by “March Brown”
There are two windfalls of territorial insects to keep an eye out for because trout will be looking eagerly for them too. In summer, willows get blighted by small red blisters on the leaves, the blisters being the home for the willow grub.. The small whitish willow grubs are light lemon colour.
When the grub emerges, it lowers itself to the ground on a gossamer thread but as willows often overhang rivers and streams, the tiny grubs fall into the water.
When this happens trout focus on the tiny grubs and swim around beneath willow trees slurping up the many willow grubs.
Trout taking willow grubs are feeding in the subsurface. Trout usually feed selectively ion them.
There’s a pattern in Norman Marsh’s classic book “Trout Stream Insects of New Zealand.”
Norman Marsh’s simple pattern is:-
Hook, 16 -18.
Thread: brown.
Body Primrose silk.
Head: Brown tying thread or one turn dark peacock herl
Because the trout is near the surface and the divergence in its cone of vision is little, you can crouch and just flick or roll cast the nymph into a trout’s path. If the trout does not take first or second time, don’t worry. It’s competing with the multitude of natural willow grubs.
Another summer windfall for trout is the cicada. For the trout each one is a big mouthful and there can be lots of them.
You can buy a cicada fly from tackle shops, or tie up a more specialised cicada imitation. The shop ones can be very realistic looking.
Norman Marsh gives a cicada pattern as follows:-
Hook: 8,10 or 12.
Collar: Peacock Herl
Body: Deer Hair
Hackle: Brown cock
Wings: Badger hackle tips
Tail: Deer hair
Keith Draper’s cicada pattern in “New Zealand Trout Flies” gives a pattern as follows:-
Hook; 6 to 8
Body: Red deer hair spun three quarters along the shank and clipped. Another small bunch of hair is spun on and left straggly.
Wings: Stiff plastic, veined with a green felt pen
Hackle: Long, stiff natural red cock
In Bob Wyatt’s excellent book “Trout Hunting” a pattern called McPhee’s Wee Muddler is given as follows:-
Hook: size !0 – 14
Abdomen One: Dubbed seal’s fur and possum fur mixture, shades of green or to mixed to match a particular cicada. Tied at the bend of the hook to build up a thick rear portion of the abdomen, to the middle of the hook shank.
First Wing: Clump of medium deer hair, tied in at the middle of the shank, tips extending to just beyond the bend, butts trimmed and lashed down.
Abdomen Two: Fi≥nish building abdomen, taking dubbing to near the hook eye, leaving enough space to tie in over-wing.
Over-Wing: Another clump of deer hair, tied in to lay over the first wing. Butts trimmed to form a Muddler-style head.
Interestingly that pattern is on an unusually small hook, i.e. 14. But out could be effective on an 8 or 10 hook.
If you don’t tie your own flies, go buy two or three for your fly box. The shop ones are usually beautifully and realistically tied.
Cicadas are often fished to visible trout but don’;t ignore blind fishing up riffles or pocket water.
References
“Trout’s Larder”, by Duncan Gray and Jens Zollhoefer, published by Reed Publishing 2006
Trout Stream Insects of New Zealand by Norman Marsh, first published 1983 by Millwood Press and subsequently reprinted by Halcyon Press.
New Zealand Trout Flies by Keith Draper, published by Reed Books, 1997.
“Trout Hunting” by Bob Wyatt, published by Swan Hill Press (England) 2004
A natural cicada is flanked both sides by artificial imitations