LOCH STYLE FLY FISHING FOR TROUT

Loch Style Fly Fishing is fly-fishing over the lee side of a boat that is side onto the wind with the wind at your back. Its no more complicated than that. Whilst many Australians attribute Loch Style fishing to a technique imported from Europe only over the last few years that's not completely correct because there have been exponents in Australia for many years. Just because they didn't call it Loch Style fishing doesn't mean it wasn't Loch Style Fish Fishing. What has happened however is that over the last ten years our boat fishing techniques have been profoundly influenced by what we have read and what we have been shown about European Loch Style Fishing and there has been almost a wholesale adoption of a range of techniques and flies. By the way that evolution hasn't been a one way street and often you will read for example an English magazine such as "Trout Fisherman" and come across distinctly Australian ideas and flies.

Any way back to the basics. All fishing techniques have their place and the real skill is in knowing when to employ a particular technique. Loch Style Fishing is no different and the aim of this article is to help identify when and how to employ a particular Loch Style Fishing technique. There are a number of key elements and I will deal with each of those individually. These key elements are like building blocks and the more of these basic building blocks you have in place the more success you will have.

READING THE WATER & THE WIND.

Reading the lake, impoundment or even a larger river is important. My preferred depth for lock style fly fishing is that range between five and twenty five feet where there is structure or any depth of water if I am fishing a wind lane. Look for weed beds, rocky undulations, drop offs, drowned timber and of course wind lanes and wind direction. All of these are forms of structure and help concentrate what fish feed on and of course the fish. The structure fits neatly into two categories. The first is the fixed structure such as the weed beds, rocky undulations, small bays and soaks, drop offs and drowned timber. These of course are pretty easy to determine and except for changes caused by significant weather conditions or changes in water depth they will always be in the same position. If fixed structure is not visible then you can either identify it with the aid of a sounder or by word of mouth from somebody that knows the area better than you. If all else fails you can make some educated guesses based on your previous experience. That is to say that for example weed beds are generally in similar depths of water and in similar terrain. The same applies to rocky undulations. If its rocky along the shore or there are large boulders along the shore in all probability similar terrain will apply to adjacent waters. Also there is a lot to be said for searching these areas out for your self. If time permits its nice to develop your very own range of likely locations based on experiences built up over successive fishing outings. That doesn't always mean however that once you have found structure you have found fish its just one part of the building blocks I spoke of.

Perhaps the most significant building block is wind direction. Wind direction provides what I like to think of a very variable structure and unfortunately the wind is often overlooked. As well as blowing food onto the water surface wind creates both surface and sub-surface currents and those currents dictate where food will be concentrated and consequently where fish are likely to be feeding. The more windy the more chance there is of True Terrestrials such as Beetles and Grass Hoppers being blown onto the water and of course the stronger both the surface and sub-surface currents will be. There is however a range of winds that its comfortable to Loch Style Fishing and, except when competition fishing, I generally draw the line at winds above about 15 knots. Beyond that it is just plain uncomfortable on the water and very difficult even with a drogue to get a drift slow enough to allow you to adequately fish the water, particularly if you are wet fly fishing. You can of course seek out wind protected areas such as the lee of islands and protected bays but you should keep in mind that its likely the fish will be where the wind is because it's channeling food in one form or another into concentrated pockets. Any way its all a compromise. Rather than seeking out those sheltered bays and protected areas one option is to revert to "short lining". You can appreciate that fishing on a windblown Scottish Loch that it would be advisable to shorten or modify your casting technique so as to avoid tangles. The British developed this technique to deal with just that type of situation. It's a method of managing lock style fishing rigs when fishing windy water and starts with a short false cast with the wind and then a back cast and final forward cast as a contiguous sweeping arc-like motion which allows the wind to safely get the flies into position albeit closer to the boat than perhaps would be the case on a calmer day with a normal cast. In windy conditions being close to your target isn't as much as a problem as on calmer days because the turbulence on the water caused by the wind provides some visual protection. In any case you'll also be moving quicker because of the wind and as a consequence fishing new water with each cast. It should be noted that even when it's not so windy shorter casts will actually cover more water. The offset of course is that if your too close to where your fishing you may spook fish and if your fishing wet then your flies may not have time to get to the desired depth before being overtaken by the boat.

At the other extreme avoid days where the wind is too soft. Not only will the food not be in concentrated pockets and lanes but because the boat will drift too slowly you will not cover as much terrain as you could have for example had you walked the bank. The exception to this rule of course would be hatches of midges and some other insects which often occur on the stillest of days and being becalmed in the middle of one of these hatches may not be a bad thing.

As one additional point of interest I must admit to having almost a phobia against fishing when the wind is blowing directly from the east. I don't know what it is but I always get the impression that there are fewer active fish at those times. And of course there is that old adage "when the winds from the east the fishing is least".

Wind lanes are also a very variable structure and occur when the wind comes from the same direction for a sustained period of time and is channeled along lanes or paths because of the surrounding topography. A by product of the process is a concentration of terrestrial food as it is blown into these concentrated paths or lanes as well as a concentration of suspended food as the surface currents and sub-surface currents act in much the same way as wind on the surface.

OTHER WEATHER CONDITIONS

There are a number of other weather factors you should also consider. Cloud coverage is important as is the barometric pressure. Avoid clear bright days, except perhaps when your fishing to fish that are on buzzers or hoppers. Although it's very pleasant for the fly fisher on the water on those sorts of days shadows cast by your boat, your rod and yourself will be problems and in any case trout will probably be keeping out of the sun. Constant cloud cover creates the best of conditions and as long as you don't mind getting wet then a light rain is good as well. In these conditions shadows are not a problem and when combined with a light breeze and structure it's likely that fish will be freely moving about feeding and they won't even see you unless you make yourself obvious. I don't worry too much about the barometric pressure except to the extent of avoiding Loch Style Fishing (and fishing in general) when the barometric pressure is changing quickly. I think quick changes in barometric pressure puts fish down and off their tucker. Generally the higher and more stable the barometric pressure the better. You don't often get ideal barometric pressure conditions and I regard any barometric pressure that is above average and reasonably stable as acceptable.

TECHNIQUES

Now its time to consider the Loch Style Fishing technique that we will use. There are of course two basic forms of Loch Style Fishing , that is wet fly and dry fly. Having said that there is also a grey area in between and I'll also deal with that. Which form you utilize will be dictated by a what you think the fish are doing.

If fish are actively feeding on the surface the dry fly form may be the best - it can certainly be very visible and very satisfying. Its hard to imaging more fun that watching a big brown slowly rise to the surface to inhale one of your flies - and all the better if you tied that fly yourself. There are two basic times when a team of dry flies should be considered. The first is when there are good populations of True Terrestrials such as Beetles and Grass Hoppers on the surface of the water and trout are actively feeding on them and when there is enough surface activity for you to feel confident that your dry fly team can be put in the vicinity of actively feeding fish. In these conditions a team of two or three dry flies that represent in form and function what the trout are feeding on is a good choice. There are a couple of Loch Style dry fly fishing techniques that I employ.

The first is to cast the team of flies away from the boat in the direction of the drift allowing the flies to settle on the water in a natural manner and then either allow them to sit or to be retrieved slowly before being retrieved and recast. The cast itself should be executed so that the line stops in the air above the target area and then the flies settle down rather than being slapped onto the water. The exception may be when large terrestrials like Grass Hoppers or Cicadas are landing on the water. At times like that finesse is often not important. Whilst as mentioned above you can execute a slow retrieve I like to land the team of dry flies on the water wait a count of just 5 to 10 seconds, give them just a twitch, wait another 5 to 10 seconds pick the flies up and then repeat this in a new location. By doing this you are truly searching the water. It is significant to note that the tippet should be treated with a fullers earth compound so that it sinks and only the dry flies remain on the surface. The variation involves casting the team of flies away from the boat in the direction of the drift allowing the flies to settle on the water for 5 to 10 seconds and then retrieving them, or skating them,  across the surface of the water and then dibbling them across the surface of the water as the rod is lifted for the next cast. Dibbling is really just another term used to describe using a fly to create a wake on the surface 9orm just below the surface when fishing wets) of the water and consequently the top fly is sometimes called a wake fly.

You should vary the retrieve from very slow strips and twitches right through to constant but slow retrieves right through to a fast "Roly Poly" retrieve. You can get close to a constant slow retrieve using a figure of eight retrieve or better still cast out only twenty or so feet of line, let your flies settle and then with the line held only with your retrieving arm make a long constant retrieve that goes straight into a sweep that becomes the lift. Rainbows particularly like the constancy of this slow constant action. This technique also eliminates the need for false casting and maximizes the time that the fly spends in the water. Sure your fishing closer to the boat or bank but particularly around structure this seems to have little effect with strikes often being right when you think your going to run out of water. The Roly Poly retrieve involves putting the butt of the rod into your arm pit of your casting arm freeing up both hands and then retrieving as quick as possible using a hand over hand  retrieve. I like to distinguish my retrieves in terms of either "stripping" the fly, "twitching" the fly or "pumping" the fly. To me stripping the fly involves a constant rate of retrieve such as that achieved through a slow figure of eight retrieve or a Roly Poly retrieve whereas twitching the fly involves a jerky intermittent action. Its worth experimenting and varying the stripping and twitches of the retrieve until you start getting takes. Pumping is a wet fly fishing term and I'll describe the technique a little later in this article. The faster the retrieve the more dramatic the wake and the more appealing to some fish, particularly rainbows. The third dry fly technique I like is appropriate in windier conditions when fish are actively taking emerging insects. It involves repeatedly casting one fly or a team of flies on a line, leader and tippet treated to float, away from the boat and then lifting the rod tip and drawing it around in an arc so as to cause the flies to dance or dabble across the surface of the water. Some of the terminology is a bit weird but "dabbling" is similar to "dapping" and involves the fly or flies moving across the surface of the water whereas "dibbling" involves moving the fly or flies through the surface creating a wake. These surface techniques produces some of the most spectacular strikes you will ever see.

You may have heard of "Placeto's rule" which is also known as the 80:20 rule. If you applied to fly fishing for trout it would probably state that 80% of a fly fishers activity is expended on fishing to the 20% of trout that feed on the surface. Whilst takes on a dry fly are certainly more dramatic, obvious and satisfying unless the choice of dry fly prerequisites detailed above are met then you are better off using wet fly fishing techniques in your endeavors.

Wet fly Loch Style fishing technique are very effective and involve casting out either one or a team of flies in the direction of the drift and then fishing any or all of  a range of techniques including "the sink", "static", "the strip" or "the pump", "the lift", "the hold" and "the dibble".

Obviously the starting point is to cast the fly or flies away from the boat in the direction of the drift. Unless the fish are right at the surface the fly or flies are then allowed to sink to the desired depth whilst the fly fisher retrieves at a speed that just maintains contact with the business end of the outfit. It's often useful to count the flies down so that once fish have been located you can get successive casts down to roughly the same depth. This is called fishing "the sink". Sometimes takes are on the sink and unless you have maintained contact through the line to the flies the fish may take and reject the fly without you ever knowing that has occurred.

Also at this point it should be noted that one very effective lock style fly fishing method is to fish the flies static. Whilst fishing a booby static in English stocked waters in Australian waters I have found that small flies are a much better option. A team of Chironomids, wee wets or soft hackle flies fished on a longer leader below a floating line can be a very effective technique particularly in very quiet days. Whilst the flies are fished static you may still need to retrieve line to compensate for drift and to keep in contact with the flies.

If you not fishing the flies static once the fly or team of flies are at the desired depth one or both of two basic retrieves are employed. You can retrieve your flies using either the "stripping" or "twitching " action described above or a "pumping" action or a combination of two or three of the different types of retrieves. The retrieve can be anything from a very slow constant strip or twitch with or without a pump action right through to a fast 'Roly Poly" stripping retrieve.  It's worth experimenting and varying the strip, twitch and pump of the retrieve until you start getting takes. Which action you use will depend upon a number of factors including the depth of water the type of line and the type of flies you are using. At one extreme you may choose to fish a fast sinking line in water of say 25 feet depth. One option here would be to fish a booby on the tip and say a Mallard and Claret above that. If after fishing the drop you retrieve the line using short sharp pumps with 2 or 3 second stops between you can imagine the team of flies being pulled downward as the fast sinking line is stripped and then slowly rising on the stop because if the intrinsic buoyancy of the booby on the point. It's this up and down movement that conjures up the term "pumping the fly". As an alternative you may retrieve the booby with a slow stripping action hopefully creating an impression for close by trout of a small fish or yabby just nonchalantly mooching along the bottom or at least at depth. You can of course fish at the opposite extreme. If you were fishing in say only 5 feet of water above a permanent weed bed in most circumstances a floating line would be the choice. With either a sink tip or a heavy fly such as a beadhead nymph on the point and a pumping retrieve you can create the reverse of the above situation. The fly first sinks to the desired depth and then as you retrieve using pump the fly or flies are pulled toward the surface by the floating line only to sink again during the stop. Alternatively you may choose a "Roly Poly" retrieve as described above. In that sort of situation you may be trying to illicit an aggression or territorial response from nearby trout or fool them into to thinking your fly or flies are startled tucker of some sort. You can imaging that between the two extremes and with a combination of stripping and pumping retrieves a lot of options are open.

Once the fly or flies have been retrieved almost to the boat rather than just lifting them out of the water and recasting consider fishing "the lift", "the hold" and "the dibble". How often just as you ripped your line out of the water have you been startled by a hit or seen a fish just behind the fly. In my experience many if not most hits occur in the second half of the retrieve and particularly as the fly or flies are being fished on the lift. From a fishes perspective my guess is that they see one of two things. The first is that it decides that your fly that it has been watching is either food or an intruder and when you commence your lift it (the food or the intruder) is suddenly fleeing to the surface to escape. Alternatively perhaps the rise triggers a perception that the fly is in fact food because now its decided to rise to the surface to emerge. If your using a nymph or nymphs it's useful to make a series of lifts and slow falls imitating the ascent of the natural. In any case just hold your breath as you fish the lift because any thing can happen. If you pause your top fly just about a meter of the surface a fish that has been following a fly may finally take it. This is called "the hold" and it's amazing how sometimes it elicits a strike from following fish which of course may be just out of your site. Fish don't have hands of course and often I wonder weather when a fish takes the fly into its mouth when its being held there weather its just getting hold of it just to see what it is. After holding the fly for just two or three seconds gently complete your retrieve by lifting your top fly to the surface of the water as you sweep you rod around in an ark in preparation for your next cast. The wake created by the top fly being dibbled has brought many a trout unstuck.

There are of course an almost infinite range of options and actions that can be fished and with the right choice between floating lines, intermediate and the various faster sinking lines and with an informed choice of flies and a combination of fishing "the sink", "the strip", "the twitch"  or "the pump", "the lift", "the hold", and "the dibble" outcomes can be very rewarding indeed.

The grey area is not that hard to identify. It relates to hatches of insects such as Caddis flies, Mayflies, Midges and other insects that spend part of their life in the water as well as wind lane fishing. When hatches occur one very effective technique is to fish an emerger or dry imitating the natural on top and a nymph representing the natural below. If its legal you can of course fish three flies for example a dun an emerger and a nymph all being representations of the natural that's hatching. Midges and perhaps Caenis Mayflies may be the exception to that rule because often the dries are so small they won't support the weight of a nymph suspended underneath. The best compromise in that situation is to use a slightly oversize dry of the same basic form. It's better to increase the size of the dry than to compromise the size of the nymph or emerger because even in a hatch it is likely that trout are still taking a lions share of their food below the surface. The second grey area is wind lane fishing. Because the concentrated wind and its associated surface and subsurface are all working and concentrating floating and suspended food its often a good technique to fish a dry on top such as a Beetle or Grass Hopper on top (or what other form of terrestrial you are seeing on the surface) and a fly representing a drowned terrestrial or nymph below.

At this point I would like to mention to you that it's important to think about what you want the fish to see and to make your choices of line type, leader length, choice of flies and mode of retrieve to create the desired perception.

THE TACKLE

Although most fly fishing tackle can be used for Loch Style fly fishing for Trout my preferred set up is either a #6 or #7 weight 10 foot outfit. I like longer rods only because they allow you to fish a slightly longer leader, help a little with casting and because you can manage the "the hold" and "the dibble" a little better with a longer rod.

If you want to fish a range of depths from say 5 to 25 feet you really need a range of lines. On most outings I carry a floating line an intermediate line and a full sinking line. On most occasions unless there is obvious surface activity I start with the line that I expect to put my fly or team of flies within six feet (2 meters) of where I know or expect the fish to be holding. This margin of six feet is about the distance I expect a trout to be able to see a fly and be willing to move to investigate a fly. In clearer water it may be further and in water with reduced visibility you may have to run a fly right past a fish for it to see it. In any case you get the idea.  If you have a don't forget to use it because it will give you a pretty good picture of where the majority of fish are holding and make your line choice easier.

Moving down the rig brings us to the leader and the tippet. I find that the maximum length of leader and tippet combined that is manageable is about 1.8 times the length of the rod. If it's any longer than that there are three problems. The first is that if you are fishing from a seated position if you lift your rod tip to check your team of flies you just can't reach the top fly without taking your leader through the top runner of the rod. The second problem is that if you want to fish "the dibble" effectively and to still have enough lift to strike and hold a fish that takes the fly then unless you want to take your leader through the top runner of the rod then its very hard to fish longer leader. The third problem is similar. If you are playing a fish to the net if your leader is too long then you have to take the joint of the leader to the fly line through the top runner of the rod which may create a potential for break off if the fish surges or runs again at the last moment. The minimum I fish on most lines is about one foot shorter than the length of the rod but that's only when the wind is relatively strong and I want to increase my comfort in managing the line. As a general rule I fish longer leaders in calm clear conditions and shorter leaders in windy overcast conditions.

As a personal preference I like to attach a small 20 to 30 pound Maxima Ultragreen monofilament loop to the end of each of my fly lines. I like the loop connected to the fly line to be about 2/3 the thickness of the fly line. I use a butt section of just four feet of slightly heavier line than the leader I intend to use. I do this for two reasons. First because the heavier line makes a better "open loop" connection to the small loop at the end of my fly line than thin tippet material and secondly because the slightly heavier butt section definitely helps turn over your team of flies. To that butt section I tie two arm spans (5 and a half feet in my case) of tippet material. I use a surgeons knot when joining two sections of tippet together. Tie the knot carefully and even if its between two tippet materials of different thickness or between mono and flurocarbon it wont fail. The droppers are about 25cm long and the fist dropper is about one foot below where the butt and the tippet join and the middle dropper, well its in the middle between the top dropper and the point. The distance between your flies is very important and on balance I would say that five feet is about optimum. Any closer and the close flies may spook fish but the wider the gap the harder to cast the team of flies becomes. I suggest you experiment and come up with a compromise that suites your casting ability and style and of course the weather conditions. As a general rule however I suggest that if you have to drop down to your flies being closer than say three feet in dirty water or four feet in clearer water then you would be better dropping down to a two fly rig with a wider gap than a three fly rig with short gaps between flies. Anyway with this type of leader set up you can pull your point fly hard against the rod tip and swap lines via the loop to "open loop" connection which at that stage will be half way down the rod. I am a strong advocate of using a Lefty's loop knot I connect dry flies to my tippet because that knot allows the fly to swing or swim freely and because its dam strong when tied carefully. I often pre-tie a couple of teams of flies and just wrap them around a sponge so that I can change a full team of flies over pretty quickly.

My optimal set up is set out below:
 

LEADER & TIPPET 4.3 METER LONG OVERALL - DROPPERS 25CM

"OPEN LOOP" TO FLY LINE THEN 4 FOOT (1.2 METER) BUTT SECTION OF 12LB TO 15LB MAXIMA ULTRAGREEN MONOFILIMENT	11 FEET (3.3 METERS) OF 7LB RIO FLUROFLEX PLUS OR 4-TO 6LB MAXIMA ULTRAGREEN
	FIRST DROPPER 300MM  DOWN FROM THE BUTT	SECOND DROPPER HALF  WAY TO THE POINT	POINT

You have probably heard the term "too many flies and too little time" well that certainly applies to lock style fishing. Not only is there a place, as point flies, for your nymphs, wets, streamers and pulling flies but its also useful to carry attractor flies for use on middle droppers and Dibbling or Dabbling flies for use as "Bob" or top dropper flies. Add to that your dry flies for that 20% of time when trout are feeding on the surface and the choices are limitless. The use of the term "team" earlier in this article was important in itself. It is important because as the word "team" suggests the flies that you tie on should work together. Keep that in mind when you select your flies. It's no good selecting flies that are not balanced and continually get tangled up. As a starting point, below, I have suggested a number of teams of flies that work well.
 

FLIES

If your fishing just one fly loch style then obviously you choose the fly that that you think best represents what the fish are feeding on. More often than not however when fishing loch style you will fish a team of two or three flies. The term "team" suggests that the flies have to work together and that is just about the only limitation in fly selection.

POINT FLIES I nearly always make this the fly I would fish if I were only fishing one fly. the exception is when booby pumping when I put my booby on the point.	MIDDLE DROPPER The middle dropper can either be an attractor fly or a fly that gives the fish a second choice.	TOP DROPPER OR BOB FLIES Generally this is a fly that when dibbled across or under the surface forms a wake and has longer hackles that impart movement. Alternatively if your matching a hatch it may be the same as the other two flies or the next stage in the life cycle of the natural that hatching. Sometime it may be a dry fly used as an indicator.
SOME OF MY FAVORITE TEAMS OF LOCH FLIES
WET LOCH STYLE PROSPECTING
TOM JONES	BROWN NYMPH	DUNKELD
WOOLLY BUGGER	TOM JONES	MALLARD & CLARET
BEAD HEAD BIBIO	SOFT HACKLE IRON BLUE	SOFT HACKLE BIBIO
BLOOD WORM	CHIRONOMID	RISING MIDGE
MATCHING THE HATCH
CHIRONOMID	RISING MIDGE	MIDGE BALL
SAND CADDIS	SAND CADDIS GRUB	SAND CADDIS GRUB
OLIVE DAMSEL	TOM JONES	OLIVE WOOLLY BUGGER
SUMMER WIND LANES
Wind lanes accumulate all manner of fare for trout to feed on. Have a good look at what's on the surface and in the current and as best you can "match the hatch". Conceptually you could fish a team of all dry flies, or a team of all wet flies or alternatively you can have the best of both worlds with a floating fly on the top dropper with wets or nymphs below.
FOAM BEETLE	RED TAG	YELLOW HOPPER
DAMSEL NYMPH	TOM JONES	HAIR WINGED HUMPY
BOOBY PUMPING FOR RAINBOWS
BOOBY	ALEXANDRAS	MALLARD & CLARET
BOOBY	TOM JONES	DUNKELD
BLOOD WORM	CHIRONOMID	BOOBY

Just one final point. Whilst I mentioned a drogue only once it important to have a good one and use it in order to slow the drift down and to give you time to fish the water. The best drogue design I've seen is Peter Hayes's. It's substantial in size has chain for weight along the bottom allowing an easy set and has buoyancy along the top.

Good luck with your Loch Style Fly Fishing.