Stillwater advice?

[rusbo09]

Hey all,

I get by when it comes to fly fishing dries but unfortunately am seriously struggling to try to get that to carry over to fishing trout on still water, can still coax rises once in a while but I am really looking for a point in the right direction when it comes to staple patterns and retrievals for nymph and streamers on lakes so that I can at least have a starting point and figure it out from there. any info for this frustrated angler would be greatly appreciated, at least until the season opens up on the fast water

[orvisman]

I find that most of the time the fish are rising in the morning or evening, it’s to midges (chironomids). Of course that’s not always the case, but pretty typical. Depending on whether it’s a hatch or egg laying, I do pretty well with a griffith’s gnat or a zebra midge unweighted fished just under the surface. I also will fish midges a foot or so off the lake bottom under an indicator. This can produce very well. Stripping or figure eighth hand retrieved streamers work good. The best advice I can give you is to watch videos by Brian Chan and Phil Rowley. These guys are stillwater gurus.

[pikergolf]

A blog with successful still water flies and a sentence or two on how to fish them. 2 pages.

http://dubbingloop.blogspot.com/

[rusbo09]

Thanks very much! The blog is a great resource to start from especially.

Appreciate it fellas,

[goldscud]

You can often tell the fish are eating emergers when you just see their backs break the surface, not their mouths. They are eating the chironomids as the bugs are stuck under the surface tension of the water. The bugs are vulnerable as they work to push their way up through the surface tension to the air.

[MyAlberta]

This my go to for central Alberta still water. Shoot it out on a sinking line, give it plenty of time to sink, then retrieve in short jerks.