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Lessons from America. An appreciation
of two books:
  I
have chosen to highlight these two books
because they complement each
other and
extend
the messages we try to convey in our all-too-brief guiding and
instruction sessions on UK rivers on and around Dartmoor in Devon. |
John
Gierach's "Fly Fishing Small Streams" is a beautifully
constructed
mixture
of 'how-to' information and
mental approach to small
stream fishing. For example, Gierach has a refreshing approach to the
'lunker'
mentality:
"So let me
introduce an idea - just something to kick around: Maybe your stature
as a fly fisherman isn't determined by how big a trout you can catch,
but by how small
a trout you can catch without being disappointed, and,
of course, without losing the faith that there's a bigger one in there".
(From 'Fly Fishing Small Streams").
We are lucky because Dartmoor's rivers teem with
small trout, which at times can be free rising and liberate
childish delight in all of us. And there are occasional bigger trout
in surprising places. Last season a colleague returned a 14" trout
within yards of a normally busting tourist honey trap, and there is
always the possibility of hooking a sea trout. Here's our take on the
subject of brown trout size in local rivers.
Time is short in instruction sessions. We constantly feel under
pressure
to teach purely mechanical skills - controlling wrist break or
tying knots that won't slip. Just as important is the need for
stealth when approaching and entering the water. Often the best thing
to do is simply stand still and do nothing. But fifteen minutes of just
standing and staring would be hard to justify in a short
session. Gierach devotes an entire chapter to this important
topic which begins:
"I think stealth , and its
various manifestations rates it own chapter. It's an underrated skill
in fly fishing that's often listed after casting, entomology, wading,
and even fly tying in order of importance, but I could introduce you to
several fly fishers around here who can't cast worth a damn, don't know
a mayfly from a barn owl, and wade like buffaloes, but who still catch
lots of trout because they know how to sneak up on them."
Pure Gierach - seemingly effortless prose but used with deadly
precision.He has useful things to say about many topics including: etiquette, casting a dry fly downstream rather than the conventional upstream approach, the use of streamers - a very underused technique, and the perennial problem of choosing a rod for small stream fishing:
"I once worked in a fly shop and
the hardest thing I had to do there was help customers pick out fly
rods - customers who didn't know exactly what they wanted, that is.
What most chose to do was take every rod in the store out into the
parking lot for a test drive and then buy the one they could cast the
furthest with. I spent a lot of time, saying things like, "Well, that's
very nice, but most of the casts you'll be making around here will be
more like from here to that pickup truck, less than thirty feet -
sometimes considerably less."
How true, how very, very true. An awful lot of rods seem designed to
cast into the next county. And to emphasize how 'fast' they are, they
sport names that you normally see on the back of sports cars. Here are
some of our thoughts
on selecting suitable tackle.Gierach's chapter on fly selection is refreshingly honest. He describes two familiar stages of developing an appropriate fly collection that - believe me - we all go through: Stage 1 is 'thrashing around' collecting every fly known to man and buying ever-more complicated and expensive fly boxes. I have found myself seriously considering buying a box designed to keep water out, despite owning a much simpler fly box that was carefully constructed to allow water on flies to drain out! Some folk progress to Stage 2 which involves 'over-simplification' - a tiny collection of patterns based on the theory that trout in small streams are 'generalists' and will eat anything that floats past them. Or, as Gierach puts it:
If I absolutely had to go
fishing with only two flies, they'd be an Adams and a Hare's Ear Soft
Hackle, but lets not kid ourselves. Nobody goes fishing with just two
flies unless he's secretly using worms or trying to win a bet."
I confess to almost becoming stuck at this 'minimalist' stage of development. If you find yourself in a similar predicament, take a look at Ed Engle's "Fishing Small Flies".
This may help us progress to Stage 3 - Matching the Hatch.
One unique feature in Engle's book is the series of "Match the Life Cycle" diagrams that summaries the life cycle, patterns and fishing tactics for the types of insects we encounter on Dartmoor rivers and streams: ephemeroptera, midges, and microcaddis. We may not really need to closely match the hatch, but it helps boost confidence - and gives a new dimension to the richness of the fishing experience - if you have a rationale for using a particular fly presented in a particular manner.
Engle devotes an entire chapter to the
importance of taking time to watch how
trout rise; this may give a clue as to the insects they are feeding on,
and
perhaps more importantly where they are feeding - taking insects on or
just below the surface. He draws on Marinaro's
distinction between simple, complex and compound rise forms and repeats
Marinaro's explanation that these different forms reflect the trout's
level of suspiciousness
about the (artificial) fly. I am a great admirer of Marinaro's work, but I might quibble with the idea that trout are suspicious. Certainly it looks like suspicion from a human point of view. But it's difficult see how this behaviour would have evolved in trout. I prefer the simpler explanation that variations in rise forms are due to the trouts' visual system, environmental factors such as the rate of current flow, and the structure of different insects. But then I am known as a bit of a pedant about this type of thing!
The important point is that Engle's chapter on observation together with Gierach's chapter on stealth and watercraft will help you get more enjoyment from your fishing.
Engle stresses simplicity in his choice of tackle. For example, he goes into great detail on leader design. But his open-mindedness shines through when he admits that he "still goes back and forth" about the merits of knotless over hand tied leaders. He gives the following down to earth advice:
"The key is to experiment with
different leader designs until you find one that works for normal
conditions where you fish."
The problem of 'drag' figures prominently
throughout the
book. For example:"Drag is especially challenging
for small-fly fishermen because its effects can be more difficult to
detect when fishing a fly that may not be even visible on the water's
surface. The best course of action is to assume that drag exists on
anything but the shortest of casts and act accordingly. Consider your
position before the cast, use casts that put slack in the leader, and
if necessary, mend the fly line once it's on the water to counteract
drag."
Descriptions of the whole range of techniques that avoid drag and
achieve dead-drift presentation when fishing dry flies and nymphs are
at the heart of Engle's book. Engle also reproduces the full instructions for tying the surgeon's loop or double-overhand loop knot which is used to attach the fly to the tippet. The fly is held within a loop at the end of the tippet. This reduces the 'lashing tail' effect which can occur with a conventional clinch or half-blood knot: A simple step but it may just make the difference between success and failure.
Paul Kenyon & Geoff Stephens, Fly Fishing Devon guides and instructors