising number of species. As with most time-tested, enduring flies, it has become a tightly defined style rather than a set-in-stone pattern. The design elements are critical, but colors can be modified to suit any environment. The settled-upon version which was finalized in clear water creeks was built with the intention of suggesting small crayfish which are a primary food source for all fish. The colors of the natural prey were matched with (unfortunately) one-off body and tail materials and no exact matches are available. Very limited numbers are available. The fly proved to be ridiculously effective in it's home waters and then far and wide, reports from Florida, Alabama, New York, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada, began to arrive. To date, at least 17 species of freshwater gamefish in the US have been caught with the Thing. Fished as a streamer, a nymph, a wet fly, on the bottom sitting still, near the surface stripped fast, dead drifted, swung in the current, slow stripped in ponds and lakes, it continually just WORKS. A standard size 10, larger and smaller are certainly good, but the original size is small enough to interest most fish, and (amazingly) large gamefish also see it as an easy snack.