I have just been looking at a collection of trolling flies on Global Flyfisher.
I believe it is a New England style, trolling from canoes etc. Anyone here do this kind of fly fishing?
I used to when my grandson was too little to cast. I have a collection of full sinking lines from #1 thru 6. We have 3 different spring fed lakes in our area and if you know where the springs are on the bottom of the lake a slow troll using an electric motor over the spring will usually trigger a strike. I trolled as small as #20 doc spratleys and #18 pheasant tail nymphs with great success. Rainbows average about 2 pounds up to 6lbs .
Now that the kid has grown we anchor near the spring and use sinking tip lines with a 9 ft leader . Our success rate is about the same with either method.
I still occasionally take small kids out trolling flies.
Although you wouldn’t think it I have even trolled chronimids ( Buzzers ) successfully, Deawl bach are very good trolled.
There are three specific lakes I canoe fish on, two are small lakes and the third is a long and maybe 3/4 mile across to where I go to fish small streams coming in. My best luck trolling these lakes (paddling my canoe) has been using a streamer and a sinking line. Wooly buggers have always been a good choice.
Dale
Donald I think I misspelled Deawl bach . Do you have the correct spelling so I can google it. I first heard of them from you last year. I checked your webstite but you don’t seem to have them. They have been my go-to fly on many occasions. Retreived in a short jerky manner or quick stripped they can be deadly for rainbows. I tie them in black and in red size #12 for trolling #14 for casting. Peacock hurl body. Very thin seems to work best . They troll nicely. Rowing seems to bring a few more strikes than the electric motor so I just use the motor to get the line out then switch to rowing.
I found it, its Diawl bach. (little devil)
Donald for many of my early years I lived in New England. My dad and i would troll a upper Vermont lakes every spring at ice out for landlock salmon with a bamboo rod and streamers. I now live in Indiana and still troll spring and fall for larger trout in our lakes. I have a collection of the New England Streamers that dad and I used. Bucktail and Polar Bear patterns-- Black and Grey Ghost, Mickey Finn, and Smelt patterns. Some of the flies are double hook models and others were callled snake flies, a front hook a short section of mylar tube to a rear tail. I now tie the snake fly with a rear hook. I believe “Snake Flies” can be found on Google
Hey Donald & Gnu Bee,
I just googled Diawl Bach and saw what the fly looks like. It reminds me of a cross between a Teeny Nymph and a Cary Special. I’m curious though, do either of you know how to pronounce it phoenetically? That way I can understand how it sounds in the printed word.
Great looking fly.
God Bless,
Lakes are tough no matter where you are… The fish will inhabit predictable areas like weed beds, inlets and outlets, but they are also hunters by nature and will cruise the lake bottom.
Trolling with a flie will help you to find the fish… once you find them, then you can be very successful casting.
I also use an ESL or most any type of streamer… you want to troll very slow however, otherwise, your fly will be very high in the water column. I have used a float tube, and that seems to the be right speed for me…
Good luck.
You can also go Trolling Trolling Trolling…Walleye (or whatever else is in the water) from a pontube. Just kickback, and slowly use the foot flippers to go along the shoreline… using a streamer pattern.
Or you can drift down a lake, using a sea anchor, casting ahead of where the craft is heading. Place the sea anchor at a point amid ship, where the bow and the stern are balanced against the wind pushing the craft sideways down the body of water… fish where the boat has yet to cast a shadow, is more effective than presenting a fly pattern, where the crafts shadow has already been.
I like to have my flies travel over the sunken islands, by traversing around one side of the sunken island, with enough line out so the fly pattern, travels right across the top of the sunken island.
You can also use a very large surface fly, that can restrict the depth of your streamer fly. Just limit the length of the remaining leader between the top surface fly and the streamer. ~Parnelli
LoTech,
Seems to me I’ve read that the proper pronunciation of the Welsh term “Diawl Bach” is DEE-owl Bach with Bach being prounced like the old 15th century composers name.
If that’s wrong I hope Donald will correct it.
Bill
littlebrook,
Thanks! I can atleast pronounce that.
God Bless,
I think Bill has got it right.
Although I have heard ‘jowl’ and then as in Johan Sebastian, but that was not a Welshman.
I have admired the various New England Streamers on Global for some time, purely as an exercise in classy looking fly tying. I suppose the techniques for using them is alive and kicking in New England.
I understood that Dee owl Bach was the way to say it. It is a good fly to troll for big trout, the largest I have caught was a 6 pound rainbow on a #16 Diawl Bach. It has replaced my Doc spratley for my go-to fly. Easy as pie to tie.
My best piece of advice when trolling flies is let all the line plus 50 feet of backing out. It gives the fish time to get over seeing the boat pass overhead.
Another thing is to zig zag slowly up and down the lake. This speeds up and slows down your fly.
Troll over shallower shoals and near to the ends of islands.
When you put a dark #16 Diawl BAch Or Pheasant tail nymph into the dark tea colored alkali lakes around the Okanagan it looks almost invisible but the fish seem to find it easily. I row Uber slowly with a #2 sinking line, pausing for 30 seconds every once in a while. I get a lot of strikes just as I resume rowing. If the lake is a little deeper I put on a faster sinking line. I use #1 sinking line all the way up to #6 depending on the lake.
I fish for Trout over 10 pounds with a #6 sinking line and a polar bear bucktail. The lake 90 miles long and 780 feet deep with an average depth of 400 feet so getting a snag is not an issue.
from the university of wales online dictionary site
http://www.geiriadur.net/atebion.php?prefLang=en
devil n.m. (diawled)
I fish out of my kayak regularly, and whenever I am moving from one part of the river to another, I troll a line, usually with a nice size streamer. It is amazing how often this results in a nice smallmouth. It took me awhile to find a rod holder that works well with a fly rod, though.
Scotty makes a good fly rod holder. 8)