Thursday, January 21, 2016

What makes a good trout fly?

When either tying or buying trout flies there are a number of things to look for.
The hackles should not be too heavy, if they are your wet flies will not fish properly, or your dry flies will look too solid. The tendency is for commercially tied flies to be too heavily hackled. My wet flies will usually have only 2 turns of hackle at the throat. My palmered hackles would tend to have open turns, just enough to go down the lenght of the hook evenly, but not enough to float the fly. When tying dry flies I try to create my flies with a small amount of hackle usually 4 or 5 turns, and add a pinch of cul-de-canard for the wing to give added bouyancy if needed. For my parachute style flies I will try to keep to 3 turns of hackle around the post. This allows my dry flies to present a slim natural profile to the trout. The sparse hackle on the wet-flies means that they look natural, sink well and have enough movement in the hackle to work properly, hackles represent legs and should be able to move when the flies are pulled.
Wings should be smooth, straight and even, otherwise your flies will spin and twist. They should be the correct lenght also...just to the hook bend.
I personally like a dubbed body to be a little 'ragged', even in profile but having the odd strand sticking out here and there, especially with my nymph patterns. This gives more movement to the fly and creates a livelier effect.
The colour, or patterns of the flies are variable, depending on the species of insect being imitated and in season, but there are a few patterns such as the hares ear, black and peacock spider, tup's indespensible to name a couple of them that represent a wide range of food forms, as I say often, they look like fish-food. These patterns well tied will always find you a few fish even when you don't have the correct patterns to match the hatch.

Greg Long

4 comments:

  1. There's always room for a heavily dressed bumble or Peter on the top dropper as a wake fly, especially in a big wave.

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  2. There's always room for a heavily dressed bumble or Peter on the top dropper as a wake fly, especially in a big wave.

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  3. A jammy git like yourself Longr will always find a fish! Needless to say i will take note of your tying and use it.

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  4. Many thanks for the tips. I agree completely. I started my tying with Yorkshire Spiders, thread body and one turn of hackle, any more they didn't catch!

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