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That there are as many flies (or even more) as there are flyfishers is more or less true, because it is amusing to tie flies and perhaps improve existing patterns or even develop your own "superfly". I have always used my home tied flies, from my first fish on a flyrod (a garfish) and up to now. I think it gives an extra pleasure to catch a fish on a fly that I have tied myself. My fly box is a mess of different experiments, a lot of them have never been tied on the leader. After more than twenty years of seatrout fishing I have limited my collection to four "killers" that will attract seatrout all year round, and I use those flies almost 95 % of the fishingtime. There is a lot of nice and fancy flies that surely will catch fish sometimes, but my principle has always been that the fly preferably should imitate some of the shrimps and other small things the seatrout eats, be very easy to tie, and be able too catch fish... The following flies will meet those demands. |
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DRÆBERREJEN (The Killer shrimp). Imitation of a small shrimp (max. 5 cm. usually 2-3 cm., max. 1,9 inch usually 0,7-1,1 inch) that is very common along the Danish shores (and in seatrout stomachs). This fly has, after its "official" introduction in the Danish fishing magazine Fisk & Fri in 1996, become a "classic" and almost everybody who has tried it has it as a part of their selection of "killers". The transparent plastic gives a good imitation of the transparent body of the shrimps, a detail most other patterns lacks. The fly has been described several places on the internet, in a book, and also in a German flyfishing magazine. It will catch fish, also when most other flies are ignored. Hook: Streamer or wetfly size 2-10. Thread: white. Tail (or the head of the shrimp) a small tuft of white or cream Polar fox and the tip of the Grizzly hacklefeather. Body: transparent plastic f.ex. from a plastic bag. A very good plastic bag is a kind you sometimes will get if you buy beers from a gas station I Denmark, but almost any soft transparent plastic bag is usable. Plastic bags made for freezing are usually to "hard" and will turn silver coloured when wrapped tight around the hook. The plastic is cut into long and 2-4 mm. wide strips which you can wrap tight around the hook while shaping it. When you have finished the "wrapping" you can turn the whole body a little extra in the same direction as you wrapped it in, and if it is the right sort of plastic it will turn transparent. You can also use Epoxy for the body if you like that better. Hackle: Grizzly hacklefeather stripped for fibres on one side to get a sparsely dressed fly. The hackle is tied in so that the tip of the feather is a part of the tail (head of the shrimp). To be sure that the hackle wont slip on the slippery body it is necessary to varnish or glue the body before turning the hackle (over the wet varnish/glue), follow with the thread as rib to secure the hackle. If you want a heavier fly for fishing deeper, in waves or in strong wind, turn your lead or copper wire to the front third part of the hook shank to avoid the fly hanging "tail down" in the water. I think that the fly is most effective when it "stands right" in the water.... |
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DEN HVIDE (The white one): A "shrimp" pattern or perhaps a provocative pattern. I actually don’t know why it is so effective. Perhaps it’s because it is so visible that the trout can’t let it pass by without a reaction. It could also be because the white colour usually indicates sickness and therefore an easy meal. The "White one" is actually the forerunner for the "Killer shrimp" and has hold its place in the top four of the flybox since I caught the first trouts on it 1993. It is extremely effective, especially in the autumn. Some days the fish will attack it furiously, even when they refuse most other flies. My good fishing companion, Jan Larsen (who have caught more seatrout than most fishers) said some years ago when he tried the fly for the first time; "that fly should be forbidden". Hook: Streamer or wetfly size. 2-8. Thread: white. Tail: (or the head of the shrimp) small tuft of soft white Polar fox. Body: white/pearl Angelhair or Lite Brite dubbing. Hackle: soft white hackle with long fibres. Before turning the hackle, varnish or glue the body and turn the hackle through the wet glue/varnish, if you use dubbing you just turn the thread as rib to secure the hackle without gluing. Tie some with and without weight. Turn the lead or copper wire on the first third part of the shank to prevent "hanging tail down". A "turboversion" with some flash as a "hackle" can be very effective, especially if water is a little dirty or in larger waves... |
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TANGLOPPE (Gammarus): (Brown, Orange, Red or Green) a small fly, but a very effective one. Difficult Trouts becomes less difficult with one of these flies on the leader. For garfish it is deadly and for Mullets it is one of the most effective. Hook: wetfly size 6-12. Body: Brown, orange, red, green or natural dubbing. Dub it on the thread or in a dubbing twister and turn it. You can use the dubbing needle to "pick out" fibres so the fly get some legs and a furry look. You can use rib if you want to, but it is not necessary. Make some heavier flies with lead or copperwire under the dubbing or use the wire as rib for windy or high water conditions.... |
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DRYFLY: A dry fly can be the difference between catching seatrout or not, especially in the late autumn. Read about the fishing for seatrout with a dryfly elsewhere on this site. Hook: Dryfly hook size 10-14. Tail (if you want): hacklefibres or deer hair, Body: dark dubbing (most of the insects on the water are dark or black), Hackle: Good hacklefeather, either as a parachute hackle like the "Klinkhamer" (then you will have to make a wing of f.ex. Polyyarn) or a normal hackle. It doesn’t matter so much what the fly looks like, when the trouts are taking from the surface they will take almost any fly that is floating. It is usually more important to match the size than the actual insect. |
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STICKLEBACK: Usually a shrimp or gammarus pattern is at the end of my leader, but the Stickleback fly can sometimes be a good choice. Sticklebacks are "stiff" fish that doesn’t move their body much when they are swimming and this fly will imitate them very well. Hook: Streamer size 2-10. Tail: The end of the Flashabou tube and f.ex. some red wool yarn. Body: Pearl (or another colour) Flashabou tube with yarn or something else (dubbing) to form the body and to give a colour underneath the Flashabou. Back: Dark green Twinklehair or other strong fibres. Tie it in at the tail (tie on the middle of the Twinklehair bunch) and whipfinish. Tie the other end of the bunch in at the behind the eye of the hook. Eyes: Ball chain eyes will look like eyes and give some weight to the fly. |
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NEREIS/ RAGWORM. The seatrout will eat them when they get the possibility. Mainly in the spring (march/april) the worms will swim around spawning and in that period the trouts can become very selective). There are lots of good imitations of this kind of worm, but most of them are rather complicated to tie. This one is very simple but effective. The first ones I tied produced lots of takes and some fish, but there were two problems. To get a long fly I had to use either a long shank hook or a very large hook. Neither of these solutions are very good because the trout often will "release itself" after some time if it isn’t hooked very deep on these types of hooks. And, many fish will only take on the tail of the fly and therefore they wont get hooked properly.
A very good solution is to make a tandem fly with two smaller hooks connected with a piece of 0,60 - 1,0 mm. nylon instead. The nylon is squeezed with forceps to get some grooves to tie on, so it won’t slip when the fish is hooked. Tie the two hooks in with tight turns and use varnish or glue to secure the hooks as much as possible. If you want to add some weight to the fly turn it on the front hook. A small tail of Marabou is tied in at the end of the rear hook and the shanks and the nylon is covered with varnish or superglue before the Cactuschenille is tied in and turned all the way up to the hook eye. Follow with the thread to for extra security of the chenille. Cut the chenille to a suitable thickness and make a small "bend" on the nylon. This bend will make the fly, when it is retrieved slowly, turn and sway in a "wormlike" way.... (Photo comes later) |
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