When fishing for River Trout there are many different types of flies that can be used for fly fishing. They fall into 4 major categories of fly types, wet, dry, nymph & buzzer or lures. With Rainbow Trout quite gaudy lures can work in colours as diverse as whites, pinks, purples & oranges not typically colours found in nature. For River River Trout it is much more normal to imitate what is found in nature with your fly fishing flies. Lures / Streamers used that work well imitate skulpins or small fish found in the water that act as prey for larger River River Trout. Typical streamers and lures used for this are Matuka flies or Muddler Minnow river these look very to small fish for River River Trout, these flies work particularly well in the early evening when the river are hunting. The major flies used for River River Trout are dry flies, wet flies, buzzers and nymphs. In this article we will focus on the most exciting type of fly fishing fly, the dry fly.
By far the most exciting type of fly fishing is dry fly fishing, in some rivers such as the chalk streams of England these are the only flies permitted to be used. A dry fly, as the name indicates, are flies designed to be fished on the surface of the water. They are created to imitate a wide number of different insects. There is very little that matches a dry fly being taken by a for river. Dry flies imitate many different natural flies from mayflies, caddis, sedge, dragon flies, damsel flies, flying ants and midges.
Dry flies are sometimes created with no particular insect in mind, such artificial flies are called fancy or attractor flies, the Wickham's Fancy is an example attractor or fancy fly. Many different techniques can be used with the dry fly starting with traditional casting with a fly line and tapered leader which turns the fly over during the cast allowing it to gently drop onto the water like a natural fly, stimulating the river Trout. Other techniques used include multiple dry fly rigs and dapping. In reality dry fly fishing is possibly the oldest form of fly fishing when long poles were used as rods and fly lines made from horsehair or other natural fibres. These were the original dapping flies!
Today many fly tyers have created dry flies, ranging from Cannon WIllliam Greenwell's Greenwell Glory to the modern Klinkhammer. One of the most famous today is the Klinkhammer designed by fly tyer Hans Van Klinken. The Klinkhammer has a parachute hackle which floats on the surface, a post which is visible to the angler and a body which sits on the water surface and tucks down into the surface film imitating an insect emerging from its pupal form. Of all the dry flies available it is the Klinkhammer that should be kept in every fishermans fly box. Ranging from size 8 to size 22 the Klinkhammer makes River Trout come to the surface and feed.
