CHAPTER 15
Fish-Catching Flies
In This Chapter
Dry flies and wet flies
Nymphs, streamers, bucktails, bass bugs, and terrestrials
Tying flies
In this chapter you’ll learn about the different types of flies, the most popular flies of each type, and the allure of tying your own flies. A fly is a lure consisting of various materials tied on a hook and intended to represent something that fish eat.
Flies
The term fly indicates that these lures imitate insects, but that is only part of the picture because flies may also attempt to imitate minnows, crustaceans, worms, leeches, frogs, eggs, and more. Since entomologists have identified some 700,000 species of insect life alone, the possibilities for imitations tied in the form of a fishing fly are nearly limitless.
When selecting flies, though, anglers can make things as simple or as complicated as they wish. For example, you can pick up a couple of traditional patterns and use those flies to catch trout throughout the season. Also, you could ask a local fly shop to recommend a few flies for the water you’ll be fishing. At the other end of the spectrum is an angler who becomes something of an amateur entomologist and expert fly tier who spends the off-season creating perfect replicas of nature’s insects. Most fly-fishers, though, fall somewhere in between. These anglers rely on several dozen flies, some purchased from a fly shop and some tied by their own hands, to meet their needs throughout the season.
Attractor and Imitator Flies
An attractor fly is one that is not designed to resemble a specific insect or other natural food. Instead, the fly stimulates fish to strike because of shape and size as in the case of the Royal Coachman, swimming motion as in the case of the Mickey Finn streamer, or motion and sound as in the case of a Bass Popper.
An imitator fly is designed to resemble a specific species of insect, minnow, crustacean, terrestrial, etc. that trout and other species eat. An imitator fly represents its natural partner as closely as possible in size, shape, color, and movement.
Surface and Subsurface Flies
As their names suggest, surface flies are intended to be fished on the water’s surface and subsurface flies are intended for use below the surface. Dry flies and poppers fall under the category of surface flies, whereas wet flies, nymphs, and streamers are included in the subsurface category. Fishing with dry flies has a special appeal among fly anglers because of the visual thrill of actually seeing the fish take the fly or popper. But since 90 percent of a fish’s feeding activity occurs below the surface, anglers have significantly better odds for success by fishing with subsurface offerings.
Dry Flies
Dry flies float, and they are intended to simulate insects on the water’s surface. Basically, dry flies imitate an adult fly that is rising from the nymph stage to the surface before drying off its wings and flying away, or they represent a spent fly that falls into the water after mating occurs. For the most part, these occurrences are short-lived, but fishing with dry flies is extremely popular among trout fishers, especially when anglers actually see trout feeding on the surface.
Fishing Vocab
Floatant is a substance applied to a fly, fly line, or leader to increase buoyancy.
Dry flies are tied on light hooks with hackle and water-resistant materials to give them a floating quality. Also, anglers apply a floatant to help the fly’s buoyancy, or they make false casts to air-dry the fly. In addition to using light tippets and long leaders, dry fly-fishing calls for anglers to match the hatch.
Fifteen popular dry flies are:
Irresistible
Brown Bivisible
Adams
Black Gnat
Light Cahill
March Brown
Quill Gordon
Royal Coachman
Elk Hair Caddis
Blue Wing Olive
Blue Dun
Gray Wulff
Ausable Wulff
Pale Evening Dun
Dark Cahill
Fishing Vocab
Hackle refers to the feathers from the neck or back of any fowl. These feathers are used to make the collar on flies.
Wet Flies
Wet flies sink and are designed for fishing below the surface. For the most part, wet flies represent waterborne insects swimming to the surface to emerge as adults prior to flying away. These flies have hackle and wings. In addition to imitating insects hatching from the nymph stage and rising to the surface, wet flies may also represent small minnows, egg-laying insects, and drowning or drowned insects. Because wet flies are fished below the surface, anglers typically use heavier tippets and shorter leaders than when fishing dry flies. The standard wet-fly technique is to let the fly drift naturally downstream in the current and then to retrieve it with short pulls on the line with the occasional pause or twitch.
Fifteen popular wet flies are:
Black Gnat
Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear
Royal Coachman
Light Cahill
Quill Gordon
Blue Dun
Black Wooly Worm
Dark Cahill
Dark Hendrickson
Hornberg
Professor
Light Hendrickson
Stonefly
Pink Lady
Leadwing Coachman
Nymphs
A nymph is an immature insect in its larval stage, which is between hatching from the egg and shedding its protective coating when it emerges from the water as a winged adult. Nymphs live on stream or lake bottoms. A nymph is also a fly that attempts to imitate an actual nymph in its larval stages. Such flies represent the larval stages of mayflies, caddis flies, stone flies, dragonflies, and damselflies. Some nymph patterns also imitate scuds, which are freshwater shrimp.
Fishing with nymphs offers a number of advantages to the angler. Nymphs are a major part of a trout’s diet and they’re in the water year-round. An angler can easily match the hatch by checking the undersides of rocks for actual nymphs easily identified by their scaly, segmented, legged bodies. Best of all, nymphs can be fished anywhere in the water column, although presenting the fly near bottom in a natural drift is the most popular strategy.
Fishing Vocab
Matching the hatch is an expression that refers to the use of artificial flies that closely represent the natural appearance of various insects in various stages of life.
Although fishing with nymphs is an extremely effective technique, it has one drawback: detecting bites can be difficult because the strikes are often subtle. Experienced anglers may be able to feel the slight hesitation or tick when a trout hits a nymph, but less-experienced fishers are more likely to miss these takes. Fishing shorter lines is one way to increase the odds of detecting bites. A better method, though, is to attach a strike indicator to your leader.
Fifteen popular nymphs are:
Caddis Nymph
March Brown Nymph
Giant Black Stonefly Nymph
Dark Hendrickson Nymph
Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear Nymph
Montana Nymph
Prince Nymph
Pheasant Tail Nymph
Zug Bug
Green Drake Nymph
Light Cahill Nymph
Bead-Head Hare’s Ear Nymph
Isonychia Nymph
Gray Nymph
Midge Nymph
Fishing Vocab
A strike indicator is a piece of buoyant material attached to the leader. The strike indicator acts much like a float in that when it hesitates or dips in the current, the angler has a visual clue that a fish has taken the fly below the surface.
Streamers and Bucktails
Streamers and bucktails are flies that imitate baitfish. Streamers have a long, slender profile and are tied on heavy, long-shanked hooks. Both the streamer and the bucktail have thin bodies usually consisting of yarn or tinsel. When the wing is tied with feathers, the fly is called a streamer, and when the wing is made of the hair of a deer tail, the fly is called a bucktail.
Because streamers imitate minnows, the flies function more like lures than the traditional insect-imitating flies. In fact, anglers fish streamers differently than other flies that are often allowed to drift with the natural current. When fishing with streamers, the angler must impart action to simulate the undulating swimming or the injured appearance of a minnow. While some streamers are imitation flies, most streamers are attractor flies whose color, flash, and swimming and darting motions entice fish to strike.
Streamers offer a number of advantages. For one, minnows are a year-round, natural prey of most fish. The general guideline is to work flies erratically in warm water and work them slowly in cold water. Also, streamers are easy for beginners to use because the flies can be retrieved in a variety of ways and don’t have to be presented in a natural drift. Another benefit of using streamers is the increased likelihood of catching bigger fish.
Fifteen popular streamers are:
Black Ghost
Gray Ghost
Mickey Finn
Nine-Three
Black Nose Dace
Muddler Minnow
Wooly Bugger (olive, black, or white)
Zonker
Marabou Muddler
Green Ghost
Supervisor
White Marabou Streamer
Olive Matuka
Krystal Bugger
Joe’s Smelt
Bass Bugs and Terrestrials
Bass bugs are flies or fly-rod lures intended to imitate frogs, mice, baitfish, and large insects such as dragonflies. Bass bugs are made of buoyant materials like deer hair, cork, balsawood, and hollow plastic. Anglers fish bass bugs on the surface, and their appeal lies in their erratic action, which causes disturbance and commotion. Although called bass bugs, these flies also work for panfish, trout, pickerel, and northern pike. Popular bass bugs include the Dahlberg Diver, Swimming Frog, Mouserat, Bass Popper, and Sneaky Pete.
Terrestrials are flies that imitate life forms whose life cycle occurs on land. While these insects don’t live in or on the water, they sometimes fall into the water or get blown, washed, or deposited in the water, where they become prey for fish. Terrestrials commonly imitate grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, inch worms, and ants. These flies work best in the heat of summer, when terrestrial species are most widespread. Because terrestrials are surface flies, anglers fish them as they would dry flies. Popular terrestrial patterns include Dave’s Cricket, Black Fur Ant, Black Beetle, Dave’s Hopper, Joe’s Hopper, Inchworm, Caterpillar, and Schroeder’s Hi-Vis Hopper.
Fly Sizes
Fly sizes are based on the size of the hook on which the fly is tied, so a #12 fly is tied on a #12 hook. Sizes progress in even numbers from #28 to #2 with #28 being the smallest. After #2, fly sizes appear in both odd and even numbers beginning with #1/0 and proceeding to #2/0, #3/0, etc., with a #2/0 being larger than a #1/0 and so on. General guidelines for stream trout call for using #8 to #20 dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, and streamers. For panfish, good bets are #12 to #16 dries, wets, and streamers, and #2 to #8 bass bugs and streamers work well for bass. For northern pike, start out with #2/0 to #1/0 oversize poppers and streamers.
Fly Tying
Since flies are readily available and reasonably priced at fly shops and other stores, one has to wonder why hundreds of thousands of anglers across North America opt to tie their own flies. What attracts anglers to this hobby within a hobby? Plain and simple, tying flies is a fun and relaxing way to spend off-season hours. Also, few things are more rewarding in fly-fishing than catching a fish on a fly that you have tied yourself. Furthermore, tying flies allows an angler the creativity to experiment and design his own flies or make modifications to existing patterns.
Experienced fly tiers can turn out realistic-looking flies even in the smallest sizes, and even though novice fliers lack such skill, beginners can easily produce fish-catching flies. In fact, the basic fly-tying skills can be learned in a short period of time. Such skills are best learned by receiving instruction from a fly-tying friend, a local fly shop, an area fly-fishing club, or a commercial video.
Like fly-fishing itself, you can make fly tying as simple or as complicated as you desire. While items may be purchased individually, starter kits make a lot of sense when you are just beginning. Such kits commonly contain everything you need to start tying flies, and many kits cost less than $100. Contents typically include the vise, various tools, various materials, hooks, and an instructional video. Certainly, you will want to add hooks, tools, and materials to your collection, and many of the materials you can collect yourself while involved in other outdoor pursuits, especially hunting. Since the vice is the most important tool, it makes sense to purchase a quality one that matches your budget. Other basic tools include a bobbin, scissors, hackle pliers, hair stackers, whip-finish tool, tweezers, bodkin or dubbing needle, hair packer, and hackle gauge.
Fishing Vocab
Fly tying is the art of imitating insects, minnows, and other natural foods eaten by fish through the skillful application of hair, feathers, fur, tinsel, and other natural and manmade materials to a hook.