When fish are feeding on emergers it is important to be fast and accurate in your casting and to match the form and function of the natural. When the naturals are large enough in individual size one very successful technique is to fish an emerger pattern on top as both a fly and an indicator and a nymph or midge pupa suspended just below it. Hits are often on the dead drift or on the lift.
It’s a subtle distinction between what I consider streamers and pulling flies and what I consider ‘loch style flies’. The main difference for me is that whilst each of the flies below work well in a team of flies they also fish well by them selves. My favorite woolly bugger flies are the same. The flies in my ‘Loch’ selection are different. Sure you could fish them on their own but by in large I regard each of my ‘Loch’ flies as fishing best when fished in a team of flies.
Loch Style fly-fishing involves fly-fishing from a boat, side onto the wind, using a system incorporating one or a number of flies. There are both wet and dry lock style fishing techniques and these are my favorite loch style flies.
I have lumped these diverse types of insects together as much for convenience as because in may cases they can be fished in similar ways. All of them respond to being fished relatively static and without any drag. Having said that midge in particular remember that if you are fishing to fish actively feeding on midges or midge type naturals speed and accuracy of casting is essential.
I did a couple of years of estuary guiding and quickly found out that there are lot of flies out there that just don’t work. These are the ones that do. My selection is a mixture of tried and true traditional flies and quite a few I have developed myself.
I reserve my dry fly selection for flies that are fished on the surface of the water and either represent the dun or spinner of a an insect that spends part of its life cycle in the water such as a Mayfly, Caddis fly, Midge, Dobsonfly, Cranefly etc. or they represent terrestrial insects that have fallen or have been blown onto the surface of the water. I have separate page for my hoppers and emerger type flies each of which I also carry in my ‘Dry fly box’.
I keep flies like Spiders, Carixia, Snails and Shrimp flies in my Nymph box because I fish them ostensibly in the same way that I fish my nymphs.
