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Fly Fishing Techniques

Started by Traditionalist, October 03, 2011, 08:02:08 PM

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Fishtales

As this covers two topics at the moment I'll stick it in here with a link to it in the other topic :)

I never saw the point in a dead drift as that is exactly what it conveys, something dead. There are a whole load of things in the water column that a fish could take as it floats by and they don't. My reasoning for that is that, in some way, the food item gives itself away. Thinking about it there are three possibilities 1) shape, 2) colour 3) movement, or perhaps even a combination of all three. First look at shape and colour. Pieces of grass, leaves, algae or general flotsam and jetsam could have a shape and/or colour of a food item yet it can be ignored by the trout. They will turn up in the trout's stomach on occasion so why? The only reason can  be the movement. For some reason the way it moved in the water column instigated an attack response from the trout. Very few prey items that are drifting in the water column are perfectly still unless they are fleeing from an attack from a predator and they don't want to be noticed. The vast majority, the ones we want to represent, are 1) hatching/laying or dying after mating, 2) moving position or 3) settling after evading and attack by a predator.

Taking them in order.

1) Hatching/laying or dying.

When hatching the nymph has to leave the bed of the stream and rise up to the surface. It doesn't just let go and drift or it would just trundle along the bed of the stream and get no-where. It makes itself buoyant and swims up through the water column until it gets to the surface where it struggles through, hatches and flies off. It may even swim across the current to reach the bank side vegetation to crawl out. Depending on the speed of the current, its size and maximum swimming speed it may even manage to swim upstream a little from its release point. All this takes movement which attracts any predator in the area, in our case fish.

2) Moving position.

They may just be moving position to a better feeding area, one with the correct speed of current that they feel safe in from predators or because they had to move when attacked and want to get back to there position. Because of their size they don't have the mass to get enough speed to overcome the current so they tend to move downstream, across the current, both by swimming, or crawl upstream using the current and the shape of their bodies to help keep them on the bottom. All of which requires movement.

3) Settling.

After the initial flee response they have to get back to the stream bed and to achieve this they make themselves heavier and this with body shape and swimming allows them to get back and start feeding again.

As you see that all takes movement and this is what attracts the main predator, and our quarry, the fish.

Fish come in two types grazers and ambushers. Grazing trout move about the area they patrol hunting down any prey items that they come across whether on the surface, in the water column or on the bed of the stream. Ambushers tend to stay in position and pick off anything that drifts or crawls past them. Like any predator they rely on their eyes to pick up movement from the prey and then fix its position, and attack when in range. This range depends on the food item and whether it can move away before the predator gets to it.

It would seem to me that moving the artificial triggers an attack response and anything that makes it look alive will help in this. Streaming feathers, soft hackles, slight twitches or, as in downstream and across, a rise in the water column or a move in position across the stream maintaining position to the relative speed of the current, even the flash of tinsel, can achieve this.

I came to these observations over the years as I read books and from my own experiences so it was heartening to find that the scientific studies seem to hold them up to being possibilities as I found out when searching after reading these threads and finding these papers.

Whether you agree or not is a matter of personal choice but it works for me :)

Some links and attached .pdf files.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Jk0Hym1yF0cC&lpg=PA977&ots=TwZRl_E1qO&dq=insect%20speed%20linked%20to%20water%20speed&pg=PA973#v=onepage&q&f=true

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s5523.html

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_PJHw-hSKGgC&lpg=PA414&ots=lRSmKfDrjn&dq=morphological%20adaptation%20of%20shape%20to%20flow&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q=morphological%20adaptation%20of%20shape%20to%20flow&f=false

http://www.esapubs.org/archive/ecol/E092/131/appendix-A.htm

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_PJHw-hSKGgC&lpg=PA414&ots=lRSmKfDrjn&dq=morphological%20adaptation%20of%20shape%20to%20flow&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q=morphological%20adaptation%20of%20shape%20to%20flow&f=false

I may have missed some but you get the picture :)
Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
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Fishtales

More attachments as there were too many for the first post.
Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
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Fishtales

The last couple.
Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
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Wildfisher


Malcolm

As always movemt or lack of movement depends on what we are doing. As well as the downstream fling and swing there is the Leisenring lift (in my opinion simplly speeding the fly up as it starts to swing) and the induced take from the great Frank Sawyer.
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

Fishtales

Quote from: Alan on October 05, 2011, 12:27:35 PM
Sandy, a dead drift is how most flies appear to fish in a hatch, we go to a fair bit of trouble to avoid drag that puts fish off, i agree movement is the key, but sometimes its the lack of movement that the fish expects.

How do you know that?

You aren't under water with a fishes eyes seeing what they are. It doesn't have to be visible movement to us but just the slightest, subtlest movement that the fish picks up on with its better eyesight which tells it that that item floating towards it is alive and therefore food. Why else would they ignore the same fly repeatedly and take the real one next to it and then suddenly decide, after the umpteenth time, to take the artificial? Unnatural drag, which could be anything that says to the fish watch out, should be avoided but how do we know what is natural to the fish and what isn't? Watch egg laying flies on the surface of the water. Some just dip, others lie flat on the surface and some are flying across it with a 'v' forming where their abdomens are in the surface film. Sedge flies skitter across the surface all the time causing more disturbance than a spinner, but watch the spinner as it passes and you will see that their legs are moving under the water surface or they are arching and moving their abdomen. Not something you will see at five to fifteen yards from you though but it is still happening. Think of the number of spent flies that are passing over the trout yet it only takes the odd one or two, or the number of nymphs passing it under water. What triggers it to take that particular one? My opinion is that it is movement, it may only be subtle but it tells the fish what is a possible food item and what isn't.
Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
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Fishtales

The same question. How do you know that?

They refuse when you move the fly. Because they are spooked by it doing something it didn't expect at that time?

They take a static fly after refusing the moved fly. Because it sees it land on the water and goes for it because it is  doing something it should be doing and the fact that it is settling down into the surface causes that subtle movement that says food?

The fish coming from a distance or depth. It turns away because you moved the fly in an unnatural way to what it expected? I have watched fish do the same thing and without moving the fly, as the fact it landed on the water provokes the attack response, come and take it confidently, even when standing on a high banking over the water which should have scared every fish within viewing distance :)

I watched a fish come from a fair distance away to take a 'static' wet hares ear nymph which I had cast out and left. It wasn't really static though as it was hanging down from a floating line and bobbing up and down with the movement of the waves. It was also close to the shore so it was also moving back and forward. The fish must have seen the movement and thought food and came racing up and took the fly. I hadn't moved the line or fly in any way myself, it was only being moved by the action of the water but it must have been acting in a way to provoke the attack response in the trout.

We all have our own techniques and methods and if they work and catch fish there is no need to change.
Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
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Fishtales

Isn't that what a technique is? An understanding of what is expected put into practice :)
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Sandy
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Fishtales

Or just plain instinct. As a predator shouldn't we rely more on our instincts then?
Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
Carried it in full, then carry it out empty.
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Fishtales

Is it all instinct though? Doesn't experience come into play too? I've worked outside in all weathers that long I can tell when a rain shower is on its way and get the waterproofs out and on in enough time to stay dry. That isn't instinct it is experience :)
Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
Carried it in full, then carry it out empty.
http://www.ftscotland.co.uk/

Looking for a webhost? Try http://www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=2966019

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