Fly Fishing
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Fly Fishing for Arctic Char in Lakes
Myles Kelly

In Ireland there is no developed fly fishery for arctic char, but they fall to the fly from time to time, be it by accident or design. In other countries the char is more often fished for with fly, especially the sea run fish. This article will attempt to stir in your heart the desire to try to catch char on the fly for yourself.

This is char fishing that is available to all, as char occur in lakes across the whole of their range. The received wisdom is to fish deep and slow, but in the summer months the char move in to the shallows to feed. Often they can be seen gently rising to surface prey… for me this is when the fishing gets exciting.

Most fly caught char in Europe are taken accidentally while trout fishing in lakes. Some are accidentally caught while sea-trout fishing in lakes, and some more are caught accidentally while salmon fishing in lakes. In Ireland the lucky angler may expect to catch trout, sea-trout and salmon from a lake every year. Few expect to catch trout, sea-trout, salmon and char from a lake in one day, on the same fly, but it happened on Fermoyle Lough a few years ago.

In Irish lakes the most productive months for fly fishing are June, July and August. They can be caught in May and September, the crucial factor seems to be a warm evening. This also appears to be the case in the Scottish Lochs.

After ice out in Floodplains Lakes, Maine (USA) hungry char are caught on any dry fly size #6-#10 (These lakes are frozen from November until they thaw in April). At other times a streamer fished deep and slow will catch fish.

Flies That Work

Wet: Ke-He, black midge with a red thorax flash in spring, Hares Ear and fry imitations, all in #12-16. Siver doctor #16-#18. Chironomid pupae #18-#22.

Dry: Size #16 shuttlecock, Adams and Gnats in #14-#18, Daddy longlegs and sedges #12-#18.

Char often congregate at the out-flow of the lake on warm evenings during hatches of gnats and sedges, and great sport can be had as the fish gorge themselves on the moveable feast. Although many fish may fall to imitative patterns, a Silver Doctor tied small (#18) fished in the traditional wet fly method can be more effective in skilled hands (not mine, obviously).

On still warm evenings the rises of the char can easily be seen and they readily rise to a stealthily cast fly. The size is critical here as often times these fish sip so delicately that, wet or dry, your fly will have to be small enough to be swallowed first time. Though the char can be forgiving and may rise several times to the same fly she will eventually swim off to sulk somewhere remote and unfishable, taking most of the shoal with her (It has been scientifically proven that only females (char) sulk, the males exhibit avoidance behaviour and maybe become dour under similar circumstances…).

Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to Johan Hammar, Fred Kircheis, Pat Beck, Adrian Latimer, Dan Jonasson, Oyvind Fjeldseth, Peter Steensen and Justus Felix Wehmer for sharing their knowledge and experience.