As you may know, the third Saturday of March, has started the trout fishing season in Belgium.
The opening of our trout fishing season usually means cold water, fish which are hard to convince to play, but it’s always a particular moment of friendship, and of course all this is happening at our favorite water : rivers.
For this year’s feature, I’ve asked Julien Lorquet, to advise us on flies choice for early season. We quickly arranged a meeting, at an interesting place which will become probably our future meeting spot : Café George.
I was pleasantly surprised when Julien showed me his step-by-step mounting guide of his flies, and even more, how to use them…
This makes it easy for me, and I can present you these 5 flies, which I’m quite sure about it, will take you fish all season long in quite some situations and rivers.
Beatis Rhodani
| Hook | Tunca Expert Hook TE10 Dry n°14 |
| Thread | Black |
| Tail | Pardo |
| Body | Stripped and varnished peacock herl |
| Wing | CDC dark grey FlyScene |
| Hackle | Clear grey hen feather |
Use
Use it when during the first hatches of the season. Sometimes, when the river is in good shape, it’s even possible to spot some rises on the opening day. It excells at the warmest point of the day, halfway in the afternoon.
March Brown Hot Spot
| Hook | Tunca Expert Hook TE50 Wet Fly n° 8-12 |
| Bead | Orange 3,3 |
| Thread | Black |
| Tail | Natural pheasant |
| Body | Mix of natural hare’s mask +holographic gold angel hair |
| Thorax | Spectra dubbing black |
| Hackle | Brown Partridge |
Use
Use it as wet fly downstream fishing, very usefull on hatchery trout which are put on some stretches of rivers. In small sizes, it’s also usefull on long leader (French) nymphing
Jig Nymph 1
| Hook | Tunca Expert Hook Jig Fly n°12-16 |
| Thread | Black |
| Bead | Tungstène gold n°2,8-3,5 |
| Tail and body | Natural pheasant |
| Ribbing | Fine copper wire |
| Thorax | Blend of dark hare’s mask and pearl angel hare + some turns of globrote n°7 behind the bead |
Use
Classic nymph fishing
Jig Nymph 2
| Hook | Tunca Expert Hook Jig Fly n° 12-16 |
| Thread | Black |
| Bead | Tungsten Silver 2,8-3,5 |
| Tail | Pardo |
| Hot spot | Globrite fluo Yellow |
| Body | Olive golden pheasant |
| Ribbing | Silver rib |
| Thorax | FTW peacock dubbing eye + CDC natural FlyScene |
Use
Classic nymph fishing
Streamer:
| Hook | Hanak Bl 900 n°8-6 |
| Thread | Black |
| Bead | Tungsten gold 3,5 |
| Body | 1/3 Specra dubbing orange + 2/3 blend of hare’s mask and gold angel hair |
| Wing | Zonker strip chinchilla FlyScene |
| Head | Natural Deer hair clipped |
Use
When nothing else works, and only a tasty meal can provoke a strike from apathic coldwater trout. It’s usefull on big fish all year round.
A big thank you to Julien for his second contribution for Rodtrip and for sharing his patterns.
I don’t know about you, but I have to tie some flies !
Romain