Snail imitations - And how to fish them!

Viking Lars · Post by **Viking Lars** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 6:12 am

Help please :-)

Lars

blackwater · Post by **blackwater** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 6:36 am

My favourite fly for snail feeders is a black and peacock spider. Fish it dead drift or as slow as you possibly can.

It is a great fly for when the fish are sighted feeding on the snails floating around just under the surface. As long as you get the fly in front of the fish and the fly will do the rest.

Bernd · Post by **Bernd** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 6:44 am

Hi Lars,
take a life snail and glue the hook on top of it's shell

:p .

I remember an old (experienced) fly fisherman I met many years ago in the Bahamas. He tied a pipe cleaner to the hook and than formed a snail shell with it. Looked nice, but did not work at all.

I think that often the sense of smell comes into play when the fish feeds on this type of food.

Since the snails are slowly moving you should imitate it that way. In my experience that leads to: Take a very small fly cause otherwise the fish easily sees something to be wrong.

How big/small were the snails you found?

Greets
Bernd

tomo · Post by **tomo** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 8:55 am

I tie a black and peacock variant, replacing the peacock with a dark/black glister dub. For extra weight the addition of a small blue bead is deadly.

Cheers, Tom

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 9:22 am

Gary Borger ties a floating snail for use on stillwaters. Apparently they drift from time to time, like caddisflies, in search of new habitat, and that is the time to use the imitation. If my memory serves me right, it is all peacock with a brown dryfly quality hackle,
Cheers,
Walden

rodfreak · Post by **rodfreak** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 10:01 am

Tie a knot in a shoe lace and bind it to the hook. Chop one end off close and the other a few mm in length.

Cheers,

John

VGB · Post by **VGB** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 10:49 am

Weighted and unweighted montanas have worked for me. Some fish have been so full it was like holding a bag of marbles

Crackaig · Post by **Crackaig** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 12:17 pm

Knew someone once who glued a coffee bean to the hook shank. Caught lots of fish on them. Though he said it was a snail I suspect the fish took it for "other reasons"
Cheers,
C.

Snake Pliskin · Post by **Snake Pliskin** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 1:54 pm

Black and peacock for me too. Usually fished high in the water column and drifted. I used to fish a lake as a kid, and when the snails were migrating fish were stuffed to the brim with them. Often an inspection of the stomach contents would show just snails and nothing else.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:26 pm

Black spun deer hair clipped into a snail shape. It floats at the same level as the floating migrating snails, mostly below the surface. If I was tying one now I might put a post of bright yarn on the top to make it visible.

Of curse that doesn't answer the question about imitating snails that the fish are feeding on deep down. I think in that case I'd use a woolly bugger!

keystone · Post by **keystone** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 6:05 pm

Hi,
Black and peacock for me too. Size 10 shuttle cock buzzer as well.
Dave.

Al Greig · Post by **Al Greig** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 10:01 pm

Hi Lars,

I'd say Black and Peacock too - except that the only genuine snail-filled fish I ever caught took a Whickham's Fancy.

Maybe it was bored.

Viking Lars · Post by **Viking Lars** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 6:40 am

Thanks for all the suggestions - it looks like I'll be tying some Black & Peacock today :-).

So here's another question - how the H... does one identify that fish are feeding on snails, without catching one one Bugger and opening it?

Lars

blackwater · Post by **blackwater** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 8:51 am

Most often when i have caught snail feeding fish they are feeding on snails that are floating. The snails hang from the meniscus and just drift along with the wind.

The rises are very much like a fish that is either midging or taking emergers under the surface. It is very subtle and sometimes just a swirl or hump in the waters surface.

Also have a good look for the snails floating along in the water. They can be very hard to spot because they don't really move, don't break the water surface and are mostly fairly small. Sometimes you wouldn't notice them floating along in all the rest of the garbage in a wind lane.

flyfishwithme · Post by **flyfishwithme** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:38 am

Lars
There a couple of times a year when snails start moving (migrating if you like) in stillwaters.
When this happens, the fish do lock onto them as they are an important part of their diet.
They protrude their foot, to which a small bubble is attached. How they do this I do not know.
This causes them to slowly lift to the surface and then float, foot upwards and shell down, to the whim of the current (not wind) that is evident in all stillwaters.
A Peacock and Black has worked but the trouble is that the peacock loses its bulk once wet.
I have used the following:
Wide gape hook to match size of snail. A 12 is big. I used a size 16.
Body was dark dubbing (I recall I used dark hares ear) built up in the shape of a conical snail shell (they are different to a land snail) with thickest part towards the eye of the hook and then lacquered with varnish.
I then had a foot at the head of the fly made out of white foam cut like a small cigar)tied at right angles (really it looked like the hook had pierced it. I guess you could use an adhesive and attach it before the body was formed). This I shaded dark brown on the side that was close to the body.
Wish I had a picture to post but alas I don't.
To fish it, I watch for bulging trout and cast it about 5 feet ahead of the fish and left it static (where I fished there were rainbows and they moved fairly fast at the surface).
If you can visualise the pattern I am sure you could work out a way of tying of it.

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Snail imitations - And how to fish them!

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