Flyfishing in freshwater

Flyfishing started in freshwater and it is in freshwater most of the flyfishing is done, at least here in Norway. The most popular species of fish for the Norwegian flyfisher are brown trout, sea run brown trout and salmon, closely followed by grayling and arctic char. Brown trout, char and grayling are insect eaters, and fishing with imitations of aquatic insects is the most common method. The last decades the Norwegian fly fisher has discovered fly fishing for other freshwater species like pike, perch and several of the species from the carp family. The reason for this is of course that it is effective and a lot of fun.

25. okt 2005

Sist oppdatert: 8. nov 2005

Brown trout
Flyfishing for brown trout can be done with dryflies, wetflies, nymphs and streamers. What we choose to use is depending on the season, the weather and most importantly if there are hatches and rising fish or not. Most of what you read about fishing for brown trout can be adapted to flyfishing for arctic char and grayling.
Dryflies are usually flies imitating different species of insects on the surface of the water. The most common insects to imitate are the aquatic ones like mayflies, caddisflies (sedges), stoneflies and midges. Often terrestrials land on the water by accident and a lot of these insects are imitated by dryflies. Flies that imitate swimming mice, frogs and other small animals are also used. To keep the dry flies afloat they are tied on light hooks with light materials and they are impregnated with a dry fly floatant. The fly lines we use are floating fly lines.
Nymphs are as the name implies, flies imitating the nymphal stage of aquatic insects. But we call it nymphs also when we are imitating larvaes and other under water animals like leaches, worms, tadpoles etc except fish. The nymphs are very often tied on weighted hooks to help them sink fast. Most people use floating fly lines while nymph fishing.
Wet flies are flies that look like insects, but are fished under water. They are not meant like imitations, but as food in general fished drowned. Wet flies can be fished both with floating and sinking lines.
Streamers are flies that imitate small fish. We very often will call it streamer fishing however, when we use larger flies fished actively, like poppers. Streamer fishing is the best method if we want to get in contact with the big ones, and it is the method used if we want to hunt fish that are fish eaters. All kind of lines from floating to fast sinking lines can be used, but in rivers we usually use floating lines.

More about the fishing methods and tying the different flies can be found in my books. Sorry, they are not in English, but a list of recommended literature in English will be included here later.

Salmon and sea run brown trout
I am not fishing for these species in fresh water and have almost nothing to contribute here. If you are an experienced streamer fisher you can probably apply the same techniques here with success.
The other species
Pike, perch, walleye and asp are usually fished for with streamers, while the other species of the carp family are usually fished for with dry flies and nymphs. Fishing for these species lengthen the season and are fun. Another thing is that fishing for instance for pike, is great training for fishing in the tropics. You use heavy wind resistant flies and heavy lines something it is very important to be familiar with when you see the first tarpon approaching the boat.
I have included fishing for a lot of the different species of fish in my book Streamer (A book I hope someone will want to translate to English).