Once you see fly fishing, it’s impossible not to fall in love. But mastering this science is not so easy. And if the classification of fly fishing reels, rods, cords and undergrowth is clearly fixed and understandable, then with the main bait - the fly - everything is much more complicated. How not to get confused in the huge variety of fly fishing flies? How to learn to select what you need? Where, when and on what flies do fish bite – we will devote a series of articles to the answers to these questions. They are the very first, but also the most fundamental, who open the blog of our online store.
The ABC of tyers can be called the book “Fly Fishing Fly” by Mikhail Shishkin - this is the first Russian-language manual book that contains the history of creating flies, a description of materials, and step-by-step instructions for tying flies. Unfortunately, the book in paper version is quite difficult to find today - it was published in the early 2000s in a small edition. Today, the heirs of Mikhail Shishkin do not give any comments about the re-release of the book.
Of course, there are works of many foreign ones: Oliver Edwards, Milan Kurnotsik and other equally honored masters. There are Russian-language videos with detailed, high-quality analysis of fly tying, for example, by Igor Tyapkin and others.
In all these educational and explanatory materials, the following classification of fly fishing flies is adopted:
Dry flies
· Wet flies
Nymphs
· Edgers
· Streamers.
Let's look at them in a little more detail.
Leash device
The length of the leashes for sea fishing is 1.5 – 2.5 m, depending on the leaders and flies used. The heavier the fly and the more sinking the leader, the shorter the leader. It is better to use fluorocarbon as a leader material, as it is less visible and more resistant to sea water and friction against stones.
The diameter of the leader is 0.15 - 0.17 mm when fishing for garfish and horse mackerel, and, for example, when fishing for croaker and sea bass - up to 0.25 - 0.3 mm. Various composite leaders made of leader material of different diameters, as well as conical leaders are most often not used. All “flies” are installed on a loose loop, which allows them to play better, take a natural position in the water column and be more tempting to fish.
Sea flies
The vast majority of Black Sea “flies” imitate fry, small fish and shrimp.
To catch predators such as garfish and horse mackerel in the upper and middle layers of water, imitations of fry are used. It is better to knit all baits on special hooks for sea fishing, resistant to the aggressive marine environment. However, if you use flies on classic hooks, then nothing bad will happen. I was convinced that the number of flies lost on casts and hooks always exceeds the number of flies with hooks destroyed by sea water.
If you buy such “flies”, then buy them from professionals. These include Dmitry Drozdov, who lives in Krasnodar. Today he is one of the most famous experts in fly fishing in the Black Sea. I have extensive experience in fly fishing in various bodies of water across the country, but I began to get stable results on the Black Sea coast after his invaluable consultations and with the “flies” purchased from him. I am never shy about learning, asking questions and using the tips of those who have become real “pros”. I wish the same for you, dear readers.
Choosing a fly for spring fly fishing
I usually fish with a wet fly. This is a classic wet fly, tied on a #10 hook. She has a body made of wool and a brush made of chicken or partridge. The simplest wet fly, it is well known to all fly fishermen. For beginners, I’ll just say that this bait sinks, does not lie on the surface, but gets wet and sinks. (read about types of fly fishing flies)
You can argue about color or choose the best one. It seemed to me that on April days, with turbid water, a dark, brown-black fly with sparkles works much better . But opinions on this matter may differ; it seemed to me that this one was better than this one, but my partner came and it was the other way around. What can you do, it's a matter of taste. But still, a bead on the head of the fly is very desirable, I’ll explain why a little lower. For now, the more important thing is to work with the front sight.
Flies for grayling
Strips when fishing with a fly
You can use passive wiring, where the cord moves at the speed of the current. You can slow down the retrieve by throwing the line upstream after casting. You can speed up the wiring by throwing the cord downstream. In addition, any of the above wiring can be speeded up by choosing a cord with your free hand. It must be remembered that the use of strips in most cases contributes to bites. They need to be used skillfully, using strips of different lengths, speeds, frequencies and rhythms. The worst strips are those that are monotonously repeated at regular intervals. It is better to use double, triple strips. These are the ones the fish like the most. Apparently this is due to the fact that real insects and small fish in the water, which your flies imitate, never move monotonously, like a pendulum on a clock.
Happy flies.
Some flies have universal appeal to fish. Let's call them “happy” because they work almost always, on any body of water and on any fish. You can easily shorten the path of selection and errors by having these flies in your collection. And here they are:
Streamers.
1. The Woolly Bagger . This fly is at the top of the list for many fly fishermen and, although some argue that it is not a streamer, this does not in any way affect its catchability. However, no one knows why he fishes. To make it easier, we will consider it an attractor, for the reason that it is not similar to any of the fish’s food. The best examples, in my opinion, come in black or olive color, with a soft feathered tail.
2.
The Muddler Minnow .
This fly fishing fly was invented many years ago to be used by fishermen everywhere. Maybe. The Muddler Minnow is classified as a "hair bug streamer" with a head and feather made from deer hair, a body and tinsel, and a tail made from turkey feathers. Maybe this doesn’t tell you anything yet, but then, if you start tying flies on your own, it will tell you a lot. 3. The Spruce Fly .
I've never fished with this fly, but it looks good.
This is a pronounced attractor and, probably, that’s why it works well in many places. But I was very surprised when it turned out that it doesn't work in Texas. With its bright colors it reminds me of an old streamer called the Silver Doctor , designed for catching Atlantic salmon. I have never fished for salmon, but have used this fly very successfully in Texas targeting smallmouths. Perhaps these bass believe they are distant relatives of the mighty salmon or that the Texas River is part of the Atlantic? Doctor, it seems to me that I am too carried away by big flies.
Nymphs.
In this class of trout flies, the top awards are given to: Hare's Ear , Brassie (brassy) , and Pheasant Tail . As Dave Carty suggests, Hare's Ear imitates all underwater insects at once. And I will never have less than two copies of it in my fly box. Brassy is so simply knitted that I can't tell what's more there - copper wire or black dubbing? If you are starting to learn how to knit, you can easily start with Brassy.
The Pheasant Tail works great as an emerger and is beyond the scope of this article. I use it very often when fishing. You can also add a not quite “nymph” - San Huan Worm.
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How to make flies for fishing with your own hands
Oddly enough, such baits are more catchy than some specimens, especially cheap copies that are sold in fishing stores.
This speaks of a creative approach and high craftsmanship, especially since every fisherman is very interested in seeing how his work of art works.
Making bait at home is not very expensive in a financial sense, so it is accessible to almost every fisherman who wants it.
Now you have accumulated a lot of experience and, having acquired a high-quality set of tools and materials, you will be able to repeat the author’s developments according to the description. I think that if you decide to take up professional fly tying, you should definitely buy tools. They are not cheap, but you will have your own unique lures.
These tools have become available to a wide range of fly fishing enthusiasts not so long ago. Tying flies is a painstaking task. For those who do this, this is a definite hobby. Tying a quality fly is not easy. Even the fact that searching for material will take a certain amount of time, because it is not so easy to find peacock feathers or badger bristles.
I also want to clarify for those who are encountering this type of bait for the first time that there is a division of fly fishing flies into several types. Dry - which must slide on water, they are similar to representatives of insects sliding on the surface of water:.
Nymphs are larvae or invertebrates crawling on the bottom that live in water:. Emergers are insects in transition that are preparing to become adults. Streamers are baits similar to fry and shrimp that frolic in the upper layers of warm water:.
Fantasy insects are insects that do not exist in nature, appearing only thanks to the author’s imagination, but this makes them no less catchy: In any case, to knit, you must have your hands free to carry out the manipulations.
Take a bird feather, a smaller one, which is located on the neck and sides, and tie it to a hook with thread. As a result, the body of the hook will be hairy. And here are the most effective: Attracts fish in cold and warm water with the help of pheromones included in the composition and stimulates its appetite.
It’s a pity that Rosprirodnadzor wants to impose a ban on its sale. You can find reviews and instructions on other types of gear on the pages of my website.
Lures using pheromones. You can get the rest of the secrets of successful fishing for free by reading my other materials on the site. We fix the feather at the end with a thread between the cephalothorax and the abdomen, make several turns, fix it with a thread, cut off the excess.
The base in the form of a wet fly is made in the typical way for any chosen fly, except that a wire is mounted into the body, at the end of which a loop is made, onto which a small petal is placed.
We fix two feathers with their ends near the ring, and in a turn around the body of the streamer, we fix the thread with a knot, cut off the excess feather and thread. We fix two feathers with their ends at a distance of about 1 cm from the ring, slightly lift them, fix the thread with a knot, cut off the excess feather and thread.
They are small dry type flies, white and red, equipped with a small weight for casting. It is a large hook trimmed with wool bristles or fine feathers. Now only mine bites! I caught this pike using a bite activator.
It is best to use black or bright orange. Making such an artificial fly is very quick. Therefore, you can do this before fishing or directly on it.
How to make flies for fishing with your own hands, master class
Using a bright artificial fly on the hook has the best effect on the number of bites. This type of artificial flies is used for catching pike at shallow depths, as well as for catching perch. Many reservoirs become heavily overgrown in the summer.
Do-it-yourself flies - video on how to make and make flies
In this case, it is recommended to use non-hooking baits. Among such baits, the pike streamer should be highlighted. Depending on where you will be fishing, you can use a bait with an open or non-snagging hook. When used separately, a small weight should be attached to the leash to facilitate the request.
When can you catch something?
Let's start with what kind of fish and when you can fly fish here. Sargan loves cold water, so it approaches the shore from October to March, becoming accessible for fly casting. Smarida can only be caught in April and May. Scorpionfish are most often found from April to November. Laskir and caracos are best caught from May to November. Bluefish bite very well in April and May. Croakers often approach the shore from May to December. Finally, the largest, rarest and most desirable trophy - bay laurel - is found in April and May. During the year, other types of fish can be caught in the sea using a fly.
Fly fishing flies
For fly fishing, first of all you need to stock up on a fair amount of bait. In this case, front sights. What is this for? There are many reasons. Firstly, when you come fishing, you will have to sort through quite a few of them until you find the most catchy one. Secondly, troubles such as snags, breaks and the like cannot be ruled out. You have to have a set of baits.
In the windows of specialized stores, sets of various baits are presented in a wide range. Among them, fly fishing baits are of no little use. Their diversity is dizzying. All that remains is to choose the one you need. But whether it will be catchy is the question. Experience suggests that a hand-made fly is the happiest.
The process of making homemade baits is quite an exciting activity. In addition, such bait will cost several times less than purchased bait, which in itself is not an unimportant factor in our time. Moreover, the number of independently made flies will certainly satisfy the needs of every angler.
DIY fishing flies
Often, for various reasons, a fisherman has to make his own flies for fishing. It is not difficult. Moreover, almost every fisherman has tools and accessories. For ease of use, you must have:
- Vise.
- Scissors.
- Needles.
- Tweezers.
- Magnifier.
- brush.
Additionally, you will need feathers, wool, lurex, silk thread and a crochet hook. Let's take a closer look at how to make bait for fishing. We will need some bright hairs about 5 cm long. The best color would be bright orange or black.
Remove the hook from the spoon and secure it in a vice or other device. We thread the hairs into the ring, as shown in the figure. All. It remains to fix them in this position. To do this, you can use a cambric, which is put on the ring. Finishing our work with a needle, we carefully fluff up the fly. Ready. You can go fishing.
As you can see, the process of making fishing baits with your own hands is very simple and fast. Any necessary flies are made in a similar way. The main thing is that they resemble natural analogues. Or, at least, the fish liked them. By the way, perch and pike at shallow depths respond excellently to a fly like the one in the picture. Advice! A set of tools for making flies can be purchased at a specialized store or online store.
Classification of artificial flies
There are several criteria for classifying artificial flies. Let us present them together for clarity.
- Method of using an artificial fly. The basis of classification in this case is the method of fishing, and flies are divided into two large groups - dry and wet.
- Components of an artificial fly. This is an independent method of division, since dry and wet flies can have characteristic features. Here we are talking about winged and wingless flies.
- Reproduction accuracy. We knit some artificial flies according to natural patterns (exact imitations); When knitting others, we proceed from the fact that certain shapes or colors are more attractive to fish. We call such flies fantasy.
- Entomological principle. We knit individual artificial flies to imitate specific insects. Therefore, we classify them into flies that imitate mayflies, stoneflies, caddis flies, etc.
- Practical purpose (catching fish of a certain type) When tying artificial flies, we can (primarily by size, shape, color) determine in advance what kind of fish can be caught on them. That’s why we are talking about flies for trout, grayling, asp, dace, salmon, etc.
This division, however, is not very practical for a fly tyer. It is necessary to choose classification criteria that, of course, would correspond to the given division, but at the same time would help to quickly navigate the practice of fly tying.
We must always remember that the basis of the fly classification system is entomological criteria.
Entomological division of artificial flies
Horse mackerel, smarida and scorpionfish
The simplest fly fishing is horse mackerel fishing. The Black Sea mackerel is quite large and reaches a size of more than half a kilogram. Her bites are always very powerful and she often grabs the “fly” close to the shore. Imitations of fry and small silver fish are used. Horse mackerel can feed on the surface, in the water column and at the very bottom - in a word, it is a ubiquitous fish. When you catch mackerel from the bottom, you may catch smarida, scorpionfish, gobies and other fish using the same “flies”.
Particular care must be taken when handling scorpionfish, which have very sharp and poisonous spines. These spines are present on the dorsal fin, gill covers and anal fin. You cannot pick up this fish in the classical way; you will inevitably get hurt in the process. This is why a forceps is a must when sea fly fishing.
