Interesting observation over two weeks

[Grant111]

I have been to Arendsnes last Thursday and again today.

Last week I caught every single yellow from morning to evening barring one, on an unweighted brown PTN.

Tried the same setup today to start with but chose a green Brassie as my dropper and brown PTN on point.

Brassie got nailed over and over all morning. I was eventually fishing two brassies, green and copper.
Copper then became the only fly being taken in the afternoon.

Is it just me or is that strange??

[Andre]

That's what makes fly fishing so interesting, the unpredictability of everything. Nothing unusual about that. You will probably find that conditions were slightly different from the other time you were there, causing the fish to behave differently. The ptn, and copper brassie, are probably closer to natural colours than the green brassie. Perhaps they preferred the more natural colour.
I have never really had too much confidence in a green brassie for yellows, but then I generally tend towards more natural flies anyway.

[redhumpy]

Were the 2 flies weighted the same? It could be that you changed position from the morning to the afternoon and was fishing at a different depth with flies differently weighted.

The PTN orange hotspot and the green brassie are the two most effective SM flies on the Vaal River for probably the last 10 years. If I had to choose 2 flies for SM on the Vaal to fish for my life that will be it. Unless you have confidence in another set of flies. Confidence in a fly makes it 100% more effective.

[Korrie]

I have fished the Vaal on numerous occasions, where the fish will only take the fly in the water column.
Your unweighted PTN, was probably in the water column and not on the bottom with the other fly.

[Grant111]

The brassies were weighted the same. See pics.

This leads me to another question. I've been looking on the net for underwater video footage of a 2 and 3 fly rig in action. I can't seem to find anything educational. Can anyone help?

In my mind I'm still trying to work out if the point fly is up or downstream of the control (if control is in the middle). I assume it's always down stream as the fast flow will push it down stream before the control hits the bottom.

But then my head tells me the point fly is useless as a take won't be registered as there's now no direct line to the point fly as it's at right angles to the point and therefore not in touch with you rod, yet most of my fish are caught on the point fly. So this is my current conundrum.

[Korrie]

The position of the weighted fly or equall weighted flies, will depend if you fish upstream or down stream or across.
The speed of the water plays a roll, as well.
There are a couple of threads about this, on FT. and is a very comprehensive topic.

[Gerrit Viljoen]

From an external point of view I'd like to point out that you fished in flows that differed 27 cumex between the two days i.e day 1 = 40cm and day 2 = 13cm. For a venue as shallow as Arends flow determines where fish eat not to mention the onset to Autumn.

[Andre]

I wouldn't over technicalise it. The flies drift together differently depending on how you fish. Seeing a vieo image on the net would be too subjective. The drift depends on too many things for it to give you a "general" idea of how they would drift. That's why it is called a "control" fly, because you use it to control the drift that you want. Depending on the weight that you use on the point fly, how the rod is used, the flows, the depth, the distance of the flies from the rod tip, as well as the different stages of the drift that you take the flies through, all has a lot of influence of being able to detect the take through the bend in the leader caused by the heavy control fly. This is why Czech nymphing is better done with some specialised rods and lines. It takes practice to detect the take on the point fly in some cases, and very often you wont even know that the fly has been taken. Keep at it, you will find eventually that it all comes together. Czech nymphing is a lot of fun and well worth the perseverance.

The brassies were weighted the same. See pics.

This leads me to another question. I've been looking on the net for underwater video footage of a 2 and 3 fly rig in action. I can't seem to find anything educational. Can anyone help?

In my mind I'm still trying to work out if the point fly is up or downstream of the control (if control is in the middle). I assume it's always down stream as the fast flow will push it down stream before the control hits the bottom.

But then my head tells me the point fly is useless as a take won't be registered as there's now no direct line to the point fly as it's at right angles to the point and therefore not in touch with you rod, yet most of my fish are caught on the point fly. So this is my current conundrum.

[Grant111]

Ok so there's much to take in and work out.

Tks Korrie I'll look for the threads.

Gerrit I knew the water would be very low but didn't know where else to go that would be better for low flows like that. So probably made my life a bit more complex than it needed to be.

Tks for the advise, info and encouragement Andre.

[Andre]

No worries. For now, just enjoy it, and focus on the pleasure of cathing more fish than you did before. Don't worry about dropping fish, or missing the takes and all the negative stuff. The more fun you have, the better you will become at doing it, so be happy that youre starting to improve. Most people don't even get 20 takes in a day, let alone drop 20 fish...so youre doing something right, and better than most.

Ok so there's much to take in and work out.

Tks Korrie I'll look for the threads.

Gerrit I knew the water would be very low but didn't know where else to go that would be better for low flows like that. So probably made my life a bit more complex than it needed to be.

Tks for the advise, info and encouragement Andre.