06-23-2014, 05:35 PM
In my experience Terrestrials work best in the early mornings, especially in the summer (6am-9am). Once the sun gets high fish get nervous about predators and like to stick to deep water and shaded areas. If you end up fishing mid day using terrestrials, stick to deep cut banks, shaded area and deeper water.
Legs are very important in my opinion for terrestrial fishing. When bugs are stuck in the water they want to get out as fast as they can. Those little legs kicking create small ripples and disturbances on the water which elicit hard top water takes. If you ever see a violent splash in the middle of the river that's a fish hitting a terrestrial. In fact we always tell people to twitch their flies in the water. Making small mends or small retrieves causes the legs to look like they are moving. Just be prepared to set the hook !.
Fish can be more picky about color than most people might think. I always have several different colors of Stimulators/Chernobyl Ants/Hoppers. In fact when I tie them i usually use red, yellow, pink, purple, and green (bright green and dark green). I also have size 12 to size 6 bugs in multiple colors. If I fish water I know they are holding in and don't get any takes, I switch pretty often until I find what they are eating.
One fly that I feel is underutilized in both lakes and rivers are small ants, say size 16 or 14. That is a go to pattern for me. In fact what I'll usually do is the larger fly tied onto 3x florocarbon tippet and either a bead head pheasant tail (size 16 or 14) tied to the back of the hook with around 3 feet of 4x florocarbon tippet. If I'm not getting takes on the dropper then I'll switch to an ant pattern.
In the evenings fish are usually keying on whatever is hatching at the time after the water has been warmed up during the day, and not so much on big terrestrial flies.
I hope this helps, you can feel free to message me and I can answer any other questions you might have.
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Legs are very important in my opinion for terrestrial fishing. When bugs are stuck in the water they want to get out as fast as they can. Those little legs kicking create small ripples and disturbances on the water which elicit hard top water takes. If you ever see a violent splash in the middle of the river that's a fish hitting a terrestrial. In fact we always tell people to twitch their flies in the water. Making small mends or small retrieves causes the legs to look like they are moving. Just be prepared to set the hook !.
Fish can be more picky about color than most people might think. I always have several different colors of Stimulators/Chernobyl Ants/Hoppers. In fact when I tie them i usually use red, yellow, pink, purple, and green (bright green and dark green). I also have size 12 to size 6 bugs in multiple colors. If I fish water I know they are holding in and don't get any takes, I switch pretty often until I find what they are eating.
One fly that I feel is underutilized in both lakes and rivers are small ants, say size 16 or 14. That is a go to pattern for me. In fact what I'll usually do is the larger fly tied onto 3x florocarbon tippet and either a bead head pheasant tail (size 16 or 14) tied to the back of the hook with around 3 feet of 4x florocarbon tippet. If I'm not getting takes on the dropper then I'll switch to an ant pattern.
In the evenings fish are usually keying on whatever is hatching at the time after the water has been warmed up during the day, and not so much on big terrestrial flies.
I hope this helps, you can feel free to message me and I can answer any other questions you might have.
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