Surface Lure

Surface lure fishing for Sea trout can be both exhilirating and frustrating . Surface lure is essentially the use of a floating lure passed across the tails and deep parts of a pool. A surface lure creates a wake and this is what attracts the Sea trout to it. The flies (or lure) used for this have a high buoyancy and resist sinking. A floating line is used to cast a surface lure across the pool. This is then allowed to fish quicker than the river flow creating a wake. Iif this is not enough it can be augmented by a fast figure of eight retrieve or by stripping in line 18 inches at a time. This gives action to the lure and attracts the fish. The idea is to create a good wake but not to skate the fly across the water surface making it too fast for the fish. In some caes a retrieval of the fly is necessary to impart a good motion and thus a good wake but in most cases the flow of the river is sufficient. Some fish will come up through a good depth of water to slash or take the fly vigorouslyIn his book Sea Trout Fishing Hugh Falkus wrote in detail about the use of this method to show us where the fish are lying within a pool. The fish will often slash at the lure without taking it. These fish have then revealed their location and a method is available to catch them. This is the sunk line method. Once fish location have been noted then they can be approached with the sunk line.Lures are made from deer hair, ethafaom, cork and basically anything that floats and casts well. Fish slash at the fly and this is why most patterns contain a trailing smaller treble hook. This is to hook into those fish coming consistently short to the lure. Often they are only lip hooked and either come off easily or need very careful playing. Please click the image above to see the surface lure in action.Surface lure fishing as stated can be frustrating and yet exhilirating but often is most deadly in revealing the location of fish which allows you time to consider the tactics available to you to catch these fish.