STU15. The General Practitioner 1 1/2 Inch Plastic Tube Fly
SALTWATER, SALMON & STEELHEAD TUBE FLY
$US each. Price does not include hooks.
The General Practitioner was developed in the early 1950's by Lt Colonel Esmond Drury as an imitation of a shrimp to be used on the River Test. Anglers on that salmon fishing 'beat' used to use live shrimp on a hook to fish for salmon. The land owners banned this practice so Drury developed this fly to imitate the native Northern Shrimp. He tied the fly on size 2 hooks but found that the smaller hooks caught more fish especially in the more shallow water areas. The original consisted of golden-pheasant body feathers and orange fur. He called this fly G.P. at first because of the golden pheasant feathers that went to make up the large part of this pattern. The General Practitioner has a better record than most, fished on a floating line at low levels in the summer. It has proved very effective on a wide range of waters from America, Canada, Scandinavia, Britain and Iceland. The name changed to General Practitioner because of its effectiveness. It is a very popular and effective fly in brownish and murky rivers.
SHRIMP SALMON FLIES
Some shrimps turn a brighter color during their summer mating
seasons. Shrimps swim in energetic burst, surging up from the river bed and
diving back down just as quick. This type of 'sink and draw' is easy to
reproduce when you fish with a weighted shrimp on a floating line. Cast the fly
and let it sink until you think it is at, or near, the bed of the river or lake.
As you retrieve the line the shrimp fly will rise up towards the surface. Stop
and the shrimp will dive back down to the bottom. A shrimp fished with six inch
pulls followed by two second pauses can be very tantalizing to a trout. If you
should fail to get results try longer pulls at greater intervals. Steelheads, Chinooks, Chums, Char, Coho and Sea Trout will
feed on shrimp and prawns when available. These fish often retain the search
image of these crustaceans long after they leave the Ocean and enter freshwater.
These are must have flies for Alaska, Kamchatka, British Columbia and lower 48
SHRIMPS & PRAWNS
There are about thirty species of shrimps (the smaller ones are sometimes referred
to as Prawns in Britain) in the North Atlantic Ocean. The most numerous is the
Northern or Pink Shrimp (Pandalus borealis). It ranges from the Gulf of Maine,
across the Atlantic and into the Barents, Norwegian and North Sea. It is pale
scarlet and has a hard outer shell with long antennae and large dark eyes. It
can swim rapidly over short distances because of the appendages on its tail that
act like paddles. The females migrate to shallower costal areas just prior to
spawning. These shrimps can live for more than five years. They are one of those
strange animals that are both sexes. It is a hermaphrodite. It contains both
male and female reproductive organs. The Northern Shrimp is male until it spawns
for the first time when it is about three years old and then changes sex into a
female. Because females have lived longer than the males they are generally
bigger than the males. European salmon anglers have been using shrimp imitations
for years. It is only recently that North American salmon fly fishers have
started to widely use shrimp flies. A practice that should be encouraged as
these flies can give hours of good sport.
SALMON TUBE FLIES
Traditional salmon, steelhead and sea trout files were time consuming to tie. The hair-winged versions of these patterns are easier to tie and the fish seem no more reluctant to take them rather than the traditional dressed salmon fly. It was logical that this simplification idea was carried further using probably the most secure hooking device yet invented, the treble hook. The result was a range of tube flies which now account for as many if not more fish each season than do traditional single hook flies. During the early season when the water is cold, tube flies offer the fly fisherman a lure/streamer large enough to tempt what can be very dour fish.
The advantages of the tube fly is pretty impressive. Flies and hooks are separate so you can carry a lot of flies in your shirt pocket and the hooks in a film can. You can use non-stainless steel hooks (which are sharper and stronger) in salt water, just throw them away in a bin when you are finished fishing for the day. You can cater for barbed and barbed-less fishing. You can use treble hooks, or double hooks or single hooks. Most salmon fishermen use a treble hook but the beauty of tube flies is that you can choose what ever hook you want. You can vary the size and type to match the type of fish you are after, the water situation and regulations. If the hook dulls, just replace it instead of sharpening it on the water. The flies are more durable, because when you hook the fish, the fly slides up the leader away from the munching action of your quarry. You can tie huge flies without buying expensive long shanked hooks. Some say they swim better and look more natural
To tie the fly onto the end of your leader, simply pull the hook from the rear of the plastic tube, tie the hook to your leader and re-insert the hook into the tube. If the hook becomes damaged it can be easily replaced without disposing the fly. If you have problems of the hook inserting itself up the tube thread on a bead at the rear of the tube just in front of the hook eye. Always have spare hooks with you.
Winnie Morawski, whilst working for a fly tier Charles Playfair & Company of Aberdeen in Scotland in 1945, is credited with tying the first tube fly. While she was tidying up the turkey quills from her work bench she had a brain wave. She chopped the top and bottom off and scrapped the insides from the quills . She then dressed this natural tube she had created. One of the company's customers was a doctor called William Michie. He liked the idea of tube flies but suggested that cut lengths of surgical tubing should be used instead of the fragile and very brittle quills. Word got around and soon tubes were being tied in Norway, Sweden, Canada, USA as well as the United Kingdom. Saltwater tube flies appeared in the North American Pacific Northwest and were used in Washington State's Puget Sound in the late 1940s
It has been reported that Native North Americans used hollowed out bones as an early tube fly. The marrow was poked out and the bone left in the sun to dry. A long shank hook was then inserted into the hollowed bone unlike the modern tube fly. The bone added weight that sank the hook to the required depth. When it was retrieved through the water after the cast a stream of bubbles left the end of the bone. A few feathers or fur tied to the outside of the bone increased effectiveness. (Although not a tube fly you can see other examples of bone lures in the Honolulu Maritime Museum in Hawaii)
There is one disadvantage with using tube flies. It is nothing to do with the effectiveness of the fly at catching fish but more to do with the wording of local fishing regulations. An example of this is that in America, Washington State a tube fly is defined as a lure and not a fly under their State regulations and therefore can not be used on fly only water. Their regulations define a fly as 'a lure on which thread, feathers, hackle, or yarn cover a minimum of half of the hook shank of the hook'. We only sell plastic tubes. The regulations in Eastern Canada forbid the use of 'weighted flies' for Atlantic Salmon. Metal tube flies are considered 'Weighted flies'. Consult your local fishing regulations before using tube flies to see if they are so narrow minded as those of Washington State.
On very cold days the water temperature seems to take the enthusiasm to feed or bite out of some fish. They head deep. In these circumstances you must get your fly down to the bottom with sinking or sinking tip lines. I have found that on the times when I have used heavy hooked regular flies they have become embedded in the bottom, snagged. I have found when I use plastic tube flies and a smaller shanked hook the fly rides higher. I have therefore noticed a great reduction in the amount of large hooked flies that I have had to leave adding to the decoration of lake and river bottoms. If you have spotted a large wise old trophy fish and need some thing very large to attract him tube flies are ideal. Tie on two or three tube flies one behind the other. You now have what looks like a tempting big meal for a big hungry fish.
I prefer using these lighter plastic tube flies than copper or brass tubes. I find the lighter tube fly, in slow or medium flowing rivers, tends to flutter very attractively as it swings across the current mimicking the natural movement of bait fish or a shrimp. I use a fast sinking line to get the fly down to the required depth. It makes the fly swim more naturally. In deep water on lakes and reservoirs the copper weighted tube flies come into their own realm.
STEELHEAD
TUBE FLIES
WHAT SALMON FLY TO USE
The British salmon fly tying traditions of the 18th and 19th
centuries that used exotic materials and complicated patterns were exported to
the countries the British explored and occupied. In North America and other
parts of the world, gradually these pattern were changed and new ones designed
to make use of the more easily obtainable local animal skins and feathers. The
were also designed to suit the different natural conditions and local fish.
Hairwings were used instead of brightly colored feathers from tropical
birds. They worked as well if not better. Hairwing salmon flies have now become
the norm and the traditional feather-winged patterns are now more commonly found
as framed works of art that hang in gentlemen's studies and behind bars.
Choosing the right fly is a problem that occurs for all salmon fly fishers. There is no solid rule that works all the time everywhere. Dark day, dark fly; bright day, bright fly can be a good guide along with high water, big fly; low water, small fly. But sometimes the reverse is true. Some like to chose a fly of a color that matches the overall color of the riverbed. Rivers that flow over bare rock or limestone are often crystal clear. They may have a blue or green/yellow tinge so some choose flies with the same coloring like Yellow Torrish or the Green Highlander. Some salmon experts swear that the colours yellow and green have the most impact in cold water. When rivers are in full flow after a recent storm try some brighter orange flies. As the water warms dark flies like the stoats tail become more productive. Brighter flies will still work but there are times during low water when the most subtle and sober flies, like the Blue Charm, Munro Killer or Thunder & Lightning are the ones that are more accepted by the salmon. As the water warms up flies fished faster and closer to the surface will bring better results. The warmer it becomes the smaller and higher the fly is fished until a floating line is required. During the Pacific Salmon run pink flies are the best. In the Autumn Fall there are lots of young juvenile fish around. Salmon flies like Silver Doctor or Silver Wilkinson with silver bodies give good results.
Your choice of fly is sometimes down to a local’s or friend’s recommendation, remembering what worked last year, or simply following your own hunch. Others believe that it doesn’t matter what fly you use as it is the presentation of the fly that counts. Some say that a salmon caught on one fly would have been taken on any of several other flies of the same size so long as it was presented to the fish in the same way. Some ‘experts’ will criticize a fly because it has a too full or too sparse a hairwing; the shape of the hook is too curved or not curved enough; the fly should or should not have a yellow, green orange or red butt; the nose should be red or it should be black and the most ridiculous is, that the fly has one too many gold colored ribs or not enough. These arguments have been raging since Victorian times. That is one of the charms of this sport. Everyone has his or her own opinion. It gives you something to talk about around the camp fire or over a bottle of beer.
Generally migratory salmon and steelhead trout cease feeding as they return to freshwater to spawn. Though I have seen them rise to take flies an insects on the surface. They can be tempted or provoked into taking a general brightly colored attractor pattern (some fishermen call them a 'piss-em-off' pattern) like one of the orange Woolly Bugger. You must aim to get your fly within a few feet of the fish to stimulate it into attacking. In the coldest of conditions large salmon flies up to three inches may not be out of place. They may also eat out of habit something that they were feeding upon in open ocean. Flies that represent shrimp, prawns and bait fish are ideal. Experiment with the speed of the retrieve past a known salmon or steelhead lie. An attack can often be provoked if you stir the hunting instinct of this great tasting, large predatory. A sudden quick retrieve can suggest the rapid escape movement of a startled small fish that has seen it’s biggest nightmare. In North America and in other parts of the world, salmon are commonly caught on dry flies like hoppers (grasshoppers), daddy-long-legs (craine flies) and the Wulff or Bomber series of dry flies. This is rarely tried in Europe. If you live in Europe, discard tradition and give it a try.
PACIFIC SALMON
Pacific salmon is a general term used to describe the members of a fish species
that die after spawning. The Latin term for this family group is Oncorhynchus.
There are seven species. The following five occur on both sides of the pacific
.
(1) Chum Salmon also known as Dog Salmon (Oncorhynchus keta)
(2) Coho Salmon also known as Silver Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)
(3) Pink Salmon also known as Humpbacked Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)
(4) Sockeye Salmon also known as Red Salmom (Oncorhynchus nerka)
(5) Chinook Salmon also known as King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
The following two are only found on the coasts of Asia
(6) Masu Salmon also known as Yamame (Oncorhynchus masou)
(7) Amago Salmon also known as Biwamasu (Oncorhynchus rhodurus)
There is a landlocked Pacific Salmon called a Kokanee. It is a subspecies of a Sockeye Salmon. It spends it's entire life in freshwater and does not attain the large sizes of its ocean going cousins. They migrate to lakes and can be seen swimming back up streams to their place of hatching to spawn.
Atlantic Salmon belong to a different group called 'Salmo'. Atlantic Salmon is in fact a species of fish within this group. (It has the Latin name of Salmo salar). Unlike the Pacific salmon that have complex and varied life histories that vary widely within and between species, the Atlantic Salmon have very similar life histories and are capable of surviving spawning and re-migrate to return again. Pacific salmon migrate from freshwater to the sea at different ages. Pink and Chum Salmon migrate at any time from one week to a month, Chinooks from 12 to 16 months, Coho Salmon from 12 to 24 months and Sockeye from 12 to 36 months.
Pacific Salmon nearly always return to spawn in the freshwater areas they were born in. They overcome very hazardous river conditions and swim great distances to reach their place of hatching. Scientists have documented some going to different locations but that is a very rare occurrence. It is believed that the salmon find their way back by sent. They follow their noses to find their home stream.
Scientists have also tagged young salmon to plot where they go when they migrate into the Pacific Ocean from the rivers. Some swim many thousands of miles like the tagged Chinook which was recorded having covered 3,500 miles before being recovered swimming back up Salmon River in Idaho, to spawn. The salmon fatten up in the ocean. The record for the largest Pacific Salmon is 126 pounds caught commercially up in Alaska.
To be sent regular fly fishing information and news on special offers click the British Royal Mail Post box
You can e-mail us at fly.fishing@blueyonder.co.uk
The English Fly Fishing Shop, Estate and Country Sports
Equipment Ltd,
5 Woodland Way, Morden, Surrey SM4 4DS, England (Established 1978)
