#14 Flies Don't Have To be Confusing

The Flies, There is so many, Why are they so Confusing?

As you begin to learn how to fly fish or if you are just learning to cast a fly rod, you have by now been bombarded with a plethora of jargon and terminology, but "Flies don't have to be confusing".

Some of these words you may be familiar with and some you may have no clue as to what these words mean.

Too Confusing

It is my desire to help you de-mystify the sport of fly fishing that at times seems cloaked in a secret language, like a top-secret society. Let’s see if we can help you better understand just how this sometimes-cryptic terminology is applied to the beginner fly fisherman, and the sport of flyfishing. By this time, you have no doubt been exposed to terms like “Dry fly fishing, Nymphing, or Streamer fishing”. Ok I think the term “Dry fly” may be self-explanatory, but “Nymphing”? or “Streamers”.

Let’s spend a few minutes together and hopefully give you a quick tutorial, and with any luck, a better understanding of these cryptic terms you have heard.

Before we talk about these different styles of fishing. Let's take a moment to look at the Trout for example, their underwater behavior, and the food they have available to them. Since trout spend their entire life feeding underwater, and not going to McDonalds for a quick cheeseburger, you should have a basic understanding of the food sources available in a river or lake environment. Trout feed on aquatic insects. An aquatic insect is any insect that spends the majority of their life under water. Some of these insect’s crawl around the bottom of a river, some swim around in the rocks, and some dig burrows in the mud. Most of these insects will have an adult form as well. If you think of a caterpillar, which goes from egg, to worm and then to adult. Many of the insects in a river or lake share a similar life cycle. Trout spend their life feeding on these insects and are very good at locating these sources of food and are quickly able to identify a quick meal.

Fly Styles

So, your job as a new fly fisherman is to be able to imitate these forms of aquatic food and present it to the unwary Trout.

Let’s start with “Dry Fly” as our first form of imitation as it is the basic form of fly fishing and the easiest to start with. A Dry Fly is nothing more than a carefully crafted clump of fur, and feathers, wrapped onto a hook, to imitate the adult form of an aquatic insect that is temporarily spending time on the surface of the water. These types of flies have been traditionally crafted using fur or feathers and thread.  

Today’s Dry Flies are constructed using traditional materials but now include synthetic materials like foam or plastics and even types of resins. No matter what material is used, the goal is the same, “keep the fly floating on surface”. All Dry Flies are constructed to float on the surface of the water while imitating some form of a particular insect. Along with adult aquatic insects that hatch to the surface of the water, there is also a large assortment of terrestrial insects, like Grasshoppers, Ants, Beetles, that can end up on the surface of the water, these are also on the fish’s menu when available. These are only a small representation of the types of insects that can be imitated with the use of a Dry Fly, but the idea is always the same, present to the fish, a “Floating Bug”.  

You open your fly box, agonize over the hundreds of flies to choose from, attach your choice to the end of your tippet with the hope of this being the correct one. Make a respectable cast, watch the helpless Dry Fly in the current, as it lazily floats downstream, just begging to be eaten by a fish. Your adrenaline begins to spike as you watch the shadow of a fish slowly and intentionally rise up from the bottom of the river, to get a better look at the fly you have chosen. Deliberately and with purpose, this fish slowly opens its mouth and begins to take its fly off the surface of the water. Wow, I get chills just thinking about this as I’m writing.

Fly Styles

Next up, “Nymphing” as a form of fly fishing. You may frequently hear fly fishermen speaking and using the term “Nymphing “, and wonder what they are referring to? Not to worry it’s nothing provocative, it’s only referring to fly fishing while imitating a sub-surface form of an insect’s life cycle. There are hundreds of these forms of insects that you can choose from.

Various insects will lay eggs on the water’s surface, the eggs will then sink to the bottom, the eggs will hatch into a larval or nymphal form of that insect. This stage of aquatic insects may possibly spend the majority of their life living and developing underwater. The nymph or larva could live underwater for up to one year, before it will ultimately leave the watery environment, crawl or swim to the surface, upon reaching the surface of the water or the shoreline, the nymph will then hatch or transform into the adult form of that particular insect. Similar to the Caterpillar’s transformation into an adult butterfly. Many of these insects will begin to fly into the sky, find a mate, and then lay eggs back on the water’s surface, to repeat the life cycle once more.

Fishing while using a nymph will employ a fly that will can be made using fur feathers, foams, or any other types of natural or synthetic materials, to create a fly that can imitate or represent a particular form of the aquatic insects that live in the waters you are fishing in.

Once the fly has been chosen, the fly the fisherman will tie the fly to the end of the line, they may include the use of a small form of weight to get the fly down closer to the bottom of the river. Fishermen today utilize several methods to detect the strike of the weighted fly underwater. Since the fly is under the surface of the water, the fisherman will not be able to see to fish take the fly, as you can while Dry Fly fishing.  Some Fly Fishermen use a small piece of yarn, or a castable bobber, a small piece of foam as an indicator. No matter what type of indicator you choose to use they all accomplish the same thing, “Being able to detect the strike”. As you cast out your Nymph in the water, it will sink down, then with the aid of the indicator you will be able to follow that indicator down the river, until you see the indicator, “Stop” or “Twitch” or move upstream, anything other than following the current may be a strike. If you detect a strike, you need only lift the fly rod, just as if you were going to cast again. If a fish is on the line, your back cast will merely stop, and you will be connected to your fish. In the immortal words of Jeremy Wade, “Fish on”.

Streamers

So far we have talked about two ways you as a fly fisherman can use different technics to catch fish, but let’s talk about another one. This type of fly fishing is referred to as

“Streamer Fishing”.  Streamers could refer to any type of aquatic bait fish that may live in a river, or in a lake. Streamer flies are made using the same type of materials we talked about earlier, but the big difference is that streamers are made with the intention of swimming, just a minnow or any other type of small bait fish would naturally be swimming. Streamers can be made with weights incorporated into the body of the fly, some fishermen use a fly line that can sink, either just the tip of the line, or the entire line. The Streamers are cast out into the water and need to be manually stripped or pulled in a manner that can imitate the swimming or movement of a real bait fish. Fishing a Streamer fly can be a great way to catch larger than normal fish. Remember, what do bigger fish eat? Smaller fish. Any time you offer up a Steak size meal to a fish, sometimes they cannot resist a larger meal.

I have talked briefly about a few of the different types of applications that are available to you, the modern fly fisherman, but there are many variations of these basic styles of fishing. It will up to you to decide which on is best suited for your local waters, and as your skills improve you can practice some of the other technics that we have discussed here.

So go out with your fly rod and your newfound casting skills, choose your style of fishing, and wet that line and put a fish on the other end of that rod.

Good luck and have fun

Gary aka, LaMachine

As Always feel free to hit me up with any questions or comments that you may have