Dabblers, Bumbles and Snatchers

[mot]

All these patterns seem to be very popular at the moment and there are some amazing looking examples on this forum. They also look like great fun to tie (if rather a challenge for a beginner). But, what I'd like to know is how they should be fished? Could somebody please give a short description for each of these patterns including how they can be fished, conditions, lines, rates of retrieve etc? It would be very helpful for my understanding of these patterns and would help me decide where to start in terms of attempting to tie some.

Thanks in Advance
Tom

[oakham orange]

Hi Tom,

Dabblers Bumbles & snatchers are mostly fished quite fast from a drifting boat, particulary for wild trout. Simple cast out and retreive at anything more a slow draw to very fast long pulls. Then before lifting off to recast, try to "dibble" or work the fly as it breaks thru the surface. This is a very important stage when fishing these type of flies. If you can imagine that a fish is following on every cast. When the fly slows down and breaks the surface, the trout basically has to make a decision, whether or not to take the fly.

A lot of trout in Ireland are caught this way.

Ive also had rainbows on these flies using a slow figure of 8 retrieve.

Hope this helps

OO

[dabhoy]

I pretty much agree with what OO said . I do however find snatchers fished slowly as the light starts to dim very effective from the bank where most of my fishing is done.

[Scratch]

Slowly does it for me with the snatchers too. I rarely delploy them on anything deeper than a slow intermediate; more often than not on a floater though. Like Dabhoy says... as the light is going - that's been a killer tactic with snatchers for me on more than one occasion. Can be useful at any time though, and right through the season. I always feel that if yer gonna bother tying something on a curved hook, then you're heading down the suggestive, if not imitative route. Why waste yer efforts by ripping it past the fish? Let him have a butchers.

Dabblers? Take yer pic of line/depth, position, and retrieve! Depending on what's ocurring, and the styler/colour of yer dabblers.

Bumbles? Primarily a top dropper fly for me. 'Bumbling' around, on, and in the surface film, as described above by OO.

[mot]

Thanks for the replies. I'll have a go tying some of these over the long winter months, should give me enough time to figure out how to tie them reasonably well. They are patterns that all look very fishy to me and more to the point look a lot more enjoyable to tie than lures, which i just cant face tying at the moment. Along with stocking up on various nymph patterns for next season this should keep me pretty busy I reckon