Restocking the boxes: Winter Tying Sessions No.2

So here is my second installment of the 'Winter Tying Sessions', this time we are looking at some of my most effective Hare's Ear patterns from the 2018 season. For me the Hares Ear nymph and it's multitude of variations have always been a very successful go to style of nymph. Growing up in the mountains of Wicklow this hare dubbed on to a hook in some form proved to be a stable lure for anglers looking to catch wild brown trout; and it is still very effective today on the rivers.
From this time growing up on the mountain river of Wicklow I have always had great confidence in using Hares Ear on my nymphs and here is a couple that have a prominent place in my fly boxes, year after year. 

Mostly the Hares Ear I use are rather heavy and I use them to search out early trout or trout that lie in deep holes. However, there is one or two I find successful hanging under a dry fly which are tied in smaller sizes. 

Nymph No.1 Hare's Ear Grub 

  
Hook: Dohiku 644 or 611 14-10 
Bead: Countersunk Tungsten 3mm-4mm
Under body: Flat Lead 2-4mm 
Thread: Fine strong silk  
Rib: Fine flat copper 
Body: Hare Ear Dubbing Natural 
Thorax (Head Dubbing): Fox Squirrel Hair mixed with UV Spectra Dubbing. 
Make sure to brush out the dubbings really well on this one.  This Nymph has to be my number one Hares Ear patteren so simple but so effective every where I go be it for Trout or Grayling. 

Nymph No 2 Soft Hackle Hare's Ear 

Hook: Dohiku Jig 18-14
Bead: Gold Slotted Tungsten Bead 3mm-4mm
Thread: Fine strong Silk 
Tail: Pearl Braid doubled over 
Rib: Fine Pearl Mylar 
Body: Hare's Ear natural dubbing 
Hackle: Natural CDC tied in at the tip and wound around nymph. 
Head Dubbing: Fox Squirrel Hair mixed with UV Spectra Dubbing. 





Nymph No 3 Hare's Ear Caddis  

Hook: Dohiku Jig 18-14
Bead: Gold, Sliver or Copper  Slotted Tungsten Bead 3mm-4mm
Thread: Fine strong Silk 
Tag: Chartreuse Tommi-fly UV reflective tying thread 
Tail: Natural Partridge  
Rib: Copper Wire or to suit bead colour 
Body: Hare's Ear natural dubbing 
Head Dubbing: Sybai fine flash dubbing 

On our next winter tying sessions we will be looking at some of my most trustworthy Pheasant Tail nymphs, make sure and check it out.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and enjoy tying these flies; if you would like to stock up your boxes for this coming year make sure and contact me through facebook or email. If you have any questions or queries please feel free to contact me. Also make sure and check out my website www.piscari-fly.com for all your tungsten beads, Dohiku barbless hooks, Tommi-fly products,the amazing Syndicate Fly Rods, Reels, leaders and much more. Thanks for reading.

Want to up your catch rate this season? A few points to consider for effective fishing

I get a lot of fisher people asking me for tips and tricks on better approaches to effective fly fishing out side of having the right set up and good quality nymphs. Firstly the answer is not spending the winter filling your fly boxes with patterns un-tried and un-tested, if you want to do a winters tying only tie the flies that worked last season and tie them in all sizes and weights. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time working on, and thinking about the small details that result in productive approaches and the things we as angler can do to try and shift the odds in our favor a little bit more. I am no expert but I have some thoughts on the matter. There is a fair bit of stuff to consider when you break everything down, such as beat management, fatigue, fish behavior and the like. However, here is a few important pointers and hopefully there is somethings in this post that you will consider in the coming season when you approach the river that will aid your ability to catch more fish. 

1. Identify the predominant lies and protective lies of the fish in the beat.
It is crucial to discover this from inspecting your beat before you start fishing or enter the water. The predominant lie is where the

fish sit undisturbed and feed away naturally. This could be the shallow margins or the side of the main current near by. But not to far away there will be a place where they go for protection once disturbed, this could be a deeper pocket, behind or under some object in the water. Once you begin fishing and wading some fish will move from one to the other once they are aware of your presence; so you must know when to also move from one to the other to keep catching fish. There can be many of each of the lies in one beat. Discovering these will save you time fishing all the water on your beat and fishing water where there is less or no fish. Moving quickly between the predominant lies in the beat will result in clocking up early scores on the card or fish in the net and knowing where the fish go once you have gone through the honey holes will save time in finding them the second time around and allow you to target pockets of fish in their protective lies.

2. Fatigue and body posture
This is something a lot of anglers don't spend enough time on; you cant fish or wade a beat properly if you are tired and you will lose

your focus during a fishing session. The single biggest problem I encounter when coaching anglers is them getting tired and lose concentration on the water, leader, dry fly or indicator and miss the signs of the takes. So we must focus on how to conserve energy and slow down fatigue of the legs, arms and especially the eyes. Your posture during fishing can help, having an open stance not only will allow you better and safer wading but it will engage your core and help support your back and arm as you reach forward while nymphing. This stance will also allow for better netting practice as when you hook a fish you are now in a position to take a large step forward and move several foot closer to the hooked fish and scoop the fish within seconds of a hook up.
Having good glasses (dont have to be the most expensive) that suit the day light is crucial as the wrong lenses will cause you to having to try and focus harder on the small indicators or dries. Therefore your eyes become tired and you stop looking and miss the signs of a take. Another aspect for good vision and tired eyes is your hat. A long billed hat pulled down over your eyes will tunnel your vision and save on fatigue, this will also allow you to see smaller objects further away. Also it will save you from be distracted by the view or the passing wildlife.

Good core strength will allow you to wade quickly through heavy water, it is worth considering this and some simple exercises will give you better strength in the water and more confidence.

3. Be a predator
Another aspect of posture. Standing straight up is not only bad for

your back and makes it easy for the fish to see you, it is also takes it toll on your concentration levels. If you can imagine any predator in the wild before they strike and their posture before they do so; there body position is curled up ready to strike. This is not only for the speed of the attack but to also have full focus and concentration on its prey. Being a hunter instead of an angler is a lesson I learned many years ago and one that stuck with me and I regually remind myself of. I often say to anglers imagine a photog you is going to feature on the front of your favourite magazine and this photo could be taken at any moment when you are fishing. So do you want to be seen standing straight up in the air sticking out or do you want to be published where you are on one or two knees totally focused on your prey and reaching out to full length in complete control.

4. Hearding and moving fish
In long beats where the fish are spread out it can be good practice to heard or move the fish into pods to maximize your chance of a

good catch rate. Fish will move in different ways depending on the species and the time and place. For brown trout sometimes you need to gently push them to the head of their territory. This is not necessarily the head of a run as there can be several heads of territory in one run, depending on on its size and volume of fish in the section of water. In doing so, you will also heighten the aggression levels of the fish and they will attack your flies out of that aggression rather than looking to eat food. Of course the best thing is if you heard the fish you know where they are.

Fishing from wading up one bank will manipulate the fishes behavior differently to wading up the middle. On larger rivers I like to wade up the middle and push the fish into the banks where they feel safe (into protective lies) and they tend less to run down stream behind me where they are no longer in my catch zone if I am fishing up stream. Fishing a smaller river I tend to fish along one bank and push the fish ahead of me and by casting kind of across the stream (lining the fish) will keep the majority in my catch zone, before the head back behind me.

5. Chain reaction within the beat
It is important to be aware of the chain reaction within the beat once you disturb the fish. This will save you time fishing water where the fish have moved from because of ten minutes ago you pushed the fish from there or spooked them when you were fishing 50 yards down river. Be aware when and where you release your caught fish, I tend to release fish behind me. Also wade in and out of the river well behind the area that you are catching in if you have to bring the fish to a controller.

6. Be aware of your surroundings
Getting caught up in trees, rocks ect is a big problem and one that

will never leave an angler. Wading to release your flies from rock and trees is one of the biggest mistakes of beat management. Tie plenty of your best flies so losing a couple will not matter in a session. A lot of anglers will spend some time looking at the water before a session and rightly so, but few will look at the trees and objects they will encounter fishing and casting in that section of river. I will make a mental map of the beat as I study it and I will identify the sections I have to be on my knees to open up a larger casting gap into tight spots. Ill know the spots where there is some weed on the bottom so ill speed up the drag on my nymphs so they stay just off the bottom and not get stuck in the weeds. This is also the same for rocky bottoms. Allowing a dead drift will allow the nymphs to settle between the rocks and get caught up. However, dragging them through a slight bit faster means the nymphs will bounce off the rocks and are less likely to get caught.

When you have your hat down around you eyes and you are

focusing on you fishing, if you are not aware of your surroundings you will spend a lot of time in the bushes and trees when casting. This will result in you breaking your concentration, disturbing the beat, getting in tangles and loosing nymphs.
It is the lack of focus on these details that cost most anglers from maximizing there catch in a beat and with some time spent on these aspects and errors of the anglers will increase good beat management and more time for your flies to catch fish.
Three most important three words I have learned for good effective fly fishing is DETAILS, SIMPLE, DETAILS

I hope some of this will be useful to you, and there is some points that you will consider focusing on this coming season. Its a bit of a whistle stop to effectively fly fishing a beat, and if you have any questions or queries on any aspects of this post please feel free to contact me.

Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to give me a shout on my contact details and if you are interested in Dohiku hooks, top quality tungsten beads, or Syndicate competition Fly Rods and much more, drop me a line or check them out on my website, Just click on one of the links to the right.

Understand your process to fish effectively

I had an interesting evening recently with some people that I have been giving some help with on their fly tying and fly fishing for the coming season. A question they had was what is the best way to prepare yourself for a competition to give your self the best chance and have confidence in what you are doing while not getting distracted with what everyone else is doing all the time or wondering what might work instead of concentrating on what you are fishing at that time.

In fly-fishing and competitions we all have our methodologies for preparing to go fishing; strategies that we plan out and attempt to follow during our days on the waters. I have found recently that spending a bit of time understanding and getting these process correct to suit your ability and keeping your confidence level high can help you fish more efficiently which will result in better catches. Therefore if you have your processes right and if you trust them then you will catch more fish. "Trust the process"

A lot of the top competition anglers will tell you that if you don't have confidence in what you are doing then you wont get the fish, for example if you are fishing a leader to long, short, heavy or light than you like it dose effect your belief and confidence in fishing that set up correctly also the same can be said  if you are fishing a fly that you don't have faith in then it wont get the rises. But how many times have you put up your favorite fly and used your reliable set ups in strange situations and it has worked for you? This is because you have confidence in the set up and what you are using is part of fishing them correctly and understanding all this and spending some time on getting it right means you will always fish at the top of your game.

Over the last two years I have focused a lot on getting my processes down to suit me so when I go fishing I have no doubt in my mind that I have the set ups, systems and the right flies I need for that day. This has giving me the confidence I needed to go to a event or river and know that I have done all I need to do to be able to catch those fish, I stick to my game plan and I trust in my process and they keep me focused through out the day on the river or lake; leaving little or no room for doubt and questioning so I can focus in on just catching the fish.
Here is some of how I use my processes to aid my confidence to catch fish.

Preparation to fish a venue:
For several weeks before a competition day I will research the venue through online and other sources gathering what information I can, while also visiting the river or lake several times to do some homework on the style, size, depth and its environment. I don't like to over fish a place and I tend to find a local venue with similar attributes and spend more time there closer to the day. I would constantly take down notes of important information and start a broad tying list of what I feel I might need to fish there.  

I would spend a good bit of time before the event fishing different set ups and systems on similar waters deciding on a game plan or approach  that I will be using for the competition. I will have narrowed down my tippet choice, leaders and lines also. By the time the competition has come around I will have chosen my fly selection to a few nymphs, dries, wets or streamers depending on the water I will be fishing and they will be in a box separate from all other flies so they are easily accessed and there is no other flies to distract me from my plan. 

The day before:
I like to spend this day cleaning, stretching and getting ready all my fly-lines and gear. I will look at what I need to bring on the day closely and make sure I will only have what I need, less is more here, you don't want a load of stuff in your pockets dragging you down or getting in the way of effective fishing. Recently I have switched over to a chest pack that will only just take what I need and no more.

I will make up any leaders I will be using on the day and double check all my flies stocked up are ready to fish. This is the day I will also decide on my game plan for tomorrow, by now I know the water conditions and weather so I should be able to predict the conditions and the methods I will need for the day. Once I have decided this I stick to my game plan. 

During the day:
I am aware that anything can happen on any day but I do try my best to keep to my plan and for the majority of events I do, history has shown me that all the days I have followed my plan and trusted in the process is the days I have done well. 
I keep focused on this day it can be distracting heading to a check in at a competition and chatting to other anglers, they have there plan and its to late for you to change yours so I don't tend to stand around to much chatting and just get on with the job in hand; trusting I have done my homework good enough. 
I would go over the process of the day in my head before I start fishing and how I would like to approach and work the water I have been giving for the session. I double check my chest pack for all I need to have with me in the water and then begin to fish and move in the chosen direction. 
Not wondering what the next guy is doing on the upper or below beats, or whats even happening in the run at the top of my beat, or if I should change a fly, I am just completely focused on the fly's that are in the water and the fish I am trying to catch. You will only catch fish with your flies in the water and no where else so be efficient with your time, and if you have to make a change do it for a reason and not just because you are addicted to changing flies.
This is where I begin to trust my process and all the work I have done in the previous weeks. You have to believe in your ability and have complete confidence in what you are doing and it will work for you.  

The aftermath:
No matter where I finish on the day be it in first or last I do realize that there is only so much we as anglers can do to determine or days results, the luck of the draw and the fishes behaviors can have a huge outcome on results. But I have found that if I have fished well and done all I can do to maximize my fishing time on the day; I fished with purpose and confidence then I am satisfied with what I have achieved.  
I take what I can from the day in lessons and use them to improve my approach for the next event if you don't learn something that needs to be worked on to better your fishing then you are not being honest to yourself and you wont progress, if something is not right or good enough then work on it for the next day. 

This is my general approach to fly fishing and competitions and most anglers have other methods they find that suits them and work for them. You should look at yours and if you are not happy or confident in it then spend some time getting it right and your fishing will be more effective. No matter what though always trust the process. 

I hope you enjoy reading this post and if you have any comments or questions just drop me a line below, also if you would like to see whats coming next just sign in and follow us. Thanks for reading.