Species

Eucumbene damsel – Chatto’s original

This is my favourite damsel fly imitation and ticks all the boxes. It is quite representational of an emerging damsel with its overall form and function and has a neat little hot spot in the form of the red eyes. It's a great fly to fish at any time when there are midge or damsels around as most importantly the trout love it.

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Tadpoles and small fish

In Tasmania a large percentage of the "Whitebait" taken is of the Galaxiid and Smelt families. Whitebait are similar in appearance to Galaxiid and populate coastal waters particularly around Tasmania. they run up streams and rivers to spawn and their spawn runs often cross the spawn runs of both Galaxiid and Smelt as they move to sea to spawn.

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Speckles and spawners

Suddenly my line tightened. Snagged? The fish pulled and headed downwards. I said to Steve I didn’t think it was big. I worked the fish towards the surface. It was bigger than I first thought. Steve peered at the fish, the fish peered back, turned and headed down. I said to myself, that fish is thinking “not that Chatterton bloke again, I’m out of here!” By this time Steve had hold of the landing net, that’s optimism for you!

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Yabby feeders

Large populations of dark olive Yabbies of the Cherax Genus have developed in both Lake Jindabyne and Lake Eucumbene. Many anglers suggest that the Yabby has been responsible for changing the feeding habits of trout in the lakes as the populations of Yabbies have increased. In fact in both Lake Jindabyne and Lake Eucumbene you seldom catch a trout with a full stomach when the contents doesn't include yabbies.

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Chatto’s “inch” nymph

This fly has been designed with polaroiding in mind. Its also a great fly for covering rising fish ... particularly if mayfly are around. It's unlike all the other nymphs that I tie in that it is tied with as little extra weight as possible. As a result it hits the water softly and once there sinks slowly in a realistic way giving the target fish plenty of time to see the fly and hopefully eat it.

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Cormorant – variant to the original tie

I carry black and olive versions of this fly. A simple to tie fly that incorporates two of the greatest fly tying materials, marabou and peacock herl and it continues to be a popular single or team fly. It's also a fly that has lent itself to adaptation and you will often come across versions with glass or brass bead heads, bodies of all sorts of tinsels and colours and wings in a range of marabou colours. These days the cormorant and its many variations are fished in all sorts of ways from almost static right up to roly poly on a full range of fly lines.

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Cormorant – BH competition version

The cormorant fly is a popular loch fly and particularly in rainbow trout waters. The original tie has a peacock herl body with silver rib whereas this competition version has been jazzed up a bit by substituting clear holographic tinsel for the herl body.

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Gold ribbed hares ear

This is probably up there in the top 3 or 4 best known nymph patterns. It's a pattern that has stood the test of time and is suggestive of a wide range of caddis and mayfly nymphs and is best fished close to the bottom. It doesn't matter if your in Argentina or Australia or any where between, past, above or below this is a true universal fly pattern.

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TBH hot butt caddis bugger

If your fishing in water with reasonably numbers of caddis your going to want to give this 3 cm bugger a swim. Caddis represent up to 70% of a trout's diet and whilst this fly is bigger than any caddis nymph I have seen trout love it. It is also a must tie on fly for discoloured water. You can fish it as a nymph but my preference is to fish it across, down and on the swing.

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Wiggle frog – Chatto’s original

You can fish this fly on an intermediate or faster sinking line but my preference is to fish it on a floating line so that it swims just below the surface. On a floating line the best technique for fishing the fly is to give it one or two short strips and then rest it for a moment whilst it comes back to the surface. Rest it there for a few more seconds and then repeat the process.

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