When fly fishing, some days, no matter how well you are casting or how good an imitation of the natural insect you are using, the fish just don’t seem to be biting. I know we all have days like these but what can we do about them? Well, here are a couple of tips that really help me out in situations like this. Welcome to the induced take.
- When fly fishing dry flies, if the fish are refusing your imitation even though you can see it’s a good match, try giving it a wiggle (technical term). What I mean by wiggle is to try twitching your fly to imitate a real fly struggling to break free of the surface tension. This can be especially effective if it is done just as the fly passes over either a likely spot or the place where you have seen a fish rising but have had your offering refused already.
- When you are fly fishing nymphs and are covering all the likely runs and seams and you are still not catching fish even though you know that your nymphs are deep enough to get to them, gently lift the rod tip during the drift causing the fly to rise in the water column. This imitates the insect rising up as if it is going to hatch. If the rod is lowered again allowing the insect to fall back to the bottom of the stream, this process can be repeated as the nymph passes another likely spot.
- When I am fishing the Duo (a nymph suspended under a dry fly from the bend of the hook on a length of leader approx. 60cm long), also known as NZ style, I find that a large sedge pattern makes the best indicator dry fly. To induce a take I wait until the dry is just about to pass a likely lie or a rising fish then I lift the rod tip slightly to cause the sedge pattern to skate over the spot. I then lower the rod retrieving the slack line created by skittering the dry fly, and then lift the rod again this time a little higher to cause the suspended nymph to rise in the water column, again imitating a nymph ascending to hatch.
More great fly fishing lessons and tips to follow!