Fly Fishing Techniques

Dry flies, part 3 of 3. Some additional types of dry flies that are based on insects other than mayflies.

http://www.fliesandfins.com – Fly fishing Lake Ontario tributaries for steelhead and brown trout.

The initial steps to making a bamboo fly rod. by Matt Schliske. fly fishing with dries and split cane to rising trout.

I treated my tank for ick and now everything is turning brown. I have brown spots on the sides and on the floral ornaments. My fish are dropping off like flies!!! HELP !!!???!!!

Fly fishing is gaining popularity as it is a very interesting sport and there are many people who are participating in this activity. Novices at fly-fishing prefer to purchase all the gear they require including artificial flies. However, once they experience the thrills of the fishing activity, they are hooked on to it. They then think of making their own artificial flies to be continuously involved in the sport during the off-season too. Artificial flies may be a bit tricky to make but some of them are within the ability of most anglers. Some of them are quite easy enough to be made even by children, and this can help to get them interested in the fly-fishing activity.

The earliest use of artificial flies was made by Macedonian anglers, way back in the 2nd century. The Macedonian anglers tied a piece of red wool round the hook. They would tie small feathers to the red wool and make it into an artificial fly. They carried out the fly-fishing quite successfully with the help of these primitive fly-making techniques.

American anglers from the Catskill Mountains in New York began to experiment with the dry-fly designs in the 18th century. They began to design artificial flies to imitate the native insects around the stream that trout feed on. The artificial flies fooled the trout into believing that an edible insect has landed on the water. This discovery encouraged the study of insect hatches to decide which kind of artificial fly would be most successful for fly-fishing at different locations and times.

Artificial flies are comprised of a hook. The hook is disguised to look like a living insect that the targeted fish like to eat; the fish are attracted by the motion or the color used to imitate the live insect. Artificial flies were made by using wool, fur, feathers and other natural materials. However, the artificial flies are now being made using synthetic material. Even though there are a wide variety of synthetic dry flies to choose from, the basic characteristics of fly design have not changed much over the years.

Another new development in the artificial fly design is the barb less hook. Many anglers now practice the catch and release method of fly-fishing wherein the fish that is caught is released back into the water. The barb less hook is easier for the angler to extract from the fish and it ensures that the fish is not injured in the process. There are thousands of designs and styles of artificial flies and a selecting the appropriate one is a challenge for the new anglers.

The materials used to disguise the hook may have changed form natural items to synthetic stuff, over the passage of time. Fur, wool and feathers were the choice of the earlier times. The newer synthetic materials include foam, Mylar, plastic and metals. These synthetic materials are either glued or tied on to the hook in various patterns to attract the fish.





By: Abhishek Agarwal

I need to buy a light-weight breatheable pair of waders for fly fishing. Any suggestions? Any that I should stay away from?



By: dang

I’m going to school in Buffalo New York and I hear the lower Niagara River is great for steelhead. I would really love to catch some but I’m new to steelhead fishing as well as the area. I found what seems to me to be a great spot for them. Its a very large area of fast moving water below the falls about half way down the river. I’ve got an 8ft pole with a spinning reel. I catch a lot of trout with it using 6lb test, small hooks, a little weight, and corn for bait.

How should I rig up and what should I use for bait to catch steelhead ?
Also, Is now a good time to catch them?

http://www.i-love-loveland.com/fly-fishing.html – 101 Fly Fishing Tips for Beginners Can Make You A Better FlyFisherman. Right And Wrong Fly Fishing Methods – How bad do you want to make your buddies look on your next fly fishing trip?

http://www.fliesandfins.com – Fly fishing for Marlin in Mexico.

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.





By: Jon Kelly