Flies for Brown Trout - Tackle Tips

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Brown Trout Basics		Exact Imitations?
Trout flies fall into two categories - attractors and imitations. Attractors or "lures" rely on the natural aggression of the trout, while imitators try to look like a natural food.		Strangely an exact copy seems to be less effective than a ragged one. The best flies seem to hint at their ancestry. For example there are some wonderful stonefly imitations, but the good old stick fly does just as well.

Lures		Imitations
Many rainbow trout fishermen are brought up on lures and wonder why they are not so effective for brownies. Brown trout are far less aggressive than bows. They are less likely to take a lure. Most anglers therefore rely on imitative patterns. Those lures which do work for brownies tend to look like fish and thus fall into both camps. The only time when you can really catch brownies on lures is at the beginning of the season when they are really hungry.		For every insect that a brownie eats there is a fly invented by somebody including mice and frogs as well as insects! The Americans have a nice expression called "match the hatch". It encapsulates the best approach to brownie fishing. Spot what naturals are about. Take a careful look at what stage of life the fish are moving to (no fish surface movement indicates they are feeding below on nymphs). Brown trout can be very selective to the point that they will sometimes only take imitations that look like a nymph breaking surface, while at other times they will only take the adults as they return to gently lay their eggs in the surface film. The trick is careful observation.

Insect Classes		Their Common Imitations
Flies can be broken down into various groups. The important one for the fly fisher are:

Upwings Ephemeroptera		Houghton Ruby Blue Winged Olive March Brown Walkers Mayfly Nymph Adams Beacon Beige Greenwells Glory Kites Imperial
Includes the classic like the Mayfly and the Olives. They have 2 large often clear wings which sit upright on the body and have 2 or 3 tails.

Chironomids Diptera		Footballer Buzzers Suspender Buzzers Pennel
The midges - the tiny favorite of the reservoir angler and also called "buzzers" after the noise they make. The larvae is the blood worm Not to be confused with the biting midge found in the north.		Footballer Buzzers Suspender Buzzers Pennel

Sedges Trichoptera		Grannom Skating Sedge Wickams Fancy Muddler
Also called the caddis fly, these can often be seen in clouds and perhaps the most famous is the Grannom. The have two wings which sit along the back in an inverted V.		Grannom Skating Sedge Wickams Fancy Muddler

Stone Flies Plecoptera		Stick Fly Wooly Worm
These have four wings which lie flat along the body. They can be quite big.		Stick Fly Wooly Worm

Damsel and Dragonflies Odonata		Damsel Fly
Adult imitations ineffective, but larval forms deadly.		Damsel Fly

Other Aquatics		Peter Ross
Shrimps and other fish can play an important part in a trout diet		Peter Ross

Terrestrial Insects		Dry Daddy Sunk Daddy Bibio
The Daddy Long legs is perhaps the best known and in Scotland you can add the Heather Fly.		Dry Daddy Sunk Daddy Bibio


The Best Flies		Paul's Personal Choice
Some of the best flies are just suggestive. They don't represent any particular insect, but look like many.		Top Dropper: Muddler or Bibio or Adams (dry). Middle Dropper: Silver or Pearly Invicta or Buzzer. Point: Weighted PTN or GRHE or Damsel.

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