Hi folks,

I've just started out on the sea trout adventure, catching my first last weekend on the West Lothian Almond.

I was really just chancing my arm with a 5wt trout rod and a size 12 bead-head black bug*er with red marabou tail. Got masses of takes, netted 3 and lost an absolute monster.

I understand the very hit and miss nature of sea trout fishing, but would be very grateful if people could recommend 5 or so relatively reliable fly patterns for a small spate river theough to the end of the season.

I'm also curious about approaches: most reading I've done suggests a more-or-less traditional across and down swing, which I feel uncomfortable with having spent virtually all my river fishing upstream nymphing. What do people think about upstream casting with sea trout flies in the way one would cast nymphs for brownies?

All advice and comments very much apprecaited,

Matt

Peter Ross
Teal blue and silver
Allrounder
Alexandra
Stoats tail
1/2''Blackand silver tube
1/2''teal blue and silver tube.
Fish whatever way you want,but when the water is in spate, just fish down and across.

Jim

__________________
The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

you have pm

__________________
GAIA INSTRUCTOR

Thanks for that folks.

I'm a bit uncertain about tube flies. Do you thread the line through the tube, and then tie it as normal to a treble?

Excactly that

Ooo make sure there is a rubber socket on the end for the treble to sit into.

__________________
Time is a stream I go fishing in.

I fish a small spate river for sea trout. I have been amazed by just how small a pool/ eddy/ hole can be and still hold a fish.....So have a cast into any little pocket. Most flies seem to work as long as they are black or blue and silver...

Andy

Am I right in thinking that they tend not to be in longer, deeper, slower pools? Like the flat water above weirs?

They rest up there during the day.and you catch the big fish there at night.
So the answer to your question is Your wrong.

Jim

__________________
The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

So I see. So delicately put, too...

Can they be caught from these areas during the day?

These 'flats' and canal like sections can often be the most productive section of a beat (at night). Often the water is moving faster than it appears and the fly will fish round nicely, or if it is a bit sluggish then the fly can be worked with a retrieve. I tend to stick to the streamy sections during the day though as the cover from disturbance in the water seems to give the fish more confidence to take.

In answer to your upstream/downstream question, I've perserved with an upstream nymph approach on several occasions without success (during day light hours) and then switch to down and across and has an almost immediate reaction. Not scientific, but it's happened enough for me to go almost exclussively for a down and across approach.

Hope this helps

Jon