The Joys of Fly Swapping

Swapping flies is as old as fly tying. It probably started between ancient Greek folks fishing for fishes of a speckled hue on fabled Astraeus, but it was greatly improved with advent of the Internet.

I am a great fan of swapping flies, active on several internet forums. These couple of flies are for a swap on Czech site www.mrk.cz.

Having finished this bunch of tiny flees (#20 Eagle Owl mayflies) makes me think a bit on what is the most fun part of swaping. I have come up with several answers:

• The first and most obvious is that fly swaps let me see patterns and tricks of other fly tiers and learn from them.
• The second is that preparing for a swap makes me think hard about what pattern to select; it has to be something unusual to be interesting, and yet it has to be a pattern that I know well.
• The third is that tying dozens of identical flies is good for the soul of fly tier; it polishes the  techniques.
• And finally the fourth reason is that it builds relationship over the fly tying community.

Looking at my collection of some hundreds of labelled flies I wonder which of the four reasons matters the most to me. It will probably take some more fly swaps to fully understand :)

Scruffy Grayling Bug

A new pattern has been added to my Step by Step tying page: the Scruffy Grayling Bug.

This is a good pattern for the times when grayling do not consider it necessary to rise to the surface. But need not be considered exclusively a grayling pattern, as this little brownie attests.

Golden Olive Emergers

The weather seems to be taking a turn to the "worse" - the temperature has dropped, and after weeks of scorching heat we finally had some rain - which can mean only one thing: the summer is past, and the grayling season is coming!

Due to both past and forthcoming changes in my family arrangements I expect to spend somewhat fewer days fishing than I used to, but still I need to get ready for my favorite part of the fishing season.

Here are a couple emergers for grayling fishing. They are tied on a slightly heavier hooks and meant to be fished sunk in the film.

The tie:
#18 Dohiku 301 dry fly (somewhat heavier gauge than Hanák 103BL, my other favorite)
14/0 Sheer Thread color grey
3 strands of orange Krystal Flash to make my fly stand out in the crowd
body wrapped from goose herl dyed Golden Olive (Veniard)
2 tips of CDC feather

More of the same

The summer is still very much with us and that means high temperatures and low water levels. I am delaying the start of proper Grayling fishing season on small streams till the conditions improve.

In the meantime I spent a some more time on the river Ohře, famous for its caddis hatches. I even had a special rod made for this river, built on the green Winston WT blank.

The best part of the day on Ohře is at dusk. The caddis hatch is still strong, and predictable. It continues to amuse me that the river is so full of mayflies that it has the look and consistency of a soup - but the fish let the hatching olives and sulphurs pass, only to become active on the surface when the caddis start to hatch.

The variance in color and spots of the fish in Ohře is tremendous - these two fish were caught about ten meters from each other, but look very differently. I will have to consult a ichthyologist friend whether there is a good reason for this, or whether it is just another aspect of the natural tendency of salmonid fish to be unpredictable.

More Summer Caddis

The Ohře river is about 90 kilometers drive from Prague and during high summer it is at its best late in the day. This creates a possibility to combine some quality trout fishing with a regular day in the office. This intriguing idea comes at a price though, for Ohře is a harsh mistress.

The drive home, returning just before midnight, seems much longer than the one hour it actually takes. The morning after feels like a major hangover. On the other handthe rewards of a night out with a group of friends by this fine river are worth the minor inconveniences.

This week I travelled to Ohře with a group of friends. We were led by my friend Martin, who has formed a special bond with the river Ohře. Just as some men are uniquely suited for relationship with one woman (while others seem uniquely unsuited to do so) this fisherman has entered into relationship with a single river. For some reason the idea of new rivers and new horizons fails to excite him and apart from a little sea fishing he dedicates all his time to Ohře.

During the long and harmonious relationship with the river he developed an uncanny understanding of the mood of the river that he can reliably forecast the part where the evening caddis hatch will be the strongest. Thus we all felt fortunate to be guided by a true expert.

We arrived at Žatec around 7 PM, and killed some time by a little nymph fishing. There was a hatch of olives happening, but the little anorectic mayflies failed to stir the fish and there was no surface activity.

By half past eight the sun had set and the first caddis started to appear. By nine the hatch was in full swing and the fish finally started to notice the meaty morsels. We had about a hour of intensive surface action, before the light failed entirely.

The choice of pattern was not hard, as the fading light made the color of our flies entirely irrelevant. What mattered was a strong Caddis silouhette and solid hook - the fish in Ohře grow to good size and fight with vigor. Many a fish had been lost to bent or broken hook.

Wet Caddis

Taking fish on dry flies is great fun, but as I learned the hard way on a recent trip when my friend Jirka totally outclassed me, trout truly do consume most of their food below surface.

I was fishing a dry caddis imitation and enjoying seeing the occasional strike on surface, while he was fishing a wet caddis and having fun getting 10 fish to 1 mine.

Once I got home I sat down and tied these simple wet caddis flies to do better the next time.

It is a very simple tie, the key factor being wing of Australian Possum hair. It has a peculiar wavy but coarse look and once wet is very mobile. I hear that it is commonly used in many Australian fly patterns.

The tie:
#8 Veniard Ospery heavyweight grub hook (1x short, 1x strong)
tan UTC thread, 70 den
ribbing of fine gold Gütermann tinsel
body & thorax from homemade rough hare dubbing
underwing of 5 threads of orange Krystal flash
overwing of Australian Possum guard hairs

Caddis Magic

The river Ohře has special meaning to Czech fly fishermen. Ours is a small country, and this river has a big reputation. Most of us have fished it, and formed a relationship with the stream. It is a typical love / hate relationship.

Old Ohře hands gladly tell stories of the times when Ohře fish were bigger and more numerous - and they themselves younger and fuller of life. Ohře is a moody river, and although its best days might be over it holds many a quality fish still. The river however does not yield easily to human understanding. Many fishermen try their luck once or twice and refuse to suffer another humiliating blank day a third time.

I have to confess that I have fallen into the spell of this magical river. It is at its best at the time of early summer, at the time of the so called dusk caddis. This rather large caddis fly hatches from June till late July. Its enormous numbers bring to surface even the huge lunkers who rarely leave the darkness of the deep pools.

And even if the evening does not always lead to a spectacular success one cannot but feel enlightened by the whirl of the caddis flies in the setting sun, far from the maddening crowds of our capital.