This is an attempt to gather together our collective wisdom, experience and internet borrowings about all things buzzer in one place.
It's work in progress; please contribute by adding to the discussion below.
Introduction
Buzzers are a very large part of a trout's diet so it's not surprising that we try to imitate them. In many waters the buzzer is the go-to method and if you fish in waters that allow catch and kill, spooning fish often reveals stomach contents full of the pupa.
![1598968248757.png]( "1598968248757.png")
Buzzer fishing in the UK is predominantly done on stillwaters but this is probably more by convention than efficacy and many of the nymphs used in river fishing are probably taken for buzzers. Chironomids can be found wherever there's water; lakes, ponds, rivers and even in saltwater.
Entomology
Knowing how chironomids live their lives helps us devise better ways to imitate them.
Buzzers are actually the angler's term for the pupal stage of the non-biting, Chironomid midge. There are several hundred species of these midges and in Northern European waters there can be over a hundred species in the same water, but for our purposes size and colour is all we really need to know.
Life cycle
The midge has a four-part lifecycle - egg, larva, pupa, adult
![1598968296014.png]( "1598968296014.png")
Factoid: This four-stage life cycle - egg, larva, pupa, adult - is called 'complete metamorphosis' and doesn't include a nymphal stage. The nymph is confined to insects that have a three-stage life cycle - 'incomplete metamorphosis' - egg, nymph, adult eg damsel flies.
So if you're buzzer fishing you're not 'nymphing' you're 'puping'. Or something like that.
And for the real nerd, to my mind the damselfly nymph, or naiad, is actually more accurately called a larva as it is not simply a smaller version of the adult, cf. aphids where all the instars are mini-me adults. So none of us nymph. Though that could start an entomological war.
This is a great short video of the full life-cycle
Adult
The adult fly looks like a mosquito but without the biting parts. The male adult has furry antennae used to detect the pheromones of the female.
![page2image1095567088]( "page2image1095567088")
It hatches from the pupa on the surface of the water leaving an empty pupal case - a shuck - behind. These shucks are often seen floating on the water and washed up by their thousands against the bank. An angler spotting these is being given a large clue as to the food item - including its size - recently being consumed by fish.
![www.photomacrography.net :: View topic - Emerging midge (With images) | Fly fishing, Fly tying, Aquatic insects]( "www.photomacrography.net :: View topic - Emerging midge (With images) | Fly fishing, Fly tying, Aquatic insects")
As the adult fly exits its pupal case it sits on the water for a few seconds and becomes what the angler calls an emerger. In the photo you see that the pupa is just sub-surface while the emerging adult is very proud of the surface, standing on its 'hackles'.
Once emerged, the adult midge does not interest the angler much as it's almost entirely airborne, though when the female returns to lay her eggs on the water, fish will often take an interest.
The male and female midge mate usually in the air, in swarms. This is why trout suddenly switch on to buzzers - tens of thousands of buzzer pupa ascend in the water at the same time in order to hatch and mate. The term 'buzzer' comes from the noise these swarms make in the air. But not all buzzer hatches form these giant swarms and subsequent trout obsessional activity, hatches come off in small quantities all day.
The female lays her eggs on the water. From there the eggs sink and stick to weeds, rocks and floor of the lake, eventually hatching into the larval stage.
Lavae
This larval stage is usually referred to as the bloodworm by anglers because it's often a red colour containing haemoglobin, the molecule used for oxygen absorption found in human blood. But the larvae can also be beige, tan or translucent.
![Chironomid]( "Chironomid")
The larva can vary in size from 1mm to 25mm:
![Midge larva (bloodworms!)]( "Midge larva (bloodworms!)")
Looks a bit like a squirmy wormy doesn't it?
![/var/folders/k2/yh3xk_c93wxfxc_x7ljqq43c0000gn/T/com.microsoft.Word/WebArchiveCopyPasteTempFiles/5325826370_ec0f4eb883.jpg]( "/var/folders/k2/yh3xk_c93wxfxc_x7ljqq43c0000gn/T/com.microsoft.Word/WebArchiveCopyPasteTempFiles/5325826370_ec0f4eb883.jpg")
The larvae can be free moving on the bottom but more usually makes mud cases or debris cases like caddis larvae and sticks it's body out of them to freed. It goes through several stages called instars where it grows larger and sheds its skin finally turning into the pupa.
Pupa
The pupal stage is the one most anglers associate with buzzer fishing.
![Fly Fishing Chironomids Larva Pupa - Methods & Entomology]( "Fly Fishing Chironomids Larva Pupa - Methods & Entomology")
It has a distinctly segmented abdomen and a pretty chunky thorax that forms the wing covers. Breathers are very noticeable at the head and also at the tail. It's often curved - as above - or straight, and of course, all shapes in between as it wriggles up to the surface.
It rises in the water in wiggling moves, pausing and sometimes slowly sinking down again. Gases build up in the pupal case which help with the ascent and create the silver sheen effect in the image above. This silvery effect increases as the pupa ascends and can be important in imitation - the 'chromie' buzzer is modelled on this. The pupa sometimes carries some of the haemoglobin from the larva with it and can be imitated by a red tag. The pupa eventually reaches the surface where it sheds its skin and the adult fly emerges and flies off to mate and start the cycle again.
The pupa are present all year round though obviously the spring, summer and early autumn are the most prolific. They can be many colours - red, maroon, orange, brown, green, olive and black, with black being perhaps the most common. Trout have colour vision and occasionally this matters to us when they concentrate on one and ignore another. Pupa range in size from 1mm to 25mm. Many species will exist in the same lake and will hatch at different times of year in different sizes and colours. These patterns are often well observed by local anglers so it's often useful to ask what's hatching.
If you're really interested in chironomids, this is the bible, a snip at £350
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chironomidae-Biology-ecology-non-biting-Non-Biting/dp/041245260X
Buzzer fly patterns
There seem to be as many buzzer patterns as there are natural midge pupa and probably more than anglers themselves. The buzzer can be imitated almost exactly, but experience tells us that realism is no more effective than suggestion, and some say less so. In practice the fly can be extremely simple and it seems that simple is also effective.
Before the rise of the reservoirs in the 60's and 70s which saw the creation of specific buzzer patterns, fish were caught on flies that may have been taken by them as buzzers; the pheasant tail nymph, the hare's ear, the Black Pennel and Peter Ross. The Diawl Bach is another old fly pattern that will take buzzer feeding fish and can also be taken for a damsel fly larva. These flies still catch fish - probably because fish don't keep up with fly fashion.
These days we seem to need multiple versions of buzzers in many shapes, sizes and colours, some general patterns and some location and calendar specific. The versions you choose will ultimately be personal preference, but there are four very different life-cycle stages to imitate
This fly can be extremely simple - a red rubber band tied to a heavy hook, mackerel fashion - but normally anglers like to do a little more. Two popular ones are
The Apps Bloodworm
![Fulling Mill Apps Bloodworm Red - Glasgow Angling Centre]( "Fulling Mill Apps Bloodworm Red - Glasgow Angling Centre")
And the Squirmy Wormy
![Fulling Mill Barbless Wiggly Worm (TBH)]( "Fulling Mill Barbless Wiggly Worm (TBH)")
Neither of which are exactly true to life copies, neither are within the competition 1" rule and both of which fly fishers like to take ethical positions on. But they work.
For a more subtle approach a Graham's bloodworm feels more appropriate
![MOBY Kamloops | Facebook]( "MOBY Kamloops | Facebook")
but a more motile and still imitative fly is a spanflex bloodworm.
![GB SPANFLEX BLOODWORM - Flyfishing-Flies : Rod and Reel - Freshwater and Saltwater Fishing Specialists - New Zealand -]( "GB SPANFLEX BLOODWORM - Flyfishing-Flies : Rod and Reel - Freshwater and Saltwater Fishing Specialists - New Zealand -")
The ascending pupa
The pupa, of course, provides the majority of what we normally understand as buzzer fishing.
There are probably hundreds of buzzer patterns and picking the best is almost arbitrary as all will work on their day. But we can usefully break them down into classes of buzzers
Epoxy buzzers
Named after the glue originally used to make these buzzers. These are slim, shiny and slick; designed to cut through the surface film and sink quickly. These days UV resin is mostly used as it hardens in seconds in a controlled way.
They're the barbie doll of buzzer imitation, slim with a bulbous top, often made up in non-naturalistic colours, fluorescent greens, oranges and reds which may be more attractive to stockies than wild or naturalised fish. Less gaudy variants seem to work better on wild browns and residents. Hotspots are often used as attractants - coloured wing covers, heads and tail tags.
Popular patterns are the traffic light, hotspot, grey boy, quill, spanflex, lite-bright etc
![Buzzer | Fly tying patterns, Fly tying, Fly fishing tips]( "Buzzer | Fly tying patterns, Fly tying, Fly fishing tips")
Traditional buzzers
These are made from more natural materials such as floss bodies and peacock hurl abdomens.
![/var/folders/k2/yh3xk_c93wxfxc_x7ljqq43c0000gn/T/com.microsoft.Word/WebArchiveCopyPasteTempFiles/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRwFZoGP-FKVjiGfy_lsp0CqEW6EnMV1oUMrhGcTmvVE5W7l66sxlcPDbxP9i3QZDxUWCkC_rN2&usqp=CAc]( "/var/folders/k2/yh3xk_c93wxfxc_x7ljqq43c0000gn/T/com.microsoft.Word/WebArchiveCopyPasteTempFiles/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRwFZoGP-FKVjiGfy_lsp0CqEW6EnMV1oUMrhGcTmvVE5W7l66sxlcPDbxP9i3QZDxUWCkC_rN2&usqp=CAc")
Cove Pheasant-tail 'nymph'
Bead-headed buzzers
These flies are intended to sink the buzzer quickly and can use plastic, brass or tungsten beads of varying weights and sizes.
![bead head buzzers]( "bead head buzzers")
Emerger buzzers
These imitate the floating or just sub-surface adult midge as it emerges from the shuck and there's a wealth of designs using foams, feathers and fur.
The cdc shuttlecock emerger
![3 CDC SHUTTLECOCK Emerger Flies Dry MIDGE Pupa Trout Fly Fishing Size 10,12,14 | eBay]( "3 CDC SHUTTLECOCK Emerger Flies Dry MIDGE Pupa Trout Fly Fishing Size 10,12,14 | eBay")
The suspender buzzer
![Tying Foam Midge Emerger - Buzzer, Chironomid, Blae, Black (Dry Flies) by BK - YouTube]( "Tying Foam Midge Emerger - Buzzer, Chironomid, Blae, Black (Dry Flies) by BK - YouTube")
Shipman's buzzer
![Shipman's Buzzer - Flycasting Knowledgebase]( "Shipman's Buzzer - Flycasting Knowledgebase")
Parachute emerger (Adams Klinkhammer)
![Adams Klinkhammer Trout Fly Dry Fly fishing flies brand quality]( "Adams Klinkhammer Trout Fly Dry Fly fishing flies brand quality")
Gold Ribbed Hairs Ear Emerger
Adult buzzer patterns
In practice almost any small floating fly is representative of the adult midge but again there are many patterns.
Bobs bits
Duck fly
Fishing Bloodworms
The international angler in this article tells us how he fishes his bloodworm patterns, which, by-the-way, are not all red.
https://www.troutandsalmon.com/fishing-tips/fly-tying-help/articles/how-to-fish-a-bloodworm-pattern
There doesn't seem much imitation going on here, the flies are exaggerations of the natural and the retrieve and depth of fishing has nothing to do with the natural's behaviour. But it works.
It's probably impossible to fish a bloodworm entirely naturally because it would require the fly to be on the bottom barely moving which is not easily achieved unless heavily weighted and fished on a sinking line. For this reason, the bloodworm is often used as a weighted point fly in a team of three buzzers each fly fishing at different depths with the bloodworm on or near the bottom. [discussed later].
Fishing Buzzers (pupa)
The general idea in buzzer fishing is to imitate the natural to a greater or lessor degree. This means fishing very, very slowly, often with no retrieve at all. Convection currents, waves and surface wind are often enough to give the buzzers natural-looking life.
Although buzzers can be fished solo (particularly in small still waters) it's more usual to fish them in teams of 2, 3 or even 4 using the spacing between them to search different depths. Logically, the heaviest buzzer is the point fly and the lightest the top. Different colours and sizes are used to find the day's preference.
Leader length varies according to depth, technique used and your ability to cast long leaders with multiple droppers; 12' to 18' is normal with droppers separated by 3' to 6'.
The classic bank fishing buzzer method is to use a floating line and find a bank where the breeze is coming from the left (assuming a right-handed angler) then cast the team straight out. The flies are allowed to drift slowly to the right. Mending the line - that is throwing the line upwind while it drifts - slows down the drift as necessary. The buzzers are fished right into the bank and naturally rise in the water as the line straightens. Often takes are felt at this point.
Retrieves can be none at all, very slow figure of eight or slow sink and draw - slowly pulling for 12" to 18" to make the buzzers rise in the water then pausing for several seconds to allow them to fall again.
Sometimes fish can be caught with a fast, lure-like retrieve. But we don't talk about that.
There are many other methods:
The Washing Line and variants
Named because you're hanging your flies - in this case buzzers - off a leader that is suspended between two floating points - a floating point fly and the floating line. Often a booby or a FAB is the point fly but if you need to stick to imitation a suspender buzzer or a daddy with a lot of foam will do the job. A very slow retrieve is used or the flies left to drift naturally.
These methods are used from boat or bank when the fish are known to be in the top 3' or so of the water allowing at least two flies to be in the correct zone. If a slow sinking line is used the flies fish deeper eventually sinking the point fly but keeping the bow in the leader allowing the buzzers to fish at different depths.
Excellent video of buzzer fishing on Bristol Waters
Bungs, Indicators and Bollox
Takes to buzzers can be violent and obvious - or not. If you keep in tight contact with your flies you will often feel the takes, more often you will see the line move away and lifting the rod hooks the fish. Here we're using the end of the fly line as an indicator. The purists will tell you that this is the way it should be done.
However, it's now very clear that many, if not most, takes to buzzers are very gentle and go unnoticed to the angler. This is because the fish are moving slowly, vacuuming pupa into their throat by opening their gill covers to suck in the fly. If they sense anything wrong they simply close the gill covers which spits the fly out. The angler will not feel a thing or know anything about it unless the outgoing fly snags the fish. So indicator fishing comes into play, the direct connection between bung and fly and the movement of the fish allows us to see more of those gentle takes.
There are several types of indicators, the commonest being the clownish Thingamabobber, the erotic Fish Pimp and commonplace yarn - naturally oiled wool plucked at dawn from the barbed wire restraining wayward Herdwick ewes and attached to the leader with gossamer threads spun from fairly dust.
Thingamabobblers (with a jam lock to prevent sliding)
Fish Pimps
Yarn indicators - here's homemade one
troutbitten.com
All work but the trick is to use the type of indicator that can be slid up and down the leader to establish the correct depth and also be removed without needing to cut off the flies. The advantage of yarn over all others is that it can be pulled through rod rings - necessary if using long leaders, otherwise the indicator hinders getting the fish into the net.
Americans use a bung that can slide freely down the line when striking into a fish so that it does not interfere with the rod rings. These are difficult to find here in the UK but one source is European.
Here's a short video by our very own Rob Edmunds on fishing buzzers under bungs
For those morally disturbed by 'float fishing,' a large buoyant fly can be substituted for the bung which also has the advantage of catching the occasional fish eg the 'klink and dink'. Some even have a tippet ring tied in, though it's not actually necessary, as the 'dink' can be tied directly onto the bend of the hook,
Indicator Klink
As we know that fish can take flies very gently, any slight unnatural movement of the indicator should be lifted into.
Generally, indicators are fished without a retrieve allowing the waves to make the flies rise and fall and the wind to drift them. But they can also be fished perfectly static by attaching a weighted buzzer (often bloodworm) on the point which anchors the cast, or with a slow retrieve.
Flies are moved up and down the leader to find the fish.
Lines
By far the most popular line for buzzer fishing is the floater, it allows the flies to drift and the tip makes a good indicator. Some years ago the midge tip was introduced as a way ofmaking more money allowing buzzers to fish a little deeper and, possibly more importantly, slowing down the line drift by providing a water anchor.
These days, there's no need to buy a separate line, if this is how you want to fish you can attach a short intermediate or slow sink polyleader to the floating line. Airflo do a good range.
Sinking lines are used less often but can be a way of getting buzzers down low
particularly in drifting boat fishing, takes here are felt rather than seen. A booby on the point and a buzzer tied in a foot or so below creates a deep fished fly that hangs vertically in the water that sinks when pulled and rises when left alone. This works from both bank and boat.
This is an excellent video about buzzer fishing by Brian Chan. It's American but it covers most of the ground.
Interesting video of American indicator fishing using release indicators
It's work in progress; please contribute by adding to the discussion below.
Introduction
Buzzers are a very large part of a trout's diet so it's not surprising that we try to imitate them. In many waters the buzzer is the go-to method and if you fish in waters that allow catch and kill, spooning fish often reveals stomach contents full of the pupa.
Buzzer fishing in the UK is predominantly done on stillwaters but this is probably more by convention than efficacy and many of the nymphs used in river fishing are probably taken for buzzers. Chironomids can be found wherever there's water; lakes, ponds, rivers and even in saltwater.
Entomology
Knowing how chironomids live their lives helps us devise better ways to imitate them.
Buzzers are actually the angler's term for the pupal stage of the non-biting, Chironomid midge. There are several hundred species of these midges and in Northern European waters there can be over a hundred species in the same water, but for our purposes size and colour is all we really need to know.
Life cycle
The midge has a four-part lifecycle - egg, larva, pupa, adult
Factoid: This four-stage life cycle - egg, larva, pupa, adult - is called 'complete metamorphosis' and doesn't include a nymphal stage. The nymph is confined to insects that have a three-stage life cycle - 'incomplete metamorphosis' - egg, nymph, adult eg damsel flies.
So if you're buzzer fishing you're not 'nymphing' you're 'puping'. Or something like that.
And for the real nerd, to my mind the damselfly nymph, or naiad, is actually more accurately called a larva as it is not simply a smaller version of the adult, cf. aphids where all the instars are mini-me adults. So none of us nymph. Though that could start an entomological war.
This is a great short video of the full life-cycle
Adult
The adult fly looks like a mosquito but without the biting parts. The male adult has furry antennae used to detect the pheromones of the female.
It hatches from the pupa on the surface of the water leaving an empty pupal case - a shuck - behind. These shucks are often seen floating on the water and washed up by their thousands against the bank. An angler spotting these is being given a large clue as to the food item - including its size - recently being consumed by fish.
As the adult fly exits its pupal case it sits on the water for a few seconds and becomes what the angler calls an emerger. In the photo you see that the pupa is just sub-surface while the emerging adult is very proud of the surface, standing on its 'hackles'.
Once emerged, the adult midge does not interest the angler much as it's almost entirely airborne, though when the female returns to lay her eggs on the water, fish will often take an interest.
The male and female midge mate usually in the air, in swarms. This is why trout suddenly switch on to buzzers - tens of thousands of buzzer pupa ascend in the water at the same time in order to hatch and mate. The term 'buzzer' comes from the noise these swarms make in the air. But not all buzzer hatches form these giant swarms and subsequent trout obsessional activity, hatches come off in small quantities all day.
The female lays her eggs on the water. From there the eggs sink and stick to weeds, rocks and floor of the lake, eventually hatching into the larval stage.
Lavae
This larval stage is usually referred to as the bloodworm by anglers because it's often a red colour containing haemoglobin, the molecule used for oxygen absorption found in human blood. But the larvae can also be beige, tan or translucent.
The larva can vary in size from 1mm to 25mm:
Looks a bit like a squirmy wormy doesn't it?
The larvae can be free moving on the bottom but more usually makes mud cases or debris cases like caddis larvae and sticks it's body out of them to freed. It goes through several stages called instars where it grows larger and sheds its skin finally turning into the pupa.
Pupa
The pupal stage is the one most anglers associate with buzzer fishing.
It has a distinctly segmented abdomen and a pretty chunky thorax that forms the wing covers. Breathers are very noticeable at the head and also at the tail. It's often curved - as above - or straight, and of course, all shapes in between as it wriggles up to the surface.
It rises in the water in wiggling moves, pausing and sometimes slowly sinking down again. Gases build up in the pupal case which help with the ascent and create the silver sheen effect in the image above. This silvery effect increases as the pupa ascends and can be important in imitation - the 'chromie' buzzer is modelled on this. The pupa sometimes carries some of the haemoglobin from the larva with it and can be imitated by a red tag. The pupa eventually reaches the surface where it sheds its skin and the adult fly emerges and flies off to mate and start the cycle again.
The pupa are present all year round though obviously the spring, summer and early autumn are the most prolific. They can be many colours - red, maroon, orange, brown, green, olive and black, with black being perhaps the most common. Trout have colour vision and occasionally this matters to us when they concentrate on one and ignore another. Pupa range in size from 1mm to 25mm. Many species will exist in the same lake and will hatch at different times of year in different sizes and colours. These patterns are often well observed by local anglers so it's often useful to ask what's hatching.
If you're really interested in chironomids, this is the bible, a snip at £350
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chironomidae-Biology-ecology-non-biting-Non-Biting/dp/041245260X
Buzzer fly patterns
There seem to be as many buzzer patterns as there are natural midge pupa and probably more than anglers themselves. The buzzer can be imitated almost exactly, but experience tells us that realism is no more effective than suggestion, and some say less so. In practice the fly can be extremely simple and it seems that simple is also effective.
Before the rise of the reservoirs in the 60's and 70s which saw the creation of specific buzzer patterns, fish were caught on flies that may have been taken by them as buzzers; the pheasant tail nymph, the hare's ear, the Black Pennel and Peter Ross. The Diawl Bach is another old fly pattern that will take buzzer feeding fish and can also be taken for a damsel fly larva. These flies still catch fish - probably because fish don't keep up with fly fashion.
These days we seem to need multiple versions of buzzers in many shapes, sizes and colours, some general patterns and some location and calendar specific. The versions you choose will ultimately be personal preference, but there are four very different life-cycle stages to imitate
- The bloodworm larva
- The ascending pupa
- The emerging adult
- The returning adult
This fly can be extremely simple - a red rubber band tied to a heavy hook, mackerel fashion - but normally anglers like to do a little more. Two popular ones are
The Apps Bloodworm
And the Squirmy Wormy
Neither of which are exactly true to life copies, neither are within the competition 1" rule and both of which fly fishers like to take ethical positions on. But they work.
For a more subtle approach a Graham's bloodworm feels more appropriate
but a more motile and still imitative fly is a spanflex bloodworm.
The ascending pupa
The pupa, of course, provides the majority of what we normally understand as buzzer fishing.
There are probably hundreds of buzzer patterns and picking the best is almost arbitrary as all will work on their day. But we can usefully break them down into classes of buzzers
Epoxy buzzers
Named after the glue originally used to make these buzzers. These are slim, shiny and slick; designed to cut through the surface film and sink quickly. These days UV resin is mostly used as it hardens in seconds in a controlled way.
They're the barbie doll of buzzer imitation, slim with a bulbous top, often made up in non-naturalistic colours, fluorescent greens, oranges and reds which may be more attractive to stockies than wild or naturalised fish. Less gaudy variants seem to work better on wild browns and residents. Hotspots are often used as attractants - coloured wing covers, heads and tail tags.
Popular patterns are the traffic light, hotspot, grey boy, quill, spanflex, lite-bright etc
Traditional buzzers
These are made from more natural materials such as floss bodies and peacock hurl abdomens.
Cove Pheasant-tail 'nymph'
Bead-headed buzzers
These flies are intended to sink the buzzer quickly and can use plastic, brass or tungsten beads of varying weights and sizes.
Emerger buzzers
These imitate the floating or just sub-surface adult midge as it emerges from the shuck and there's a wealth of designs using foams, feathers and fur.
The cdc shuttlecock emerger
The suspender buzzer
Shipman's buzzer
Parachute emerger (Adams Klinkhammer)
Gold Ribbed Hairs Ear Emerger
Adult buzzer patterns
In practice almost any small floating fly is representative of the adult midge but again there are many patterns.
Bobs bits
Duck fly
Fishing Bloodworms
The international angler in this article tells us how he fishes his bloodworm patterns, which, by-the-way, are not all red.
https://www.troutandsalmon.com/fishing-tips/fly-tying-help/articles/how-to-fish-a-bloodworm-pattern
There doesn't seem much imitation going on here, the flies are exaggerations of the natural and the retrieve and depth of fishing has nothing to do with the natural's behaviour. But it works.
It's probably impossible to fish a bloodworm entirely naturally because it would require the fly to be on the bottom barely moving which is not easily achieved unless heavily weighted and fished on a sinking line. For this reason, the bloodworm is often used as a weighted point fly in a team of three buzzers each fly fishing at different depths with the bloodworm on or near the bottom. [discussed later].
Fishing Buzzers (pupa)
The general idea in buzzer fishing is to imitate the natural to a greater or lessor degree. This means fishing very, very slowly, often with no retrieve at all. Convection currents, waves and surface wind are often enough to give the buzzers natural-looking life.
Although buzzers can be fished solo (particularly in small still waters) it's more usual to fish them in teams of 2, 3 or even 4 using the spacing between them to search different depths. Logically, the heaviest buzzer is the point fly and the lightest the top. Different colours and sizes are used to find the day's preference.
Leader length varies according to depth, technique used and your ability to cast long leaders with multiple droppers; 12' to 18' is normal with droppers separated by 3' to 6'.
The classic bank fishing buzzer method is to use a floating line and find a bank where the breeze is coming from the left (assuming a right-handed angler) then cast the team straight out. The flies are allowed to drift slowly to the right. Mending the line - that is throwing the line upwind while it drifts - slows down the drift as necessary. The buzzers are fished right into the bank and naturally rise in the water as the line straightens. Often takes are felt at this point.
Retrieves can be none at all, very slow figure of eight or slow sink and draw - slowly pulling for 12" to 18" to make the buzzers rise in the water then pausing for several seconds to allow them to fall again.
Sometimes fish can be caught with a fast, lure-like retrieve. But we don't talk about that.
There are many other methods:
The Washing Line and variants
Named because you're hanging your flies - in this case buzzers - off a leader that is suspended between two floating points - a floating point fly and the floating line. Often a booby or a FAB is the point fly but if you need to stick to imitation a suspender buzzer or a daddy with a lot of foam will do the job. A very slow retrieve is used or the flies left to drift naturally.
These methods are used from boat or bank when the fish are known to be in the top 3' or so of the water allowing at least two flies to be in the correct zone. If a slow sinking line is used the flies fish deeper eventually sinking the point fly but keeping the bow in the leader allowing the buzzers to fish at different depths.
Excellent video of buzzer fishing on Bristol Waters
Bungs, Indicators and Bollox
Takes to buzzers can be violent and obvious - or not. If you keep in tight contact with your flies you will often feel the takes, more often you will see the line move away and lifting the rod hooks the fish. Here we're using the end of the fly line as an indicator. The purists will tell you that this is the way it should be done.
However, it's now very clear that many, if not most, takes to buzzers are very gentle and go unnoticed to the angler. This is because the fish are moving slowly, vacuuming pupa into their throat by opening their gill covers to suck in the fly. If they sense anything wrong they simply close the gill covers which spits the fly out. The angler will not feel a thing or know anything about it unless the outgoing fly snags the fish. So indicator fishing comes into play, the direct connection between bung and fly and the movement of the fish allows us to see more of those gentle takes.
There are several types of indicators, the commonest being the clownish Thingamabobber, the erotic Fish Pimp and commonplace yarn - naturally oiled wool plucked at dawn from the barbed wire restraining wayward Herdwick ewes and attached to the leader with gossamer threads spun from fairly dust.
Thingamabobblers (with a jam lock to prevent sliding)
Fish Pimps
Yarn indicators - here's homemade one
The Dorsey Yarn Indicator -- Everything you need to know and a little more
The dark truth is that upgrading your fly fishing gear rarely catches you more fish. But the Dorsey yarn indy is killer. It will catch you more fish.
troutbitten.com
All work but the trick is to use the type of indicator that can be slid up and down the leader to establish the correct depth and also be removed without needing to cut off the flies. The advantage of yarn over all others is that it can be pulled through rod rings - necessary if using long leaders, otherwise the indicator hinders getting the fish into the net.
Americans use a bung that can slide freely down the line when striking into a fish so that it does not interfere with the rod rings. These are difficult to find here in the UK but one source is European.
Here's a short video by our very own Rob Edmunds on fishing buzzers under bungs
For those morally disturbed by 'float fishing,' a large buoyant fly can be substituted for the bung which also has the advantage of catching the occasional fish eg the 'klink and dink'. Some even have a tippet ring tied in, though it's not actually necessary, as the 'dink' can be tied directly onto the bend of the hook,
Indicator Klink
As we know that fish can take flies very gently, any slight unnatural movement of the indicator should be lifted into.
Generally, indicators are fished without a retrieve allowing the waves to make the flies rise and fall and the wind to drift them. But they can also be fished perfectly static by attaching a weighted buzzer (often bloodworm) on the point which anchors the cast, or with a slow retrieve.
Flies are moved up and down the leader to find the fish.
Lines
By far the most popular line for buzzer fishing is the floater, it allows the flies to drift and the tip makes a good indicator. Some years ago the midge tip was introduced as a way of
These days, there's no need to buy a separate line, if this is how you want to fish you can attach a short intermediate or slow sink polyleader to the floating line. Airflo do a good range.
Sinking lines are used less often but can be a way of getting buzzers down low
particularly in drifting boat fishing, takes here are felt rather than seen. A booby on the point and a buzzer tied in a foot or so below creates a deep fished fly that hangs vertically in the water that sinks when pulled and rises when left alone. This works from both bank and boat.
This is an excellent video about buzzer fishing by Brian Chan. It's American but it covers most of the ground.
Interesting video of American indicator fishing using release indicators
