Artificial fly

Artificial fly

An artificial fly or fly lure is a type of ultralight fishing lure typically used in the sport of fly fishing, although they may also be used in other forms of angling. In general, artificial flies are primarily designed to imitate of flying and aquatic insects that are natural food of the game fish species the fly fishermen try to target. Artificial flies are made by fly tying, in which filamentous materials such as fur/hairs, feathers, synthetic fibers and yarns are wound and tied directly onto a plain fish hook, creating loose tufts/bundles of bristles that aesthetically resemble the setae, venation, spines and other invertebrate appendages. Artificial flies may be made to resemble all manner of natural preys to freshwater and saltwater fish, including insects (both aquatic and terrestrial) and nymphs, small crustaceans (e.g, shrimps and scuds), worms (microdriles and leeches), and even small aquatic vertebrates (baitfish, fry and tadpoles). There are thousands of artificial fly patterns, many of them with descriptive and often idiosyncratic names, and the most effective artificial fly patterns are said to be killing flies because of their ability to put fish in the creel for the fly fishermen. Due to their very light weight (little more than the weight of the hook itself) and high drag, artificial flies typically cannot be cast far as an independent terminal tackle using ordinary angling gears and techniques, and thus require specialized fly fishing tackles. These include a heavy-ended fishing line known as a fly line, which provide the extra mass needed to launch the fly; and a slow-action fishing rod known as a fly rod. During fly casting, it is not uncommon to see fly fishermen slinging the line back-and-forth repeatedly in loops to gradually build up momentum before finally launching it forwards.

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Golija (Serbia).

20th century in ichnology.

Artificial fly

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See also