Archive for the ‘Trout Flies’ Category
June 20th, 2009 | 
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The Walker’s mayfly nymph is a weighted fly which imitates the emerging mayfly before it crawls out of the water and flies away. It therefore is not dry and sinks. These are cast upstream in front of a fish and ‘tweaked’ or gently retrieved often with great success-they are ideal on a chalk stream when the fish are not rising. This is usually the only acceptable form of wet fly fishing for trout on the major chalk streams.
Wet fly fishing for trout in general is practised in fast water when the current does the work or in still waters when the fly is cast downstream and slowly retrieved.
Wet fly fishing for trout involves lighter flies which are cast downstream into pools or lies where fish are expected to be. This method is used at night for sea-trout, or sewin as they are known in Wales.
Wet fly fishing for trout in reservoirs and still waters involve much bulkier flies which are cast out long distances and retrieved .The flies imitate various bugs and even perch fry which the big rainbow trout hoover up in vast quantities in the spring. Still waters are on the whole stocked with rainbow trout which feed on bugs and fish fry and in the big reservoirs such as Bewl Water, Chew, Blagdon, Rutland Water and Grafham Water grow to a large size and are extremely powerful-hence great to fish for. On these large waters wet fly fishing for trout is usually done from boats since the levels will fluctuate and this leads to muddy banks when the water level drops.
In the natural lakes in the Lake District, Scotland and Ireland brown trout give good sport on retrieved wet flies; often fished in groups of three. These lakes also contain the large brown ferox trout which are cannibals and feed on their smaller brethren-and are usually caught on lures and spinners-not flies.
Downstream wet fly fishing for trout on a fast moving river on a summer’s evening is indeed a pleasure, brown trout and grayling will both be there to pit your wits against. Wet fly fishing for trout and grayling in rivers and streams of the West Country and Wales is particularly good.
Wet fly fishing for trout in Ireland has its many opportunities. Most rivers and streams hold brown trout and there is lots of free fishing. The Irish lakes hold some very large trout and boats and ghillies are available on the famous lakes such as Corrib, Conn and Mask.
There are good numbers of small man made ‘put and take’ fisheries up and down the country. Some are excavated especially for trout fisheries others are chalk and gravel pits which have been stocked. In the main, these waters are stocked with Rainbow Trout which are not indigenous but hail from the Rockies in the west of the USA. Rainbows can tolerate higher water temperatures and lower oxygen content in the water than the indigenous Browns and also can grow very quickly. Some waters are stocked with fish of over 15 pounds.
The flies for these still waters imitate all sorts of bugs and fish that live in the lake and some look nothing like anything living there but still catch fish!
These fisheries offer the wet fly fisherman great opportunities to improve casting select the right fly and catch very big fish.
We plan to offer information about these fisheries which will be a free service to the fishery owners-so keep visiting us.
If you are out there fishing for rainbow or brown trout you are fishing for the largest trout you can find. If this is the case then perhaps you should try using a larger fly for your fly fishing expeditions. The larger the trout the more likely it is to want to consume larger meals. Large trout like to sit in deep slow water and tend to not use very much of their energy. This allows them to be opportunistic in their meal assertions so they will simply wait for a larger meal to happen by them. Unless food is especially abundant in their waters, it will often be more time and energy consuming to feed on small nymphs and flies then it is to wait for a larger meal to drift through. After a certain point in weight gain, the fish must move onto fewer but larger meals to continue.
Naturally therefore, if you want to go for bigger fish, try bigger trout flies and you will find you get some amazing results. Woolly Buggers and large wet flies often have dramatic results when compared to smaller varieties. It is also important to know that a little yellow on your fly can work wonders. When the water is cloudy for instance and the visibility is down you want the fish to be able to see your fly in order for a catch to be possible. Yellow is often regarded as a remarkable colour when fly fishing that tends to attract fish to strike even while not generally feeding. A little yellow in the tail of your trout flies can also be beneficial against the match the hatch rule. When there are a large group of flies present it can sometimes take an extremely long time before you get your first fish simply because there are millions of flies out there so your chances of being picked are lower. Using a fly that is similar for the most part, but has one striking element such as a small yellow bit in the tail, can really make the difference and coax the fish into choosing your fly over the real flies.
Black ant and black gnat trout flies are also essential fly fishing gear for those aiming for rainbow, brown or brook trout. Always carry a few black ants or black gnats with you as these have been well researched and found to be the most popular food of choice for more than 90% of brook, rainbow and brown trout. If the trout aren’t feeding on your usual assortment of flies, bring out a black ant or gnat and work them around rocks being careful to ensure they float naturally with the current. You can also try this lure under overhanging trees and branches. This type of fly is particularly effective during the summer months when these flies make up the largest proportion of the trout diet. In short, always make sure you have a variety of trout flies to hand.
Fly fishing, in all it’s variations and sub-areas (casting, fly tying, etc), centres around a single goal – To successfully tempt a fish (Most commonly a trout) to take an artificial fly as a food item. Sighting, hooking, playing and landing the fish are also important parts of the successful fishing experience, not to mention being able to get the fly to the fish in the first place, by the unique casting methods utilized solely in fly fishing.
However, along with all that work, and the practice of the skills involved in bringing it all together at that crucial moment, comes that pivotal element of convincing the fish that what they are considering is indeed food-like in nature. Without this key element, we can forget the rest, and this is the one step of the exercise which is dependant upon the decision of the fish, rather than ourselves.
In this, fly fishermen spend untold amounts of time researching, studying, and imitating countless insect types in aid of presenting a believable decoy to their quarry. We tie our flies, the fish takes it, our efforts paid off, right?
But is everything as it seems? Did we deceive the fish for exactly the reasons we thought?
Although there are many factors involved in getting that fly to a timid fish, and fly fishing itself was obviously designed around overcoming all of those obstacles, considering it’s significance, understanding the ‘Feeding behaviour’ of the trout has probably taken somewhat of a back seat, compared to some of the other areas or skills of fly fishing, we fishermen often seem to focus our efforts on.
The feeding behaviour of trout is the sum of two main factors:
Firstly, through the fry and fingerling stages of development, the identification of specific ‘Food Recognition Keys’ are ingrained resulting from the repetitive feeding pattern of their natural survival instincts.
Secondly, as they get larger, they can manage larger diet articles. Supplementary behaviour is then learned out of a reactive response to the local fauna they find in the area where they are hatched or released. Local knowledge is naturally beneficial here and this is normally what we focus on when fly fishing.
The behavioural patterns of trout vary significantly between the species, the size and the circumstances in which they are found. Trout habits also change through different times of the day, and again depending on weather conditions. Feeding habits and behaviours also change between faster and slower waters, and so on.
As in most types of fishing, there is not just one single or simple answer. If there was, it would have been made common knowledge, a long time ago. What this does tell us, is that to increase our odds of convincing the trout of the validity of our fly, it’s going to be far more beneficial to concentrate on presenting specific ‘Recognition keys’, which remain consistent, rather than the far more subjective; ‘Circumstance-specific learned behaviour’ which will often vary greatly from fish to fish, and particularly from place to place.
There are many pieces to this puzzle. The more pieces you can find, understand and put together, the more it multiplies your fly fishing results. What this methodology does do for us especially, is simplify and sharpen our learning curve by quite an incredible degree.
Therefore, instead of studying dozens, even hundreds or more, of insects and the flies designed to imitate them, I’ve found that in nearly all circumstances, you need only a few fly patterns, each designed to do a specific job in the varying circumstances found on the stretch of water you’re fishing.
Trout Flies then induce fish ‘Takes’ by the use of food ‘Recognition Keys,’ rather than by intended imitation. For this method then, local knowledge becomes relatively irrelevant.
This means flies do not need to imitate anything to catch trout. What!?! Say that again.- Flies do not need to imitate anything to catch trout. Certainly nothing specific anyway.
Flies can then be tied to counter stream or water conditions, or to counter, and or take advantage of, various aspects of trout behaviour. This, then (Not being restricted by specific imitation), opens up possibilities for us to incorporate the use of innovative strategies, tactics and trout fly construction, to give ourselves a far greater edge than previously thought possible.
The more time we have spent fishing with incorrect or insufficient knowledge, the more time you have spent developing the mindset that the trout is a vastly superior, cunning and unpredictable adversary, and results like mine become seemingly unattainable, and without such knowledge becoming available, the practical reality remains precisely that.
Normally it takes years of studying these fish, trial and error with different fly patterns, different fishing techniques, different innovative designs and methods with the right focus to get to a place where you understand these creatures adequately for the outstanding results we normally only see the Pro’s achieving.
Fortunately, with the right focus, we can now be achieving much greater success in much shorter time frames by understanding and taking advantage of these ‘Recognition keys’, combined with other behavioural patterns of the trout species we are targeting and just some basic skills of fly fishing.
Most people think of fly fishing as a peaceful sport. They picture themselves standing on the banks of a beautiful river, whipping a fishing rod back and forth and sending a fishing line flying back and forth above their heads in a manner that is relaxed and graceful. They can see the line flying about, tempting one trout after another. Maybe they’ve seen a movie that features fishing, or they went with a friend. Whatever the reason, the person is now interested in fishing and wants to learn more.
Chances are this person is you. You’ve done your research. You’ve gone shopping and spent a small fortune on fishing equipment. Now you are ready to head out to the water…technically. Sure you have all of the right gear, but have you been given any fly fishing tips?
This article serves to give you a few basic fly fishing tips that, hopefully, will help you come home much richer in fish than when you left.
Make sure that you practice casting. The more time you spend practicing your casting, the better you will get at it. The best way to practice casting is to use a flat surface outside of your house (definitely do not practice casting indoors, it would lead to inevitable disaster). Mark a few targets on this flat surface and then go out for a little bit each day and practice casting to these targets. This will help you to improve your casting accuracy.
Choose a rod that feels comfortable for you. You know what kind you will want, flexibility wise, but choose one that is the right length as well. If you are short, you will probably get hung up if you try to use a rod that is too long. To this end, you will want to learn how to hold your fly rod correctly. This type of fishing is not a quick sport. You will want to be able to hold onto this rod comfortably for long periods of time.
The best bait is a natural prey of the fish you are trying to catch. There are experts who swear that the fancy bait is not necessary and that all you need is a simple worm. In the event that you would like to buy the fancy bait, you should choose bait that mimics a worm or a grub and is brightly colored so that it will attract the fish’s attention.
Waterproof your dry flies. This will help them to float on the water for a longer period of time. You can do this with Scotch-guard (which can be found in almost any general goods store). The waterproofing keeps them from becoming waterlogged and sinking.
Make sure that your knots are tied tightly and effectively. A knot that is tied improperly or that is too loose could spell disaster in fly fishing.
These are just a few of the many fishing tips that anglers will share with each other when they are out fly fishing. A simple search through the internet or your local library is sure to turn up pages more.
Fly Fishing is a very old method of fishing that is particularly effective for hauling in trout. Ponds, small streams, rivers and lakes are best for trout. Fly fishing is tantalizingly unique in that the bait is artificial flies made by tying, fur, yarn, feathers, foam, or almost anything else that can be made to look like a fly onto a hook as bait. The best way to learn how to tie flies is to talk with anglers who have become experts over time or you could attend a fly tying school.
Dry fly fishing and wet fly fishing are the two forms of fly-fishing. Dry fly fishing is the most familiar and is regarded as the classic form. Using the dry fly fishing technique, the angler casts the fly upstream hoping that the trout will rise up and bite the fly as it passes overhead. Wet fly-fishing involves fishing beneath the surface of the water and can be divided into lures fishing, true wet fly-fishing and nymph fishing.
Fly-fishing tackle, and fly-fishing reels and rods are all commonly used fly-fishing equipment. Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, California, Idaho and more recently New Mexico are all popular fly-fishing areas in the U.S.. British Columbia and Alberta are also very popular.
The popularity of fly-fishing has increased dramatically in recent years. It is definitely a fast growing sport and it’s easy to see why; it’s relaxing, enjoyable and rewarding. Usually, fly-fishing anglers practice the sport in the most beautiful areas of the world. Fly-fishermen worldwide are known to have an on going love affair with their sport.
Beginning fly-fishing anglers may have difficulty learning the sport. Probably the best place to learn is a fly-fishing school or from a fly-fisherman that is willing to take you on as a student. There are also a number of excellent fly-fishing courses on the Internet. The school you choose should teach the techniques, strategies, and tactics used in fly-fishing.
Before you get hipdeep in any water, you should learn about the various fish you’ll be casting for, learn the basics of casting and how to read the water, you’ll want to know how to take care of your gear and how to tie knots, and maybe you’ll even want to learn a little about hatches and entomology.
This sport is a life-long source of endless delight. You will live to feel the hairs on the back of your neck tingle as you watch a trout looking upstream for the fly you’ve just cast.
