When the trout are lurking at the bottom of a river or lake one of the few flyfishing patterns that will stir them into action is the Green body daddy longlegs imitation dry fly pattern. It represents a good sized meal to a fish and worth the effort to investigate if it is edible

Daddy Longlegs Dry Flies Hook size 10 - $US each

What is the perfect flyfishing day? According to many it is supposed to be one with steady gentle breezes and an over cast sky. This is the sort of day when flies hatch and trout rise. But when you are fishing in the Highlands of Scotland or on a lake district or Welsh mountain river, these ideal conditions rarely appear. On so many fishing trips, the conditions have not been ideal. The trout have not risen to my flies. What really frustrates me is that when I am on water when there is a hatch of olives going on, and I can hardly see a trout rising to take this free natural food. If they are not going to munch on the real things, they are not going to take my artificial blue winged olives.

So how do you deal with this situation. Why not try the triple approach. If you can afford to have three flyfishing rods, try and prepare them to deal with different situations. Arm one rod with the traditional subsurface wet (or damp) bob fly for retrieving over the waves whilst dragging a team of emerges through the ripples. On the second Rod, choose your dry with care, match the size and shape of the emerging insects in your vicinity. Now the third rod will be your secret weapon. Put on a fast sinking line with a shrimp pattern or a bait fish fry streamer. Make sure you use a fast sinking line not and intermediate. Armed with these three different tactical fishing rods you will be able to search all the different water depths to find where the fish are looking for their food.

The Green Body Daddy Long Legs Crane Fly

As most flyfisherman know there are certain times of the day when the temperature is correct and a hatch of adult aquatic insects is triggered. Obviously this is the perfect time to deploy a dry fly that imitates the insects that are emerging from the water surface. There are certain days when no trout are rising. On these days I experiment with an attractor pattern I fish these big, colourful dry fly patterns either statically in front of a drifting boat, or occasionally twitch the line to give the appearance that it is in trouble on the water surface.

A dry fly Hopper works very well, especially towards autumn. The same can be said for daddy longlegs crane fly imitation patterns. Both these flies constitute a substantial meal to a trout and worth swimming up from the depths to investigate the potential of a good lunch. I like using hopper flies near riverbanks because this is where you find the natural insects that have been feeding in the meadows and miss-judged their last hop. I find daddy longlegs imitation fly patterns work a treat at bringing fish up through a number of feet of Clearwater even though there is not a hatch happening or real natural crane flies on the water surface. They are just too tempting for hungry predatory trout to dismiss.

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