The best "anchor" IMO is often good ol' split shot. Put it at the bottom of your rig and attach your flies to droppers above it. Unless you are trying to comply with competition rules or special regs, split shot is your best friend. You can adjust your weight easily and precisely, and you will lose far fewer flies (although you won't lose too many with a properly sized/weighted fly at the point position). With that in mind their are definitely times you would want to fish without shot, a couple examples as low water conditions or other skinny water situations....
guppieguy wrote:
Looking for a suggestion for an anchor fly to fill out my tight-line lineup. I have a few different patterns that I tie really heavy in large sizes that are more on the 'natural' side- stones and crane fly larvae mostly.
Pretty much any normal pattern tied with a tungsten bead and/or a few wraps of lead wire will work well. Don't go nuts with the size though. You don't need something literally as big and heavy as a boat anchor. A 14 or 12 Copper John, for instance, is often plenty large and heavy enough when tied with a tungsten bead. Anything heavier and you may very well be working against getting good drifts. You don't want a fly so heavy that it settles on the bottom and stops your drift. You want to be able to lead your flies, not drag them along the bottom through the drift.
There are a ton of posts and how-to's floating around on-line that show some really extreme anchor flies. I've seen caddis larva tied with cone heads and nymphs tied with lead eyes. Their application is limited. If you have access to a copy of George Daniels "Dynamic Nymphing" pay attention to the section that shows pictures of his fly boxes. There are several pages showing their contents but only two of those pictures show heavy flies and anchor patterns. George even notes that the usefulness of heavy patterns is limited on streams in the eastern US. Rather, you will see several pages showing fly boxes filled with 12, 14, and 16 flies.
Unless you are imitating a large food item as with large stones and some cranefly larva, you want a fairly compact fly that will cut through the water quickly. I fish stone fly patterns like Pat's Rubber legs quite a bit nowadays, but IMO, they are not ideal for tight line fishing due to water resistance. When they aren't working I don't use them and stick with smaller flies. When I fish them I prefer to use flies that have been weighted modestly and run split shot at the bottom of my rig as I've already mentioned. I feel bigger flies fish better and more naturally when the weight needed to get down is not attached to the fly itself.
I'm looking for more of an attractor pattern that is a more 'flashy' than impressionistic. I messed around with polish woven nymphs, but I found them too hard to tie with the rate I tend to lose my anchor nymphs.
If you are losing a ton of flies, please consider my comments on size and weight.
Otherwise, Copper Johns, Rainbow Warriors, Perdigons, Hammerheads, Dirty birds, etc. etc. etc.
For caddis larva style flies, any combination of bead, dubbed body, shell back, and rib will work. Incorporate flashy synthetics and the possibilities are endless here.
Ideally looking for a large fly that is quick to tie and sinks fast.... plus is bright and attracts fish. Is that too much to ask? I'd love to hear all your thoughts.
Basic caddis larva are about as easy as it gets and can be really dressed up with synthetic materials. Green weenies are always an option too.
PS- I already have some bright orange Mop Flies tied up... I guess I'll keep those in the "crane fly larvae" category :lol:
The problem with mop flies in this role is the same as with the Pat's rubber legs. The fly has a fair amount of water resistance so you need to add a bunch of weight to just counteract the resistance and get the fly down quick. If you wan't to imitate large larva, any of the patterns tied with compact bodies and vinyl shellback materials will provide better performance and you can do whatever flashy colors you like. I will reference Dynamic Nymphing again here. While you will see a lot of ice dub being used in that book and also a lot of hot spots and bright thread collars on flies, you won't see many large gaudy colored flies. Outside of a few green weenies and some pink worms, the colors used are primarily natural albeit very flashy and reflective. Bright colors being used as an accent or contrast rather than primary color.
