Flies

Dunkeld – hackled as in original

by

It was the summer of 2000 that I first became involved on English style Loch Style fly fishing and slowly I accumulated an arsenal of techniques and flies. I really enjoy tying flies and so as I have seen various patterns I have tied them and tried them. Most have been discarded and just a few have won a place in my Loch Style fly box – this is one of the keepers. Although I have never seen a natural of these colours this fly is one of my top dropper favorite flies.

Bibio variant

by

Whilst the Bibio fly may have been originally designed as a blow fly representation it has found its place as a great top dropper fly in lakes where fish are midge feeders. That of course begs the question do fish take them as midges, or do they take them as some other insect more like a fly, but which spends part of its life cycle in the water, that just happens to hatch as the same time as a midge?

Leggy wake flies – Chatto’s variant

by

The beauty of this fly is that once tied with legs if on the day if you decide you want a fly without kegs its easy to snip the legs off. It’s also versatile enough, witha little dry fly dressing, to be dry fly. My favourite dressings are blae and black, mallard and claret, green peter and Kate McLaren.

Articulated popper head – #8 weight estuary & native species

by

As a teaser a popper will often excite pelagics such as trevally and queenies and give you the chance to present a more conventional fly. These articulated poppers are as simple as it gets. Thread your tippet through the hole in the simple closed cell popper head and tie on any unweighted deceiver or thing or a dedicated popper tail and your in business.

Thing – pink

by

The original thing was pink and white and was tied by Graham White of Darwin the early 80’s. It got its name “pink thing” when one of his mates asked for “a lend of one of those pink things”. Whilst the “pink thing” was tied as a barra fly it has turned out to be a great dirty water fly for a range of tropical species.

Crease minnow

by

A great fly to use when target fish are actively feeding on small fish such as sardines, whitebait and pilchards. You can either fish it on a floating line and strip it across the surface with dramatic effect or fish the fly on a sinking line, count the fly down and then retrieve it up through the water column using a fast stripping action or roly poly retrieve.

Damsel – Chatto’s MK1

by

There are over 100 different species of Damselflies in Australia and the lava which are usually slender with three terminal gills, that present as tails, form a significant part of a trout’s diet. Their bodies have around 10 segments, they have 6 legs and they often have emerging wings. Most appear to be shades of yellow / olive and brown / yellow with some being quite dark and others quite pale.

Smelt – Chatto’s version

by

It tied this fly when last in New Zealand as a merger of a couple of flies to represent their small native fish called a Cockabully. I used it quite successfully fishing the seams in in fast rivers on a fast sink line and decided it add it to my fly box for future use. I am confident that with less weight it will also be a great lake fly and I expect that it can also be used as an imitation to other small bait fish either in the colour below or other hues.