Fishy Correspondence:

Correspondence on fishing styles may be of interest to others…

Hi Ross,

G told me yesterday when we caught up for a chat that most fish are being caught wet lining.  Is this true?  Or is it a phenomenon being caused by one person doing well on a woolly bugger and as a result everyone changing to the wet.  Herd mentality.

I sure hope the condition stays like the photo in your daily report until early mid Nov!

TRM replied:

Hi Paul,

I would estimate about 70-80% are nymphing, 20-30% might be wet lines and perhaps 5% “other”.

Certain holes – i.e. Reeds – have more wet liners as that is where all the geriatrics go for easy wading.

In fact in our experience here the nymphomaniacs have been doing much much better!  That may be due to the river flowing higher than usual so the trout are along the edges.?

In the Trolls Hole the last few mornings there has been only one wet liner (Sorry Dave!) whose total catch was one only – which escaped.

Paul replied:

Thanks,

This explains everything.  He said that he fished Reeds a fair bit.  I mean, the guy turned 65 yesterday … Pensioners will stoop to anything to catch a trout, eh!  I bet he stood there and waved his gold card about.

TRM replied:

Also remember that by the time you get here in November the river fishing methods will have changed significantly from the winter runs.
 
From now on the dry & dropper will start to replace many nymphing rigs.  Wet liners appear more resistant to change but nymphers have had more practice at achieving a good presentation and a perfect drift.  They simply replace the woolly indicator with a large dry fly.

With the warmer temperatures from now on more trout will be seen (attacking mayflies?) on the surface and looking up rather than hugging the river bottom.  After spawning they will have become more familiar with the river environment and are more desperate to recover condition, so are often easier to entice to a fly.