INSTRUCTION

MATCH THE HATCH

Hawthorn HAVOC!JohnPearsonandsix-timesEnglishNational Rivers Champion John Tyzack extol the fishcatching properties of the hawthorn fly.

John Pearson Originally a biologist obsessed by angling, now producer/director of Fish On Productions.

There are times when a few good, all-round fly patterns will see you through a season, as we discussed last month with the Olive (Baetis) patterns. If you spend more than a couple of days a year on the riverbank, the chances are that at some time you’ll have bumped into flies from the order Ephemeroptera (the upwing or mayfly-shaped flies).

Even if there hasn’t been a hatch of olives for several days the trout often retain a ‘search image’ that triggers a feeding response to our imitations… so in the absence of any observations to the contrary a

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nymph or dry Olive is often a good place to start.

There are times, however, when Mother Nature throws you a curve ball. The hawthorn fly (Bibio marci) can turn the fishing on its head, and if you’re not prepared when you get to the bank (on stillwaters as well as rivers) you could miss out on some of the most exciting and frantic sport of the season.

Emergence takes place any time from mid-April to early May, earning the hawthorn fly its alternative name of St Mark’s fly (owing to its regular appearance around St Mark’s Day, on April 25th). If you’re not out and fishing during this time you’ll not get another chance until next year, as the adult stage of the hawthorn fly only lasts for this very short period.

Unlike many flies imitated by fly fishers the hawthorn is terrestrial in origin. For those of you who have heard the word ‘terrestrial’ but were too afraid to ask, in fly fishing terms a terrestrial is any creature (usually an insect) whose lifecycle takes place entirely on or over land. The only reason a terrestrial insect ends up in the water is by accident – an accident that most terrestrial insects are ill equipped to handle.

The hawthorn fly is one of the poorest fliers you’ll see – think of a bumble bee having a bad day – but it’s an even worse swimmer! Even the mildest breeze is enough to make them crash land all over the water. This is bad news for the hawthorn but good news for the trout, and even better news for us fly fishers!

If there are hawthorn bushes, the bumbling hawthorn fly won’t be far away. Inevitably they end up on the water and the trout love them.
INSTRUCTION

“How many hawthorn patterns do we need, b oys?” One, apparently.

ONE IS ALL YOU NEED The only stage we need to worry about imitating is the adult stage. When observing the hawthorn fly at rest, the most pronounced features are its back legs, which are almost grasshopper-like in proportion to its body. The legs become even more apparent when in flight and hang down behind the fly, making identification in the field a fairly easy job, even for a beginner.

the body length; the thorax is very pronounced; and if viewed from below, the wings are almost hidden by the abdomen.

All of these features are quite clearly covered in JT’s simple tying.

Also, males are around 10mm in length and have large eyes, making the head about the same size as the thorax; females are larger (up to 15mm) but with a much smaller head.

Most artificials leave us thinking: “There’s room for improvement there,” but JT’s Hawthorn hits the nail on the head perfectly.

We’d love to tell you that the tying in this month’s article is the result of hours of observation, experimentation and study. The truth is a quick look in JT’s fly box led us to the conclusion that someone else had already done the hard work. Most artificials leave us thinking: “There’s room for improvement there,” but JT’s Hawthorn hits the nail on the head perfectly. When we look at the natural insect we can see that the key points to consider, whether tying or buying a Hawthorn fly, are:

They’re completely black; the rear legs are very pronounced; the abdomen is slim and two-thirds of

TROUT’S-EYE VIEW It doesn’t take the trout long to realise that these leggy black things are an easy meal.

Any river angler worth his salt can (or can at least aspire to) land a dry fly like thistledown, with barely a ripple. When fishing Hawthorn flies, or any other terrestrial pattern for that matter, a splash on the surface can be just the trigger that the trout is looking out for – so the delicate dry approach needs to become more like the natural fly’s catastrophic splashdown.

Add to this a pronounced pair of dangling back legs (another key trigger point) and you’ll find it hard to fail if the fish are ‘on the hawthorns’.

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