Sea Trout Flies

What an enigma, what a challenge.  Genetically there is absolutely no anatomical differences between thebrown trout native to rivers and the mightly sea trout, both share the same Latin name 'Salmo Trutta' from the salmonidae family. In his Publication 'British Freshwater Fishes,' published in 1879 Rev. W. Houghton refers to the Welsh Sewin as 'Salmo Cambricus' . 'Sewin' I hear you ask, yes the sea trout goes under many names, sewin, whitling, peal, herling are all names for sea trout either in different areas or their different stages of growth. It appears that the Reverend's classification was forgetten for some years and now the fish is simply classified as 'Salmon Trutta, identical classification to the Brown Trout.

However for the fly fisherman these are really different fish, probably out of a need for richer feeding, the Sea Trout heads out to sea after a year or two as fry and parr. When the sea trout return to the sea they are called whitling. (In other parts of Britain names such as peal and herling are given to the small sea trout that return to their natal rivers in summer). The sea trout is rarely seen in the estuaries and sea that are its home for a good part of the part of the year, however, the sea trout runs back to rivers and streams every spring and summer to spawn.

Sea trout generally spawn each year of their adult lives and may return to the river many times. On each return migration they will have put on typically two pounds (1kg) or more. The fastest growing sea trout in Wales are believed to be those on the western rivers, including the Towy and the Teifi. In Yorkshire they come upstream in the Esk and in Pategonia there are incredible monster sea trout. World-wide these are an incredible fish to catch.

Sea Trout fishing is excellent fun. Fishing in the pitch black of night when the shy sea trout will take the angler's fly, as a consquence the Moon Phases are important to the Sea Trout Angler, Full & New moons signal high tides and light nights. Check out of moon phase module to see the current moon phase.

For the new Sea Trout fisherman we have put together The Essential Sea Trout Bundle 15 flies in 2 different sizes to make it easy for you to start fishing for Sea Trout. We stock Jambo surface wake flies, great for creating the surface wake which often causes these beasts to chase or the superb snake flies. Indeed Sandy Dickson has taken the superb Tubeology system and created an incredible range of Sea Trout Snake Flies with adjustible heads for weight according to the conditions.