ACADEMYTHE

Lovely Lures

It’s early season, the larger waters have just opened and your water is full of trout, so make the most of this bonanza with our lure fishing tips.

Many waters are opening their doors to anglers in April and May and as they do so they are going to be busy!

And not just with a plethora of anglers, there’ll be plenty of trout too – recently introduced fish… stockies to you.

You really do want to be capitalising on this fantastic sport and to do so lures are the way to go. These gaudy creations of man-made fibres bring out the trout’s aggressive nature. They will attack these flies with gay abandon at times and you need to make sure that you’re geared up for it and ready for some vicious takes.

Early on in the year lures in most colours can play a part in taking these aggressive but still very naive trout.

Sinking lines are the order of the day because you need these to get down to the fish and allow you to fish your flies back in a level plane, through their feeding zone.

Try varying the retrieve rate and style, anything from a slow, bottom-hugging figure of eight to a speedy, jerky, one-foot-pull retrieve to make them chase.

If you’re fishing several flies at the same time then make sure that you keep them apart; five feet should be fine at this time of the year.

Don’t go pussyfooting about with inadequate tackle, either; you want to be using a powerful rod for this type of fishing. Think about 10ft

7-wt models because they are powerful enough to easily cast these heavy lures and fastsinking lines.

As you’re fishing biggish flies and heavy lines, you should step up your leader material to suit. This is no time to mess about with 4lb copolymer – 8lb and 10lb fluorocarbon is what’s required. The trout won’t be shy and if you’re fishing a team of flies there’s always a chance of hooking into more than one on the same cast.

TOTAL FLYFISHER 40 Location W hen trout are first introduced into the water they tend to stay near to the bank. You’ll not find that many fish in really deep water because i t’s far too cold and there’s not much in the way of food at this time of the year.

The shallow water is the first to benefit from the warm sunlight. Consequently, this is where the trout will be feeding on the aquatic insects.

Focus your attentions on the margins, in water from four to 10 feet deep. If you can, avoid wading. There are times when the trout are right under your rod tip and if you wade you’ll just move them out to the deeper water, where they’re likely to sulk and simply ignore your flies.

Recently introduced stocked fish will find a depth that they’re used to; if they came from 5ft-deep stock ponds, they’ll be in five feet of water.

Sponsored by www.totalflyfisher.com

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