unless you use leaded flies to help you achieve the depth required.

The fact that water temperatures have been high has encouraged weed growth much earlier than is usual. The weed acts as a filter to the sediment in the water, hence helping it to stay clear. The other great aspect of the warm water is that it has encouraged an enormous “bloom” in the daphnia population. This in turn helps to clear the water as the daphnia feed on algae that are held in suspension in the water.All of this is good news for the imitative angler. True, the daphnia feeding trout can often only be tempted with something bright, or a fly moved fast, but most of the fish in the lake are spending a lot of their time “locked onto” the huge population of buzzers – chironomid pupae. The most difficult task of late has been trying to keep your flies at the level that the trout are taking their chosen food-form at! On the warmer days (there really haven’t been too many of those in the past couple of weeks), the buzzers are up in the water, preparing to hatch – hence the trout have been up too. However, when the cold wind has been blowing strongly, the fish have dropped down to feed on the pupae, which must be staying at a deeper level. It makes for lovely fishing!A team something like one of the following would keep you catching: Point fly Middle Top dropper Red/claret superglue Black superglue Diawl bach Black superglue Pheasant tail Diawl bach Pheasant tail Black buzzer Hare’s ear Combinations of these patterns would be a good starting point if you are not sure which flies to tie or buy. Take note that I haven’t mentioned any sizes for the hooks. That would depend upon the depth that you will be required to fish – unless you use leaded flies to help you achieve the depth required.

Personally I don’t keep leaded flies in my fly boxes that I take out on the lakes, as I would hate to get them mixed up and use them in a competition when they are banned. Sure, I use them on rivers – in New Zealand I used leaded flies almost the whole time that I was not on a dry fly! Lots of my friends use goldheads to achieve depth and a modicum of control. Again I am not so keen on their use in Stillwater fishing. You will have guessed that I am a bit old-fashioned!