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when is a fly not a fly?


greg long

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Greg,

 

Babies are people too y'know! It's still a Stonefly/Mayfly/Damselfly, even though it's in it's juvenile stages.

 

Something like a gammarus shrimp isn't a 'fly' perse as it's already in it's adult stage. Likewise, corixa aren't 'flies' they're aquatic beetles. Bloodworm still qualify as flies as they become buzzers/chironomid midges - diptera. Oddly, so do maggots - housefly/bluebottle/greenbottle - wasp grubs - errmmm wasps! etc.

 

I try not to get too carried away with the overclassification of artificials - we've only got the broadest of ideas about what the fish take them for and that, put simply, is food or a threat.

 

I make one pretty simple distinction between the things I tie to the end of leaders - imitations of things fish are likely to eat (I tend to call these flies, whether it's a representation of a flying insect or not) and things which don't represent anything the fish are likely to encounter (which I call lures). It makes life a lot easier on the bank ;-)

 

Cheers,

Adz.

 

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babies arn`t people :confused: they are robots programmed to cry ,eat and mess, any resemblence to human reflexes is wind.

should there be a distinct seperation between fly`s and nymphs etc , after all a lump of bread will easily outfish most synthetic baits ,what is it being mistaken for if the trout has never encountered bread before :confused: should you be tying bread "fly`s" :D

i`l let you get back to the serious stuff :D

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If it's artificial, has no spinning vanes or blades and you are casting it with no other end tackle than a leader, then it's a fly! It could be imitating an insect, an amphibian, a rodent, a shrew, a mollusc or a fish, it is still a "fly".

 

Just be sure of the rules for your water before deploying any of them...

 

richard

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richardw:

If it's artificial, has no spinning vanes or blades and you are casting it with no other end tackle than a leader, then it's a fly!

 

richard

Hmmm. I can think of a number of American-style bugs that sit in a sort of grey area between leaded nymphs and small plugs.

 

Surely the spirit of "fly fishing" means your artificial is cast by using the weight of your FLY LINE rather than the weight of the lure itself.

 

I'm sure some of the heavier leaded nymphs could be cast quite a long way on very light line using a small fixed spool reel (and I mean without a controller or bubble float, just the weight of the nymph) - but that would not be "fly fishing" although you would be using a "fly"

 

A couple of years back I was spinning a small river for salmon, and a trout of just over a pound took my Mepps No 1.

 

Decided it would be good for breakfast, so whacked it on the head and gutted it. In its stomach were the remains of four cockchafers (May-bugs or June-bugs)- and nothing else recognisable. I realised that my spinning Mepps was a dead ringer for the golden wingcases (in both size and colour) of a May-bug struggling in a current after having fallen in - the treble hook even resembles the legs. So you could say that trout was caught by "exact imitation of an insect" a la Halford

 

Guys who imitate fish fry with Sweeny Todd or Missionary cast on conventional fly gear reckon they are "fly fishing"

 

Purist Maybug or Purest Humbug ??

 

[ 05. December 2002, 12:14 PM: Message edited by: Vagabond ]

 

 

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'Fly' now a generalised term for anything used in flyfishing even such abominations as the Thomson gazelle..not much traditional stuff used nowadays..what happened to the good old dry flies..for example the Olive variants..hoppers, Bits etc are widely used instead(and most succesfully too)..has fly tying reached new heights and have the traditionals had their day..flies? not even fur and feather no more..how the pioneers would have felt using chenilles , bead eyes, chain eyes..progress? you make up your own mind..

 

PS.

On the subject of bread..if fish are used to sooking bread off the top..tie a piece of Kapok(the white stuff they stuff anoraks with) loosely on a size 12 and gink it up..fluff it out and let drift slowly downwind..deadly..

 

[ 05. December 2002, 11:38 PM: Message edited by: bobbyf ]

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chesters1:

... should you be tying bread "fly`s" ...

chesters1 - that was serious stuff. At least a few US carpers who fish for them with the fly do tie up bread imitations - and do catch carp with them.

 

Not sure about trout though.

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My attempts at a Daddy.....With the best will in the world I could not pass them as looking like the real fly.

Paul

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"Surely the spirit of "fly fishing" means your artificial is cast by using the weight of your FLY LINE rather than the weight of the lure itself."

 

What about when a fly line is not used? When using a willow wand fresh cut from a pollard Macedonian style? Or garden cane with leader as per my recommendations for Czech nymphing? Or fly rod but at close range with no fly line out of the top ring?

 

It's the thing on the end that decides whether it's a fly.

 

Even if some sad person uses a bubble float and fixed spool reel it's still a fly but personally I'd prefer not to call it fly fishing...

The leader acts as the casting "weight".

 

[ 06. December 2002, 11:56 PM: Message edited by: richardw ]

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