THE TOP SIX TROUT STREAM FLIES OF IAN COX

Text and images by Ian Cox

(Ian Cox is an experienced fly fisher and small stream devotee fishing mainly in KZN but also in fly streams around the village of Rhodes in the Eastern Cape Highlands)

Tom’s request that I select my six top small stream flies has necessitated a level of introspection that can’t be healthy for a chap the wrong side of fifty. If I am honest and make this selection on the basis of the small stream flies I most often tie, and thus truly use most often, then I risk exposure as a bore.   You see there isn’t anything terribly exciting about my top six, or how I select or fish them. For the most part I find myself prospecting undercuts and tail outs in relatively fast flowing water with a New Zealand style dropper rig. There is similarly nothing particularly intelligent in my choice of fly.   If the fish are rising, which I don’t encounter often, I’ll have a stab at matching the hatch choosing from a vast array of one-offs or limited editions that litter my fly boxes. However I will quickly change to one of my old faithful flies if, as is often the case, this proves unsuccessful. I’m generally less adventurous if the fish are not rising, choosing a RAB or Wolf Spider as a strike indicator, varying the nymph and its depth until success is achieved. I am surprised at how often the strike indicator catches fish.

Save for those itsy bitsy, arty farty hooks whose gape is designed never to accept a bead, I don’t get to tense regarding hooks. Truth be told, I have never experienced hook failure on a small stream nor do I expect to. For the most part any wide gape hook will do. If I can lay my hands on a heavier hook when tying nymphs I will but if not, no worries. I tend to avoid so-called deep water nymph hooks for dries for obvious reasons.

Thread choice is important. I normally use Gordon Griffiths Sheer 14/0 and, more recently, Semperfly’s 12/0 Nanosilk.

Click to enlarge images

So here are my flies.

1.         Zak

I generally start with a conventional brass beaded Zak size 14 or 16 Zak. I prefer to fish my flies un-weighted but where necessary will add a few lead wraps behind the bead. I tie these with red thread to distinguish them. I used Whiting saddle hackles but have discarded them as too stiff and too thickly hackled. I now use the cheapest black Indian rooster cape I can lay my hands on. Tungsten beads are too expensive for me to use them often, but when I do, I stick to brass or black. I have had very little success with coloured beads.

I tie three versions of the Zak. My green Zak (a couple of olive partridge barbs or deer hair for the tail, replace the DMC thread with an olive Veniard’s holographic tinsel and replace the black hackle with an olive green one) is better employed fishing for yellows than trout. The brown version (wind the abdomen with a gold DMC thread instead of the purple, replacing the stripped peacock herl with two barbs of pheasant tail and one piece of moose main, spinning a noodle comprising spiky brown natural SLF dubbing and a brown hackle for the thorax) provides a buggier alternative to the GHRE and works very well with trout.

2.         PTN Orange Hotspot

This is my go to fly when the fishing is difficult, especially when fishing deep. If I have to get the fly really deep I twin it with Ed Herbst’s sunken beetle which doubles as a very effective sinker! Again I fish the bead-headed version mainly on a size 16 or 18 hook. I do not look for much in a hook other than it must have a wide gape.

3.         GHRE

I don’t fish this nearly as often as a Zak or a Hotspot. I normally tie this fly on a size 14 hook. Again I tie the bead-headed version. I have never fished it weighted though I do often tail it behind a weighted Zak.

 4.         RAB

It took me I long time to appreciate the virtues of this fly. Indeed until fairly recently I used mainly DDD’s and Klinkhamers. Nowadays I start off with a RAB, preferring the standard version in fast flowing waters and the parachute version when the flow is a little slower. I like it because it is big enough to hold up a nymph, because it is a great general attractor pattern, but most importantly, because I can see it.

5.         Wolf Spider

I will forever be grateful to Peter Brigg for introducing me to this fly. It not only floats like a cork but is capable of inducing the most jaded trout to rise to the surface and have a go. I tie them on a 16 hook.  I have varied Peter’s variation of Leonard Flemming’s original fly. I substituted pheasant tail for moose mane for the legs. It makes for a quicker tie and works just as well. I find the trick to tying this fly is to use very little thread, but instead to secure the body legs post and hackle with the judicious applications of superglue. Ed Herbst says that this is best achieved by using a dentist’s pick or dubbing needle and the brushable version of super glue. I agree.

6.         Klinkhåmer

Apologies to Hans Van Klinken, but I call all my parachute hackled semi floaters Klinkhåmers.  I tie and fish these in sizes 14 and 16 and in a variety of guises, the most successful being Tom’s version of the Halo-Klink. It has to be said that most of these patterns are a long way removed from a traditional Klinkhåmer. A standard Klinkhåmer can get pretty big. Klinkhåmer hooks are sold in sizes 8 to 20 and also more closely resemble Grip’s terrestrial hook than the scud hook I use. I have promised myself that I will mend my ways once I have used up my stock of scud hooks.

Ian Cox