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Since my return to fly fishing 7 years ago (Children married and College Tuition Completed), I have concentrated on Streamers (Big Fish) and Nymphing. 1% of my time has been spent dry flying. Yesterday while fishing there was a caddis hatch going so I switched from nymphing to caddis dries. The first two fish I drifted to missed the fly or decided that the fly was not for them. Next I tried a madam x - caught a nice brown 15" then no more takers on that fly, next I tried a stimulator with legs - caught another nice brown---then no more takers. Next I put on a Beetle with legs - I caught a beautiful 18" brown with the red accents yellow gold body. I also tried a Chernobyl ant - but no takers.
Questions:
1. Do terrestrials work in the morning or is this an afternoon/evening event?
2. Are legs important - as all three fish were caught with leg patterns?
3. Does a particular under body color work better than others?
I would appreciate suggestions for color(s), patterns and how to fish these terrestrials. Thanks.
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It all depends to all 3 questions.You can read whole books on this. I could easily write a few thousand word response but I won't. I'll briefly tell you my experience. Terrestrials generally work better late morning to dusk. Dusk is typically best if the fish are more selective or have seen a lot of terrestrials. Uneducated and less selective fish you can do well all day. My favorite are the very realistic foam hopper patterns in grey, brown or green. They seem to fool many trout even after hoppers have been fished heavily and they are not striking other hopper patterns. Just splat them down on the edges of bigger streams and right into the middle of pools on smaller streams. If hoppers aren't producing move on to beetles and ants. And legs matter as does a dead drift if you don't get an immediate strike on a hopper pattern. I'd suggest skipping reading the books on this and use that time on the stream learning as so much is stream dependent as well.
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Thank you - Much appreciated.
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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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