Trout Fishing Flies
Trout fishing in a river or stream often involves the use of flies. No, not those pesky house flies, but rather some pretty sophisticated and colorful hand-tied flies. As a matter of fact, some fishermen can get downright obsessed with tying the perfect fly to catch trout.
Trout mainly eat bugs, so it stands to reason that if you want to catch trout, you might want to make some lures that look like bugs to a trout. Of course there are many kinds of bugs, so there are also many styles and designs of hand-tied flies.
There are three main types of flies – dry flies, wet flies and nymphs. Different flies will be used for different fishing conditions.
A dry fly will be floated along the surface of the water. Insects will often fall into a river or brook and be swept down stream on the current. Other aquatic insects spend their time swimming or feeding at the surface. Dry flies are constructed to mimic these assorted insects.
Wet flies will be made so that they move through deeper water. Trout sometimes hang out at the bottom of pools and these flies are designed to attract the deeper trout to grab an easy meal. Wet flies are sometimes designed to appear to be nymphs, crayfish, worms or other creatures that live in the deeper water of a stream or river.
Nymphs are a major food for a trout. So naturally many trout fishing flies look like the various nymphs that live in a particular area. Nymphs are the immature stage of adult insects, many of them winged insects.
Nymphs often spend the majority of their lives under water, but often must go to the surface to complete their life cycle and turn into adult insects. This is when Mr.Trout finds himself a nice tasty meal – either when they are en route or when they are floating on the surface.
Trout can eat a multitude of things in the wild. Ants, spiders, eels, worms, butterflies, maggots, frogs, grasshoppers, dragonflies, bees and many other types of creatures have been found in the stomachs of caught trout. Trout are equal opportunity eaters!
This is why there are literally thousands of different trout fishing flies in existence. Trout can change diet several times in a day, so the trout fisherman needs to have an assortment of flies that mimic the local delicacies available.
And, depending on the local conditions of the body of water being fished, dry or wet flies may be in order. Every stream is different, so having an assortment of flies to try could mean the difference between having trout for supper and eating at McDonalds.
So if trout fishing is something you think you might or currently do enjoy, consider tying some flies and really get into the spirit of things. Speak to local fishermen and they can tell you what the trout will be biting on and what kind of fly will be appropriate for which water conditions.
The thrill of catching a hard-charging trout can only be enhanced by catching him on a fly or lure that you yourself have tied. Good luck!
