Lusk’s Koura III

Trout & Flies for Similar Conditions

This series of articles is available as an ebook on Amazon.

I do a reasonable amount of lake fishing, predominantly to browns cruising the lake edge. I only fish when I can see a fish, and have had years of trial and error watching fish either take or refuse flies.

The flies I have used almost exclusively for many years is an Olive Marabou Leech in #10 or #10 Long Shank and a Hare & Copper #16. Neither of these flies accurately imitated anything. They are suggestive patterns that suggest a range of food sources. The thing I like most about them is that they are tied without wing cases so are truly 360 degree flies. No matter how you present them they always swim right.

The key to getting a take from a cruising brown is getting the fly to behave naturally, which means getting the fly on or close to the bottom before the fish sees it. It is rare to get a fish to take if the fly is still sinking when they first spot it.

Olive Mohair Leech in 10 Long Shank & 10. The marabou tail on the 10LS is strung not woolly bugger, which is too floppy for my liking.

Hare & Copper #16, with a 2mm tungsten bead, and unweighted.

Implications for a Koura Fly

The first and most important implication is a Koura fly needs to have enough weight to get it to the bottom quickly. Koura dwell on the bottom, and failure to get the fly to the bottom is going mean a very, very suspicious fish.

Ideally I want to have a 360 degree fly whenever I am fishing, which means no matter how the fly is presented it looks right. This means avoiding wing anything else that if it swims wrong will look wrong. So no epoxy body, and no eyes.