Hi Guys/Gals,

Ive been reading through your forum for a few weeks and am learning so much, but still have SO many questions! The way you fish still waters is just so different from what we are used to down hear (South Africa). Im very interested in trying your flies and techniques on our dams. I mean, your guys are KNOWN for you stillwater prowess, you must be doing something right!

From what I can make out, it seems that 'generally', your competition waters are stocky dams/reservoirs and the characteristics of these reservoirs are that they are pretty featureless (no too many weed beds and structures) and that there are not many natural insects/prey items for the trout except for midges and a few mays? Im not saying that they are all like that, just trying to create a picture in my head, where and what situation you would be using these techniques and flies. What is your water quality like, what are the feature of your dams depth wise, do you have thermoclines that you fish? So if you are in a competition session, where do you start and how do you go about finding fish. I assume you would be trying to cover as much water as possible trying to drift over schools of fish. How do you go about locating these schools? Or are you looking for cruising fish in wind lanes or how does it work?

I see you use a lot of daddy-long-leg type flies and things like muddlers, sedgehog etc. Are these fished on the surface with midges below? Are they stripped through waves etc or left to sit, or are they left to sink and then lifted? Flies like dabblers, crunchers, bumbles, snatchers, sedgehogs, mini-muddlers, dawl bachs, cormorants are all so new to me. We dont use any of them down here! What do they represent, how are they fished, where are they fished(wild fish or stockies) and where do you put each fly on your rig (what position) and why(why would you say 'oh that fly would be better on the point' ect, will each type of fly get a certain possition or has i got to do with colours/size), how do you fish them? Slow switched/more representative or strip them? Midges fished on a midge tip line, why that line? How do you fish them? Would you be confident to go and sit in a competition session with 3 midges bobbing around? How does weather affect the techniques and flies you use?

I know that is a lot to cover and maybe it has been covered somewhere else on the forum? But, without seeing how you fish is so difficult to imagine what your doing out there. For us, what works is generally woolybugers, fritzes, blobs, jigs, small nymphs with marabou tails and boobies etc with different retrieves(twitch, fgure8 all the way through to double hand strip. The shinier the fly, the quicker we pull generally). A more natural/imitative approach also works well as our dams are generally high in bug count and the fish are generally wild (or stocked as fingerling's). It seem our fish prefer more neutral colours with less flash and more movement built into it (like CDC collars on woolybuggers etc)

The thing is Ive tied up a few of your flies and have whacked them into my line up and am not catching anything with much regularity? There is not a lot of natural movement build into flies like snatchers and dabbler etc. and our normal flies still out perform. It probably that we know how to fish our flies, they have been designed and modified with our fish in mind etc. but I just know that there has got to be something to it all?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even if you have an opinion of one of the questions about, id love to hear it!

Matt

Welcome to the forum, ck

Matt,

You need a book to answer all that lot! Still, I'll have a bit of a go, and I expect others will chime in as well.

Stillwaters in the UK cover a vast range. We have a few completely natural lochs (lakes) in Scotland (sorry Ireland, but I think we'll stick to mainland UK for the time being) which are populated in the main by wild brown trout with some stocking here and there if they are managed by a club.

Next down the scale we have the water supply reservoirs which are dotted around the country. These are owned by the water companies and are stocked with both brown and rainbow trout to provide a recreational resource. These waters vary in size from a few acres, up to Rutland at 3000 acres. The water quality also varies according to the prevailing local geology. In the north the water is likely to have a lowish pH with fewer waterborne invertebrates. The fish here will often be more surface-orientated and will look upwards for at least a fair proportion of the food.

Further south the water quality is likely to have a higher pH and there will be an extensive ecology present. Certainly one of the mainstay food items will be the chironomid in the larval, pupal and emerging forms, but there will also be damselflies, dragonflies, hog louse, shrimps, scuds, caddis and some mayflies. On top of this there will usually be a coarse fish population comprising roach, bream and perch, and the trout will predate upon the fry of these during the late summer and into the autumn. Then there is daphnia, or water fleas that bloom in dense clouds. Rainbows in particular feed heavily on this and pack on weight in the process. To round it off there will be the land-borne flies that get blown onto the water, particularly hawthorn flies in late April and daddy long legs in late summer, though this latter is not to be relied upon as a regular feature.

Finally, there are the privately owned stillwater fisheries. These are similar to the reservoirs as far as their ecology is concerned, but are very much smaller in general. Most vary between 1 acre up to about 50 acres, with probably 5-10 acres being about average. The stock density is usually higher than the reservoirs, as is the average size of fish. The bag limit is generally smaller; four fish being about the norm as against 8 for the reservoirs. The price of a day's fishing is also greater.

As far as fishing methods are concerned, the reservoirs will permit a wider range of methods in general than will the small stillwaters. They rely upon some people blanking or only catching one or two fish in order to make a profit for the owner. If everyone caught a limit every time he would be broke in less than a year, so he will restrict how you can fish. This will usually be by restricting the number of flies you can use or by a hook size restriction. Some will prohibit the use of boobies or indicators. Some will permit catch & release but most will not on the basis that once caught a trout may very well die anyway, or at best be very hard to catch again, and as most anglers are not that good, a decent turnover of fish is required to keep the punters coming back. Too many blanks and the angler blames the fishery rather than his own ineptitude.

On reservoirs a wide range of methods can be employed depending on whether you fish from a boat of the bank. All the methods you have mentioned have their place according to the time of year and the location of the lake in question. You are more likely, for example, to pull a fish up to a bushy Sedgehog on a Scottish loch than you are on an English reservoir. It's not that the Sedgehog WON'T work down south, it's just a lot less likely. Similarly, and Orange Fritz thing is less likely to work on a natural Scottish loch than it is on Rutland.

One thing you could try on your waters is the Booby. I was in British Columbia a short time ago and they use them there to catch their rainbows. Anyway, I'll let someone elae pick up the thread now, but if you've got any specific queries feel free to pm me and I'll answer if I can.

Awesome start! Thanks so much Bob!

What about the flies you use? Flies like dabblers, crunchers, bumbles, snatchers, sedgehogs, mini-muddlers, dawl bachs, cormorants ect. What, if anthing do they represent, how are they fished, at what possision on your rig are the fished and what retrieves?

PS. Any books in particular that will cover these flies and how to fish them?

Kind regards,

Matt

You've a thirst for knowledge, Matt!

Right, let's look at the list of flies you mentioned. Dabblers are Irish patterns and work well on the big wild brown trout loughs. They are an approximation of an emerging insect, and I would probably fish them mainly on the top dropper of a cast of three. Claret & golden olive are the most common colours, though a silver bodied version works well if there are any fry about. Bumbles are the forerunners of dabblers. They were created by a chap called Kingsmill Moore, an Irish judge, for brown trout and sea trout on the West Coast loughs in Ireland. His book "A Man May Fish", is a good one to get. It's old, but many of the lessons are valid today. The Golden Olive Bumble is a classic top dropper pattern for browns.

The Cruncher is a pattern created by two Chew Valley regulars. It is a general imitation of chironomids and is very effective, though not for me! I cannot catch fish on it and therefore have no faith in it. For those that do it is an extremely effective pattern that is capable of a number of variations. It works well on the point or in a lighter version as a middle dropper pattern.

Snatchers are a generic pattern that has emerged from Scotland. Because it is tied on a curved shank hook it can represent chironomids, shrimps, scuds, hog louse or caddis. It can also double up as a mini-lure if tied up in brighter colours, or as an emerging buzzer if tied in drab clothing.

Sedgehogs are the creation of Stan Headley, an Orkney angler. It is probably best fished on the top dropper and probably imitates any hatching insect, or a struggling, drowning land-borne one. It's a bit of a beast to tie.

Mini-muddlers are the forerunners of Sedgehogs. In their day these were a deadly pattern fished as a top dropper in a decent wave. Capable of lots of variations from out & out lure to a more insecty profile. Would probably still work today if given the chance.

Diawl Bach is Welsh for "Little Devil" and this more than adequately sums up this pattern. To go out on the Bristol Reservoirs without one of these on your leader is to invite ridicule. They travel well and can be used to catch fish on waters large & small the length & breadth of the country. They are a fairly easy fly to tie and are capable of a lot of variations. One of the best is tied wirth red tying thread, and has Jungle Cock cheeks. It is definitely a "go to" pattern.

Cormorants are an attempt to inject a bit more movement into the Diawl Bach theme. They are a mini-lure, but tied slim and drab with just a bit of colour and movement about them. A good early season pattern.

Most of the above pattern work best on a floating line or at most an intermediate. If I'm fishing an Irish lough I will fish a clear intermediate line as a first choice unless the fish are obviously on top and taking hatching flies.

A good book to get if you can is called "Trout Fly Fishing" by Martin Cairncross and John Dawson. These are two good anglers who have put a lot of thought into their fly fishing and fly patterns.
OK, we'll let you digest that lot for a while.

Regards
Bob