The second fly corner reveals one of Håvards most secret weapons. It is a very very thin and anonymous fly that works almost every time. The fish, especially easy scared char, usually takes the fly every time. The difficult part is to present the fly so that the char (or trout) wont get suspicious. That can sometimes be very hard since wild fish can be extremely easy to spook. Basically it means smooth and accurate casting (why not try the shadow cast?), thin leader and small movements from the fisherman. What does it imitate? A fresh water shrimp or may fly nymph would be a good guess. If you know that the water holds a lot of gammarus, this fly wont make you disappointed!
Fly: The thin one (composer: Håvard Stubø)
A must in the fly box
Hook size: 14 – 20, extra strong wet fly hook (otherwise the 3kg plus char will bend the hook)
Thread: thin thread, whatever colour
Tail: pheasent or similar
Body: hare´s ear or similar
ribbing: thin copper wire or just tying thread
Head: tying thread
Species: all types of fish, very effective in order to catch big arctic char…
How to fish fly: This is not a “muddy waters fly”, it is made for clear water and that´s the reason to the thin body and no flash. A true sight fishing fly! Find the fish, wait for the right moment and make the cast. It might be a good idea to attach a tiny piece of tungsten about 40 cm from the fly, then it will be easier to calculate the sinking speed in order to serve the fly in front of the char mouth. The char often patrols close to the bottom. Notice that the fly itself is supposed to be hovering weightlessly in the water, no heavy material in the fly with other words.
That´s a very nice fly. Just a quick question – are you very partial about the straight eye hook?
Cheers,
Thomas
Hi Thomas!
No, I don´t think it matters at all which way the hookeye goes. Remember to tie it on a strong hook. The most useful sizes for this kind of fly is 16 & 18, but a size 20 can sometimes do the trick, and it performs well in 14, too.
The main thing to watch with this kind of fly is, like Fredrik says, that they look as discrete and boring as possible. In strong light and gin clear still or slow-flowing water, regular nymphs with more flash and/or gold heads will often scare the fish.
That looks like the perfect fly for the small mountain streams I fish here in Virginia. Everything seems to scare the brook trouts… although it could possibly be my terrible presentation!