by Tony Orman
As a schoolboy I cut my trout fishing teeth by using artificial spinning lures in the early 1950s – over 60 years ago! We used minnows mostly the Devon in gold or silver and the Willesden pattern, lobbed out on cheap fly rods made of bamboo or greenheart and mounted with a wooden Nottingham or bakelite plastic fly reel.
Those were the days well before carbon graphite rods, even spinning reels and lures like the Rapalas or Mepps spinners.
Undeniably most trout fly fishing anglers start off spinning. It’s therefore strange that some fly fishermen look with disdain at spin anglers. Yes true that spinning or threadline gear is commonly associated with “haphazard chucking hardware” in the form of wobblers, spinners and in the old days, artificial minnows. But it’s a mis-perception.
That in itself is strange because spinning was originally termed “threadline” and invented by one Alexander Wanless from memory. Threadlining reflected the concept of using very fine nylon. That should still be the guiding principle. By using lighter nylon then the true versatility of spinning is paramount.
Spinning can be skilled particularly using lighter spinners and a thoughtful upstream strategy. But one angle that is not usually associated with spinning is using fly.
It was in Hawkes Bay that I found spinning gear well suited to using fly and very effective too. And it all happened quite by chance one day on the upper Mohaka River.
We had anticipated finding rainbows in the Mohaka but we found actively feeding brown trout there. We tried Black Tobys, Veltic and other spinners. The trout would lazily follow the spinners in and then turn away. All we succeeded in doing was putting feeding fish down.
By mid-morning no one had a trout. Accompanied by my labrador, I went upstream leaving the other guys with plenty of water to fish. I found feeding trout, feeding on nymphs but they all took fright at the spinner or followed languidly and refusing to take.
I was stumped. I rummaged in my fishing pack and pulled out a container of split shot. Hmmmmm- my fly wallet was in there too.
Split Shot
I tried a wet fly lure but that didn’t work. I looked at my flies. On went a Parson Glory lure and three split shot six inches above. I could flick that rig out 10 or 15 metres. But the trout treated the Taupo style wet fly lure just as they had spinners. But like Richard Prebble of Rogernomics notoriety once said I got to thinking. Why oh why, did I put on a lure imitating a bait fish? The trout were nymphing.
I into my fly wallet and focused on a green manuka beetle imitation. Seemed logical. Manuka overhung the pools.
I flicked the green beetle upstream into a gliding current and hooked a silvery brown trout of about a kilo. I landed it, killed it and examined its stomach and gullet. There were nymphs there – a few mayfly nymphs, a couple each of stonefly nymphsand creepers and yes, three manuka beetles.
But I made a change to a self-tied “coch-y-bondhu” nymph. It worked. At the faster water at the head of the next pool, I took a hefty 3.2 kg brown and then a 2.5 kg brown!
I found fishing a fly on a spinning outfit to be successful on rainbows too. In another back country river, room to cast a fly rod was too tight. Long grass, manuka trees made it difficult. The stream was a little wilderness pocket although just above the gorge was farm paddocks.
The first evening I descended down a kanuka spur, I put on a Black Prince Taupo lure and the three split shot 15 cms above.With the very first cast into ta riffle I fished, a rainbow trout grabbed the fly. I landed the splendid 3 kg fish and fished on catching six good rainbows the smallest 1.5 kgs and the others around the 2 kg mark.
Light Nylon
The trick in fishing fly on the threadline is to keep your nylon light to enable a light weight to be cast.
Of course instead of split shot you can fish with the plastic bubble, partially filled with water to give weight for casting. With the bubble you can not only fish nymphs but also dry fly.
But mostly I used the split shot rig for spinning. Little old fashioned wet flies like Peveril of the Peak took good rainbows in the upper Ngauroro and Tukituki Rivers and others.
Naturally you can’t cast long distances but then do you need to?
Using a fly rod, most trout are caught within 12 metres or so. With light nylon perhaps of 2 kg or 3 kg breaking strain, the fly and split shot rig can be cast 10 metres. Nylon in long lengths has elasticity which means the real breaking strain is probably considerably above that specified.
Importantly a nymph or wee wet fly due to the split shot sinks quickly enabling you to plumb the deeper water. I fish upstream with the split shot and nymph rig. Even with a Taupo lure which is retrieved, I tend to cast on a slant upstream and retrieve.
With the nymph as the rig bounces down with the current, wind in the slack line so you’ve got the necessary close contact with the fly and then you can tighten on a trout.
Whitebait Time!
About September and October, the use of a smelt/whitebait pattern like a grey Ghost is great in estuarine waters as trout home in on whitebait.
If trout are feeding on the surface such as cicada time in January and February, use a plastic bubble and to the bubble attach a trace of a foot or so with a cicada pattern. The bubble is simply a small plastic “ball” with a loop on the outside for attaching the line and a hole with plug for filling with water . Don’t fully fill it. Half or a quarter full will do. Remember that with the dry fly, to consciously pause one-two-three before tightening just as is needed in dry fly fishing with the fly rod..
The rig for the nymph can have the fly below the bubble on a 50 cm strand of nylon or above. The bubble acts like float and if it dips, then tighten.
Spin fishing can be skillful whether tossing a lure or fishing with a fly. It doesn’t deserve the derision some flyfishers give it. For young anglers, spinning is often a stepping stone to graduating to fly fishing. Besides young teenagers are better out on a trout stream than being boy or girl racer hoons or bored, obese couch potatoes.