Fly Fishin’

Have you ever been fishing? Many people would answer yes to this. In America alone, according to the American Sportfishing Association, there are nearly 40,000,000 anglers. But; have you ever tried Fly Fishing? Well, If you enjoy fishing of any kind I strongly suggest you try it. But, and this is very important. Learn How To Fly Fish Properly. If you go out with your new fly fishing gear, tie on your fly, cast, and hope, it’s likely that you’ll catch nothing, and then you’ll become disillusioned.

There are many things to learn first: Rod selection, line selection, leader and tippet selection, casting techniques. I could go on and on. But what I’m saying is, get the basics right first.

Fly Fishing is learning to imitate nature as you fool the fish into taking your carefully selected fly. Then feeling the exhilaration as you maybe hook a Smallmouth Bass and skilfully reel it in as it jumps and fights for all it’s worth on the surface, trying to throw the hook. Or perhaps a big trout that threatens to break your line.

O.k. so you can get the same thrill from bait fishing, and once you’ve hooked a fish, the way you reel it in is much the same. But it’s the skill of catching the fish which makes Fly Fishing so exhilarating.

So which is best, Bait Fishing or Fly Fishing? The answer is that neither one is better, or worse than the other. They’re just different. There is more to learn for successful Fly Fishing, it’s true, and some people just don’t want to learn about hatches, fly patterns etc. The skill of Fly Fishing is to make the fish see the fly and believe it’s a real insect and not a threat, or something to ignore. In my opinion, when you catch a fish this way, the feeling you get is 100 times that, of putting live bait in the water and waiting for the fish to bite.

Most novice anglers start with bait fishing. And it’s the best way to introduce children to fishing. But for me, and every Fly Fisherman I’ve ever talked to, bait fishing just doesn’t give the excitement of Fly Fishing.

Learn how to Fly Fish properly and it’s unlikely that you’ll ever want to go back to bait fishing.



By: William Carter

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fly fishing

Trout fishing has taken on two completely different characteristics in the last twenty years. One type is the annual stocking of the hatchery-raised trout to support a fishing event, and the second is the time-honored wild trout fishing.

Trout fishing has become so popular that cities and civic organizations conduct trout derbies to spur fishing and encourage family participation. Even in waters that cannot support trout in the summer, the fish are stocked for special events. Local waters are temporarily transformed into trout streams and lakes in the late fall or early spring. These stocked fish are normally eight to twelve inches and are ready to be caught. The most effective way to fish these stocked trout is to use natural bait. Do not try live fast moving bait such as minnows. These fish are farm raised and have never dined on live creatures unless they accidentally caught an insect. These fish are fed grain that is spread on the water and quickly floats to the bottom of the farm pond or hatchery. These type of trout are generally bottom feeders. When fishing stocked trout use salmon eggs, worms, or corn. Use a small hook baited well. Trout have small mouths requiring a hook they can get in their mouths. If the bottom has a great deal of structure and you keep getting tangled then use a float with a long leader. A long leader will keep the bait out of the tangles and deep enough for the normal eating depth of the trout.

Fishing for wild trout is totally different. Artificial bait should be your bait of choice. If the fishing is slow and you decide to try fresh bait, be sure to use a float. Trout in the wild feed on the top of the water requiring anglers to keep the bait close to the surface whether fishing in a fast moving stream or a lake. Be sure to use a clear float tied above the bait. This reduces the chance the fish will the see the unnatural float and scurry away. When fishing fast-moving water with natural bait, tie the float four feet above the baited hook. When fishing natural bait in a lake, tie the float as high on the line as possible. This will keep the bait suspended but below the surface. After trying some still fishing for a while, start a slow retrieve. Reel very slowly. This slow retrieve will create a moving target about four inches below the water surface. Only use baited hooks when all else fails.

Many expert trout fisherman use only flies. Many streams are in protected wildlife areas are fly-fishing only waters and often only allow “catch and release” angling. When fly fishing, gather local information to determine the best fly to use. Choices will vary based on water temperature, season, drought, flow volume and other natural factors. Seek the advice of another fisherman or a local tackle store. After selecting the fly, study the water patterns and look for spots that offer deep bank cuts, overhead cover or pools behind and down stream from rocks. Cast the fly above your target zone and let it drift through it. Repeat this action several times. For some variety, add a split shot three to four feet above the fly. This extra weight will drop the fly below the surface a couple of inches and might attract a trout that is lurking a bit deeper. If you decide to use artificial bait such as a Mepps spinner, be sure to start with one sixteenth of an ounce. If rapid water keeps the bait bouncing above the water surface, tie on a heavier spinner until you get a retrieval track two to three inches below the surface. When fishing fast moving water, cast the bait into the center of the flow and let it drift down stream. As the bait drifts it will naturally drift back towards the shoreline. If you are wading you have some flexibility as to the distance the retrieve can be executed from the bank. If you are fishing from the bank, then extend your fishing rod over the water to keep the bait a safe distance from the shoreline. If you spot a ripple or a pool of calm water behind a boulder or part of a depth change, cast across the water and above the target. Experiment until you get the correct casting distance to reel the bait through the pool. Never cast once into a likely target and give up. It make take several casts over the same water to generate a trout rise. Remember to allow your bait to drift past the target water and then reel the bait back through the target water. When retrieving, move the rod tip from side to side. This movement pattern changes the look of the bait and often entices the strike. The retrieve itself should be match the speed of the water flow. The faster the stream is moving; the slower the retrieve. Let the speed of rushing water spin the blade of the bait instead of reeling at a steady gait. In fact, the speed of the retrieve should change during every cast. The bait will cross fast and rushing water requiring the retrieve to slow down in fast water and speed up in slower water.

In all cases, scout the fishing grounds for cutouts next to banks, pools, ripples, overhanging trees or brush and boulders. Trout tend to wait in these areas for insects to pass overhead or to just rest. Trout do strike very hard and fight viciously. They die quickly when out of the water or handled improperly. If you are going to catch and release, or you hook an under-sized fish; wet your hands, carefully remove the hook and gently release the trout back to Mother Nature.



By: Brent Vanderstelt

About the Author:

trout fishing

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.



By: Wayne Smith

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Types of flies are also known as patterns. What exactly is being fished for and under what conditions determines the type of fly that is used. There are many different patterns that are used in fly fishing. They can be broken down into five main categories: wet, dry, streamer, nymph, and terrestrial.

Wet Fly

As the name inplies, wet flies resemble insects that are under the water. This includes dead insects that are coming up and emerging from the water. This type of fly can also be made to look like bigger water creatures such as leeches or crawfish.

Dry Fly

Just as with the wet fly, the name also gives away what it is imitating. Therefore, a dry fly is meant to look like an insect that stays on top of the water. While fishing with a dry fly it is usually necessary to dry the fly several times.

Streamer

This is a type of wet fly but it is meant to look like an injured bait fish. Streamers are larger than the other types of flies. They are used to catch larger fish that are predatory.

Nymph

A nymph is another type of wet fly. It is supposed to look like an insect that is coming out of its cocoon or its larval state. A majority of fish like to eat insects in this state.

Terrestrial

Terrestrial flies can be used as wet or dry flies. They are made to look like larger insects that mistakenly jump into the water and drown. These can be either made to look like an insect desperate to free itself from the water or as an insect that has already died and is simply sinking into the water without movement.

In fly fishing there are many different types of flies. While each type of fly has its own type of fish it is supposed to catch, many anglers will use any type of fly that they think will work on the fish at a certain time. The wet flies, dry flies, streamers, numphs, and terrestrials are the most used and most popular types of flies and will help bring a fisherman a lot of success.

Decisions can be critical when you are deciding on your fly strategy. Is there a color to prefer for the morning as opposed to the evening? Will those trout really even notice the difference between your flies or will any do when twilight hits? Should you tie your own or have professionally produced flies? Have fun and experiment and eventually you will find what suits your style of fishing and the type of fish you are trying to catch.



By: Marilyn Roberts

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