Early season fishing for many stillwater trout fishermen and women means
buzzers – and fishing them is not only a lovely calm and imitative approach, it’s
also usually hugely productive. Here’s a few thoughts which might help to put
an extra fish or two in your net.
1. Resist the urge to keep pulling them back too quickly. I used to think that the
trout wouldn’t notice the difference between slow-ish and something between
dead slow and stop. I was wrong! – and it sometimes means the difference
between success and failure. In fairness, retrieved flies can also work
sometimes so do try if things are quiet but it’s not usually the best bet.
2. Keep that leader looking lovely. If it gets mangled up its usually best to tie
up a new one – and make sure that your flies are all hanging nice and straight
– no crabbing sideways. In our opinion Seaguar Soft Plus fluorocarbon is
simply the best for this work (for me it's 10.4lb usually, 8.2lb in very clear
water). There is a school of thought that likes stiff leader material to make
droppers stick out – we don’t subscribe to that, much preferring something thin
and soft, allowing buzzers to behave as naturally as possible as the fish suck
them into their mouths.
3. Under a bung or ‘straight lining’. It’s up to you. The bung is massively
effective and an obvious choice for beginners or anyone who wants to keep
casting to a minimum. I prefer to tie on an Ultimate Bung as my top dropper
then space the buzzers out at 3-4 foot intervals, usually with a heavy-ish one
on the point (the Big Fish Buzzer, which has a happy knack of regularly living
up to its name, is perfect) to get things down to working depth quickly. As
always, try to ensure that your flies all land in a nice straight line every time –
then you’re fishing immediately.
4. Location and depth – water between 7 and 12 feet deep is perfect and do
be aware that buzzers are not distributed evenly around the lake so take
advice if you’re somewhere new and don’t hang around if nothing’s happening.
5. Whilst brighter patterns are sometimes the right choice, I generally prefer to
tie on more subdued flies that more closely resemble the real thing – patterns
like a simple Stripped Quill Buzzer, the SBD and the Green Glo. Takes can
sometimes be very hard as fast-moving fish simply hoover these up on their
way.
6. The depth at which the fish are feeding can be critical, so work out what the
taking zone is and makes sure you keep your flies in it. Sometimes this can be
quite high in the water. This is where lighter flies such as the Slow Sink
Buzzer and the Grey Goose or Matt’s Hatching Buzzer come into their own –
and you may even need to change from the faster sinking fluorocarbon to
copolymer (after trying most, if not all of them, we use Stroft ).
7. Use whatever information you have available (observing naturals, spooning
fish, advice from fishery staff or fellow anglers) to find the right colour and size
of the buzzers the fish are feeding on – and match it.
8. A full floating line is usually all that’s needed. The flies will get down fine if
they’re not pulled back. Sometimes a midge tip is helpful to slow things down a
bit if the wind is swinging your flies round too fast.
9. Watch your line, or your indicator, and lift into any twitch, tension or un-
natural movement. Many takes aren’t felt in the hand. You’ll soon learn the
difference between a fish and the dead drag of a fly hitting weed or the bottom.
10. Don’t hesitate to cover a rising fish – your set up isn’t really designed for
surface feeders but the fish don’t know that and they’ll often grab a fly before it
sinks.