Blog

@anna_on_the_fly is on the water constantly. She is constantly trying new things -- new flies, new techniques, and new gear. We are grateful that she's an Ambassador for DiscountFlies. And, we're grateful that she shares her knowledge and adventures with us here in the "Fly of the Week" (or month during the "off" season) Column.

November 18^th 2022

FLY OF THE WEEK!! This weeks fly is a confidence fly but I get asked a lot how to fish it, when to fish it and what colors to use so I wanted to share my insight. That being said, this week’s fly is the “Glo Bug” one of the most effective egg patterns & my go-to!

So how do you fish it? What color do you use? Well in an attempted to prevent information overload I’m going to focus on the current spawn season & one of the best times to fish the Glo Bug - the brown trout spawn

Brown trout spawn in the fall and their eggs are bright, Cheeto orange, about ¼ inch big. Fishing the “Oregon Cheese” Glo Bug is a great choice as it’s bright, realistic, and will grab the attention of trout so well - that if you are in the right place nearly every cast can lead to a bite!! This happened to Helen and I the other day, it was non stop action - fish after fish aggressively hammering the fly. Sometimes so hard we didn’t even have time to set the hook before they were running down stream with the egg in their mouth peeling line. This is part of why fall fishing is my favorite, EGGS, EGGS, EGGS!!

When trout are spawning they key in on eggs and ignore most other bugs because eggs are PACKED with protein and it’s an easy meal that won’t swim away like aquatic insects or other smaller fish.

I want to make this very clear, fishing the spawn DOES NOT MEAN FISHING TO SPAWNING FISH - educate yourself on what “Redds” look like and NEVER FISH TO A REDD. These fish are reproducing the next generation for us so let them do their thing!! That being said if you see a Redd go down stream of it and I guarantee you’ll catch fish. They stack up below the Redds and wait for eggs to come tumbling down for an easy meal.

Bright orange is great and realistic but it’s good to have a variety of lighter oranges, peaches and light pinks. As the spawn slows down the eggs become less vibrant so lighter colors are great to use. You can fish eggs into the winter even switching to chartreuse as late as January & February!