Month: August 2006

Cheats and Fishing

A little while ago I was having a few drinks with a group of fishy characters. The group included well-known big-game fishing charter-boat skippers, some deck-hands, and small-boat charter skippers, and a few fly fishing guides.

The subject of discussions was records, competitions, trophy fish, and the lengths some people will go to to win them. These discussions exposed the dark side of the fishing force.

Without exception, each of the group, (around 15), had been and are still, regularly offered many financial inducements to ‘bend the rules’ so that the client would win a competition, gain a world record, or ‘catch’ a trophy trout. Actually they are offered bribes, not financial inducements, let’s call it for what it is; a payment to cheat.

The full story is here

Posted by Tony Bishop in Articles and stories on fishing in general

Bead Flies and Adding Weight

I have had quite a few questions about adding extra weight to bead flies.

The short answer is that it is really not possible to add lead, or similar, to bead nymphs. But of course a gold or tungsten bead or two can be used when assembling the fly.

But when considering how much weight to use for a bead nymph, think on this:

  • Glass bead nymphs are relatively heavy, and in my experience heavier than similar lead weighted nymphs.
  • Because there is little or no fur or feather, little or no floatation from trapped air is possible.
  • The nymphs tend to be slimmer than ‘fur’ nymphs, and sink faster.

I think this ability to sink faster is one of the keys to the success of bead flies. They are ‘fishing’ longer than standard fur and feather nymphs.

Another question that hits my email is whether bead flies will take brown trout. This I think is based on the thought and fact that rainbows tend to take more colourful flies than browns. The bead flies I make for browns use dark coloured beads, often all black.

The bead fly article that raises all these questions is here.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly tying