| Advantage
Poland
Oliver
Edwards describes a deadly methon to extract fish
from fast, shallow water, and explains how the opld
tennis raquet in the attic can still serve up some
aces.
We
both
slipped over the tussocky bank and into the head of
this fast riffle, so fast that it rode about four
inches up the back of our waders. Vladi led me across
the riffle, I thought it was a natural ford and that
we were simply crossing to the other bank to move
downstream. Halfway across he said, "OK now we turn
around and start!"
"In
this? It's only calf depth", I said.
"Yes,
but plenty fish here".
"You
fish, I'll watch". I said studiously.
Vladi faced slightly upstream of square and lobbed
in his duo of nymphs, then to my utter amazement he
seemed to immediately strike and a trout of about
3/4lb exploded out of the river firmly attached!
"Do
that again", I said, in disbelief.
"OK,
is easy. I can teach anybody in 15 minutes, a good
fisherman in two. All you have to do is lead the flies
just a little bit faster than the current, only just
faster, that way flies don't get caught on bottom,
and fish think they are acting naturally, like something
leaving the stones on the bottom and being carried
with the current."
Vladi, with me glued to his rod shoulder, produced
two more fish, each one almost as fast as its taken
me to write this sentence.
"Now
your turn" said the maestro.
To my amazement, after three chucks the leader 'ticked',
I automatically tapped it, and the rod was arched
over and bucking.
Well I'm not going to bore you with blow for blow
accounts. However, on my first pass down that riffle
I had eight. Then Vladi suggested I go back up to
the top and do it again. "Still plenty fish", he assured
me.
The next pass down produced seven including a good
wild brownie of about 1 1/4 lb. In fact most of the
trout, according to Vladi, were not stockies - about
half my catch were grayling. So how's it done? I caught
15 good fish in 40 minutes in water nowhere deeper
than twelve inches, tanking through at, at least 4
feet per second which had just been hard fished for
five Championship sessions.
Watching Vladi, the first thought which struck me
was the shortness of the drift. Six feet was long;
very often after only about a yard he made the mandatory
end of drift strike. He always did this, a trained
auto-reaction. The next glaring thing which was different
to the Czech method, was that Vladi held virtually
all of his leader out of the water.
He had probably no more than one foot of actual fly
line out beyond the end ring. The two heavy flies
plopped in, on a tight line (leader) and sunk immediately.
Vladi, with rod held fairly low and angled slightly
downstream, quickly tracked downstream with the rod
tip, the leader remaining fairly taut throughout the
drift. After only 3 to 5 feet he struck, following
the strike through with a backward swing, then the
duo of flies were quickly lobbed in again. Sometimes
the mandatory end of drift strike would jerk the rod
tip over and a fish would boil on the surface. Takes
during the drift were, in fact, dead easy to detect.
The subtle ones - if anything can be subtle at that
speed of water - were a kind of flick or tick of the
tautish leader, it just momentarily flicked straight.
When you whacked it, bingo, rod over. Some were actual
rod jolters, almost self-hookers.
The trick it seems is to know the depth of the piece
you're fishing or at least have a decent idea. The
duo of flies, particularly the heavier point fly has
to be the correct weight for the run or riffle and
its depth. When the heavier point fly finds bottom,
the angler as to raise it fractionally off the bottom
and keep it moving, it shouldn't be allowed to get
stuck on the bottom. You have to keep it tracking
just that bit faster than the current.
This sounds quite impossible to achieve however, but
with a little practice it is not. The rapid current
does in fact help, it seems to buoy up the flies against
the slight tension you are applying. Remember, though,
everything is happening at a fair old pace and this
is faster fishing than the Czech style, simply because
the drift never passes the angler. I never saw Vladi
let his flies come round and fish to full dangle.
If the run or riffle is deeper, after adjusting the
weight of the nymphs the technique is the same, in
this case the rod too will be lowered to let the point
fly find bottom and fish deeper. I know that this
may all sound rather pat, but that seems to be it,
it's then down to an awful lot of practice.
Vladi didn't fish, I passed him my camera: "Please
take some shots" I urged, "nobody will believe me".
"Why
not?" he chuckled, "is simple old Polish method. Now
you are an expert" . "Oh no I'm not".
So we drove back to the hotel, my brain buzzing...
why have I never thought of doing this? I'm thinking
of the places at home where I can use it. Gary's lounging
on the back seat: "Good, eh, Ollie. I'm gonna murder
'em back home".
I bombarded Vladi with questions, but I really needed
a pocket tape recorder, some of his replies I've forgotten
so I'm going to have to run up a big phone bill. I
don't think much changes as the water deepens except
that the nymphs or one of them is heavier than the
ones I was using in that really shallow riffle. As
with Czech nymphing this Polish method seems to be
at its best in really fast water. One great advantage
I've already discovered with this Polish style is
that it is near perfect for those annoying small fast
pots in pocket water. I asked Vladi where he puts
the heaviest nymph, and it seems that the point position
is favoured. But I've a load of other questions for
him - I could do to live in Zakopane for half a year
- next door to him!
So there you are, you've got if as it happened, a
sort of 'Rough Guide to Polish Nymphing'. What about
flies I hear you ask? Yes, I did see some very interesting
flies and did a few swaps. The Mackerel Nymph I had
seen in John Roberts' excellent book Worlds Best Trout
Flies, now I was looking at them at close quarters.
They are very popular and I can see why. The Catgut
Nymph, also in John's book, was probably the most
interesting for the simple reason that there is such
a difference between its dry and thoroughly wet state.
When dry its not so prepossessing, just a curved grub
hook wrapped with an old thick violin string! However,
when well soaked the transformation is quite amazing.
The stuff swells and goes a milky transluscence so
that the base under-colour glows faintly through,
making it look just like a juicy grub you've unearthed
while digging in the garden. One hard squeeze and
you'd think you would burst it! This nymph is a must
for me, and I'm currently trying to source fairly
thick catgut.
Vladi gave me some of his woven jobs, they're so glossy
and slick and drop through the water column like a
brick. He also gave me a sample of the Little White
Head Nymph, this also goes down fast. Ure fish love
it.
I'll be reporting back in due course.
Catgut, according to my dictionary, is 'a strong cord
made from the dried intestines of sheep and other
animals'. Not to be confused with that other gut,
the leader (cast) material used in bygone years which
is produced from glandular secretions from the silkworm
moth caterpillar.
Today the most likely source of thick catgut is old
tennis rackets - pre-nylon string days. Catgut most
useful for us is from 0.5mm to 1.5mm diameter depending
of course on the hook size you intend using it on.
Catgut is a strange, maybe even unique, material.
In its dry state, it is a dry, stiff quite springy
cord. Dirty cream in general colour with now and then
odd glassy clear patches. The one mm diameter piece
I am examing now has been constructed from at least
six individual thin strips. These are all spirally
wrapped together to form the one thick cord, which
is surprisingly uniform and quite round in cross section.
The wrap strands hold together extremely well but
don't appear to be glued in any way . Neverthless
I had to use a needle and some persistence to open
it up at the end.
When well soaked in water its physical/structural
state changes dramatically. It swells noticeably and
goes ultra-limp and the entire cord takes on a milky
translucence. In fact, it looks for all the world
like a thin white strand of cooked spaghetti and as
limp. Now in this very limp state the cord is still
very strong and resilient to compressive forces, so
there is no chance of severing it with Kevlar or other
super strong threads.
So far I've tied ten flies with the sutff, so I am
but a learner, however with each one I seem to be
improving. The problem is I don't know anyone who
has experience of tying with it, nor did I get the
chance to see one of the Polish tyers use it. So,
I've been fumbling along on my own.
You have to make one big decision right at the start,
to use it dry and stiff, or, well wetted and limp.
The great temptation is to use it in its limp state
as I did for the first few. However, when you do so
the wraps all go loose - they almost rattle when your
fly dries out in our fly box. This annoys me, I don't
like to see loose wraps and the underbody showing
through. OK, I know it will swell and tighten again
next time it is dunked, however I prefer a tight fly
all the time. So the first four I tied, I used it
bone dry, but, when I wrapped on each turn, I only
applied moderate tension. So now I have a quite firm
fly when dry and a solid tight one when wet. I tie
dry now with every one.
The second problem I encountered was how to taper
both the tying in and tying off ends. Remember it
comes as a parallel cord, like garden wire and feels
as hard. If you don't taper the tying in end, the
first turn is bulky and bulbous and makes the tail
end of the fly look awful. So, I first of all tried
shaving it with a nice long taper with a new razor
blade. That method failed. As I made the first couple
of turns some of the six strips separated and sprang
out to the side. I tried several times, but could
not get good, neat results. I was stumped. Then I
got one of those rare brainwaves, try doing what I
did as a boy to liquorice root - chew the end (but
don't swallow) and it worked! I chewed away, quite
hard, on about half an inch of the end, shredding
bits out. Pretty soon I had it shredded just like
the old liquorice stick. Then I could do a bit of
thinning with the scissors. When I twisted it up again
- hey presto, a nice taper, and in five minutes dry
enough to tie in. The tying off taper though would
have to be done in situ. So, when I arrived at the
back of the hook eye, I held it firmly between finger
and thumb and maintained that positional grip as I
back-wound it. When I had several wraps unwound I
could get my head down to enable me to give it another
good chewing right where I was gripping it (the Clinton/Lewinsky
technique!). Then I simply wound it on again, twisting
it up tight when I got to the chewed, shredded, flattened,
soft bit. Then holding it ultra-tight I came over
it, with the Power Silk and gave it 'welly' - many,
many turns. Then, when I had it very firmly anchored,
I snipped off the waste, made the head and whip finished.
I did in fact achieve something of a front taper.
Do we have a 'new' fly tying material? And is it better
than the multitude of materials we are today bombarded
with? Well, it does have some appealing features particularly
for tying grubs, larvae, nymph and pupae patterns.
It has for instance a very subtle translucence, a
vague milky one. So the tyer can use whatever he/she
wishes. Fluorescent flosses can be used, even Tippex
correction fluid can be applied straight on to the
lead. (tippex comes in many shades today). You can
also darken the top surfce of the underbody using
a felt-tip marker, this will give a vague counter
shading effect.
Catgut also takes felt marker pens very well, so you
can mark the finished fly - permanently - to whatever
pattern your whim takes. Catgut also takes dye well
and still maintains some of its translucence.
To put the finishing touches to your Catgut Nymph
you can leg it in a variety of ways: paired Finnish
style, tufts of guard hairs, or just simply dubbed.
You can also pull a narrow thin black or dark brown
strip of polythene over the the thoracic region and
tie it down by pulling down between the segments with
a two or three pound BS piece of mono. (Skip every
other segment).
And finally, being a thick round cord it automatically
produces clean distinct segmentations and, since it
takes up water quickly, it seems to aid sinking -
these patterns sink like a stone. So, all in all,
I think catgut has more pluses than minuses. So get
searching through your old aunt's attic or your nearest
junk shop. Someone, somewhere, has an old gut-strung
tennis racket that appears to be completely worthless...
but not to readers of this magazine!
(Larva/grub, origin Poland)
Hook: Curved Grub type, sizes
6-12.
Weight: Lead wire (I use sticky backed lead
sheet) built up to a thin banana shape.
Thread: Fine and ultra-strong i.e. Powersilk
(white).
Underbody: Choose coloured floss silk to
'radiate' desired effect when wet. Strong, bright
colours are best such as Glo-Brite, but experiment.
Tippex Correction Fluid can also be used.
Overbody: Thick catgut (from an old tennis
racket).
Thorax: Dubbed, usually a darker contrasting
colour or specific legging technique.
Thorax cover: Thick, dark polythene; a narrowish
strip.
Tinting (optional): Waterproof felt pen.
Dots, stripes etc.
(Larva/grub, origin Poland)
Hook: Curved Grub type, sizes 6-12.
Weight: Lead wire or sticky backed lead sheet.
Thread: regular 6/0 or Powersilk, olive.
Rib: 0.15 to 0.20 mm diameter clear monofilament.
Body: Fine dubbing in a variety of shades
i.e. olives, greys, dirty yellow, cream etc.
Thorax: Black coarse wool or black/dark brown
natural fur with spiky guard hairs.
Shellback: Smoked mackerel skin - a fairly
narrow strip.
Head: Tying silk, tinted black.
* Smoked mackerel skin has the dark bars across
its back, when you cut the strip aim to get, say,
1/4 to 1/3 dark and 3/4 to 2/3 golden brown. I heard
two versions of how to prepare the skin. One Polish
controller told me not to scrape the back side (flesh
side) of the skin. nor to wash it; he obviously
liked it to go a bit rank! Another Polish angler
told me that I should definitely clean it well and
wash it. I prefer his method. The strip should be
well moistened before tying in and down.
(Cased caddis, origin Poland)
Hook: Straight shank 1X or 2X long, size
10.
Thread: 6/0 regular pale tan.
Weight: Fine lead wire or narrow strip of
sticky backed lead sheet.
Case: Copper coloured wool.
Rib: Red lacquered copper wire (transformer
wire).
Grub: Cream wool or nylon floss (I've used
a narrow strip of creamy white plastic tape - it
retains its same bright colour when wet).
Head: Tying thread untinted, or tinted black.
(Many larvae, nymphs etc. Origin, Poland)
Hook: Standard shank wide gape or 2XL Curved
shank, sizes 6-12.
Thread: Regular 6/0 black.
Weight: Lead wire.
Body: Parallel weave, using Viscose or floss
silk in a variety of strongly contrasting colours
to more subtly contrasting, the lightest colour
always on the underside.
Rib (sometimes): Various coloured fine wires
or fine tying threads. The ribs pitch in sequence
with the weave.
Wing cases (sometimes): Black feather fibre,
glossily varnished.
Tails (sometimes): Black feather fibre.
Legs (sometimes): Three stout black feather
fibres, equi-spaced on top of the thorax before
the wing case is pulled over.
Head: Eliptically coned, and lacquered.
Article
taken from January/February 1999 issue of Fly Fishing
and Fly Tying, part 2 in the series.
|
