Ulverston Angling Association offers fishing at the edge of the Lake District in the picturesque Furness peninsula - South Cumbria
Paul Procter has spent many years fishing Knottallow Tarn. Paul is an Orvis Endorsed Guide and regular contributor to Trout & Salmon and Trout Fisherman magazines. Below are Paul Procter's favorite flies he's used to catch Brown Trout from Knottallow Tarn. Thanks to Paul for tying the flies and providing the information on how to fish them.
Dave Shipman designed this fly to imitate a buzzer in the final stages of hatching. This fly is an excellent choice when chironomids (midges) are coming off the water. Fish it ginked up and static on a long degreased leader but make sure you keep in touch with your line. Fish this fly when you see trout browsing on the surface of the water, showing their dorsal or tail fins and sipping the surface film.
A good general purpose fly for Knottallow. Spiders originated in the North of the United Kingdom certainly over 300 years ago and can be misleading to some as these patterns do not represent spiders, rather hatching insects caught in the surface film. Many people use spiders on rivers but their use is not restricted moving water, many patterns are extremely effective on still waters where they imitate a small, drowned or crippled insect. Spiders can be fished in the same way as a shipmans buzzer.
This pattern is an imitation of an adult caddisfly and is good for evening fishing on Knottallow. Fish this fly on the surface, or so it sits in the surface film. This fly can be cast out then retrieved in short tugs to represent the insect shrugging free from its pupal shuck.
This buzzer pattern is an imitation of the pupa of a midge or chironomid - in other words a non-biting "mosquito" in the state between a larva and the adult, flying insect. One thing that characterizes the buzzer patterns is their sparseness as they are imitating an insect pupa which is small and slender. The primary way of fishing buzzers is by dead drifting, casting out and letting the wind make an arc in your line and letting the buzzer drift in the wind. Sometimes when fishing on Knottallow there may be little water movement to help move the fly - in these cases a slow figure-of-eight-retrieve may help.
Fish this buzzer in the same way as the Black Thread Buzzer (above). Remember to leave your rod tip a couple of feet above the water and use the slack line at the tip to see when takes occur
A Good general purpose fly for Knottallow. Very useful in olive hatches. Fish a Fraser Nymph on a floating line just below the surface.
One of the first terrestrial (lives on the land, as opposed to in water, air, or in the trees) flies to appear and cause a worthwhile rise on sunny spring days. If there is a good breeze, Hawthorn flies are blown onto the water. Larger female flies start appearing in late April about a week after the males appear. Fish this fly on the surface or retrieved slowly fished just below the surface.
A general all purpose fly, good for olives and buzzer representations and can be fished sunken as a nymph or in the surface film to represent an emerging dun.