FLY FISHING In the 1960s, fly fishing went from being a minority fishing modality in the United States and Europe to becoming, at the end of the millennium, a mass phenomenon in the world.
Summary
[ hide ]
- 1 Emergence
- 2 The Fly Set
- 3 Sport Value
- 4 Source
Emergence
- Fish Whip
The essence of this type of fishing is based on the trout’s fondness for eating aquatic insects. The insects hatch in the water and drift across the surface, at which point they are eaten by the trout, which settle in strategic hunting places to intercept them.
The fisherman has to try to place an imitation of these insects, discreetly, within the reach of the trout to try to deceive it.
Second, it is necessary to push it in some way so that it falls within the range of the fish, which is very difficult, as an artificial fly does not weigh. If you launch it with the help of a heavy ballast, such as buoy or cork, the most probable thing is that the trout is suspicious and does not bite. Then the great solution emerged:
With the help of a fine and extremely flexible rod, a thick line is propelled in the same way that a trainer would with his whip. At the end of this line, called a rat’s tail or fly line, three or four meters of fine nylon are tied transparent, to the end of which the fly will be tied.
With this formula, small flies weighing just one gram can be accurately and delicately positioned at a distance of up to 20 meters.
The fly cast
Fly fishing is not at all an activity reserved for especially skilled people, as some believe. It simply requires more dedication and hours of training.
The effectiveness of fly fishing is closely related to the ability to cast well, there being a notable difference between the great specialists and the normal fishermen.
The fly fisherman is very sensitive to the environment. Occasionally the insects that eat trout accidentally fall into the water, but as a general rule this is not the case. Trout and many other fish basically feed on them. There is a critical period in the life of most insects, which is when the nymph hatches and rises to the surface to become a sub-magician. This time is used by trout and many other fish to feast, as well as by fishermen to try to fool their speckled rivals.
In the past, fly fishermen used almost exclusively to catch flies that float on the surface of the water. The so-called “dry flies”. Fishing is much more attractive with a dry fly, since you can see with your own eyes how the trout devours the false insect, which is essential to nail them immediately, otherwise it only takes a second for the fish notice that you have been tricked into spitting the hook.
Sport Value
Traditionally, fly fishing was designed for trout fishing, but over time the English, who were probably its inventors, began to use it also with salmon.
Salmon flies are different and do not try to imitate any specific insects, they are simply larger attractors, made of hair and feathers that swim by drifting through the current.
All predatory fish began to be caught with flies, with the help of attractor lures, called strímeres, these lures imitate small fish, or nothing in particular, but simply a fleeing animal. The evolution of fly fishing has reached such an extreme that today some of the largest catches of sport fishing can be fished in this way, such as blue marlin or sailfish.
This supposes a degeneration of the original consideration “to fly”. What insect can eat a blue marlin weighing about 200 kilos? On the other hand, the original fly technique has degenerated. To attract billfish close to the boat, It is initially navigated by dragging lures without hooks. When a fish attacks them they are collected, and when the fish is located a few meters from the boat the cast is made. Fly rods are much more similar to trolling rods than to a rod for trout fishing.
- Conservationist modality of the fly fisherman
The fly fisherman, normally, acquires a degree of perfection and sophistication that is sublimated only with the possibility of fooling a trout with a slug, with a fly that he has designed and built.
They are fishermen who enjoy the environment and who do not intend, in most cases, to carry kilos of fish home. Most fly fishermen practice the “catch and release”, also because flies are the least harmful procedure for fish, in general they are small hooks that are stuck in the corner of the fish’s mouth and it is not uncommon to take out the same fish by fly fishing. In many of the dead fishing stretches in Spain, only fly fishing is allowed.
