Needle Tube Flies for Sea Trout Night Fishing
Illustrated below are half a dozen slim needle tube flies for night time sea trout fishing. They are very simply dressed on 30mm long needle tubes with a diameter of only 1.5mm. The dressings comprise squirrel tail hair, dyed black, hackle fibres in various colours and a few strands of Krystal Flash. The overall length of these needle tubes is about one and three quarter inches, a good general length for late night sea trout fishing. Conditions of water and weather, time of year, time of night etc. will dictate the size of lure, which may be dressed on any length of tube.
I see no need for over-complicated dressings for night time sea trout flies. Colour is of little importance, except in providing some contrast in tone – a bit of light and dark in a fly may attract some attention. Otherwise, I have always sought to create a slim, sparsely dressed offering, a tenuous impression of a bait fish which the sea trout may have recently been chasing in the salt water. Dressed on a slim stainless steel needle tube, such a lure will sink quickly to a good fishing depth (though not as deeply as a copper tube) but will be easily cast on a single handed rod, on either a floating or sinking fly line.
While the needle tube flies shown above have been tied primarily with sea trout night fishing in mind, they may also be employed successfully for salmon, or other species such as steelhead, in daytime fishing. The hooks in the above examples are Owner Stinger trebles, size 14. As with other tube flies, these needle tubes may be used with single or double hooks as well as trebles, barbed or barbless.
