Small, smaller, smallest

Small, smaller, smallest...

 

Text and fly tying - Jakub Chruszczewski.
Photos of flies - Tomek Bogdanowicz.
(This article appeared in WW, November 2010)

October is barely making ends meet
A purple jacket won't hide poverty
He sat down at an inn near Nowy Sącz
He drinks yellow beer on credit

 A. Bursa, Autumn,

 

I like being by the river at that time. Even though the fall wind can be a bit of a nuisance sometimes, and even though it can get crowded on the water, it still feels quieter, more peaceful... On a weekday, when I’m lucky enough to experience a truly golden Polish autumn, it’s just me by the water, with red beech trees reflected in the mirror-like surface… And, of course, the fish. Grayling.

This is the time of year when they feed the most. On clear, calm days, they sometimes feed all day long. But that doesn’t mean it’s the easiest time to catch them. Sometimes, despite intense feeding at the surface, my fly is completely ignored. Sometimes, even when using what seems like a perfectly matched imitation tied to a very thin leader, catching a fish seems impossible. Sometimes a grayling will calmly, without haste, drift toward the fly, look at it for a second, and turn back toward the bottom. Sometimes it will splash its mouth right next to the fly or brush against it with its nose, triggering the reflex to set the hook. And, of course, a miss.

Changing the fly doesn’t do any good. When I tie on the fifth, sixth, or seventh fly and realize it’s the one I started with, it hits me—wait a minute, I don’t always have to catch every fish that comes along. I don’t always have to catch anything. And actually, when I’m fishing, I don’t have to do anything at all. Not even fish. That’s exactly why I do this whole fishing thing...

But jokes aside, you have to do something in a situation like this. Well, the best thing is to stay calm and come back to the same spot the next day. Because it happens that exceptionally finicky grayling in the same spot, under the same conditions, suddenly behave completely differently. They go for the fly without hesitation, taking it „as if it were their own,” without caring about the thickness of the leader… I’m sure many fly fishermen are familiar with such situations, and I’m sure they have their own theories to explain this phenomenon. I won’t attempt to explain it. I think there’s a whole range of factors influencing fish behavior that are unrecognizable to the angler, and we probably just have to accept that. Of course, there’s no need to give up. The most important thing is to try fishing in a spot where you’ve located feeding fish. In my experience, with such finicky and picky fish, switching to the same or a similar fly—but two sizes smaller—sometimes works. A problem can sometimes arise—not uncommon in the fall, especially late fall—when a fly sized to match what the grayling is feeding on at that moment is already quite small, tied on, say, a #20 hook. And now you have to tie something on a #22, or even a #24 in November. Fortunately, hooks in these sizes have been available for some time now in a wide range of models. Gone are the days when, due to a lack of sufficiently small fly hooks, one had to tie a fly on the smallest available hook with a blade (these were sometimes available), incorporating a thin leader into the fly’s construction.

Flies tied on hooks from size #20 and smaller don’t need to—and probably shouldn’t—be particularly elaborate. Just a body made from a main thread in a suitably chosen color and wings made from CDC or a sparse cock hackle. These materials should fit easily on a tiny hook. Unfortunately, hooks this small pose certain challenges when it comes to both setting the hook and playing the fish. A hook with a longer shank sets better but holds the fish less securely. A short shank, on the other hand, holds the fish better but often results in a missed hookset. When it comes to hooks in the sizes needed to tie tiny fall flies, however—regardless of the ratio of shank length to gape—problems with setting the hook and playing the fish will arise either way. For some time now, when tying flies smaller than #18, I’ve been using modern, specially shaped hooks, which, in my opinion, offer a good compromise between a fairly good hookset and reasonably reliable landing. I tied the flies shown in photos 1–7 using this type of hook.

Making such small flies can certainly be a bit challenging at first. It’s worth using a large magnifying glass to check that each step of the tying process is done correctly. Another important thing is to use the thinnest threads available—these days, it’s no problem to buy them, and the days of pulling threads out of stockings are probably behind us — as well as good-quality CDC, preferably in light colors, which make it easier to spot our „little speck” on the water’s surface. For the blackberry fly, use hackle in light and dark gray, olive, grizzly, or possibly black and white. Body
made from thread, a single feather barbs, or very fine dubbing. And, of course, hooks in sizes #18–24. With these materials on hand, we’ll tie a set of flies that are sure to be effective in the fall.

 

Photo 1

Hook – #20–24

Ogonek – light gray rooster

Torso – radius of the tail feathers of a pheasant used for hunting

Wings – light-colored CDC

 

Photo 2

Hook – #20–24

Tail Feather, Blackberry – a neck feather from a dark gray rooster

Torso – the rays of a black dart

Winding – guide thread

 

Photo 3

Hook – #20–24

Tail Feather – the brown rays of a rooster's neck feather

Torso – a rust-brown guiding thread

Wings – gray CDC

 

Photo 4

Hook – #20–24

Body – delicate light olive dubbing

Blackberry – CDC

 

Photo 5

Hook – #20–24

Ogonek – The Rays of the Olive Rooster

Barrel – olive-colored synthetic quill

Wings – CDC

 

Photo 6

 

Hook – #20–24

Ogonek, Jeżynka – Grizzly Rooster

Torso – the yellow guiding thread

 

Photo 7

Hook – #20–24

Ogonek, Jeżynka – Kogut Badger 
ash

Torso – the radius of a heron’s gray wing

 

Photo 8

Hook – #18–22

Ogonek, Jeżynka – Grizzly Rooster

Torso – light olive-colored main thread

Wings – tips of the neck feathers of a Cree rooster