Buzzers and Bobs

Been fly fishing for 6 months now and I really love it. I'm getting better(ish) every trip out and learning all the time. I'm catching a reasonable amount of fish with the lure fishing I do at my local fishery but i've come to realise how limiting just fishing the lures is and really want to fish imitative style buzzers and nymphs.
I've tried it a few times when quiet on the lures but i'm not really confident with it and am missing most of the takes. I know it takes years or maybe even a lifetime to get good at it and i've been wondering whether to use a sight bob or indicator for a couple of months while hopefully gaining confidence and getting better at fishing buzzers and nymphs.
What I don't want to do is become reliant on the bob or indicator in the long term to detect bites as I think fishing without them is for me a purer, more enjoyable sport. What I also don't want is to become frustrated and dispirited and just go back to my trusty lures.
I've gone back and read most of the threads since this site started and have seen there's a lot of different views on the bobs or indicators. Would appreciate your views and any tips on fishing buzzers and nymphs.

Ron Clay is your man for this, though from what I can remember of his advice (which I've successfully followed sometimes) I learned the following:

- Always watch the end of your fly line, If it dips, or does something you're not expecting, strike.

- Let your line hang straight down from the end of your rod tip, a bit like a swing tip. Again, if this twitches, or doesn't behave as you expect, strike.

- Keep your retrieve VERY SLOW or, in some instances, none existent. For instance, if it's a windy day, let the wind and the drift move your flies for you.

Hope that helps some. Let us know how you get on.

Adrian

I fish both lures and nymphs, depending on what the fish want and conditions at the time.

However most of the time I do fish imitative patterns, because quite honestly, I get more fun and satisfaction doing so.

And to be totally truthful, I have only ever used a bung or sightbob once. The bluudy thing came off my line after two falsecasts and I haven't used one since.

And yes, it does take time to learn to fish imitative patterns properly. The only thing I can say is to keep doing it, because in time you will reach a degree of ability where you will thrash the lure strippers every time. And this is more important in reservoir fishing than small stocked waters.

The name of the game is to keep in contact with your flies. Learn the figure-of-eight and drop retrieve technique so that you can perform it dead slow or quite quickly at times. Watch and feel the line all the time. Be aware that a trout will often pick up your fly and swim towards you, making everything go slack. Anything that causes your line to change in the way it performs whilst it is being retrieved should be struck at.

Remember one thing. Once you become proficient at catching still water trout on the nymph, you have mastered one of the most difficult and skillful techniques in all angling and you have every reason to be proud of yourself.

For a few good tips, read: "My Way With Trout." by Arthur Cove. It's over 20 years old but the basics are all there.

Thanks for the advice guys. Been reading everything I can find about it on the net and ordered a couple of books from Amazon including "My way with trout". But as always the best thing I can do is get out there and practice and I think i'll persevere without the sight bob.
My local fishery is only open at weekends until march and with other commitments I only get to fish 4 to 5hrs on any given weekend. With this in mind I was wondering if there is a better time of day to fish buzzers or is it really all down to the weather and temperature?
I usually try to be there fishing by 8am but if there isn't going to be any activity on the buzzer until later in the day would it be better to fish say 12 to 4pm? In short if you only had 4hrs to fish buzzers would there be a time you would pick or is it all down to weather etc.
Ian

If the weather is overcast and not too cold, you can catch trout all day using the buzzer approach. If you see vast columns of chironomids at the side of your lake, you can rest assured that the trout will be on the pupa.

Personally, I think that evening is the overall best time, say two hours before it gets dark.

By the way, the correct term for the little beasties you are imitating is midge pupa. How they got the name "buzzer" is beyond my comprehension. I've put my ear to them on many occasions and they have not buzzed once.

If you eat them in copious amounts, your head buzzes ....

If the weather permits i'm going to try and get out for an afternoon this weekend. I got a Troutmasters badge from Trout Fisherman magazine this week for the fish in my picture so I really need to get some practice in on the nymphs and buzzers so I dont make an a*se of myself at the fish off. Thats the excuse i'm using on the mrs anyway and i'm sticking to it!
I'll start off fishing a goldhead bloodworm on the point with either a diawl bach or hares ear nymph on the first dropper and a red or black buzzer on the top dropper. Am I heading in the right direction fishing these or have I got it completely wrong and need a different set up. Any advice very,very welcome.
Should I keep my droppers short (say 3inches) or should I go a bit longer? And would you use leader rings or water knots for the droppers or is it just a personal preference. Thanks. Ian.

Always put the heaviest fly on the point, it helps turn the leader over better. The combination you have mentioned seems OK but you might find that you want to fish the buzzer a bit deeper. The Diawl Bach is a good allround nymph pattern which catches fish summer and winter.

I use three turn water knots for my droppers, the dropper being taken from the bit facing the point fly - opposite to Arthur Cove's ideas. I find that the knot is stronger that way but I don't want to be dogmatic.

I tend to tie my droppers about 4 to 5 inches long, giving me a bit extra to tie a different fly on if I want to.

Use 5 or 6 lbs fluorocarbon by the way.

Went out Saturday from 11am till 3pm. Was a bit breezy but still fished the buzzer and nymph set up I mentioned above. Had a 2.5lb fish on the bloodworm, 2 trout of 2lb and 3lb 5oz on the black buzzer and probably missed twice that amount!
The wind got too strong at about 1.30pm and I couldn't carry on fishing the buzzers so I threw on a montana and was immediately into a 5lb 3oz fish that gave me a hell of a fight.
Was a really good day but it was a shame the wind was so strong. Was using a shorter leader (about 12-13ft) as that was all I could comfortably handle and turn over in the wind with 3 flies on and the drift on my floating line was a bit faster than I was hoping for.
Was also having a problem with the first 2-3ft of my flyline slowly sinking even though I put some mucilin on it. Any ideas? Would have ideally liked to have fished a slightly longer leader in slightly less wind for my first attempt with buzzers but I caught some nice fish and you cant control the weather.

Don't put Mucilin on your fly line. It will cause the plasticiser to leach out and the line will crack.

I often fish with a few feet of floating fly line under the water. It certainly doesn't trouble the fish as you have found out - well done.

The more you fish, the more bites you will hit.

By the way, another tip.

Make sure you have buzzers tied in a variey of colours - black, claret, brown, grey and green are good colours to have. There are times on my local reservoir when green outfishes the rest and if you haven't got one in that colour you can do very poorly.

There is a tendency these days to use what are termed epoxy buzzers. There are times when trout will "come short" at these imitations giving you all sorts of frustrating bangs twitches and knocks. The reason for this is that they are hard and the trout may well spit thm out.

Tie some buzzers up with soft materials such as feather fibre with pheasant tail wound fibre bodies and peacock herl thoraces. You may find the trout will hang onto them a bit longer.

Thanks for all the tips Ron. Certainly didn't know that about the Mucilin and wont be using it again. Can't get out again for a couple of weeks because of work commitments so i'm using the evenings to read up as much as I can.
In the middle of "The Pursuit Of Stillwater Trout" by Brian Clarke and waiting for "My Way With Trout" by Arthur Cove" which i've recently ordered.
Learning a lot and enjoying doing it. My eyes really have been opened. Ian

It also might help if you get Peter Cockwill's new book which is reviewed by Barrie Rickards on this site. I've known Pete since 1990 when he paid South Africa A visit. He is one of the best make no mistake even though he looks like a Cornish Piskie!!

)

Just got on this thread interesting discussion. I use an indicator but purely at the times when I really nead to control the depth of the fly to a specific one. I like to use long leaders so when I want to switch to this approach I can simply slip on an indicator. I find I nead to do this when the fish want a buzzer as near static as possible but the water may be quite shallow (2 - 6 feet) so i find an indicator is the only way to do this with epoxy buzzers. In deeper water the tip of the fly line is the indicator. I actually don't think the indicator is really any easier to hit bites. Although on some days I find a large indicator does act like a carp anglers bolt rig and does a bit of the hooking for you.

PS Buzzers get their name from the adult fly (Chronimid) which can buzz like a mosquito if it flies near your ear and I've been present on Irish loughs at night when there are so many of these adults that a high pitched buzz can be heard all round you. hence the name buzzers. The name buzzer was then added to the pupae (buzzer pupae) and then somehow pupae has been dropped and everyone justs calls them buzzers. You can fish buzzers tho at every stage from worm, nymph, pupae, emerger, adult and spent.