Stillwater & boat

Buzzer Fishing

The chironomid midge pupa is the most important food item in any British stillwater. Learning to fish buzzers is the single most useful thing a stillwater angler can do.

Bung and buzzers. Set the depth. Wait.

Booby Fishing

The Booby looks like a joke fly — two foam eyes on a bare hook, designed to float indignantly upright while everything around it sinks.

Pulling Lures

Sometimes the fish want something that looks like it's trying to get away. Pulling a lure — a Cat's Whisker, a Blob, a Cormorant — is fly fishing's answer to spin fishing.

Stillwater Dry Fly

There's a particular pleasure in watching a trout's head break the surface on still water, rather than guessing at what's happening beneath it.

Indicator Fishing

An indicator is a bung by another name, and there's no shame in either — the simplest way to present a fly at an exact depth and see a take you'd otherwise never feel.

Anchored Boat Buzzer Fishing

Anchored over a known depth with buzzers hung static beneath a bung, a boat angler can present a team of flies at an exact depth no bank angler can match.

Using a Drogue

A drogue is a small parachute you throw over the side, and it solves a problem every boat angler eventually runs into: the wind blows the boat faster than any fly can be fished properly.

Boat Drift and Positioning

A boat opens water no bank angler can reach, but a badly set drift wastes it just as thoroughly — the right angle to the wind changes everything.