Posts Tagged ‘#spotters’

Cania Dam

Cania Dam has been on my bucket list now for a couple of years and consequently I have been undertaking quite a lot of research so that when I do get up there hopefully this year I have enough information to make a reasonable job of that fishing trip. This is what I have found so far.

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Snowy Mountain Rivers

On 27 October 2017 at 20:10, Tim wrote:

Hi,
I was watching a fly fishing show of the Willow Grub being used in NZ waters. Any idea of the success rate if used in the Snowies around Thredbo area?
Regards, Tim

 
 

Reply: Chatto 28 October 2017 at 06:41

HI Tim,

I can remember going through a similar thought process after a trip to NZ about 15 years ago and coming home and tying up a few version of these tiny flies. Willow grubs are essentially tiny surface / sub subsurface flies and I fished with them on and off for a couple of years on the Thredbo and the Mowamba but the success rate was very low.

willowc

For surface feeding fish old fall backs like small red tags and coch-y-bonddu consistently working better on the Mowamba for rising fish and hair winged royal coachmen works better for me on the Thredbo & Eucumbene.

#12 to #16 red tag

#12 to #16 red tag

cochybondduf hairwingf

For nymphing, where there is reasonable current in the river, my default flies are a skinny PTN or a small orange spider on the point and a TBH duracell (with appropriate TB weight to get the fly bouncing along the bottom) on a dropper about 60-80mm above the point fly.

TBH orange and partridge spider TBH pheasant tail nymph variant duracellj

Hope this helps.
Regards
Chatto.

cxi special flies

Christmas Island special

With just these seven colour each tied in two sizes and a couple of weights you will be ready for some fantastic bonefish sessions on the flats. Christmas Island Special in: Pink, Pearl, Orange – rich, Orange - light, Violet, Chartreuse & Yellow.

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Aitutaki secret

This is a popular rubber tailed Gotcha type fly designed by Christopher Hall, an Aitutaki regular for targeting big bonefish.

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Eucumbene River access at Denison Camping Area

The camping area will be better defined with timber bollards with a view to stopping vehicle access beyond the camping area to the north ... I support this project.

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Gold TBH CDC brown fuzzel jig bugger

These are the only woolly bugger type flies that I now carry in my river fly box. They are a step up from my earlier version in that I have added a CDC under wing directly behind the front hackle which I have reduced down to just one full turn. I tie them in sizes #10 and #12 in just 4 colours.

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Rivers – fly positioning on droppers

Proceeding through an orderly process as described in this post is a good way of making your fly selection for any trout river.

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Squirmy worm

Over time they have endured and their reputation of, on the day, being an exceptional fish taking fly has grown and grown. They have also become very well accepted in competition circles and consequently I have fallen into line and have added them to my fly box.

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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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Foam cicada – Chatto’s ‘black prince’

This fly sits well into the surface film like the natural and has a very realistic profile when viewed from below. I have made it smaller than the natural on purpose as flies tied as big as the natural are frustratingly cumbersome to cast on #8 weight outfits that are my preference of the target species mentioned above. The fly lands with a good audible fish attracting 'plop' and with its outstretched wings that are only about half as long as the natural still wiggle with the slightest movement in a very enticing way.

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