FLYFISHING FOR RUDD

In my hometown, I mostly flyfish in small pools or ditches for rudd.

Rudd can be found swimming in lakes as well as other water systems.

The rudd is active in the summer months because there is a lot of food in and on the water such as: bloodworms, fishfry, insect hatches, and flies.

I like fishing with a light flyrod, a 4 line 9ft with a long leader about 3.5 meter, sporting a dry fly or a nimph on the tippet.

These fish are very shy so if I move too much on the shore of a ditch then there is usually enough vibration under my feet (peat soil) to spook the rudd.

Therefore, I walk carefully when I fish for rudd.

As I look for a place to fish, I hope to spot rudd eating various small insects from the suface of the water because then I can open my flybox to look for a fly that resembles the insects.

The most common fly for rudd is :

Pheashant tail

Hare’s ear nimph

Montana’s

Red tag

Black palmer

Brown palmer

Foam beetle

Ants

Midges

I always use these flies for rudd.

I have the best luck with the montana and the foam beetle.

If you see a rudd, cast your flyline about 30 cm in front of the fish and let the fly drift on the wind because it's the most promising way to catch a rudd.

Well, actually, there is a better way, I lure the rudd to the water’s surface by dropping some bread slices in the water, wait for the rudd to come around and eat from the bread, and then I cast my flyline close to the fish and wait for a bite.

Sometimes rudd fishing can be the most active type of fishing. Other active types of fishing involve fishing for species like carp, roach, mullet, ide, tench, and chub.

As much as I like flyfishing in the early morning, just as the sun is coming up, the golden hour for catching rudd is actually in the evening.

The water and weather is usually very calm so the fish are very active and easier to spot and catch on the fly.

The biggest rudd I have ever caught was about 36 cm on the fly.

I could see that this particular rudd was a very strong fish because it jumped like a trout and fought for its life to get the hook out of its mouth.

In The Netherlands, we call this species the Dutch trout because

it fights on the hook like a trout.

Usually, I caught smaller ones that are 15-25 cm long but, even so, it's fun to play around with these little rudds.

When I see a shoal of rudds, I stop and stand still, cast the fly in the middle of the shoal, and jerk the fly very fast. For the most part, I catch big ones that are about 35 cm long or perhaps even bigger.

Richard Duiker