Trout feeding on fry

[johnny boy]

Hi

A lot of the fish I am getting are full of fry, my usual approach for this is a Longshank Wormfly (Black version), the fly is pretty successfull but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on alternatives that I could try out.

I doubt I am going to replace the Wormfly but it would be nice to have some alternatives, any ideas?

[burnie]

When fishing the big stillwaters in England, the Polystickle was a much favoured fly for fry feeding troots.

[corsican dave]

or something like this:[attachimg=1]

plenty of fun fry patterns out there! :

[johnny boy]

Geographically I am more in your area Roobarb (Lewis), so flies and tactics will be almost similar.

I have tried a variety of the larger streamer patterns as well as the epoxy type flies but with little to no positive results.

[burnie]

Sometimes you can see fish hitting shoals of fry(small fish) right next to the bank( I witnessed this on the Backwater last year), when this happens it is thought that they hit the fish with their sides/tails stunning the fish, then go back and hoover up the fry. Either a jerky figure of eight retrieve or just letting the fly flutter down with no retrieve can get a response.

[Fishtales]

I tied up a fly some forty years ago to represent a water beetle, it ended up catching more fry feders than beetele feeders

Hook: #12 or#10

Thread: black

Body: white floss.

Rib: silver wire.

Back: grey squirrel tail tied in at tail and pulled along back and tied in at head, shell back style. The hair I used varied from a light grey to black.

Hackle: badger.

Tail: grey squirrel, optional

[johnny boy]

Any chance you  could post a pic of that fishtails, sometimes i find a tying is completely different unless you get an image of what the final article should look like, i wouldn't mind putting a few together and trying them.

Roobarb, do you try to imitate any specific fry type patterns when you think they are locked onto fry, i only really have this one pattern then i am back to general wet patterns.

JM

[corsican dave]

as I said, plenty of fry patterns out there, so no need to limit youself. this one's easy to tie and you can use variations to imitate different bait-fish (foam brown, body white for instance) this is on a size#12 hook. you can even  :shock: try them on a sinking line and 2-4' tippet, which produces an amazing action and thumping takes.  :

[Fishtales]

as I said, plenty of fry patterns out there, so no need to limit youself. this one's easy to tie and you can use variations to imitate different bait-fish (foam brown, body white for instance) this is on a size#12 hook. you can even  :shock: try them on a sinking line and 2-4' tippet, which produces an amazing action and thumping takes.  :

If I have one in my box I will. It is a long while since I tied or used one, about thirty years

[johnny boy]

Thanks, yes there are plenty out there but I was looking to see which ones had proven effective on wild browns, rather than stocked.

I expect many cross over but some of the ones I have tried have don nothing, cheers