My ‘trout’ lake wet fly box

I love my lake fly fishing because it gives me regular access to bigger fish than I am likely to regularly encounter in the rivers and streams that I fish on a regular basis. This box holds a selection of “lake” flies that have been proven in a wide range of trout and other species still water impoundments in Australia and New Zealand. They include a range of contemporary Australian and New Zealand and international lake type flies. I believe that if you carry this fly box and my selection for my dry fly box you will have flies available that can be successfully applied to the vast majority of trout still water options in Australia and New Zealand.

Tequila blob

It took me some time to get into using blobs but these days there are plenty of trout waters where I include a blob in my team most of the time. This is one of my favourites blob flies particularly when the waters have a good population of rainbow trout.

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red-tbh-cdc-j

Red TBH CDC black fuzzel jig bugger

This fly is one of a series of 4 woolly bugger flies that I tie specifically for river fishing and if I only had one woolly bugger in my river fishing fly box this would be the one.

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Black spinner

The term spinner is generally used only in the context of referring to a small number of Mayflies including Black, Red and Orange Spinners when they are both on the water and in the air. The following Spinner is a generic representation for members of the “Leptophlebiidae” family of Mayflies and the various Highland Duns & Spinners, which are members of the “Oniscigastridae” family. Hatches generally occurs between the months of October and March.

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Chatto’s black alpine buzzer

This is the second in the series of three versions of the same fly. This first in the series is the bloodworm version. which is the original colour of the pupa as it emerges from the slime on the lake bottom. Over a short period of time the bloodworm changes to a dark colour with varying amounts of red present as the transformation occurs. As it reaches the surface the dark colour mellows and the pupa assumes a grey or olive colour similar to its terrestrial colour.

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Claret carrot

Based on the design of the carrot fly this version is particularly appealing to fish feeding on emerging Mayfly in Tasmania's central and western lake.

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Metalic pink TBH brown woolly bugger

This is a variation of a bead head woolly bugger that has worked very well for me in Lake Eucumbene and Tantangara Reservoir on brown trout and on Lake Maroon for bass.

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Humungus – black and gold

The tie of my fly is very close to David Downey's fusion of those two flies which he describes as perhaps the best still water fly in the world. I use it as a top dropper attractor and for that reason use a brass rather than a tungsten bead. Particularly in water that is a little discoloured I am confident this fly brings a lot of fish to my team.

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Todd’s Vampire (variant)

Based in Maple Ridge, B.C. Todd Oishi designed his "leach" (Vampires are also a blood sucker hence the name) fly with a tail of black rabbit fur or black marabou and with Vampire Vippy as the body. I have not been able to find any Vampire Vippy and tie my Vampires with UV straggle fritz.

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UV cruncher

More of a class of fly than a fly in itself because you will find UV crunchers tied a all sorts of colours from black right through to dun colours and pale olives. I like this particular tie because it incorporates peacock herl which is one of my favourite fly tying materials.

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Carrot dry fly

Tied with natural seals fur it is a fly that sits well on the water and easily sheds water with a snappy false cast.

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