I read with interest Malcolm Greenhalgh's chapter on the above in his book "The Floating Fly" and wondered who here has experience of using the dry fly to catch sea trout?

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Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

Last year I watched a sea trout of about 6lbs sipping down sedges one after the other, by the time I'd gone back to my car for the dry fly box and returned to the spot the fish had stopped or moved on, opportunity missed, I was gutted.

Not an unknown tactic on Irish seatrout loughs in calm conditions, in fact I got a finnock yesterday from a Donegal lough on a CDC & Elk!

Sidney Spencer wrote a chapter in 'Ways of Fishing' on using a dry Loch Ordie in light winds, a very effective method for big browns and seatrout

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Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once - Lee Wulff

Loch Fada on S Uist produced well to greased up Peters,you can read a little about it in Stan Headleys Loch fishers bible .

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

Not so long ago I use to be a member of Christchurch AC when they had the rights to fish the harbor. I fished it regularly (only reason to join as the rest of the water was really a course fishing fishery) and in particular the Clay Pool which was directly below the Royalty Fishery. I always caught a few sea trout every season using traditional pattern during the day/early evening. One evening as I was walking to the water I met a (old) guy who said he fished it in the 70's/80's and always fished a bushy muddler on the top causing a big wake as it crossed the current and had great success with ST. I tried this method and whilst I didn't hook a fish I had far more follows and missed takes - maybe its the fact the fly is on the surface and makes the fish take a un-considered chance whereas when the fly is submerged they take a moment longer to consider the fly, maybe its the disruption and subsequent water refraction that makes the take less effective? Anyway I did get them excited!!!

Sadly the harbor authority have since given the fishing to Ringwood AC and imposed even more restrictions (and cost) so I've not bothered since and cancelled my membership.

On a side note I did read last month in T&S that the Avon is enjoying (if you see it that way) a run of Steelhead Trout, now that must be fun!!!

Darren

I have never done this type of fishing but it appears to work best in fertile rivers when there is a good hatch on the go. On rivers like the Aberdeenshire Dee, which have decent runs of sea trout, this behaviour is less common.
The neighbouring Don is a far richer river and I believe sea trout are caught here on dries.

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It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

I have caught a sea trout about 2lb on the River Torridge in Devon on an Iron Blue Dun Dry. It was rising in the tail of a pool late afternoon in July.

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The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'

I caught a lot of sea trout on the Kirkaig in Scotland a few years ago, all on the dry fly and near the mouth of the river. There was no hatch at the time but the fish were readily rising to the fly.

Andy

Isn't dibbling a bumble on the top dropper tantamount to fishing a dry fly? ok not quite, but I have had Sea Trout take the fly a soon as it hits the water before the first strip. My boat partner has caught sea trout on Currane a couple of times on a large grey wulff in a flat calm at dawn. On one occasion the fly had been left static for half an hour before it was taken.

Cheers

Jon

I fish very much the same rivers as Malcolm and have caught numerous sea trout on dry fly, although they tend not be fresh and have normally been in the river a couple of weeks or so.
Most are caught when the river is low and in the fast water at the head of pools where the water is well oxygenated. I tend to fish with dry fly prior to night fishing in the less productive pools
Malcolm tends to use a largish sedge pattern on a size 10 hook or bigger and I use big parachute flies like a Klinkhamer or similar and smallish muddlers and hoppers.
I have never caught any large sea trout on the dry fly the biggest being about four and a half pounds although I know of much larger fish caught by others.
Some years are better than others although I don't know why, this year I have been out of action with a broken leg and haven't fished for sea trout since mid June.
It has worked for me on the the half dozen or so rivers I have tried and Malcolm has had success on other rivers including the Aberdeenshire Dee to name but one.

JohnClayton