MEET THE TEAM
Our panel of expert anglers offers advice for better fishing this month
FLIES ON THE RIVERBED
Although I had dabbled in the 1970s with heavy flies such as the Shredded Limp (leaded shrimp), it was the success of Eastern European anglers in the 1990s that opened my eyes to how effective getting flies down to the fish’s eye level could be.
Presentation with the rolled-nymph styles of Polish and Czech anglers was straightforward. Using a short line, the heavy nymphs were lobbed upstream and their drift controlled with the rod tip. There was little that could go wrong, although I preferred three flies rather than two on my cast as I felt two flies could sometimes fight against each other as they flew through the air. Since then, I doubt any form of angling has been refined so rapidly. French anglers, faced with spooky fish in shallow water, later found success with very long fine leaders fished on long rods with a very soft action, eventually doing away with fly-line completely. Presentation was not straightforward, and many leader formulations were created to help the flies turn over. These leaders require the heaviest nymph in the point position —ideal for shallow water or fish prepared to lift and intercept nymphs drifting above them. However, in the short, cold days of winter, grayling are unlikely to lift from the riverbed, and so I recommend placing the heaviest nymph on the middle dropper. This pulls the top dropper down near the riverbed and allows a lighter, more mobile nymph to be tied to the point. This works particularly when salmon are spawning and grayling are feeding on lost eggs not buried in redds. An unweighted egg fly can be very effective when tied close to the heavy middle dropper —deep but able to play naturally in the current.
WHERE ARE THE TROUT?
You may have read widely about the importance of presenting Buzzers vertically —a popular technique at the start of the stillwater trout season —but I would say the theory is
