Fly Fish Tactics

[Ron Troversial Clay]

The most important retrieve of all to learn is what I call the "figure of eight and drop retrieve"

This is a variation of the standard figure or eight retrieve which you use on rivers where you keep all the line you have retrieved in your hand.

On still water you can let the line drop at your feet. If you are wading, something I hardly ever do these days, you will need a line tray. More stuff to buy.

The figure of eight retrieve makes it possible for you to pull back the line dead slow without any jerks. A deadly method when using nymphs or buzzers. Often the wind will perform the retrieve for you, especially in a cross wind, but you still need to keep in contact with your flies.

How to do a figure of weight rerieve is virtually impossible to describe in words an I am not going to try to describe it here.

The most useless retrieve of all is what I call the pull down drag. It don't work chaps, yet I stll see anglers doing this all day and not getting a pull. Short little jerks often work, especially with fish imitating flies.

Then we get an incredibly deadly retrieve that I call the "f..k about retrieve. This means combining all different types of retrieve in one, a few drag pulls, then let the fly stay still for a while, then fisgure of eight it, them a long slow pull and then a long fast pull.

It works, try it.

The last type of retrieve is what I call the troll retrieve because it enables you to pull a fly through the water fast without and jerks at all.

What you do is drag the line inwards with your left hand and at the same time push your rod hand forward. At the end of the pull in you bring your rod hand backwards maintaining the speed of the retrieve.

This is a deadly method with a lure, and we have all caught fish when we have been fishing for hours and we decide to wind in the fly and move on.

"Bang" we are in.

Another way is to attach a "Bung" to your leader, chuck out with a floating line down wind, fish a team of small nymphs or flavoured egg flies under the bung. When you line is out far enough, dragged by the wind, you can even put the rod in a rest with the reel ratchet on and go to sleep.

You don't even have to cast.

 

[Ross Turner]

Flavoured egg flies? i dont think many fisheries allow tactics like this.Why use a Bung just use a large dry fly it does the same job.

 

[Ron Troversial Clay]

Ross, there is one particular lake in Notts where bungs and egg flies are very common. They also flavour them.

Not cricket is it?

 

[Ross Turner]

What do they use to flavour them?(ultrabite).

 

[Ron Troversial Clay]

That and some of the Archie Braddock stuff I beleive.

 

[Ross Turner]

A bit un sporting if you ask me,The fisheries in shropshire would never let you do this sort of thing.

 

[Richard Huggett 1]

I found that egg flies worked well on the dry fly/nymph pool at Chalk Springs. I fished them on a greased leader, greased right up to the fly so the fly just sits in the surface film....the rainbows go crazy over them. Lord knows what they represent to a trout...I guess the dark brown ones may look like a trout pellet, but what about the bright coloured ones? Bright red, white...what on earth do they look like? I suppose the white ones could look like a piece of floating bread?
Strange things...

 

[Colin Brett 3]

Back on track with retrieves,

Roly Poly!! Absolutely deadly! The faster the better! Rainbows and Browns love to chase fast moving flies!

Having said that, the slow figure of 8 takes some beating and the static buzzer under a bung? or big dry or booby even.

I had the privilege of fishing next to Arthur Cove on many occassions for several seasons at Grafham a few years back, his retrieves were very slow and he watched the end of his flyline for takes, which you can't do when retrieving quickly. Learnt a lot from Arthur.

Colin

 

[Ron Troversial Clay]

The roly poly retrieve Colin.

I call that tit pulling.

Arthur Cove was/is a master still water fly fisher make no mistake. Is he still alive? Does he still fish?

I got so much out of his book and these days, I suppose the style I do fish is very Cove like. I do use very long leaders where possible as Arthur does, up to twenty feet. They are a hell of a job to cast by the why and I wouldn't recommend the use of them to a beginner.

I watched Arthur fish on Rutland once, in 1978. He caught 5 trout in an hour or two whilst all the rest, including myself blanked. It was worth watching him. I then bought his book and my catch rate soared, I kid you not!!

Truly a great angler.

Another great angler was Cyril Inwood. Walker described him as the greatest still water trout angler alive. His methods were quite similar to Arthur Coves.

Floating line, long leader well soaped to make it sink and to avoid wake, and a small team of imitative nymphs or buzzers.

I often wonder what these anglers would have done if Fluorocarbon had been available then.

Emptied the lake!

 

[Colin Brett 3]

Arthur Cove is still around, last time I saw him was at a Grafham Water fly fishers meeting a few years back.

I never met Cyril Inwood although I was trout fishing while he was alive.

A victim of "Weils desease", a warning to all anglers there!!

I will always remember Arthur saying watch the end of your line for takes when fishing in near black out conditions at Grafham. He hooked a fish soon after and he would have been lucky to have seen the end of his rod it was so dark.

Colin

 

[Ron Troversial Clay]

Arthur probably felt the take.

A lot of rubbish has been written over the years about detecting the take of a trout using nymphs and a floating line.

Personally I think that you are better to try and feel the take than to see it. You will hook more fish as a result.

When I am retrieveing line using the figure of eight, I let it run over my right forefinger which is one of the most sensitive parts of your body. A changed in pressure here caused by the trout annexing the fly can be felt immediatly.