The Deep Diving Shrimp and Chalk Stream
Entomolgy
Entomology
You can obviously catch fish without any knowledge of entomology whatsoever,
but to be consistently successful, particularly when after wild brown
trout and grayling, having some understanding of aquatic insects is
a definite advantage – an Essential Skill.
You don’t have to take a degree course in entomology, all you
need is an interest, an enquiring mind, a good pair of eyes and a
few good books or videos. Then spend some time stone turning or kick
sampling.
It is not necessary to delve down to Species level, I don’t.
Just concern yourself with Orders and Families. That will give you
a body shape, a silhouette - the very thing which fish recognise and
key onto.
The Deep Diving Shrimp
Freshwater shrimps are a preferred food for trout and grayling, and
in alkaline waters, such as our English chalk streams, they can be
found in truly biblical numbers, which is why my Masterclass Leaded
Shrimp pattern works so well.
But for those deep hatch pools with powerful swirling currents something
much heavier is required. So the trick here is to ballast the hook
with a tungsten sleeve. Tungsten is twice as dense as lead, so you
get all the weight you need without spoiling the outline of the Shrimp.
In this video, you see in detail, every step of tying this ‘heavyweight’-
and I demonstrate how to fish it, in the fast complex currents of
a hatchpool.
Oliver Edwards
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