STATIC WETS

STATIC WETS - FISHING WITH SINK TIPS

At the 1999 world fly fishing championships held at Jindabyne in 1999 fishing buzzers was the buzz (excuse the pun) and as soon as I got home I tied some up according to the patterns I had seen. I fished those flies many times , without conviction or confidence, and with the inevitable poor results. Those little buzzer flies were quickly delegated only a tight corner of my fly box. At the 2004 Fly Fish Australia national fly fishing championships based at Eucumbene buzzers were the go again and I set out to better understand the concept determined this time to add it to my fishing tools for future outings. What I hadn't understood until the 2004 event was that these flies work best when fished to imitate the natural. I thought I had imitated the naturals as best I could with the retrieves I had tested, but when I finally came to grips with fishing buzzers, I realized I had failed miserably.

Buzzers or as they are properly called Chironomids, and most pupas or nymphs spend most of their lives under rocks and detritus matter as fairly static creatures. But when they get to that stage in their life cycle when it is time to emerge they embark on that perilously vulnerable journey to the surface of the water to emerge. As swimmers they are pretty poor so to facilitate their rise to the surface they generate miniscule amounts of gas which floats them toward the surface. As they rise the gas expands and at several points in their ascent it detaches from the creature and the midge or pupa to slowly starts to sink again. As they sink they generate more gas and generally they don't sink as far as they have risen with the last bubble and the process repeats several times until they actually reach the surface of the water. It doesn't sound like a very efficient system but you have to remembers that the timing of such emergences is generally done on mass allowing for enough of them to avoid predators and the genus to survive.

You can imitate this process with this semi-static fishing technique.

My preferred set up is a sink tip on a floating line with a leader starting with a section incorporating the sink tip of 1.5 meters followed by a 1.2 meter section of say 8 lb fluorocarbon down to the the first unweighted fly on a 20cm dropper then a further 1.2 meters of 7lb fluorocarbon down to the second unweighted fly on a 20cm dropper and then a final 1.2 meters of fluorocarbon down to a weighted point fly.

These days you can buy fly lines with sink tips and they are OK for the job but provide some limitations. I prefer a true floating line and the equivalent of a "Poly Leader". These are made by Airflow and unfortunately are hard to get in Australia. You can buy them in 4 sink rates and in two lengths giving you a lot of options. Why do you need the flexibility you may well ask. Well if your loch style fishing the flexibility is important so that you can balance out the speed of the drift of the boat and the depth that the fish are feeding at.

If you cant get Poly leaders you can make your own equivalent from the running line section of sinking lines of different speeds that have worn out at the business end. The reel end of those normally discarded lines is generally as good as new. Alternatively you can make sink tips from different lengths of shooting head material as I do. Even a 30cm length of Rio T14 shooting head incorporated into the leader will create a sink rate equivalent to a 1.5 meter fast sink Poly Leader. The only draw back with any sink tip is that it interferes with the dynamics of the fly line and casting may be inhibited so settle for slightly shorter casts than normal.

I have all my fly lines set up with small mono loops at the business end and I have pictured below the line to leader set up that I use.

The following picture shows 30cm of Rio T14 shooting head incorporated into the leader attached to the above loop.

If your incorporating sections of discarded sinking lines into your leader try 1.5 meters of different sink rate materials as a starting point. If its intermediate line it will give you a slow sink tip and if it fast sink shooting head it will naturally give you a fast sink. Any way I am sure you get the gist.

I have a range of leaders set up with different lengths of shooting head and sinking line sections incorporated as shown below and that gives me the flexibility to solve the speed of drift and where the fish are feeding equation.

I always use a weighted fly on the point. There are two elements to the retrieve. First there is keeping in touch with the flies and you do that by retrieving fly line at the same speed as the drift of the boat. do that until you calculate the leader is fully extended. Hang the fly for say 10 seconds and then do 2 strips of the line to lift the flies. Then allow the flies to sink and for the leader to fully extend. repeat the hang, the two strips and the sink as many times as you can whilst the boat drifts toward the flies. and whilst the flies sink or hangs under the floating line. This keeps me in contact with all the flies and allows me to feel any touches. The second element is the lift and you can generally get a few of these in as the boat drifts forward. Create the lift by making a sweeping strip of say 50mm of line so as to cause the flies to lift toward the surface, then let them sink and hang again. On really calm days you can get a heap of these hangs and sweeping lifts into a single cast. Repeat this process right through to the boat or to where you run out of water if bank fishing. At that point lift the flies slowly stopping a few times during the ascent allowing the flies to hang again and again with the last hang being with the top fly right at the surface of the water. Then incorporate that final slow lift of the flies out of the water with your back cast and preparation for your next presentation. Watch your flies as they emerge and be prepared to halt the lift if a fish is still hanging below a fly. Fish focused on flies will often take the fly right at the boat oblivious of the presence of the boat or you.

Fishing with sink tips has proven to be much more effective than fishing with a true sink line as the flies are rising and falling just as the natural would rather than swimming along almost horizontally as you retrieve a sinking line back to the boat or bank. With a full sink line you really only get the opportunity to imitate the natural as you lift the line from the depths. You can generally incorporate a couple of hangs in that process but with a the sink toip retrieve I have described you can get a lot more lifts and hangs of the flies.

A little on flies.

Point flies:

bead head bibio

bead head Dunkeld

Bead Head Tom Jones

Woolly Bugger

Middle Dropper flies:

Tom Jones

Soft hackle iron blue

Dunkeld

Top Flies:

mallard and Claret

Bibio

Dunkeld

Soft hackle

sink sink hang hang

2 strips

sink sink hang hang

2 strips

etc

BUZZERS & BLOOD WORMS

Chironomids are also sometimes known Buzzers and Midges at various parts of their life cycle. They are part of the Chironomidae family of the order Diptera - True Flies. They are very small as the name implies and have a similar life cycle to Mayflies and Caddisflies. When fish are taking Chironomids the Chironomids are generally available in large numbers. The Lava is between 6 & 15 mm in length and is generally a blood red legless maggot. Having said that as the lava mature they often change colours and may be black through to green. In any case in the laval form they live in the detritus sediment in the bottom of lakes and streams. As they mature into pupae, whilst the size only increases marginally, the colour generally changes to green, grey or black and a bulbous wing case and curved abdomen develop. In their lava stage they are commonly referred to as buzzers. When its time to emerge the pupae swim to the surface like a “mosquito wriggler” and break through the surface tension and hatch into small generally non-biting mosquito like flies that are sometimes known as midges. Whilst trout do search out lava amongst the detritus matter and eat lava that have been disturbed by wind and wave action it is generally the free swimming and pupae that are most often eaten by trout. Whilst the lava is generally found in the lower reaches the pupa can be found in a wide range of depths from very shallow to up to around 15 meters.

BLOOD WORM	EPOXY CADDIS	MINI MIDGE PUPA
CHIRONOMID	RISING MIDGE	BUZZER

CASED CADDIS

Caddis fly (or Sedge) are of the order Trichoptera and are common from September through to January particularly in the flooded margins of lakes. Their life cycle is similar to the Mayfly and two types of caddis lava are of particular interest to fly fishers. The first is the Stick Caddis and the second is the Sand Caddis. In the context of this article the Stick Caddis is of particular interest. For more information on the sand Caddis and how to fish them have a look at Sand Caddis.

There are around 14 genera and 83 species of Stick Caddis recorded in Australia but they are generally similar in appearance. The lava lives in the detritus sediment in the bottom of lakes and streams and as they mature into lava they live in fine hollow plant matter or construct a home of sticks, twigs or other plant material. General size is around 20mm and they sometimes move around in a slow free swimming motion with their head and shoulders sticking outside of their homes. They are vulnerable to trout as they move around in this way feeding or just trying to get back to safety after being dislodged by foraging fish, wave action or currents. By nature they are shore dwelling insects and commonly encountered in water up to around 2 meters.

All of the cased caddis emerge as part of their life cycle but their movement out of their cased homes to the surface and through the surface film is very quick indeed. When its occurring in numbers you often see the trout porpoise out of the water in pursuit of the hatching insect. The sparkle caddis pupa is a good representation of that stage just before the insect sheds its shuck.

STICK CADDIS

SPARKLE CADDIS PUPA

STICK FLY

OTHER USEFUL SMALL FLIES FOR THIS TYPE OF FISHING

Other small nymphs and wets are also very useful in this type of fishing and you could do a lot worse than experimenting with some of the smaller wets, nymphs and emergers in your fly box. Carixia feed on midges and so a carixia pattern or a spider that may be mistaken for a carixia or just look like something foody work well in the team and scuds and nymphs can offer a real choice to cruising fish.

CARIXIA	SPIDER	SCUD
PHEASANT TAIL	NYMPH	BEADHEAD

FISHING STATIC WETS

Buzzers, Blood worms and Stick caddis are all most active during the early summer months with some activity occurring through the balance of Summer and in both Spring and Autumn. When fish are found holding in areas with a lot of detritus matter there is a chance they may be feeding on Buzzers, Blood worms and Stick Caddis or a combination. Look for shallow bays where grass at the margins has been recently flooded. If the water depth is less than 2 meters you may like to include a Stick Caddis in your fly selection . If you can fish 3 flies start with a blood worm or stick caddis on the point, and a buzzer on each of the middle and top droppers. If the water is deeper than 2 meters forget about the Stick caddis. If you can only fish two flies experiment a bit but because buzzers and blood worms are often available in large numbers lean toward leaving the stick caddis off unless there is evidence of the natural. If fish are proposing out of the water its just as well to include a sparkle caddis fly in the team at least until you work out what's happening.

There are three simple rigs that seem to work well.

The fist is best tied using fine diameter fluorocarbon. Its better than mono for this rig because fluorocarbon readily sinks and the thickness to strength ration allows free movement of the flies without sacrificing too much line strength. The jury is still out on what knot to use but I favour a small loop knot that allows free movement of the flies. The first dropper should be about 1 to 1.5 meters above the point fly and the top dropper the same distance up the tippet/leader. The overall leader depends on the number of flies being fished and the depth of the water but a minimum of 3 meters with two flies and 4 or 5 meters with 3 flies is fine. Most of this type of fishing is done using floating lines but if the buzzers and blood worms are deep you may need to use an intermediate of even a fast sinking line. It doesn't matter if your fishing from a boat or from the shore. Cast your team of flies out and limit your retrieve to keeping in contact with the flies and wait whilst the team sinks. Then wait as long as you can without the flies being impeded by the bottom and hang on. When retrieving do that very slowly as the lifting action often triggers a response.

The second rig is similar to the first except that it can only be used with a floating line. You can use mono or fluorocarbon tippet for this rig but I favour fluorocarbon. It involves tying the heaviest of your two or three fly team at the end of the tippet and then suspending an unweighted midge lava, pupa, or first stage emerger fly between half a meter to 1.5 meters above the point fly. The rig is capped off with a strike indicator or floating fly such as a dry fly or midge ball on a top dropper about the same distance above the middle fly. I often have a midge ball on top, perhaps a rising midge below that and then a buzzer or bloodworm on the point. When midges are hatching this is my choice of rigs. A variation used by some involves hanging the middle fly of a dropper of around 30cm tied to the bend of the hook of the heavier point fly. With either variation of this rig even subtle takes can be detected and responded to with a lift of the rod. Again it doesn't matter if your fishing from a boat or the shore. Cast your team of flies out and limit your retrieve to keeping in contact with the flies and wait whilst the team sinks. Then wait as long as you can without the flies fouling on the bottom and hang on. If you are inclined to retrieve to impart some movement in the flies then make your retrieve so slow that the strike indicator doesn't leave a wake. When lifting the flies do that very slowly as the lifting action often triggers a response.

The third system is called by the British "hanging the washing out" and involves the use of a fast sinking line. A very buoyant fly such as a booby is tied in the point and a couple of small wets are tied on droppers above it. Cast the team out and allow the line to sink. The sinking line pulls the leader down and the middle dropper and top dropper fly are suspended between the booby and the sinking line. You can allowed the team to fish static for a while and then give a couple of long strips to pull the whole team toward the bottom. When you return to static mode the booby slowly rises imparting a natural rising action on the suspended wets. This is a good imitation of the emerging part of the life cycle for insects that spend part of their life cycle in the water and can be a deadly technique.

With all these systems takes can be violent or subtle and can occur from the time the fly hits the water, right through the drop, the retrieve, any time during the hang on the lift or even as you drag the flies across the surface to recast.

Last modified: 11-Jun-2008.