A fly taken by a trout in Slow almost still water. will require a much longer Pause before you tighten into the fish, than a fly taken in faster flowing water such as a Riffle or Rapid where setting the hook will be almost immediatly the fly is taken.

 

Asyou say instinct plays a big part in how you tighten into a fish, and that is part of the delights of our sport. Flying by the seat of your pants as it were, is great fun and keeps the mind sharp.  Have Fun.  Jax

 

Lately I have been doing more lure patterns and a wee bit of nymphing, Might try indicator nymhing as I have just been using a bead headed pheasant tail on my line, and have lost a couple of good fishing because of striking to late

Count to 3,rather quickly,and strike!!

it is of legal construction for the area being fished.

 

The Taupo region for instance only permits yarn indicators.

 

Thanks for that info Badger, can see how they should work in theory

but cannot understand why they would be expensive. After all they

appear to be a standard "O" ring yarn indicator bound at the top as

well as the base.

One minor disavantage occurs to me is that they do not lend themselves

to trimming back where/when a smaller indicator is called for but this

could be overcome by carrying a range of sizes.

Have you noticed different coloured yarn seems to stand out more under

various conditions therefore pays to carry a variety. White is near useless

if any sort of foam line apparent & strangely enough black seems to suit

dark conditions.

Am sufficiently intrigued by the possible advantages of the added "top

binding" to try tying some or adapting some existing ones to trial.

 

Cheers

 

P.S. Will send you a pm report on the recent trip to the Wairarapa, pleased

to say was far more successful this time. Will send you some sketches of

where  found the fish to be mainly as I found could fish for a long way

without any action, then land 3 or 5 in a 50mtr. stretch which may have been

due to the extreme heat. Have heard the hatches can be prolific at that time

of year but found them to be very minor & shortlived on the few occassions

they did occur.

 

For years the old "God Save the Queen" was the taught mantra. I often used "Take that ya *******"..

 

It doesn't work and teaches you nothing about why you should strike with a delay at all, just that there should be a delay.... usually...

 

It also doesn't work because some people talk quickly and some are really slow in speech so while my "God Save the queen" may be 1/2 a second another's might be a second and a half.

 

So what is the right timing?

 

First you have understand how a trout eats off the surface. If it simply came up to the fly and closed it mouth over it it would actually push the insect away from it with the water that is displaced. SO in order to ingest the fly it has to also suck in water with it. There is a gill flare and ingestion of water that occurs as it takes the fly. It has to be head down and moving forward to then swallow the insect and displace the excess water out through the gills. If it tried to do this before turning down the insect would simply go out of the gills with the excess water so the mouth remains open until the fish has turned down. This is why m,any newer dry fly anglers often feel no resistance when they strike too early... the fly simply comes out of the open mouth which is still packed with excess water.

 

So, and this is the important bit because it will teach you 100% how to strike a fish properly on the dry fly, knowing that the fish has to turn down and be moving forward before it closes it's mouth and displaces the water you simply have to picture when it has turned down and closed it mouth and is moving forward ( in your minds eye if you can't see the fish) and then set the hook... FISH ON!

 

Now, it may seem difficult to picture this but it isn't, you'll see next time you are on the river. You automatically will calculate it all based on the speed of the water, type of insect, etc. Browns are notoriously slow, rainbows most often fast. Browns on slow water take a lot of self control to get right, rainbows in fast water are hard to get wrong.

 

There's a number of interesting points raised here... but the vital information I need to answer it is not really here... did you notice any difference in the way the fish rose, speed, timing to return to moving forward and down etc... those things are the critical elements where the key will lie...

 

It is important because while I don't believe there is a hugely significant take on Cicadas specifially, large terrestrials in general are often taken differently.

 

If the area is heavily fished and you think these fish may have been fooled on a few cicadas they can often be very quick to eject them... try a Turk's Tarantula... something different they are not shown a lot....

 

Much is made of aggressive takes on terrestrials but my experience is that Cicada and many terrestrial takes are often pretty leisurely... Blowfly takes can be more positive because some do fly away... get them before they do is often important. Once on the water Cicadas are pretty much stuffed and rarely get away and while one cicada and two fish in a pool will cause a fair amount of aggression a fish within it's own space will not usually waste a heap of energy in taking one. Browns in particular often slurp down cicadas with little more effort than they approach a willow grub.

 

Ok, that aside I have seen some behaviors, particularly from Rainbows, where they slap the living bejeezus out of an insect before eating it... I believe they do try and kill some of those large insects, or at least stun and drown then a bit. There are a lot of variables but the essential rules of timing outlined in my post above all still apply... but you have to watch the riseforms.

 

 

Very early on in my flyfishing days I was put onto a book called "In the ring of the rise" by Vincent Marinaro. In that he studies various riseforms and feeding habits of fish feeding from the surface. There is a lot of information in there but even more importantly there is an unseen road map, if that makes sense, that encourages anglers to take the time to sit down and study trout and wacth the various rising styles on different insects. I cannot emphasise the benefits of this enough.

 

Matt, I suggest the next time you find yourself in this situation... just find a feeding fish and sit down and watch it like a hawk for 30 minutes or so... i reckon you'll get the answer to your problem yourself and those lessons are way more valuable and last longer.

 

let me know how you go... if worst comes to worst I may have to fly down and have a go at those aggressive cicada eaters... i can think of worse things.

 

and if I was being precious I'd also ask you to define "pretty much".

 

 On the rivers I'm with Clark.... I don't think they expel any more energy on a cicada to hit it than any other dry..... but I have seen them travel 20ft to come and smack one on the odd occasion.

 

 I also feel you get away with allot more bad presentation on cicada than what would with any other form of dry fly fishing. big clumsy bug hitting the surface I guess they kind of expect it lol.

 

 

In fact over the years I've tied a wide number of what I would call "Personal patterns" and only about three of them are produced by Umpqua Feather Merchants. I haven't submitted a new pattern to them for 8 years or so... I should probably do something this year.

 

It's one of those things... the Clark's Cicada was such an outstanding commercial success people tend to forget or not know what else you have done...

 

I'll post some. In fact the original tied properly still works but the commercial version has changed subtley but importantly over the years. I have firm views about how it should be tied and might even start a thread to explain it. Tying them in various colours, mottling the deerhair etc are all techniques and then there's the new fly... the megafugly...

 

Ben Hall, a Poronui guide and good barstard, once said the commercial Cicada should have a warning on the box...

 

 

 

 

About the paranoid trout... I've observed the same. While watching a trout before even casting a line, I've seen them rise to a natural only to then spook at the surface. I've always assumed that as they have risen to the surface the change of reflection / refraction or something (I can't remember physics) may have exposed my silhouette into the trouts line of sight.  

 

 

 

The last time that happened was when I was on the clutha a few weeks back.

A 2-3 lb brown continued to follow my lure and not bite, it must have seen me I was 2 metres away from its nose....though it was a bright sunny day.

 

To hell with the trout ..... they look good enough to eat instead

of chocolates .......... do they come in any other flavours than

peppermint????