(New techniques gleaned from English competition fisher John Horsey) Freshwater Fishing, Issue 48 Neil Grose

The phrase "loch style fly fishing" has in many anglers' minds been the term used to describe the dibbling of a bushy bob fly across a rippled lake surface, and indeed this is the description that Irish and Scottish exponents of the craft would understand it to be. This would still no doubt be the case if not for the recent application of cutting edge English techniques to our Australian trout waters, in particular, the Tasmanian highland lakes. The English have long been at the forefront of competition angling, the offshoot of this is the proliferation of innovative techniques that increase both the catch rate, and the enjoyment of our angling.

While some of the following techniques are for the "hardcore" competition angler, most can be utilised for the more relaxed devotees of the long wand. It is important to understand that the term "loch style" refers to any fly fishing method that is done out of a boat drifting broadside with the wind at the anglers back. This can be fishing a team of wets, dries, fast sinking lines or what ever. The English have in the last five or so years really begun to challenge what loch style fly fishing actually is, extending the basic premise from its traditional base to something more in tune with the next millennium, rather than the last. The English as a matter of course use three flies, in most states of Australia there are only provisions for the use of two, Tasmania currently in the process of allowing three. Three works best, but with some careful divergent thinking, most anglers can modify their rig to maximise the benefit of multiple flies.

There are three main areas in which the English have extended the efficacy of fly fishing; sink line fishing, traditional loch style fishing and dry fly fishing. Leader design also is important, and each of these areas is discussed in terms of the basic concept, and how this translates into an Australian context.

The English are far more advanced in their usage of sinking fly lines than we can begin to imagine. The average English reservoir angler would have four or five different sinking lines, from a slow sinking intermediate to an extra fast sinking line that goes down at the rate of about 25 to 35 centimetres a second. If Australian anglers actually have a sinking line, it is probably a mid range type sinker, that usually sinks at the rate of 10 to 15 centimetres a second, quite slow in an English context. The essential premise with the usage of sinking lines is that when trout are not feeding on top, they will, by default, be active at a depth requiring deeper techniques than allowed for by floating tackle. If the incorrect line is used, the flies will either be above or below the strike zone. Finding the right depth and therefore the correct line can often be a long process of trial and error, local knowledge combined with seasonal influences can shorten the odds considerably. English competition anglers are exceptional at quickly finding the right depth, their record in international competitions is testament to this.

If we are to classify sinking lines in a numerical sense, an intermediate line would be a type 1, the fastest sinking lines would be a type 8. Most of the impoundment's the Brits are fishing vary in depth from 3 metres to 50 metres, the fastest sinking line can fish at around 18 to 20 metres. Comparative Australian fisheries are waters such as Lakes Jindabyne and Eucumbene in the Snowy's, to deep lakes like Dee, Echo and Great Lake, and to a certain extent Arthurs Lake in Tasmania. The necessity of the differing sink rates rises from two dimensions, the depth of water and the strength of the wind. The deeper the water the faster the sink rate needed to attain the depth. The stronger the wind the faster the boat moves and the less time that the line has to sink. Therefore a greater rate of descent is required to compensate.

To cover most eventualities, three sinking lines fit the bill, a type 1 intermediate, a type 4 medium sinker, and a type 7 or 8 fast sinker. Sink line fishing is not for the faint hearted, the longer the angler can cast the better, if you can cast the full line then your catch rate with sinkers will be ten fold of those who can't. Champion anglers such as Peter Hayes enjoy regular success with the sinking line due in no small part to his ability to consistently cast the entire line. Probably the most versatile sinking line that my client's use when guided during the season is the Cortland clear camouflage intermediate. This line produces results right through the summer when surface sport fails to eventuate. One instance comes to mind with American angler Hugh Clarke, who while fishing two nymphs slow and deep in Arthurs Lake managed to land a rare double header, one on each fly! Later in the day he boated many fish using the same line with woolly buggers, the versatility of this option driven home.

The types of flies that are used with these sinking lines fall into three categories, nymphs, lures, and boobies. Nymph and lure type flies are generally fished with all line types, depending upon the depth required. As mentioned before the line type will vary with wind strength, in a strong wind an intermediate will not sink far before the boat drifts over it, where a type 7 will plummet to the bottom in a flat calm. The type 7 or 8 is a fantastic line to use with a new (to us) concept in the booby fly. The booby is a fly design that utilises high density foam eyes and a marabou tail, the lovely kicking action as it is retrieved is tantalising to even the most fastidious of trout. Its effectiveness comes from the buoyancy in the foam eyes. As the line is retrieved the fly ducks down, then drifts up, as opposed to a woolly bugger, which bobs up, then sinks down. Many English anglers regard the booby as a fly only for stockie Rainbow trout, but rest assured the wild Brownies in Tasmania don't have similar preconceptions. Whether fishing down deep with nymphs, pulling normal lure type flies, or using flies such as the booby, sinking lines open up a whole new world to the thinking angler. Bear in mind 80 to 90 percent of a trouts diet is beneath the surface!

While guiding here in Tasmania we have developed a method of loch style fishing , which essentially comprises a heavy point fly, a flashy middle fly, and a bushy bob fly. The theory behind this is that the heavy point fly anchors the team in the water, the flashy middle fly attracts the fish, and the bob fly creates the wake to ultimately encourage the strike. While this theory is excellent, (as many of our clients will attest) it is not strictly what the Irish and Scottish would recognise as their top of the water technique. The teams of flies these nationalities would use would be all bushy bob flies, that is, the team would comprise of three palmered flies, each of a different colour and style, but none the less they would all be termed in our vernacular as 'bob flies'.

The manner that they are utilised is to cast a very short line, say 10 to 15 metres, and then strip them back once or twice, and then dibble each of them in succession, first the top fly, then the middle fly, and finally the point fly. This technique covers twice the water that 'our' method does, and if the fish are feeding in the top layers of the water it raises every fish that sees the flies. The trouble is hooking them once they lunge at the fly. This way of angling requires great skill to manipulate the rod, flies and wind so as to maintain a steady dibble of the flies as the come through the waves. It is always a good idea to vary the angle of your cast until you find the right formula for the day. 8 times out of 10 the cast angled at 45 degrees to the boat gives the best results, but don't ignore the cast straight down the wind.

A team of flies used in this style that anglers in this country may be familiar with is a Claret Dabbler, a Soldier Palmer, and a Zulu, with the Dabbler as the fly closest to the fly line. Trout can often be seen bow waving behind one of the flies, resulting in a take as the target fly is dibbled. In season 98/99 our way of loch style fishing accounted for many large bags of trout, particularly in Arthurs Lake. By using a team of all bushy bob flies the fishing will no doubt be even more spectacular this season.

A similar style has been developed by English champion John Horsey in Bristol, England on the waters of Chew and Blagdon reservoirs, and is as close to having an each way bet as you can get. This style, called Bristol long line, combines three quite disparate fly styles into one technique. The fly make up in this style of fishing is a lure type fly on the point, such as a Mrs Simpson, Red and Black Matuka, Woolly Bugger or Bill Beck Cat Fly, an imitative nymph in the middle, such as a Pheasant Tail or Brown Nymph, and a large disturbance style of bob fly on the top dropper, such as a Muddler Minnow or Dabbler. This technique involves casting as far as you can down wind, and then varying the retrieve to suit each different fly.

For example, the first cast might be stripped back quite quickly to compliment the lure pattern on the point, the next cast may be retrieved with a slow retrieve to match the nymph pattern, and the third dibbled to utilise the bushy bob fly. The attraction of this style is that anglers can quickly find the method that the trout are looking for on a particular day. Smart anglers have the three different retrieve types within the one retrieve. Certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but it has potential to make fishing more productive, which probably is everyone's cup of tea.

By far and away the most profound innovations to be developed within the loch style genre is a method termed short line dry fly fishing. In its basic form it comprises using three dry flies, and fan casting them 10 to 15 yards in rapid succession, leaving them on the water for only 30 or 40 seconds. These dries are usually fished blind, although rising fish are of course covered. The flies and the leader are the essential secret to this style, and readers of English magazines will be well familiar with fly names such as Bob's Bits, the Carrot fly, the Hopper style of flies and the Bibio. The flies are tied very sparsely with seals fur, mere wisps in most cases and are fished on a leader which is totally degreased. The flies are only just in the surface and barely visible, to the human eye, at least.

The leader must always be degreased, even if it has to be done every ten minutes. The technique is one of rapidly covering the water, presenting the flies as often as three times a minute! The real success of this technique lays in the ability to cover a lot of water. Slowing the drift with a drogue can significantly REDUCE your success, simply because less water is covered. The order of the day is to fan cast the flies, left, right and centre. Leave them one the water for a short while, 15 to 20 seconds, and then represent them at another angle. This is one technique where a slow pick up off the water can reap big benefits, the trout love them moving as well as static. These flies aren't the sombre ties we are so well accustomed to, either. One colleague refers to them as a box full of traffic lights. Bright red, orange and yellow, they seem out of place in our culture of dull browns and blacks. This is one tradition the trout are not aware of though, some of our most cunning of trout have been seduced by their exuberant charm.

The greatest testing ground for anglers and their respective techniques in Tasmania is undoubtedly the Western Lakes region, so it was here that the big test of this new dry fly style took place. It was a day off, a rare chance to actually have a fish myself (I never fish when guiding clients). Fishing on that fateful day with me was none other than John Horsey, one of the top three competition anglers in the world, and the designer of this technique.

He was adamant that his technique would work.
I was quite skeptical.
I stayed with proven Tasmanian flies.
He caught seven fish.
I caught one.

He is one of the worlds best anglers, so it is not surprising that he caught fish, but the flies that he used to catch on was astonishing. Almost every Tasmanian angler fishing the Western Lakes would hold that small imitative dries are the best, such as black spinner patterns and the ubiquitous Red Tag, but John caught fish on flies that throw all the conventional wisdom out the window, a real relevation for thinking anglers. As soon as possible this style was applied to Arthurs Lake with guided clients; success was instantaneous.

Apart from the type of flies that John used, he also maintains that this style of dry fly fishing will out fish traditional methods of loch style fishing. The theory is that trout only respond to dibbled bob flies when they are feeding in the top layers of the lake, or when they are in relatively shallow water. With the dibbled fly technique, probably half the fish that come to the fly don't make it into the boat, due mostly to the fly moving away from them as they take. With this new concept in dry flies, the presentation is stationary, the target does not move, and provided the angler gives the regulation delayed strike, 9 out of 10 trout receive the 'welcome aboard' mantra.

As mentioned at the beginning, the construction of the leader is important to these new concepts. If you were thinking that there is a whole range of complicated formulae, dictating micrometer readings and stretch coefficients, think again. The leader formula that the English, in particular John Horsey are recommending is a 13 foot level piece of material, for example six pound of YOUR favourite material, with two droppers five feet apart. Making the leader is simplicity in itself. Measure off about 13 feet, put one dropper in at three feet from the fly line, the next at five feet from the first dropper. Tie on what ever flies you care to choose, degrease it, and go fishing. As the wind is always at your back in this style of fishing, turning over the leader is not an issue, the wind does it for you. If anything needs to be done at all just open up your loop on the forward cast. All the above methods can give the thinking angler some spectacular sport, both down in Davey Jones' locker and with the dry fly, which of course is the ideal way to snare the elusive speckled ones. There is one snag in considering all of this, and that is most state's angling regulations only provide for the use of two flies at a time. Progressive organisers of fly fishing competitions in this country have been given permission for competitors to use three flies, and no doubt in time this will flow through to the recreational fishery. In the meantime, creative anglers can come up with excellent solutions, I'm sure. The application of these techniques has had a profound impact on the way I and others now approach fishing loch style, and these methods add to the overall package that I as a recreational and competition angler will use, as well as complimenting the methods that clients use when they are guided through our magnificent and diverse fishery.