Fly Patterns

 Following pinched from Mike Hughes’ website www.tongarirofishingguide.co.nz
Now I have a confession to make, when I first came to New Zealand I had never heard of “Glow-Bugs” and thought they must be some sort of exotic Kiwi invention that somehow illuminated themselves underwater.So off I went to the nearest tackle shop to try and track some down. After a good look around and not finding any of these deadly bugs I was beginning to think they were so deadly that they sold them under the counter.It was only after I swallowed my pride and asked to be shown some that I realized they were simply what we called in the UK…egg flies.Most of my fly-fishing in the last couple of years prior to me emigrating was on UK Stillwaters…mainly because the cost of a day on a good river was pretty expensive. Nearly all UK still water fisheries at that time were stocked with sterile female rainbows so that all of their energy could be channeled into growth. The British record rainbow was I believe 33 lb 4 oz but don’t get too excited…personally I’d rather catch a 3 lb fresh run wild trout on the Tongariro than one of these ugly artificially bred monsters. In fact many fisheries would buy in one of these huge trout to boost their fishery “record”. But I digress…what I’m getting at is the fact that because the fish were sterile the egg-fly had a limited use in the UK.

Of course it’s a very different story here in New Zealand and there are days on the Tongariro when it would be pointless using anything other than a glo-bug.This “fly” has been around for years and was probably imported from America where they used them to catch Steelhead and Brown trout feeding on Salmon eggs during the spawning season.

There are endless combinations of color and because they are so easy to tie you could quite easily fill several fly boxes with the things. But if I had to limit it to a few to start off with it would be…Flame Orange…Red…and Champagne. As a general rule the first two when the water is carrying a little color because Orange and Red are strong colors and show up well in murky water and Champagne in clearer conditions. On saying that Flame Orange seems to work anytime and is probably the most often used color by Tongariro anglers.

If you have been fishing to a stubborn Brown trout which has refused all of your carefully presented natural patterns a switch to an Orange glo-bug will often induce a take.
As I mentioned they are one of the easiest flies to learn to tie and once you have mastered one of several methods you can churn out dozens of them in a relatively short time.

In deeper water when fishing this buoyant pattern it pays to use a heavier bomb to get them down fast.

If you are in any doubt about this pick a day when the water is clear and cast one out on a “normal” bomb. Depending on the depth I bet you will have wasted at least two-thirds of your drift before the glo-bug gets any where near the bottom which is where it has to be to work effectively…over a days fishing that’s an awful lot of wasted opportunity.