Fly Fishing

Jon Kelly asked:


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.



Camryn

Lanie Dills asked:


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.



Eliana

Bob Bastian asked:


Although there are hundreds of types of flies used for fly fishing, most of them fall into five specific categories, or types. These types are dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, streamers and buck tails, and terrestrials. The main purpose of the fly is to imitate an insect that the fish wants to eat.

A dry fly imitates a natural insect that is floating on the top of the water. Fish are very sensitive to any motion of their water and how currents move the insects they want for food. In fly fishing, if a dry fly is moving even slightly against the current, the fish will have nothing to do with it. The fly may look like something the fish recognizes but it is not acting the same an insect would. The fish recognizes it as something foreign in the water and leaves it alone.

In fly fishing, a wet fly is imitating a drowned, or drowning, natural insect and is fished below the water surface. No one is sure if the wet fly is seen as a drowning adult insect or a nymph from the perspective of the fish. Most fly fishermen today seem to believe that it is seen as a nymph. Because of this less and less wet flies are being sold. Wet fly fishing is the oldest form of fly fishing. It dates back to descriptions of the early Macedonian people.

A nymph is the stage between an egg and the adult in the life cycle of an insect. In fly fishing, flies that resemble nymphs are growing popularity. The nymph fly is just below the surface of the water. When a fish bulges the water without breaking the surface, he is nymphing. This means that the fish is eating the natural nymphs just as they are emerging from their shell. This is what a nymph fly imitates.

Streamers and buck tail flies do not imitate any part of the insect’s life cycle. These types of fly fishing flies are much larger and represent small bait fish such as sculpin minnows. The main difference between theses two types of flies is that streamers are tied with feathers, and bucktails are tied completely with hair. Fly fishing that uses these two types of flies generally requires more rod and line manipulation. The movements are supposed to duplicate the motions of the little fish.

Although most flies represent water insects, a terrestrial fly is made to imitate a land insect that has fallen into the water. The two most common terrestrials that are imitated for fly fishing are the ant and the grasshopper.

Besides these basic five categories of flies, there are many other kinds of flies that are used for fly fishing. Some of them are a combination of one or more of the basic categories and some do not fit into any group. The most important thing to remember is that it doesn’t matter how the fly looks to you, the fisherman. It matters how the fly looks to the fish.



Maya