Chasing Fry Feeders in the Spring: Two Great Fry Patterns for Early Lough Fishing

With the new year celebrations a distant memory now it is  this time of year a lot of anglers start to turn there attention to the early cool days on the Loughs soon to come. I have found over the years that fishing Irish Loughs in February and early March can be difficult and frustrating at times. The fish can be very moody and quite, this not being helped with little or no fly life about if we experience a cold start to the spring.
Now I have experienced both sides of the boat during this time of the year, one being on the great Western Lakes freezing hoping for a pull of a trout and the other going out on the opening day on the Corrib and returning five or six nice lumps through out the day. Over the last number of seasons it has been the Midland lakes, especially Lough Owel that are my early haunts and they proved to be just as frustrating as any other lake in the spring. However, I do manage to have some good days during the early months and it normally involves horsing out sinking lines and stripping back fast fry patterns. Not only by doing this do I feel I have a good chance of aggravating a trout into taking my lure but it also keeps the blood flowing and helps to take your mind off the cold wet lines and cutting breezes.

Here are two Fry patterns that have produced some fish in the early months, I normally fish them on a Di 3-5 sinking lines or Di 3-5 Sweep line; with two flies on the cast and vary my depths and retrieves till I get some action.

Fly No. 1 The Grey Minky 

Hook: Dohiku W 12sl or 10sl
Thread: Piscarifly fine strong Kevlar silk
Tail: Pinch of red holographic dubbing
Body: Sliver UV holographic micro fritz
Wing: Grey minky rabbit strip with a strand of sliver holographic tinsel down each side
Beard: Pinch of red holographic dubbing

This is a very natural looking fry pattern that moves really well in the water and can take a couple of fussy and lazy fish when little else will work. It is a sleek minky when wet and it also can be tied in a black version by just replacing the grey strip with a black rabbit minky strip.

Fly No.2 The Humongous

Hook: Dohiku W 12sl or 10sl
Thread: Piscarifly fine strong Kevlar silk
Eyes: Bead chain sliver filled with Neon Yellow UV nail varnish
Tail: Black rabbit fur with sliver holographic tinsel strips down each side 
Body: Sliver UV holographic micro fritz
Hackle: Grizzle ribbed with clear mono
Beard: Pinch of red holographic dubbing

Now the Humongous lure can be tied in a countless number of forms and colours, and it is a great early season lure; with those chain beads they can fish well down in the water and pick up the low lying fish. For me this is one of my better combinations, it looks fantastic in the water and is a cracking point fly on a Di 3 or 5 sweep. I am not one hundred percent sure if filling the holes left from cutting the bead chain a real game change but they look dam good on a dark spring day in murky waters.
So when you are heading out on the water this spring and there is little fly life about and the dabblers just are not picking up the fish try something a little larger in these from and you could turn a cold bleak session into a day where you pick up a couple of fish.

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.
Also check out my new YouTube channel for all my latest tying and hot tips. 

A Team of Early Season Wet flies for Lough Fishing

The spring for me always brings lots of anticipation and expatiation's for the coming trout season. That first chilly and bumpy ride up across the Lakes of Ireland is a thrilling experience, with the rod made up in the boat and all the new wet flies in my boxes charged and prepared for a long season of trout hunting ahead. It often can be a slow and disappointing start as the trout are still in winter mode around the early part of February, but I have had a few good starts in this month and here is a couple of my trust worthy dressings that could very well make the starting line up this season.

                                                  THE POINT FLY

SLIVER DABBLER

Hook: size 12-10 B175 Kamasan 
Thread: Red twist thread 
Tail: UV polar chenille
Rib: Sliver wire 
Body: Flat sliver tinsel
Body Hackle:  Grizzle cock hackle 
Wing/ Cloak: Light bronze mallard  
Cheek : Split jungle cock feather in center and tie half on each side of the fly 



THE MIDDLE DROPPER
FIERY BROWN DABBLER

Hook: size 12-10 B175 Kamasan 
Thread: olive twist thread
Tail: natural pheasant tail 
Tag: Glo-brite no 8
Rib: Gold wire 
Dubbing: Brown blend dubbing 
Body Hackle: Dark ginger cock hackle
Wing: Bronze mallard 
Cheeks: Sunburst turkey biots  

THE TOP DROPPER 
GRIZZLE BIBIO

Hook: size 12-10 B175 Kamasan 
Thread: Black twist thread 
Tail: Natural golden pheasant tippets
Rib: Sliver wire 
Dubbing: In three parts black/red/black blend dubbing 
Body Hackle: Black and grizzle wound down the body together.
Shoulder Hackle: Jungle cock back feather

I have dozens of good trust worthy lake flies and theses are just three of the one for the early part of the season, I do like to fish these on a fast or slow intermediate line and I strip them back fast which I find is good for attracting follows from hungry trout at this time of the year. It is important though to dabble the fly's on the surface of the lake just before you lift off to recast, this is often the moment when the chasing trout will attack the fly. 
These flies will be used through out the season on different occasions as the sliver dabbler is a good fish catcher all year around; the Fiery dabbler is a good early and late season fly in September it has given me some great bags of fish. The top dropper fly I like it to be a bumble or bushy fly for two reasons, one is it makes good noise to attract fish and secondly it is a good structure of a fly to dabble at the end of a retrieve just like the Duck fly bumble in my eariler post, http://peterdriver.blogspot.ie/2014/02/duck-fly-bumble.html. These flies are worth giving a swim this February and hopefully you will enjoy these dressing as much as I have and with the same success. 
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 and what I am tying for the coming season just sign in and follow us. Thanks for reading.