Corixa

[thewaterbouys]

    Hi i need a bit of help here i am trying to tye up the water boatman, by Derek Hoskins. It is out of a book matching the hatch Still waters ,river and streams by Pat O"Reilly.Its a woven body tied with Brown and White polypropylene yarn. I would like to have a go at this one, but i never tyied a woven body. It  looks a cracking fly or is our own Scot Fly got a good tying on the site some where.

     Henry :?

[thewaterbouys]

        Uncleboo That will be great.


               Henry 

[Fishtales]

This should keep you going till boo gets back to you

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/advanced/part3.html

[Wildfisher]

Any brown / white type pattern  would probably do. The biggest problem with corixia would be imitating their action.- that is shooting up from the bottom, grabbing some air and heading down  again. I once saw rainbows at Haddo totally  fixed on corixia that were doing this. The buggers could hardly be tempted to take anything  else. Perhaps a buoyant pattern fished  on a sunk line – booby style would do it?

[thewaterbouys]

    That is exactly what happened to me on my Club water,fish feeding all over.
     I tried everything i caught a couple cleaned one and it was full of corixa.
     now for the challenge thanks for the info.

          Henry 

[thewaterbouys]

Hi Sandy

            Thanks for that they look smart, they make it look easy, But i no its not. I am looking forward to having a go at this, one step at a time. The step by step instructions seem very clear.

      Thanks again Henry

[Traditionalist]

The woven flies look quite nice, but they take a bit of practice. Also, it can be difficult to incorporate the required action in the form of weight etc, in woven flies.

You may find this of interest, it works well on rivers or still waters, and gives you a double shot at fish which are on corixae. The patterns are not that critical, as long as they have the required properties. This one by Peter Lapsley is especially good for a number of techniques, ( sinking line, fish more or less like a booby), or the technique described here;

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/worldwide/europe/part8.html

So, on to a very special team for slow water and pools. The point fly is a weighted corixa. This fly is not used much in running water, which is a serious mistake! A very large number of winged wet flies and similar stuff, which people fish downstream with lots of movement, are taken because of their resemblance to aquatic beetles! This does not appear to be widely known, although there are isolated references in the literature. Many of these beetles, most especially the corixa, commonly known as a "water boatman", are very strong swimmers, with a very characteristic swimming action.

Of all the fish I have caught and examined, there was hardly a one without at least a couple of such beetles in its stomach, and many had dozens of them! These creatures are very widespread, and are found in all waters. They are also good flyers, and can take off from the surface if they wish. When under water, they come up to the surface periodically, and collect air bubbles between their non swimming legs, and take them back down to the bottom. Thus giving them a very bright silvery appearance on their undersides. The carapace is usually of a dark brown shade. They are also possessed of two very powerful "paddles" with which they propel themselves rather jerkily, in the familiar "rowing" motion, hence their popular name. This is one of the few small insects which can swim very strongly indeed, even against a current, and the fish take them avidly.

The fly itself is quite simple. A good layer of lead on a size 12 hook, a fat oval body of cream fur, ribbed with silver tinsel, a back of dark brown feather or similar, and most important, two "legs" as paddles. These are brown rubber, tied in horizontally at the front of the hook. when the fly is moved the legs "paddle". The rubber legs must be selected so that this actually occurs! Thin round rubber works best. I use shirring elastic coloured with a brown marker. The body of fur or wool etc ( fur is best) should be treated with watershed after dressing. This causes silvery bubbles to adhere to it, as in the natural, which actually fetches bubbles of air from the surface between its non swimming legs.

The bob fly in this case is the same fly, but with a cork or foam body, and a stiffish dark brown hackle instead of the paddles.Cut away below the hook.

Technique is quite simple. The rig is pitched in, and "worked" back, by stuttering movements of the rod. The rod is raised in a series of small "jerks and stops" with pauses in between. Usually, fish hit the point fly very very hard! On occasion they will also hammer the bob fly. I like to have the point fly at least three feet away from the bob, and sometimes more, depending on water depth.

In order to see how you must retrieve, look into any pond or slow flowing water, and you will see such a beetle going about its business in the manner described. These beetles are a major food item for trout, both in still and running water.

( The other patterns shown in Peter?s article are also first class by the way).

TL
MC

[Wildfisher]

Great post Mike. Good to see you back on the forum

[Traditionalist]

Great post Mike. Good to see you back on the forum

Thanks, very kind of you.

TL
MC

[Traditionalist]

As regards actually making woven flies, you may find this of interest;

http://www.acc.umu.se/~widmark/fly/crochet.html

http://www.acc.umu.se/~widmark/lwcrochi.html

http://www.markov.baikal.ru/keep/articles/woven.html

http://www.theflybench.com/howtotie/woven/woven.htm

coupled with the link Sandy posted this should be of help to you.

TL
MC