Observations about fly fishing for coarse fish on a river.

[no-one in particular]

The only time I tried this before yesterday was for chub on a river many years ago. The difference was it was a small river, upper reaches and low depth and clear water most of the time and I could sometimes see the fish. If I couldn't I knew their haunts well as I had fished it many times so knew where to try. I also worked out quickly which flies to use, big black bushy ones generally and I was fairly successful.
Yesterday was totally different, I was fishing blind, I had not fished the river for two years and the swims I remembered that were good were inaccessible because of exceptional bank growth, its deep and fish cannot be seen and after such a long spell away from the river, where they still good anyway! I was hoping for mullet maybe but it was a bit early for them and I did not see any. So it was just a case of casting and hoping, you are not using any device to attract fish into your swim
Eventually I had one small chub but it seemed a daunting forlorn task and my feeling is this type of fishing blind with fly was probably only ever going to produce small fish if any.
My conclusion is it is probably not worth the bother unless you can see fish or know there haunts, know what flies to use and have good accessibility so probably best on small clear rivers and streams but not bigger open rivers - lower reaches where fish maybe sparse, unknown locality etc..
I spent most of the day thinking I should be here with a float bread and sweetcorn attracting fish to me as I would have normally have done however I enjoyed the lightness and deftness of it all.

 

[Molehill]

When I was a kid/teenager I fly fished a lot for coarse fish on the Dorset Stour, it was just what I did for fun and it was very effective. This is back in the 60s before it became trendy! Dace fishing to get the reactions up and chub were absolute suckers for a fly, also fished for rudd in the gravel pits around Chichester (back then there were some big shoals of good fish).

A few years ago I decided to try barbel on the Wye, we have a single club stretch which was not ideal but I succeeded first time and each time after - good fun, just treat them like oversized grayling :wh
The main problem is getting into a position to cover the fish and get a good presentation, very few spots I could fish and only in very low water. Also with the rough river bed of stones, I would lose a fly every few casts - I was attempting to trundle the heavy tied bug along the bottom in a dead drift.
Anyway, it worked, I proved what I wanted to myself an haven't bothered since, but if I had a good water where I could get at the fish I would certainly do more.

So plenty of opportunities, but you can catch well and keep it very basic, don't need all the fancy stuff as most (river) coarse fish have never seen a fly and anything that looks vaguely edible and trundles past at the right speed will probably be grabbed

 

[no-one in particular]

When I was a kid/teenager I fly fished a lot for coarse fish on the Dorset Stour, it was just what I did for fun and it was very effective. This is back in the 60s before it became trendy! Dace fishing to get the reactions up and chub were absolute suckers for a fly, also fished for rudd in the gravel pits around Chichester (back then there were some big shoals of good fish).

A few years ago I decided to try barbel on the Wye, we have a single club stretch which was not ideal but I succeeded first time and each time after - good fun, just treat them like oversized grayling :wh
The main problem is getting into a position to cover the fish and get a good presentation, very few spots I could fish and only in very low water. Also with the rough river bed of stones, I would lose a fly every few casts - I was attempting to trundle the heavy tied bug along the bottom in a dead drift.
Anyway, it worked, I proved what I wanted to myself an haven't bothered since, but if I had a good water where I could get at the fish I would certainly do more.

So plenty of opportunities, but you can catch well and keep it very basic, don't need all the fancy stuff as most (river) coarse fish have never seen a fly and anything that looks vaguely edible and trundles past at the right speed will probably be grabbed

Interesting Molehill, I think its an underrated underused form of fishing. I know I was doing things wrong yesterday, never quite got the action right. Tried this figure of 8 thing your supposed to do but ended up with it all tied round my fingers half the time but I am bit cack handed or plain stupid. Mostly just drew the flies along by striping line and moving the rod tip. Sometimes I waited till the flies sunk to a depth and then started doing this. The river is more or less landlocked this time of year so no flow to help or hinder, a lot of surface tow though.
But I think as in some of your scenarios its better in shallower clearer water and when you know where fish are. I wondered about barbel, some weed free gravely shallow swims would be good I imagine. Flies are insects, supposed to be high in protein so fish must like them and I bet they go for them and other invertebrates a lot more than most of realize. Come to think of it I have done well with woodlice on occasions for roach.
And casting, unless you want to do something fancy is not hard, I was getting maybe 20/30 foot in the end with no difficulty. Its only timing mostly and getting used to the rod and line.

 

[keora]

Mark, I fly fish a local river which has a mix of coarse fish and trout.

It's rare to catch a chub on fly because they easily spot an angler in shallow water and swim away.

I once had a large chub in summer in fast shallows where chub sometimes rise to floating crust. I got it by wading into the river 20/25 yds downstream, and then slowly wading upstream casting a big bushy dry fly. Since then the chub fishing has declined, there's fewer chub which are harder to catch.

I had a 3lb chub a couple of years ago while streamer fishing for trout. The fly was a big black reservoir lure (gold head, black chenille body and a long black marabou tail). The technique is to cast across river or slightly downstream, let it sink a few seconds and then retrieve it by pulling the line in about 2ft, letting the retrieved line fall on the water surface, and repeat. I don't use a figure of eight retrieve much. Tippet size with these big lures needs to be about 4lb.

If I do catch coarse fish when trout fishing on a river, they are normally grayling.

Over many years fly fishing, apart from trout and grayling, I've caught a few dace, one roach and the occasional small perch.

I don't think fly fishing is that effective for coarse fish, although it's a pleasant way of fishing - very little tackle to carry, casting is harder than you think but satisfying once you get it right.

 

[no-one in particular]

I wasn't far off that Keora on Sunday, I was using a 4lb line and stripping the line about 2 ft through the rings and moving the rod tip from side to side. And like you many years ago I was using big black busy flies for chub but I did alright, had quite a few fish and it was a chublet I caught on Sunday. haven't got grayling where I live but wouldn't mind a go at them with a fly. I think I want to try it more, just pick it a bit better, have a good think about the waters available to me and the species, where it has a chance of working, a bit of fly knowlede etc. Its not an instant go to kind of method for coarse fishing, I realize that now but still enjoyable. Thanks for your reply.

 

[keora]

Here's a useful guide to the choice of flies for river trout fishing. I know you'll be fishing for coarse fish but the advice is relevant.

http://www.fishingbreaks.co.uk/pdf/hatchcalendar.pdf

Although there's hundreds of different fly patterns available, you can take a limited range of flies with you and still catch fish.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I went through a spell of fly fishing for coarse fish about 15 years ago and apart from some 'dapping for dace' I never found it too attractive to be honest.


There are far more easy methods of catching chub, roach etc., than trying to tempt them with a fly, either dry or wet.


These days I very seldom catch a coarse fish, by accident, on the fly.