| Fishing Information: Fishing Tips | |||
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| Flyfishing Tips Fish'n Tips are published monthly in the club newsletter. Do you have a fly fishing tip? - send it to the newsletter editor Chris Paulin.(If your tip is taken directly from a book or website the source must be acknowledged). The best tip submitted each month will be selected by the editor. Lost leader end. When setting up your flyfishing rod, finding the end of your leader on the reel can be a problem if you over-wound the line after your last fishing trip. Often the end is lost in the coils of the line and becomes hopelessly tangled - almost all of the line has to be removed, untangled and rewound. Stick a small piece of bluetack on the back of the reel and use this to hold the leader end when you finish fishing for the day. Dropped leader. Dropping the leader while feeding the line through the rod guides will result in the entire line slipping back out of the guides already threaded. Double back the end of the fly line and push it through the guides first, (pulling the leader & line through together). When fumbled and dropped the loop in the fly line will prevent it from slipping out of the rod guides. Induced take. The induced take can be deadly when nymphing in running water. The object of the exercise is to make the trout think that the nymph that he is about to eat is going to escape. This is done by raising the tip of your rod, when your nymph is within range of a trout, just enough to make the nymph lift a few inches. How soon you have to raise your rod tip, and by how much, will depend on the speed of the current: sooner and higher for fast waters and later and less for slow water. Passify your fish. Large trout can have a significant amount of energy remaining after being landed and will put up a struggle which can often lead to excessive force applied to hold the fish. Often the ensuing struggle while trying to remove the hook will result in additional tissue damage as the fish may twist on the tightly held hook. But even small fish deserve delicate treatment and are actually more susceptible to mortality than the larger fish. Once a fish has been landed, quickly turn the fish upside down and it will immediately become disoriented and cease struggling. Removing the hook becomes a great deal easier and the fish is left in much better condition for the release to follow. Stream protocol. One day you will meet a man who brazenly enters the water just in front of you and starts casting. He may be just ignorant or an insufferable thruster. Whichever he be, there is something seriously wrong with the way he has been brought up. A little polite sarcasm along that line may succeed; otherwise there is nothing you can usefully say to him. It is just an act of basic politeness to thank your host at the conclusion of a days fishing, quite apart from the low motive that it will possibly pay you. If he should be out when you call at the house, leave a note of thanks. The younger you are, the more he will appreciate the courtesy. [The Beaufort Library 1953] Identify available food. Insects form the basis of most trout food. Aquatic insects have a nymphal form which are also important food items for the fish. Identifying insects precisely is not essential, but matching your fly size & colour to what insects are around is. Identifying insects flying above the water is difficult. You may have to catch one to get it right, or you can look for one floating on the surface of the water. Carrying a little net to scoop insects off the surface or nymphs from deeper water is useful: the kind they use in stores that sell fish for the home aquarium. Very little cost to add a great value to your fishing. Fishing lies. Trout tend to remain in a lie where the current is not too strong, and where there is a ready supply of food. Behind small boulders is a prime holding lie, as the water current is reduced and food is carried past within easy reach. Trout will watch approaching insects being swept downstream and move out from behind the rock to intercept the morsel at the last possible moment. White rocks. White rocks in an otherwise dark streambed provide a pale background and enable the trout to spot a dark coloured insect easily as it drifts over the contrasting substrate. Casting to white rocks or allowing your nymph to drift directly over any white rock will often result in a strike. Presentation. Trout are lazy and prefer to have food delivered to them. They will not expend more energy than they will get out of a meal than it will take to get it. Hence, trout will often be found at a favourite lie where water currents bring food to them. For this reason also, a trout occasionally will not pursue a healthy looking insect that has landed on the surface, because if the insect flies off it would be a complete waste of energy. Your dodgy flies, resembling the bedraggled remains of an insect, will often be taken in preference to a well manicured, perfect insect imitation that looks as if its about to fly away. Straightening a leader. A small piece of rubber from a bicycle inner tube can be used to straighten your leader. Drawing the leader through the folded rubber causes friction that heats up the nylon and takes out the kinks. BUT it not only straightens the leader - it also weakens it considerably, thus effectively reducing your 4lb leader to half strength or less. Lubricate knots. Always moisten or lubricate knots in nylon before tightening them. Doing this reduces friction that creates heat and damages the nylon, as well as helping to tighten a knot without kinking the material - any kink or spiral in the line after tying a knot is an indication of friction damage. Replace the damaged portion: a few minutes of maintenance may prevent the next fish breaking off. Intelligent fish. Laboratory experiments show that fish can learn to navigate a maze and remember the task for at least nine months. In heavily fished streams, trout, quickly learn to associate movement on well-used approach paths to popular pools with danger and "spook" easily; or they will refuse well-used traditional fly patterns. Often, the novice fisher who, through inexperience, approaches the same pool from an unexpected direction and selects an unusual fly pattern will succeed in hooking the fish. Musical fish. Trout have cells that function as electromagnetic receptors in their nostrils and assist in detecting aquatic insect prey. Incorporating magnetic audiocassette tape into your nymph patterns will increase your strike rate. The type of music on the tape maybe important! Recently, scientists at the Rowland Institute of Science, Massachusetts, found that carp are capable of distinguishing between classical and blues music. Fish were trained to respond to two selected tracks. When the fish were later tested with other recordings of the two music genres, they were able distinguish between them. The study report did not include any indication of preference for either music type or if the fish avoided blues by artists such as John Lee Hooker. (New Scientist Vol. 173: 2326). Fish upstream. A fish hooked is not a fish caught until it is on the bank. If you really want to increase your landing ratio, try to hook as many as possible upstream, not down. The fly has a far better chance of getting into the hinge of the jaw. Always keep downstream of a fish you have hooked: when the fish is downstream from you it will not be using up any energy. The current is doing his work for him. A little wiggle sideways and he can tack and plane wherever he wants to go. Landing nets. Most fish are lost after they make a final rush when confronted by the landing net. Do not hold the net vertically and expect the fish to swim into it; do not attempt to sweep the fish up from behind - touch the tail and its the last youll see of that fish! Place the net flat on the streambed and lift it as the fish swims over it. Warm water. Trout are cool water fishes. As water temperatures rise in summer trout move to deep cool, shaded pools. Oxygen levels in water is also temperature dependant warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen than cool water. If water temperatures exceed 20 degrees C, oxygen levels begin to drop and the fish become stressed. In order to obtain sufficient oxygen fish move to areas where they can increase the rate of water flow over their gills. By mid to late summer, trout will be found in the fastest riffles, often in water barely deep enough to cover them. A careful approach is essential. Allow your fly to drift through even the smallest section of pocket water and cover the riffle thoroughly before moving on. Fish choice. On occasion, fish will take anything at all, quite irrespective of whether it is a good imitation of the insects or other food on which they happen to be feeding, or how it behaves. On other occasions, they will only take extremely good imitations, which behave in a manner to which they are accustomed. On some occasions, they simply will not take anything, not even naturals. This is the origin of the quote: It is possible to fool all of the fish some of the time, and some of the fish all of the time, it is however well nigh impossible to fool all of the fish all of the time. Tying small flies. When tying small dry flies, getting those #18-20 hooks out of the box can be a real problem However, if you stroke your scissors several times across the face of a permanent magnet, (or simply let them sit for a few days with a magnet attached), they will themselves become magnetic. With magnetic scissors, you can pick up the tiniest of hooks quickly and easily, and stirring amongst your scrap with the magnetic scissors will quickly locate any dropped hook. Getting small flies out of the vice is another area where magnetized scissors can help. Simply place the scissors at the bend in the hook, loosen the jaws of the vice and the hook will cling to your scissors - then place the tiny fly into the flybox. Smoking fish. Avoid the temptation to smoke your fish within half an hour of salting it leaving the fish overnight in a cool dry place allows the surface to dry, sealing flavours in when smoked. Line the base of the smoker with foil and place wood shavings on top of the foil after smoking is complete, the foil can easily be wrapped up with the ashes and any juices that drip, leaving the smoker clean and ready for the next batch. Place the smoker on top of the gas BBQ if you don't have any meths, but remember to keep an eye on cooking time. Break a rod. There are different methods of breaking a rod: the car door, the boot lid, poking it into the ground, ripping a fly out of a tree, stepping on it, stepping on the leader as you are walking, forgetting it and running over it, catching a tree behind you on the forward-cast, lifting too much line from the water on a back-cast, stringing it up, unstringing it, slapping the water with it to get a tangle off the tip, holding the rod not the handle when playing a fish . . . . One common method is when landing a fish: pointing the rod over your shoulder and reaching for the fish with your other hand. The rod and line are now parallel to each other - the rod cannot flex and any additional tension on the line will cause it to snap! Never point the butt of the rod at the fish. Always extend your right arm and lock the right elbow straight holding the rod AWAY from your body. Out to the side, or perhaps even out behind you with the rod partially over your head. If the fish wriggles unexpectedly or runs, the rod can follow it and flex as it is designed to. Equipment (1857). Angler's Equipment. - The only advice it is necessary to give the angler on this head is, not to select any very gaudy colours, as gaudy colours are apt to attract the notice of the trout, and are perceived by them at a greater distance, and to avoid approach to foppery, as trout have the most thorough contempt for a fop, and will not on any account allow themselves to be handled with kid gloves. [W.C. Stewart. 1857. The Practical Angler, or the art of trout-fishing more particularly applied to clear water. ] Moths. Carpet beetles and related dermestid beetles, as well as clothes moths, mites and silverfish can destroy your flytying materials that have been carefully gathered from road-kills, as well as commercially prepared products: prevent infestations by placing all materials in a freezer for 48 hours, twice, over a one week period, every six months, and keep in sealed zip-lock bags. Any new fur or feathers should be placed in a freezer for 48 hours before being stored along with other material. Fresh red cedar wood (less than three years old), is toxic to carpet beetle larvae (but not adults), and is ideal for making storage boxes. Spraying behind shelves and under drawers with a residual insecticide is recommended. Camphor or naphthalene will deter bugs and inhibit feeding to some extent, but will not prevent infestations (and trout may be able to detect the smell on your finished flies). Do not mix camphor and naphthalene together to double their effectiveness as they will spontaneously combust. Rises. Identify feeding patterns before selecting your fly: Sip Rise: Surface rings - sometimes pronounced, other times almost imperceptible. Caused by trout leisurely sipping or sucking spent spinners, tiny duns, and insects like ants or sandflies trapped in the surface film. Splashy Rise: Indicates that trout are rising to very active mayfly duns, caddis adults, quick rising pupa or struggling stonefly adults on or above the surface. Sometimes the trout will jump completely out of the water. Dorsal Fin and Tail Rise: Trout are feeding on nymphs and emergers a few centimetres below the surface, and generally will ignore surface flies. Head Rise: Trout heads poking out of the surface, means the trout are usually feeding on mayfly, caddis or stonefly adults and/or cripples right on the surface. Similar to the 'Sip Rise', but generally indicates larger insects. Splashy Surge: Trout will chase smelt or whitebait into very shallow water. Look first. Wading fishermen may be standing in the way of fish that are cruising and feeding in the shallow water near the banks. Fish your way into the water and have a good look for fish that are feeding or cruising close to the shore often in less than 10cm of water. Before entering the water, fish the water within immediate range from the bank. When you have caught - or frightened - fish close in, you can then enter the water and fish your way out towards deeper water. Fish may be very close to the bank fish from as far back as possible. If you are going to be fishing from the bank, it still pays to fish close-in first - keeping back from the water's edge - and then slowly work your way out. Deep pools. As rivers heat up in summer, fish congregate in deep pools just below a good riffle. The riffle will provide much needed oxygen and the deep pools provide cooler temperatures and a refuge. Try using a large prince nymph on a sink tip line or a sinking head cast into the riffle and allowed to drop deep into the pool. Or use a short line with a long leader - you need to keep the fly line off the water so you are in direct contact with the fly. Complex currents at the head of a pool will cause the fly line to drag and not allow it to drift naturally or deep enough. The take will be subtle - use a strike indicator on the leader to help see a soft take. Never take your eyes off the indicator. It is very easy to miss the take. Once that monster has taken it and spat it out, he won't be fooled again. You get one shot. Times to fish. The time to go fishing is today, because if you wait until tomorrow, they'll tell you that you should have been there yesterday.... Restricting fishing to first light in the morning or change of light in the evenings is not the best strategy. Midge, mayfly and damselfly species often hatch during the day. In mid to late summer these hatches may even be restricted to between noon and 3 p.m. Not only will the fish be more actively chasing the emerging aquatic and terrestrial insects at these times, but also few other fishermen are around. The downside to fishing during the day is finding areas where people are not swimming, exercising dogs, horses, jet boats or driving 4 WD vehicles. Parachute hackle. A parachute hackle is wound horizontally around a vertical post or wing. The hackle fibres are horizontal to the surface of the water and so support the fly well. No special equipment is needed to tie successful parachute hackles. Just confidence and the right technique. When you have tied-in the wing post and the end of the hackle, make your first turn of hackle round the bottom of the post. The next turns must be made underneath the first and following turns. The first turn is the top turn and the last turn is at the bottom. When you have made the required number of turns, tie-off in the normal way. As long as the last turn is underneath, the hackle cannot slip off the post. (and if it does, keep fishing the fly as a klinkhammer special ). Undercut banks. Undercut banks are ideal lies for brown trout, providing them with cover from predators; they are against the stream edge where friction slows the water and makes for easy swimming; and they are on the outside of the bend where food is concentrated by the current. A streamer pattern, such as a woolly bugger is ideal: cast upstream so your fly and leader lands as close to the bank as possible and almost parallel to it. If the stream is wide enough that you can cast and fish across-stream make your cast so that the fly lands close to the undercut bank, then immediately make a big downstream mend so that as much of your leader and fly line as possible are lying parallel to the bank. As the fly drifts downstream and gets pulled by your line in the drift, make small twitches with the rod tip and throw further small downstream mends into the line. A head weighted fly will swim in an undulating manner, attracting even the most wary trouts attention. Shrinking fish. A recent study published in the UK Journal of Fish Biology has found significant decreases in length for several fish species after death. The length of all fish (between 134-455 mm), decreased and shrinkage ranged between 2 - 15 mm for each of four species, held at room temperature, chilled, frozen or preserved. The results from these studies confirm that a post mortem decrease in length is a common phenomenon, even in fishes that are not frozen or preserved. Such shrinkage has implications for the enforcement of minimum legal length legislation: fortunately there is no minimum legal length for trout caught in the Wellington Fish & Game Region. But dont rely on shrinkage to make that 55+cm Wainuiomata brown legal the maximum size limit is there to protect breeding fish! Line backing. Fly reel backing line has two functions: 1. To fill up a reel so that the fly line is closer to the rim of the spool - this helps you retrieve more line per revolution of the reel and reduces line memory or coiling; 2. To provide ample line length to cope with all expected runs of the fish. Club President David Austin reported seeing his backing recently: He was out fishing when he noticed the strange coloured line. It was the weirdest thing," he said. "I recall putting it on there way back when, and I notice it when I change fly lines every year or so, but I never see it while I am fishing." "This type of thing isn't normal for me. I mean, I fish a lot, and catch lots of fish, but this backing thing is kind of new to me. Indicators. Once you have set up your leader with indicator and nymph, any movement of the indicator on the surface is a fish (even if you think it is or if it turns out to be the river bed). If you are getting hung up on the bottom, cut your tippet back in 10 cm increments and try again. The movement can be a shake, a stutter, a sideways twitch, a stop, or a submergence. Strike at all of them. If your indicator doesn't move, but you see a flash of a fish's belly underwater nearby, or a white wink of the fish's mouth opening, or the fish's head snap back to center, or if you see the trout move over and stop, set the hook. Those are all feeding moves and he either has your fly or he doesn't and you can't catch him if you don't strike. Insect repellants. Insect repellents reduce the risk of sandfly bites, however, DEET and DIMP have occasionally been associated with skin reactions, including rash, swelling and itching; eye irritation; and, less frequently, slurred speech, confusion and seizures. Use sparingly. DEET and DIMP can be applied to clothing, but will damage some synthetic fabrics and plastics - including flylines. Avoid handling flies if you have repellent on your hands - it is just as effective at repelling trout! Dominant fish. In each pool there is usually one dominant fish which selects a position at the best feeding lie, often at the head of the pool. Researchers at the University of Glasgow have discovered that it is possible to determine a salmonid fish's social status by the shade of colour of the white's of its eyes. The study found that dominant fish had light cream-coloured sclera, or "whites" that only darkened if they fell ill. Low-status fish had dark sclera that lightened only after they ate a meal or won a skirmish with another fish. (Newscientist vol 2309: 25). Next time you're wondering which fish is the best catch don't cast until you see the whites of their eyes! Drinking river water Despite New Zealands clean & green image, it is essential to take bottled water with you when fishing and not to drink from the stream. A recent NIWA survey of 229 lowland streams and rivers found that nearly 95% of them have levels of faecal bacteria and pollutants which are in excess of Health Ministry guidelines. These levels of bacteria can cause gastro-intestinal illness, and high levels make the water unsuitable for consumption by both people and stock. Between 1996 to 2002 phosphorus and nitrogen levels in streams in farming areas had increased because of more intensive land use, in particular dairying. [Report published in the New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research July 2004]. Flooded rivers Floods are an all too common feature of New Zealands fishing season. While it may appear to be a washout, dont forget the fish are still in the river and still hungry. During flood periods trout move to areas of safety. The bottoms of very deep pools with a steep lip upstream provide clear, calm water while flood stained waters rage overhead a very heavy Taupo style bomb will get your nymph down into the clear water. Riverbanks with dense overhanging vegetation (such as large clumps of grass etc) provide cover, and fish will be found tucked underneath, in a few inches of water. A large dark coloured rabbit-fly or woolly bugger fished right at the waters edge will tempt the fish. Trout species habitat Rainbow trout are primarily lake fish, and brown trout primarily river fish. Where both species occur in the same water body, they occupy different habitats. To target rainbows, fish from the bank and cast outwards, especially over riffles and drop-offs. To target browns, fish from the middle of the river and cast back towards the bank where the fish will be lying behind obstructions or beneath undercut banks. If fishing from mid-stream is impractical because of the water depth, fish from well away from the waters edge stalking browns by walking along the waters edge will always spook the fish long before you see them. If the riverbank is clear of brush, try to keep a full casting distance away from the river and allow your fly to land within centimetres of the waters edge. Summer fishingThe downside of heavy fishing pressure over the summer is that fish becoming extremely wary and easily spooked. However, it is impractical for fish to move far each time they are disturbed because of the increased energy costs. Fish will have several preferred lies in relatively close proximity that they will move to (Often a fish will simply circle around and return to the same spot within minutes of being spooked). Careful observation will enable you to anticipate which lie the fish occupies and plan your cast from a greater distance. The upside of heavy fishing pressure is that fish will return to feeding much quicker as they become accustomed to the increased disturbance. Fish - don't cast How often do you spend the entire day casting repeatedly to every likely looking drop-off, undercut bank or riffle without success - only to have your fly taken unexpectedly as you leave it trailing downstream while you contemplate your flybox for another sure fire pattern, light up a cigarette, or munch on a muesli bar. Think about what your fly is doing differently when this happens: too many anglers spend too much of their time casting while a good cast may look pretty, if your hook isnt in the water it cant catch fish! Save casting practice for Sunday morning at the park, spend your time on the river fishing! |
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