Olive Snatcher

E arly season on the lakes can deliver lessons in humility. Conditions are often less than comfortable, fish activity can switch on and off randomly, and when you think you have something sussed out it can fail dismally on another lake the next day.

Smelters are a favourite and often a feature during the wilder weather. Fast casts at fish slashing into minnows in the waves can bring some hard takes. The flip side is milder weather, easier on the angler but more likely to bring on a midge hatch. While rising fish are always a welcome sight, midge feeders are something of an enigma.

Some recent chat on the FlyLife forum highlighted the different opinions we have about midge feeders. Suggestions covered everything from various dries and wets (no two patterns the same) to waiting the hatch out with a cup of tea, or throwing rocks. All of which have crossed my mind at times.

Unfortunately there is no one technique that covers all midging fish. Midge size varies between regions, even from lake to lake, while lake topography both above and below the waterline can determine where the midges are concentrated. Eucumbene for example has wide shallow bays with small midges that ball up on the surface, whilst in the Tasmanian highlands the best midge fishing is found in wind lanes out in open water. Consistent success comes from getting to know your local water.

The open nature of my local Central Victorian lakes means wind is always a factor. But rather than creating stable wind lanes, a steady breeze will concentrate midges along the ripple line that forms where the wind is blowing off the shoreline. The trout will cruise this ripple line picking off midge pupae just below the surface.

Snatchers are designed for this type of action, where trout are targeting individual large midges. The pattern was developed by David Wallace during the ’90s for midge feeders on Loch Leven in Scotland, known for its prolific hatches.

The Snatcher’s palmered body provides a slow sink rate, keeping the fly in the feeding zone for longer, while providing some nice movement during a slow retrieve.

Two Snatchers fished a couple of feet apart will cover all stages of the hatch. Early on, fishing down deep with a slow figure 8 retrieve will pick up the odd fish. Then as the hatch gets going, target individual fish with a ‘Leisenring lift’ style presentation to imitate the rising pupae that the fish are keyed in on. Let the flies sink ahead of a feeding fish, then raise them up in front as it gets near, with either a slow draw on the line, or lift of the rod. Occasionally, both, if you have got your timing wrong.

If the trout start targeting adults on the surface you can grease up the first Snatcher to sit in the surface film — acting as both a dry and an indicator for the other sunken Snatcher.

Frowned upon by some as ‘float fishing’, Snatchers also work well dead-drifted under an indicator along the ripple line — that is, if you have the fortitude to keep watching the indicator as fish rise nearby.

To be classed as a true Snatcher it must be tied on a grub-style hook, and have a palmered body hackle. While the original pattern was all black — still a hugely successful colour — an olive variation can find more success on Central Victorian lakes.

Start your thread behind the hook eye and, once secure, add in your wire rib, tying it down as you lay a neat thread base down the hook shank and around the bend. Traditionally no weight is added as Snatchers are fished high in the water column, but lead wraps can be added if your situation requires a deeper presentation.

Dub your thread lightly and form a thin, neat body, finishing several millimetres short of the hook eye. If tying very small versions, skip the dubbing and simply wrap another layer of thread back up the shank, keeping the finished fly nice and slim.

Select a small hackle for the body, ideally with barbs slightly shorter than the hook gape. Tie this in at the front of the body and wind down the body in open turns. Secure the hackle with the wire rib at the rear of the body, then continue winding the rib up the body in matching open turns. Secure the rib in front of the body and trim along with the excess hackle at the rear.

Attach a larger hackle, with the barbs a more standard one-and-a-half times the hook gape, and wrap two or three times at the front of the body before securing, then trim any excess.

For a traditional Snatcher pattern, finish now by building up a neat head and a whip finish. For a more recent variation add a coloured goose biot either side, laying back in line with the hook shank, before finishing off.

Lakes in winter and early spring are an investment — put the time in to get to know a piece of water and the rewards will come. Once you learn a water’s moods in different weather conditions, you can pick which bays or areas are more likely to hold fish on any particular day.

A knowledge bank like this then holds you in good stead when you fish unfamiliar waters. You will find yourself picking out similar features to your well-known lake, a sort of head start to finding some active fish.

Dress for the conditions and start hitting your local lake — there’s some great fishing to be had, if you can crack the day’s code.