Micro Spiders

[flyfishwithme]

Summer is almost over and we are beginning the slow journey into winter here in Yorkshire. The fish will soon turn to gorging themselves in preparation for the spawning season.
But right now we have what I call the 'sippers'. Fish that sit right under the trees, in slower water sipping down small insects that either hatch or fall onto the water.
Interestingly, fly fishermen are turning to small dries to imitate these minute pieces of food. I have fought this urge off and have been tying very small spiders and using them with huge effect fished right in the surface.
Our forefathers probably couldn't do this as they were tying flies in their hands and not with the tools we have today.
So I have been wondering. Have some of you tried this? Have you tied small spiders down to size 20 and 22? If you have, what has been you experience?
For what it is worth, I just take the old traditional patterns and scale them down.

[skunkaroo]

I have tied them, mostly for a lark, and then turned around and shocked myself by catching a fish on them. When the fish are feeding on midges and small ants these are sometimes the only things that will work.

I remember an April day on the Yakima river fishing on heavily pressured stretch of water next to a campground. The clock hit one o'clock and it was as though someone told every insect within half a mile to hatch at once--March Brown, BWOs, PMDs, you name it. I was ecstatic. My mate and I had a 200 m run of slow water all to ourselves and fish were rising along the length of it--perhaps 100s of fish. With shaking hands I started to tie on and drift fly after fly into this feeding frenzy... without a sniff. After my partner and I blanked through the first 40 minutes of the hatch, I reached into my soft hackle box in disgust and pulled out this minute #22 Stewart style black soft hackle and fired it into a current seam. A two foot drift and bingo! A nice 16" fish brought to hand at what turned out to be the tail end of the hatch.

Now I don't go out with at least one or two minutia in my box just in case.

Aaron

[trouttickler]

I often fish micro spiders, usually as a dry/dropper combo. Two favorites are BWO parachute with a PT spider dropper and a black deerhair caddis and black spider dropper, usually in 20's. The dropper is usually 4 to 8 inches behind the dry. These are good spring creek combos. Interestingly enough, don't stop fishing the combo when the dry starts to drag. The dragging dryfly turns off any fish checking it out, but they often turn and take the dragging nymph, which I guess looks like its moving up in the water column and getting ready to hatch. I suppose if your eyes are good enough, you can do without the dry indicator.

[flyfishwithme]

Great stuff and it uses up all of those small feathers that are discarded. I tell you what, the two best patterns I have are the Stewart Spider and the Dotterel. The latter is tied with very small feathers from a Jay wing, absolutely brilliant.

[wayneb]

Hi All;

Fortuitous timing! I've beeen experiencing a warm water midge hatch lately and trying to figure out what to throw at them, the small spider pattern sounds ideal.

What hook types & sizes have wored for you???

Thanksin advance;

Wayne

[skunkaroo]

20-22 Should be sufficient, but without knowing the hatches it's hard to say exactly. Here's a small tip though: by using a wide gape short shank hook you can get away using larger hook sizes--e.g. Mustad C49s #18 has about the shank length (albeit curved) of a dry 22 (depending on the manufacturer).

Aaron

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I've tied a few spiders on Daiichi 1640 18's and 20's. Bear in mind tht they are a 2x short shank hook. I get to use all those really tiny feathers on the Hebert Miner hen necks. They work surprisingly well on the local streams for resident and sea run cutthroat.

[flyfishwithme]

All good comments. I have been using a Partridge Flashpoint SLD barbless hook in size 20 & 22. The gape is okay and I tie mine exactly as I would for traditional patterns. For example, I use a Purple & Snipe, Orange & Partridge, Yellow & Partridge and Stewart's Black Spider all tied with traditional materials. I also add a VERY small thorax to keep the hackles standing out.
Is there a single pattern that stands out? probably the Stewart's Black Spider but they have all worked. It is amazing what small flies are hatching and we are unable to decipher exact colour etc. Try them all. Great fun on a 8x tippet under the trees to the 'sippers'

[RnF]

I have tied some down to size 24, but would rather not. I actually like to go a size or two bigger than the hatch I am fishing. The fish seem to like the bigger fly. Size 20 or 18 are my standard sizes. But what has been said above, it's really hard to say not knowing the hatch. Midges are often blanketed as one hatch, but they vary in size and colors more so than mayflies so don't pigeon hole yourself with just small spiders.

I am a big fan of the partridge and orange, seems to attract a lot of fish during the winter months. If I had to choose one fly it would be that one... in size 12.

[flyfishwithme]

Scott,
I also rank the O&P highly and until recently my number one spider pattern. BUT, I have recently been tying the Dotterel using a Jay wing feather as the substitute. The pattern for this calls for Primrose OR Orange thread. Mmmmm, well the Primrose version has now replaced the O&P this season. No wonder our forefathers nearly wiped out the Dotterel, they regarded it as the number one killing fly.