ZANE MIRFIN
© Zane Mirfin, New Zealand's BEST TROUT FLIES, 2006, pg 94-97
Zane Mirfin has been a professional fishing guide since 1985 and has fished in the western USA, Christmas Island, Sweden and British Columbia.
Zane’s 1990 Masters Research Thesis at the University of Canterbury was titled: Trout Fishing in Nelson – Management of a Recreational Resource. He has assisted Fish and Game on a number of projects over the years.
Zane is an enthusiastic photographer. A fishing columnist for NZ Troutfisher magazine from 1997-2001 and photographer and writer for Fish & Game NZ magazine from 2001 onwards, Zane won the prestigious SPARC Award for Recreation / Adventure / Lifestyle Reporting in the 2004 Sir Terry McLean National Sports Journalism Awards. Zane was the co-author and photographer of the book ‘Brown Trout Heaven – Fly Fishing New Zealand’s South Island.’
He is a co-founder of political party Outdoor Recreation NZ, which is now affiliated with the United Future Party.
So many flies, so little time! Collecting flies has always been a fly angler’s weakness, and I am no exception. I confess to carrying boxes of the damned things whenever I go fishing but hey, you never know….Here are a few of my favourite flies:
Norman Marsh’s classic 1983 book:
‘Trout Stream Insects of New Zealand – How to Imitate and Use Them’ established Norman as a fly fishing icon in this country. This is one of my most treasured angling books and I never tire of Norman’s immortal words at the end, “In this new world of plastic, bionics and science fiction come true, keeping our secret seems little price to pay. Perhaps mine is the last retreat”.
In later years I was fortunate to know and fish with Norman himself. He was a great man with great advice on many things. He also invented some great trout flies. I’ve chosen his Kakahi Queen Nymph as a representative pattern. The Kakahi Queen (Coloburiscus humeralis) is one of New Zealand’s best known and most colorful mayflies. The sub-imago (dun) in Norman’s words is “famous for the brilliant yellow blotches at the wing base and the distinct yellow stripes along the wing edges”. The nymph version of Norman’s works a treat, give it a try and you won’t be disappointed.
Sadly, one of my most poignant fly fishing memories of recent times was watching Norman’s flower bedecked coffin being carried to the waiting hearse by his family whilst Tasman Bay glistened in the background. Everyone needs a fishing hero and Norman Marsh was certainly one of mine. I leave the last words to Norman who wrote ‘ But, like most anglers, fish by fish, I relive the day until weariness overcomes me, and I sleep – content in an Angler’s Paradise’.
I’m a great believer in simplicity in fly tying. Much more important than intricate flies, is being in the right place at the right time and delivering the fly to the right zone, at the right depth, and having it behave like the natural creature it is imitating. Of recent years smaller flies have become more important in my angling arsenal as fish have become increasingly sophisticated. One fly that has been very successful yet is easy and simple to tie is one I call ‘the midge’. It probably can imitate any small insect species depending on what colour vernille and thread colour are used. Easily tied and designed to be fished on light tippet, it is no disaster when broken off on fish, rocks or overhanging foliage. Because it is unweighted, it is best fished in conjunction with a sinker nymph to get down into the ‘bingo-zone’. My favourite colours are first, olive vernille & dark olive thread; second, grey vernille & brown thread; third, claret vernille and black thread.. This fly also works very well tied in bright colours for rainbows. Best of all you can tie about 50 flies an hour!
The advent of tungsten beads opened up new horizons for nymph fishermen, allowing us to tie relatively streamlined nymphs that sank like never before. Such flies incorporating both lead weight and tungsten beads can be the very devil to cast but are a useful tool in fishing deep and/or heavy water with lifelike drifts. Like it or not, tungsten is here to stay so embrace the technology and catch more fish.
One of my standard ‘sinker’ flies is a #8-14 heavy wire nymph hook, a black tungsten bead, lashings of lead wire, and covered with rabbit fur dubbing - simple but deadly. Used mainly as a sinker fly to take other patterns deeper, it is nevertheless amazing how often it gets eaten by trout that should know better. One happy guided customer this past season, named it the ‘wife fly’. When I asked why, he said with a very un-PC grin, “because it isn’t pretty but it sure gets the job done”
Sometimes a little colour is good in a fly. Take a look at the underbelly of any large green stonefly nymph (Stenoperla prasina) and you will see what I mean. My favourite and most easily tied stonefly pattern has a wingcase of orange poly yarn which mimicks the underbody of the natural. Trout are attracted by the super-normal releaser effect and this flash of colour accompanied by a long tapered shape has been the downfall of many trout.
It had been a tough day, with fish after fish coming to our dry flies but either turning away, bumping the fly, bolting for cover, or taking the fly but not being hooked when the rod was raised. We caught a few trout but these were fish that had made a mistake, not fish that had been fooled by our skill as anglers. That night I tied a few flies to sit lower in the surface film and more closely mimick the emerging dark craneflies that were prevalent. My new fly worked well and with a bit of tweaking over several trips became a favourite in eastern waters. I used to tie the Parachute Cranefly with complicated knotted pheasant tail legs, but soon learnt to omit such niceties because the trout didn’t mind and the fly could be used in a more general sense to imitate any dark emergent insects. This fly can be tough to see on the water but works well in glare prone areas. I often tie a tiny micro yarn indictor 60-70cm from the fly to assist the strike rate. Actually, this is a great trick to use with any small difficult to see dry fly or emerger for all anglers, young and old.
My enjoyment of fishing small flies developed from my time fishing the tailwater fisheries of the Western USA. Memories flood back from classic fisheries and classic days in places such as California, Idaho, Utah and Montana. In Colorado, we used many tiny flies, commonly nymphing the Frying Pan with 6-7x tippet, split shot and #22-24 nymphs. My guiding colleague and after-hours bar buddy Sandy Moore invented the disco midge, a tiny bright coloured chironomid nymph for fishing deep. He reasoned that just because you are fishing a small fly doesn’t mean that you don’t want the fish to see it. I just adapted this idea to a tiny mayfly type nymph and it has worked well. Different colours and combinations are possible with my favourites being olive, peacock green, and plain old black. It still amazes me how such small hooks will hold very large trout….
Norman Marsh’s Kakahi Queen Nymph
Hook: #12-14
Thread: Brown
Tail: Brown hen hackle – tied short
Body: 2 peacock herls – well flued.
Wingcase: Dark grey mallard
Thorax: Brown floss silk
Leg: Brown hen hackle
Add a rib of copper wire to ensure durability. Weight with lead as required. Designed to be tied short and squat with a scruffy body.
Mirf’s Midge
Hook: Nymph hook #16-22
Thread: Various colours to suit specific pattern
Tail: Black hackle whisks
Body: Vernille lashed to top of hook with spaced wraps of thread, then cut at each end with sharp fine tip scissors.
Pretty basic but then that is the idea!
‘Wife’ Fly
Hook: Heavy nymph hook #6-14
Bead: Black or copper tungsten bead
Thread: Colour to suit
Tail: Black hackle whisks
Rib: Fine copper wire
Weight: Lead wire wrapped around hook shank in generous portions
Body: Mixed wild rabbit fur with guard hairs left in the mix
Legs: Two strands of krystal flash either olive, green, purple or black
Orange Stonefly
Hook: Long shank nymph hook #8-12
Thread: Dark olive
Tail: Golden pheasant tippets
Rib: Copper wire
Weight: Leadwire
Body: Roman Moser Olive clear glass-fibre dubbing or similar
Wingcase: Orange poly yarn
Thorax: Same as body
Parachute Cranefly
Hook: Dry fly hook #12-16
Thread: Black
Rib: Dark fine copper wire
Body: Dark pheasant tail herls tied in at tips
Parachute: Dark paradise duck CDC or equivalent
Thorax: Black roman moser dry fly dubbing or equivalent
Hackle: Black
Disco Mayfly
Hook: #16-22
Thread: Colour to suit
Tail: Black hackle whisks
Body: Krystal flash. Colour to suit tyer preference
Wingcase: Krystal flash
Thorax: Peacock herl
For #16-18 use two strands of Krystal flash for the body and six strands for the wingcase. For #20 and smaller, use one strand for body and three for the wingcase.
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