Hi
All,
Welcome to February 07 Newsletter
Well I don't think I
need to mention the weather, certainly it's making things frustrating at
times. Here in Canterbury it's cool and overcast yet again..... and know
it's just about too late to actually have a summer, with Autumn
lurking just round the corner......Maybe and Indian Summer let hope.
A
Fly Fishing thought.
Do you rely on your indicator too
much? It's an interesting question because indicators
do help us catch fish
of that there is no doubt. But they do spook fish? Yes of that also
there is
little doubt. On a recent trip to a back country SI stream this very
quickly became apparent when fishing to some very spooky fish.
Visibility was difficult, the fish hard to see and hard to keep in
contact with as they fed. But cast an indicator up over them and they
were gone....even though it was small, just a little piece of wool, we
tried a small black gnat with a nymph on as a dropper but the fish weren't
having that either. So what's the answer?
Well that takes a little
time, a little experience and a good set of eyes
It's my opinion that if
you enjoy sight fishing and your eye sight is still OK; ie if
you're still on the younger side of about 45! then don't use
them.....unless you really have to. You'll learn to be a much better
fisher if you do because instead of watching your indicator you'll be
watching the fish and watching for it's response to your flies. You'll
notice what spooks it and what doesn't, you'll see how it reacts to
different flies, you'll learn to respond to what the fish does rather
than what your indicator does. So fishing without an indicator is a good
skill to develop, and ultimately you'll strike your fish almost
instinctively.
So how do you fish
without an indicator? It starts with the presentation, watching for the
splash of the nymph landing. Land it just far enough ahead of your fish
to give it time to sink to the required depth and a little to the side.
This will make the fish turn in that direction, then watching to see your
fish move to intercept your sunken fly, sometimes you'll see a mouth
opening and closing, but not always - then the strike
It's definitely the skills
that develop as a result of this that's the good part, along with
catching more fish!
Observation is the key,
watching and responding, and learning from that response.
But what about those very
spooky fish in the difficult spotting conditions, how do we cope with
them without and indicator?
Well that part takes
time, but every day you're out fishing in good spotting conditions
without your indicator you be training yourself up for those very spooky
fish on bad spotting days. It's the combination of those skills leant
that will allow you to catch those difficult fish. The techniques the
same, but you'll be relying on a combination of observation, experience,
instinct and guess-estimation for timing the strike. But until those
skills develop watch for the splash of the nymph, estimate it's drift,
then start to pick up once you think the nymph's past the fish, if you
feel resistance set the hook.
Hope all that make sense,
if you can master it, it'll take your fishing to a new level, if you
already do this, then you're probably a member of the 10% club who catch
most of the fish....
The Website: Out of stock items.
Unlike in a shop when a product gets sold out it's simply no longer
on the self, the website keeps showing the product. I try to keep all
products in stock, but at times we do get caught short, normally it takes only
a couple of days to restock but at times our suppliers run out of
product too, when this happens I update the site to reflect that.
Out of stock items can still be ordered. We will only charge your card
once the product is actually sent
Tight Lines
Steve Gerard
Flyshop NZ
13 Cameron St
Methven
Tel 03 3028448
Fax 03 3028441
www.flyshop.co.nz
Email
Steve
P.S. If you have
friends that you think would be interested in the www.flyshop.co.nz
website please forward this newsletter to them
