WET FLY WAYS.

Loren,

Not being there with you and l have of course no idea how you approached fishing the water. I can tell you from experience that many times l have had to fish competitions on lakes in the most atrocious conditions of high winds, rain and rough water.
Many of the great Irish loughs are way larger than that you were faced with yesterday.
But there are ways to deal with adverse conditions like that, either by boat or from the shore. I would add here Loren that rough water conditions at times will offer some of the best fishing to be found on a lake. The increased movement of water moves in the shallow zones food base around, it creates also a higher level of oxygenated water amongst other things.

So how do you deal with it.

First and for most you look for structure that channels water steam on and off the shore as these will be prime zones that fish will be concentrated in, trout in lakes will hone in on zones that food base is being concentrated in a hurry. All be it they may well cruise in the surface over deep water zones.

This kind of water for myself at least is prime water for wet fly fishing and may be also wet fly in combination with nymphs.
I may use either a dry line of intermediates at this time, what l will be looking for is overall the depth the fish are at over deeper water, and at what range from the shorelines the fish are cruising.
I would aim to fish along and into shorelines that wind and wave are running and try to intercept fish that are moving as they will into the stream of water. I will also be looking for the downwind side of land structure that breaks up from straight shoreline runs.

To some extent also here, there may be a period of time after the advent of rough water conditions before the fish become in tune to how the lake is moving and creating productive zones that they will concentrate in.
So in that respect, you may find early few fish in what will become later in the day very productive zones, the longer the rough water conditions continue the more that will be the case as a rule, particularly with Bows, Browns will and can be found at such times in very shallow water were turbulence has churned up food base, more so it is a natural instinct for Browns to move into those zones in a hurry.

There is a great deal more to this, but l hope this gives you some idea of how l would deal with this.

Bottom line is this. I would rather fish a lake when there is very good wind and wave action than one that is flat calm with overhead bright light conditions and no surface activity.
Many of the largest fish l have ever caught on lakes have been when wind and wave has been present. I got a 11lb fish on Lough Corrib one time when waves were near on 3 ft high, that fish took a size 12 golden olive wet fly.

Davy.

Great info Davy! I do well on this lake when there is a wind or hatch but yesterday there was barely a ripple and full sun. I did neglect to work the open water (depths exceed 100 feet, much more in a few places), focusing more on the margins. After reading your advice I realize that it was a blaring mistake as the little wind there was was having more of an effect over open water. Should I expect the fish to be "up" when it is sunny even though the water is so very clear (like I said--it has better than 15 feet of visibility) or will the sun drive them down.

I hope to be back on it tomorrow.

I should add--this is a rainbow lake. Stocked, wild, and holdover.

Lough Corrib is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Waking up to sunrise over the lake from inside Ashford Castle is a very fond memory. Yummy trout too!

Loren, my mistake here, l thought you were dealing with rough water.

Given what you say here, no doubt l would go for long leader systems, 15 ft or more, and a dry line coupled with chironomids and possibly some soft or wet fly patterns. Which can be deadly at depth.
I may also go with a intermediate and in rare cases a fast sink line, if l am not able to get a response within the first 10 ft of water.
Long range casts are often mandatory in such conditions, boat movement transmits sound and may well spook fish. I mean by this ranges of 60ft or more at times
l may also use generic fly patterns which are nymphs, such as hares ear and others tied with combinations of dubbed fur bodies, olive, tans, greens and some with peacock herl bodies.
In other words flies that look like a food source.

More or less in such conditions you have to induce fish to take a fly when they see it as hear we are dealing with clear water, my experience is that flies fished either dead slow or with whatever surface movement you can find will work.

Chorionomids are my go to flies fishing lakes, period. Saying that, you need the right flies at times. Color and size.

There is more to this, but this would be my appraoch Loren.

Davy.

Thanks for the great info Davy! I deeply appreciate you sharing your expertise.

Would you feel comfortable fishing the very deep open water instead of the margins? This lake has defined "shoulders"-from the banks there is about 100 yards of 0-15 foot of water that then drops off to 60-100+ feet very rapidly. I have always been very leary/lacking the confidence to drift the open water over such a deep bottom.

Would you tend to start your hang farther out from the boat? Obviously that is more easily done with a floater or intermediate versus a more aggressive sinking line.

Lastly, in your opinion is dabbling as effective with rainbows as it is with browns?

Loren,

For sure l would be comfortable about fishing over deep water, it would be wrong to assume fish are not to be found there at times. In the case of chironimids the larva can live at great depth. I use to fish a lake in Wales that was very deep water, often as not some of the best midge hatches took place way out in the middle of that lake. Also remember that when we see high water temps shallows become way to warm during the day, fish will seek comfort zones which will as a rule be within zones that contain water depth, or a cold water influence into that lake. As the lake warms up more so the thermocline becomes the safe zone and that may be in the region of 25ft or more down from the surface.

You also tell me that Bows are the fish in that lake. That also tells me many things. Browns as a rule tend to choose shallower water zones to seek food source, they are also more tolerant of higher water temps than Bows, all be it they can be found at depths in excess of 100 ft. Bows on the other hand are a gregarious species.
They will also live more so at depth and feed on zoo plankton, particularly dahpnia. This organism is found at given depths related to the incidence of light penetration into that body of water. They do not like intense light and will rise and fall during the day time period as light factors change. They will be closer to the surface on days of diminished light and during the hours of darkness. Here again a good reason to fish over deep water.

Regarding the matter of what we term as hang. This aspect of stillwater fly fishing is to some extent little understood, more or less it amount to this. After the flies have been drawn close to the boat, the rod is held high and the flies are suspended for a short period of time before the next recast is made.
This can be done with any fly line, but works best as a rule with a sinking line and at times a very fast sinking line, it can be a deadly tactic at times, if you figure out the depth the fish are cruising and feeding at, remember what l said here about the Bows and the daphnia.
It is also a deadly tactic fishing with buzzers and other generic nymphs as well as streamers.

If you are using the term say for wet flies and emerger fish more so within the first 6 ft of the surface, that differs some as by this definition you would be working flies from depth to the surface and then hanging the flies for a period of time right in the surface and back to ward you.

Dabbling, l would term that as working the droppers, by the traditional lough style, you bet it is deadly for bows, in fact there will be days you can slaughter fish by this means, if fish on that day have a interest to rise to and take flies this way. Saying that if you know how to do it you can induce a fish to take flies fished this way when other means are a waste of time.
Choice of line may make a great deal of difference here, be it a dry, intermediate or a faster sinker. Fact is fish will naturally follow a fly to the surface on a lake and the odds are if it is your fly and they like what they see they will take it. If your flies are fished at the right pace to cause that fish to take the fly, and that is one of the skills when fishing this way, often as not it is not so much the fly it is how you fish it that matters.

I have to say this Loren, as much as there are some very high skill levels required for fishing moving water, fishing lakes, stillwaters call em what you will, overall they require way more skill to become accomplished.
Each and every system may well require a very different approach also, but there is a logical approach, one of which will work.

One other thing here Loren. I assume that you are fishing under the rules of competition when you are fishing the lakes, l can tell you that overall even with those restrictions they are 90% of the time the most productive ways.
I wish we had trout lakes here in AR as l very much miss fishing stillwaters. I used to have in Wales many of those within a few miles of my home, some were stocked others contained wild fish.

For now.

Davy.








I can recall many times during my time fishing competitive events on day when most struggled for a fish, that by this means l

Davy,

Thank-you sir. Some great knowledge shared there--I'll approach that deep water with more confidence now. You know, I am at the point in my stillwater angling where I think understand "what" I need to do (1-locate the feeding level, 2-find the best retrieve, and 3-fine-tune the program with flies) but as I toss the drogue out into each new body of water the "where to start" portion of the equation can still throw me. So, I am very appreciative of your sharing because I use the advice of experienced stillwater anglers to it's maximum.

Daphnia:

I went to PA for a few days of small water Loch Style work over stocked bows....both lakes I fished have Daphnia and one is saturated.

On that lake the fish were cruising at 6 feet. I could get them to follow and on the hang I'd watch them inspect each fly on my cast and then cruise off. I had the best "action" with a Type 5 and the fish took most interest in a Pearl Pennel and it accounted for my only fish. I tried fishing static but it did not produce. As soon as the sun dropped the fish came to the surface as I expected and I just went silly on them with dries....taking every fish I covered with a mix of #10 black hoppers and #12 claret Bits (the midges they were rising to were #16 and #18).

This seems to be my experience anywhere I encounter strong populations of Daphnia. How do you convince them to take your stuff? I know what more "modern" lake anglers from the UK turn to and I know you do not fish that stuff. I admit I have tried Blobs and Boobies with only moderate erratic success and am seeking other alternatives. I have tried long and hard to figure these Daphnia feeders out and I cannot find any concrete game plan. Is that just the way it is with them--hit or miss? At this point I feel that I really need to be fishing very slow when they are on Daphnia but that last session went completely against that where a Type 5 and a fairly steady pull was the only thing that was getting any attention.

Looking very forward to your DVD.

I have been doing a lot of reading on rthis daphnia and being that they are smaller than 1mm in size maybe a game plan would be to not try to imitate that food source. I was thinking yes you can find where they are feeding visually and when you get strikes but why not try to "lure" the fish to take your flies? I mean applying what you and Davy have taught me about flies. Maybe you can have better results applying this tactic to the lake? When you can't make anything immitative to the food source than why imitate it? This might be a chance for some real creative thinking? I don't know I am just throwing this out there. This seems to be the "curseal of lake fishing from what I have been reading.

Aaron,

There is no way to imitate Daphnia aside from fishing something large and fluffy to imitate a cloud. What you can do is fish your flies at the correct feeding level and indeed try to lure the fish to take your fly.

Much, much easier said than done. Stillwater is far more difficult on many levels...the most basic being that the fish have forever to investigate, or be put off.

That is correct, forget trying to imitate daphnia. I have seen clouds of daphnia so thick that you could net the fish as the swam by the boat.
Bows often move fast as they gorge on this food base, kind of like a whale with a open mouth, when you catch they are chocked to the gills.

There is as yet no real positive answer to catching fish when they are in this mode of feeding, unlike other food sources such as midge and caddis.

Flies that contain FL materials at times can be killer, bright orange, White, green, also all black can work at times, fished fast on a sink tip or full sunk line. On the other hand l have had great days with buzzers, you just got to try all the options.
Yes, Loren l have no time for boobies and blobs, ln my opinion they should be banned from competition, they are for the best part stocky bashers, nothing to do with fly fishing so far as l am concerned. But l have to accept that they catch fish, but so will wet flies and many other flies.

There was a time that only a dry line was allowed for competitive events, in some ways l would like to see that again as by and large higher levels of fly fishing skill are required.

In so far as why stillwater fishing is way more demanding of relative skills.

Certainly fish have more time to see your flies, most of the time, not always. Unlike rivers fish are moving, they can be at any depth.
There are many things that will determine best locations such as water temps, wind and wave action, abundance of food base at given zones, times that fish are more so in a feeding mode and all else you can think of.
Then we have the matter of techniques that may be used, which are way more involved than those used for fishing rivers.

Food base in lakes is as a rule way more abundant than moving water systems, and the fish have way more choice at any time of the day. Typically the reason why trout in lakes will grow way faster than those in rivers.

Davy.