Summer Flies — Shane Broadby

SUMMER FLIES

Commercial fly tyer, Shane Broadby shares his knowledge

November, December and January are probably my three favourite months of the Tasmanian Trout season, there is a lot going on during these three months. The Trout are still freely tailing and foraging and dawn and dusk in the first half of the period, the Whitebait runs hit their peak, the mayfly are hatching on river and lake, Chironomids are in the wind lanes, the beetles are falling and by late January the Grasshoppers are along the grassy river banks .

For late spring and early summer tailers I’ve usually switched from the early season standard Stick caddis and 007 to favouring a dry and a lot that time, the fly is a Possum Emerger, one of the most versatile, robust and easy to tie patterns a Tasmanian fly fisher can have in his or her box. The Possum Emerger works well in many situations from Tailing fish, to of course Mayfly feeders for which it was designed and I remember one New Year’s day having great success with a size 14 Possum Emerger,in the bay just across the road from my shack when the fish were cleaning up an Ant fall. Possum Tail of which the Possum Emerger is almost entirely tied from is never hard to come across in Tasmania, add a rib of various material, a bit of tying thread and you have the makings of a real killer fly, that will last for fish after fish.

One of my very favourite insects begins to hatch sometime in the first half of November in many lowland Hydro storages and rivers, the Caenid Mayfly. Trout smutting on Caenid featured very heavily in my early fly fishing days. The third trout I landed on the fly was a wonderful three and a half pound Brown taken on an Iron Blue Dun in what was and still is favourite water, Lake Meadowbank, the last Hydro storage of the Derwent System. I still use the Iron Blue Dun today as do friends and family when fishing to Caenid feeders as well as for Chironomid feeders when they are taking the adult fly. We have tied many variations from the standard pattern over the years using different body materials and colours and different shades of Iron Blue and Blue Dun dyed hackle and wing material but really we have settled on a true Iron Blue Dun Hackle and tail and the only other variation we use is the fly tied with a paler Blue Dun Hackle and Tail. I use to tie all my Iron Blues with Grey Duck Quill wings but gave that away as a bad joke and now tie them with a much easier to tie and robust synthetic winging material.

A good general beetle pattern is a must in Tassie all through our summer; the famous Red Tag was adopted and refined by Tasmanian fishing icons such as Wigram, Scholes and Jetson and fished as a dry on river and lake to tailing, cruising and rising fish or fished as a searching pattern. The Red Tag is a brilliant fly but the Glister Tag is just as good, I remember my good mate and fly fishing icon Ken Orr telling me he reckons that it’s better than the Red Tag, that’s good enough for me! The Glister Tag works well as a general searching pattern and it excels as a polaroiding fly in the 19 Lagoons, I witnessed a friend of mine land sixteen good Trout in a session at Botsford a few January’s ago, all on a size 12 Glister Tag.

Possum Emerger

Hook: 10-14 Partridge Dry Fly Supreme Tail: Brush Tail Possum Tail fibres Body: Brush Tail Possum Wing: Brush tail Possum Tail fibres tied loop style Thorax: Brush tail Possum tail fibres Rib: Copper pot scrubber, wire or Uni Stretch Thread: 6/0 Black.

Use the black Possum Tail Fibres, the tail and wing of the possum emerger are tied with fibres from the tail, the body and thorax are tied with dubbing made from the Possum tail fibres. The rib can be copper pot scrubber, different colour wire or Brown or Camel Uni Stretch. When tying the loop wing add a drop of head cement to the wing butts after trimming for strength as the tail fibres can slip. Many Tyers twist the wing into a tight bud but I prefer to leave the wing as a traditional loop wing. Try to avoid making the thorax too bulky, it only needs to slightly thicker than the body. The fly can be ruffed up with a piece of Velcro as well for a scruffy look.

Iron Blue Dun

Hook: 12-18 Partridge Dry Fly Supreme Tail: Dyed Iron Blue Dun Hackle Fibres Butt: Red tying thread Body: Adams Grey (or similar) synthetic dubbing Hackle: Dyed Iron Blue Dun Wing: Blue Dun or Grey Poly Yarn or similar.

For a lighter variation use a dyed Blue Dun hackle for the tail and Hackle. Tie the wing material in over the eye of the hook, prop it up with tight turns of thread so it stands up then divide the yarn into equal parts, then figure eight with the thread to form two wings, put 5-6 turns of thread around the base of each wing to define and strengthen the wing.

Glister Tag

Hook: 10-14 Kamasan B405 Tag: Fluro Pink Poly Yarn or similar Body: 50/50 mix of Olive Glister and Claret Seals Fur Hackle: Dyed Coachman Brown Saddle

Mix the two body materials well and form the body into an oval beetle shape. Another good variation is to use a black hackle.