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Black Gnat Dry Fly Imitation for Dance Flies
Written by by Dave Southall
Using Black Gnats for Trout feeding on Dance Flies
Dance Flies are two-winged flies (Order - Diptera and members of the Family - Empididae). There are many species, some of which swarm in vast numbers over water in search of their prey. It is their somewhat erratic, dancing, flight that gives them their common name. Their other common name is Dagger Flies because they have a long, curved, sharp proboscis with which to feed on their prey (other flies), which they often take them from the water surface. The males offer a captured prey item to the female during courtship. Sizes range from 5 to 15mm (mostly around 7mm long) and colour varies from yellow to black (mainly dark brown and black). They have a slim abdomen, fat thorax and small head.
Expect to see good numbers of them ‘dancing’ in sunny spots that are sheltered from any strong wind any time during the summer. I find that a size 18 Black Gnat works as well as any other fly when trout are taking the occasional casualties that drift down below a hunting/mating swarm or those that are in the act of capturing a prey item from the river surface (I’ve even seen small trout jumping to take them in flight).
Dance Flies swarming in a sunny, sheltered spot
Trout that succumbed to a Black Gnat when feeding on Dance Flies
Size 18 Black Gnat / Dance Fly
Hook: Size 18 dry fly
Thread: Black 8/0
Body: Fine black or dark brown synthetic dubbing
Wing: White poly yarn
Hackle: Black cock clipped off at the bottom (& top clipped if you want a more visible wing whilst fishing)
Euro Nymphing. Tackle, methods and flies.
My favourite methods of fly fishing are dry-fly or sight-fished nymphs/bugs, but particularly during the winter, when fishing on spate rivers, the grayling are usually loath to rise to a dry fly and the water is too coloured, or the light too poor, to see the fish for sight-fishing. It is then that I resort to a range of nymphing techniques. Of which Euronymphing is my most used technique
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Movement in your fly when fishing dry fly. Give it a twitch!
Frank Sawyer and Oliver Kite showed nymph-fishers the value of the induced take when nymph-fishing and stillwater fly-fishers are aware of the importance of applying movement to lures. However, many of the dry fly anglers that I see appear to rarely apply movement to their surface offerings, believing that ‘dead drift’ is the most effective way of presenting surface flies.
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Carbon, Cane & Fibreglass Fly Rods. Let's talk about it.
In the early 1960s when I first started fishing split cane was still the most popular rod-making material and fiber glass was just starting to become popular. However my first ever coarse fishing rod was made of ash butt & middle sections with a greenheart wood tip. My first fly rod, bought in the early 1960s, was a second hand 9’ cane rod built by E. Kerry of Lockton, a small village near Pickering.
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My favourite flies for Grayling fishing in Winter
Presentation is another critical factor in achieving success & grayling are just as unpredictable with respect to this. Sometimes they want a fly ‘on the drop’ & often they will travel quite a distance to take a fly as it slowly sinks. So there are times that it doesn’t pay to fish a fast-sinking, heavily weighted fly.
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