Fruity

Last year I missed the best of the mulberry fishing. Partly due to storms, but mostly due to them beings several weeks early.  This year I want to make the most of it and with the weird mild winter and up and down temperatures since I'm really keeping tabs on them. Yesterday evening I went along the river and inspected a few bushes. The berries are starting to form nicely and I think I've probably got a month before they ripen and start dropping in the river. 

 

I'm breaking from the trend of recent years to get everything ready in plenty of time, I've found the answer is to simply neglect other areas of my life. Easy, and a lesson for anglers everywhere. So this afternoon I'll be breaking out the purple and black deer hair. I've a feeling I'll need to tie more mulberries than usual in case John comes and sacrifices them to the bush.  If you're unfamiliar with mulberry eaters, and Google mulberry patterns you'll find quite a few. Some them are more work than others, some of them are clearly being pushed by bandwagon jumpers who've never used them but want to make some content.  I think you need 2: a floater and a sinker. 

 

The floater is the most fun to fish, but it takes a bit of time for the fish to really get switched on to them. It's also the one that's most important to get right in my opinion. There are lots of foam ones, and fish will eat them, but in my experience they often get rejected on the eat. I think it's probably that they float too hard and don't suck down as easily as a real berry, mouthfeel might also be part of it. Or a combination of both. Deer hair is a far better option, but is more trouble to tie and fish. I've never had a fish start eating a deer hair mulberry and then reject it. I'm absolutely convinced it's because you can tune a deer hair berry by squeezing it in the water to make it sit low and slip down easily.  More work, but it works better and puts more fish in the net. Just the same as fry patterns and bass bugs. 

 

The sunk fly is easy,  I just use a little, fat, unweighted woolly worm. A bit of black, a bit red and the hackle just to slow the sink. Others use a ball of cactus chenille which seems to work but I don't like the sparkle-maybe translucent blob fritz would work. Either way, as long as the fly is roughly the right colour and  match for the size of the berries it'll work. 

 

Whether you fish the floating or sinking pattern, get the presentation right and you'll find fish competing to eat it. Not only that the abundant good supply will bring the fish back on the feed usually allowing you catch several fish from under each bush before it switches off. You only really need to get 1 or 2 things right, put the fly down first and pretty hard. You're imitating the plop of a berry falling in which is like a dinner bell for the fish. The second thing you need is a short drag free drift if you're on a river. On a stillwater you only need to plop that fly down near the bush. It's a doddle, and very fun. I mean, how often do you get to dry fy fish for 20lbers?