Trout and the Subsurface Fly

116 Pages·2002·10.262 MB·English

by  Lou Stevens

TROUT
AND THE
SUBSURFACE
FLY
By the same author:-
FLYFISHING TACTICS on SMALL STREAMS (Blandford)
THE ADAPTABLE FLYFISHER (Blandford)
TROUT and TERRESTRIALS (Swan Hill)
IMPROVE your FLYCASTING (Swan Hill)
TROUT
AND TH E
SUBSURFACE
FLY
L o u S
t e v e n s
SWANHILL
Copyright © 1997 Lou Stevens
First published in the UK in 1997
by Swan Hill Press, an imprint of Airlife Publishing Ltd
British Library Cataloguing-in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
ISBN 1 85310 872 3
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permis­
sion from the Publisher in writing.
Typeset by Phoenix Typesetting, Ilkley, West Yorkshire.
Printed in England by Livesey Ltd., Shrewsbury.
Swan Hill Press
An imprint of Airlife Publishing Ltd
101 Longden Road, Shrewsbury, SY3 9EB, England.
Foreword
The sport of flyfishing is blessed with an abundance of fine
literature that can give hours of contemplative pleasure when we
are not at the waterside. This literature can be divided into three
main categories: anecdotal, historical and instructional. The
anecdotal literature is often a joy to read, a perfect way to relax
without overtaxing our mental processes. However, when we
wish to improve our knowledge of the sport we invariably turn to
historical or instructional literature.
The following pages are a mixture of all three types. It was
not intended to be so when the writing commenced, but as the
subject of the subsurface fly expanded it naturally evolved that
way.
The fact that, as the research reported in the text shows, trout
take 75-85 per cent of their food subsurface was reason enough
for this work to be undertaken; in fact it made it absolutely
necessary.
The historical background of the many types of subsurface
flies, and the various methods of fishing them, naturally
followed. And, as the necessity of describing fishing methods
became apparent, I decided that I should describe actual past
fishing situations and use anecdotes when they were useful. So
we have a text that is a mixture - anecdotal, historical and
instructional. Hopefully this format will present an enormously
important subject in a readable form.
As a final point it must be stressed that it is not my intention
to advocate the subsurface fly over other flyfishing methods -
diverse situations demand diverse methods. However, since
trout consume such a large percentage of their food subsurface,
5
fishing the wet fly must take its very important place in the order
of things.
So let us consider our subject in detail...
Lou Stevens
Alvaston
Derbyshire
For Katie, with my love.