Are Modern Fly Designs More Versatile?

[Highlander]

modern improvement to river dries is the parachute style hackle

The Parachute hackle is actually quite old. It was patented at one time by Alex Martin of Royal Exchange Square Glasgow. Big change I see in flies is in the material selection available today. Other than that not a lot is new. Reinvented would be a better term.
Tight Lines

[Wildfisher]

I certainly remember parachute dries in the 1960s. No bugger used them though! No one that I met anyway

[Malcolm]

In no way am I as experienced as Breac Uaig in the Northern Lochs but I worked out recently I had spent about 200 June days fishing in West Sutherland as well as fishing a good number of other days elsewhere in Scotland. So I do have  a reasonable basis for my observation.

Many of my fishing days are spent with a very good wet fly fisherman who uses slow sinking lines - in his case I think it's usually a wet cel 2 although a fast intermediate is also in there. He fishes 4 wets of a traditional design and catches bundles of trout wherever he fishes.

Strange thing is though as we go North and West from Stirlingshire the difference between our catch rates decreases markedly. I have always thought of the wild trout lochs of North West Scotland as being the best dry fly waters I have fished. This includes the waters in the Wester Ross I have fished. 

The point is I never fish anything other than a floater. Normally I fish with one or two dries - or on those times when the dry simply doesn't work - with a muddler on the bob and a nymph on the tail. These setups account for at least 90% of my fishing.

It may be that the time of year I fish there makes me biased as I almost never fish there outside the period from late May until the end of July.

Malcolm

[Wildfisher]

Allan Liddle was on at me for years that dries on lochs is a vastly underrated and underused technique. Yes, I had fished that way in the  past, back in the 1970s  but never really rated it as a first line method. Recently some of my very  best loch days have been on dries and that includes in Caithness and Sutherland. On these "impossible" days of flat calm and bright sun there is ALWAYS the odd fish rising. Fishing dries in these conditions is often deadly where mindlessly pulling a team of wets is both boring and unproductive. The only  "difficult"  conditions  are a   combination of sun and wind. Sun and flat calm  can produce some great days if you are prepared to be versatile. If you don’t believe me go out with Liddle and be prepared to get your arse kicked most days.   Its' all down to being flexible in your approach – believe me I am not preaching, as I said above I am as bad as anyone when it comes down to putting these things into practise, even when I don’t have to be convinced it's the sensible thing to do! I am getting better though!   

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"Impossible"  flat calm and cloudless skies  on Lochindorb when Martin and I  had a boat full by fishing two dries.

[deergravy]

I see Mr Headley is regurgitating the same nonsense in the new FF&FT as he did in his book - that dry fly is the worst tactic to use in a flat calm.
That is ,quite simply, bad advice.
"The Loch Fishers Bible" has alot of good stuff in it, but it's focus is very narrow. 7-wt rods, drifting boats, teams of wets etc.
Maybe if he tried a 5-wt, a long tapered leader, a spot of ledasink and a stealthy approach, perhaps even a spot of his hated bank fishing, he would realise what brilliant fishing he's missing out on.
Creeping along a bank in a flat calm,targeting risers with a wee emerger is  maybe my favourite type of fishing. For the soi-disant messiah of loch fishing to dismiss it,well, it beggars belief.

On the subject of modern fly designs, I find poly-yarn a more useful winging material than CDC. Takes gink well, dries easily and is super durable. Try a dirty duster with a wee yarn wing post - a quick klinkhamer,and deadly.

Dave

[Clan Ford]

On the subject of modern fly designs, I find poly-yarn a more useful winging material than CDC. Takes gink well, dries easily and is super durable. Try a dirty duster with a wee yarn wing post - a quick klinkhamer,and deadly.

Dave

Couldn't agree more Dave, I even do an F-Fly type (no hackle, wing polyyarn).  I like the stuff many don't.

Norm

[haresear]

Poly yarn makes tying spinners easy too. No Fred, not that kind of spinner

Alex

[Tim]

Allan

That would be the article about the loch of the dense fish?

My most memorable couple of hours fishing last year were on the Shin before breakfast at the Overcaig in early July. Flat calm with a midge net and latex gloves to keep the we beasties off. 5wt dt, tapered cast size 16 dhe and 14 bibio emerger. Fishing along the shore and to thin line of scum where a wee burn entered the loch. Nothing huge but a dozen to 3/4 lb only coming when the presentation was right - just great fishing.



Tim