The essential trout flies listed here are our favourite flies and should provide an excellent base for trout fishing Hawkes Bay rivers, streams and lakes.
Dry Flies
Dry flies imitate flying aquatic or terrestrial insects that float on the water’s surface.
Royal Wulff
Passes for a host of insects and catches many trout throughout the summer and autumn period
Parachute Adams
A very versatile dry fly passing well as a mayfly representation – good on dusk when insects are flighting
Beetles
A beetle trout fly represents either the Green Manuka Beetle or the Brown Grass Grub Beetle.
Cicada
A great fly for summer- bring out your Cicada imitation when the cicada’s are deafening!
Nymphs
Nymph flies imitate aquatic insects in their immature stage prior to emerging to flight.
Hare and Copper
A very popular and effective fly, designed to represent mayfly or caddis nymphs.
Pheasant Tail
A good representation of a mayfly, these are very important in a trout’s diet.
Prince Nymphs
Often beaded for weight – fished at the bottom of the river bed.
Caddis Nymph
Caddis make up a large share of the trout’s diet. There are many life stage representations.
Wet Flies
Wet flies are designed to imitate fish and other aquatic insects such as mayfly nymphs.
Woolly Bugger
Excellent on large or slow moving sections of river. Best fished deep and slow.
Rabbit Flies (Green/Red/Yellow)
An excellent representation of small fish such as whitebait.
March Brown
Represents a mayfly. As with the Parachute Adams works well on dusk.
Red Setter
Good late season or early in spawning season.
The general principles for fly selection are universal – consider:
- What food exists in the river? (aquatic insects)
- What time of the year is it? (are cicadas singing/hatched)
- What part of the river are you fishing? (runs, pools)
Once you’ve got the basic flies sorted there is then the choice of variation on the colour, size and pattern permutations. Hook sizes from 10-14 are used frequently with success.
Dry Flies don’t vary much as with wet flies which generally only vary in colour and weight.
Nymphs however, come in multiple colour variations, weights and styles, with flashbacks being a popular addition.
Let us guide you on a trout fishing day trip or multi-day fly fishing backcountry adventure designed to suit your style, ability & time. Book or enquire about fly fishing for trout in Hawkes Bay with Tony Hildesheim today.