Hints and tips for catching more fish, plus flies gallery and how to fish them.
In fact, talking of practice, one thing you can do is to practice your casting. If you cannot place your fly accurately upon the water, you may as well pack your gear in and go for a swim! Fortunately, I manage to get enough days’ fishing to get my casting practice in whilst I fish. If I didn’t fish as much as I do, then I would need lawn practice. The beauty about practising casting on the river is that the real life obstacles are totally apparent. The Laver beyond Galphay Mill is a real training ground indeed, and impossible to reproduce upon the lawn. However, for basic target practice, simply place a small saucer or cup various distances, 10 – 20 yards away and use a special fly. The fly is just an ordinary one (your favourite would be a good one to try), but with the point snipped off with some pliers so that you don’t keep hooking the lawn. If you can place the fly in the cup in one cast in ten (with the other 9 just missing or hitting the outside of the cup/ bouncing off the rim) then your free casting accuracy is good enough. Next try crouching down, as close to the floor as possible, and then try placing some stakes / bamboo poles behind you and overhead to simulate riparian vegetation. Do some roll/switch casts and see what results.
The GRHE: (Rabbit Nymph) one of my favourite flies!
I have started to use the nymphs made from copper wire & 3-6 strands of herl, according to hook size. Presently I am using the fibres from an old cock pheasant’s tail. I also have a wing from a greylag goose. This provides me with an assortment of fibres (herls) that I can use to make my weighted nymph.
This summer I read the books by Kite and Sawyer on nymph fishing, and the time since I have been practising the art. I must confess that I have revolutionised my angling career since, and entirely due to those above mentioned readings.
I procured some copper wire from electrical cables about the house. Alas, they were too large a diameter, and difficult to make a neat fly from. I discussed the issue of "where can I get very fine diameter copper wire from" with Sheron at work (our technical director, and a useful source of technical info!). He told me that he already had some, and would bring me some. He asked me how long a length would I require. I said "about a foot long". Sure enough, the next day, Sheron had brought some wire. I took a look at the exposed ends beneath the PVC sleeving, and they were really fine indeed. My first glance said that they were too fine!! However, upon application, I discovered that the wire is indeed most excellent, and the produce thereof has contributed wholeheartedly to the aggregate of my fish bag since.
In order to tie the fly, one needs a hook (size 14 or 16 down eye), some coarse copper wire, and some fine copper wire, and 5 herls (for size 14. I use just 3 for size 16) . I use the coarse copper wire to start with and to build the wing case "hump" on the fly. I do this to save time. Using the fine wire only means that it takes ages to build up the hump. The larger diameter wire speeds things up a lot. I break this wire off and then bring in the fine wire to the tail. I secure the pheasant tail fibres so as to leave an appropriately sized tail, (look at the forthcoming photo to see the tail : body ratio) and then wind the wire beyond the "hump". I wrap the herl in the same rotation as the wire (as for all fly tying!!! Never change the direction of rotation!), along the shank of the hook, until reaching the far side of the "hump". There I lock the herl in place with 3 turns of the wire. I then bring the wire to the rear of the hump in order to secure the herl on a back–comb movement. I then take the copper wire back to the eye of the hook, and double the herls on themselves to produce the wing case effect. I take a few turns of the wire to secure the herls and then finish with 2 half hitches, and break the wire off. The nymph is complete, and doesn’t even need varnishing.
The fly is a fantastic imitation that will fool a lot of trout. However, the downside is that each specimen will account for maybe 3 fish. They are not very durable in their pure forms. Maybe some epoxy resin might defend the pheasant tail herl fibres from the ravages of the trouts’ teeth. However, I am quite content to have a lot of them in my flybox. Space is not at a premium, and they are the easiest and quickest to tie that’s for sure.
For different nymphs, I keep everything the same, except use different herls from different feathers. The goose wing has a range of light greys to dark greys. It also has coarse fibres and finer fibres. There are many other herls (heron wing primaries, pale blue; rook primaries for a black nymph, dyed fibres, etc) that you can use to make a nymph of this construction. The key requirements are that 1) It looks like an appropriate nymph in the correct proportions. 2) it sinks quite quickly. 3. The hook is sharp!!
Soon I will take some pikkies of the stages of tying such a fly, and maybe mention how they are best fished, and how they behave in the water.