Bivisables (Do you use them? What season, Water conditions)

[tcorfey]

Got interested in Bivisables during the winter and tied a few in size 12 and 16.

Anybody fishing these with regularity? What season and what are the water conditions you fish them?

I am thinking late spring (May/June) in foothill/mid-gradient streams when the flying ants start breeding (we get some big ones in the Sierras).
May even try to use them in place of EHC on the soft water due to thier light foot print.

Regards,

Tim C.

 

[Ard]

They are a staple for brook trout fishing Tim. I still have some tied as long as 30 years ago because I kept several dozen handy. Here they will catch grayling.

 

[jpbfly]

I prefer the trivisable or French Tricolor....a simple fly that caught many kinds of fish....I use it in sizes 14.16.18 I prefer to put the black hackle near the eye then a light grey one and a brown one,not like on this pic .A very good fast waters fly for sure.

 

[planettrout]

I have a bunch in #14 and #16 that I used primarily on Hot Creek, CA on windy days, down in the canyon. I also used skating spiders for those same occasions. Hot Creek has fallen on hard times due to the drought over the past 6 years , so I haven't been fishing there. This article from Midcurrent gives some perspective on when to use bushy bugs and how to fish them:

Unmatching the Hatch | MidCurrent

I used them during Caddis and PMD hatches primarily...


PT/TB

 

[Rip Tide]

I use them on brook trout ponds
No idea what they might imitate, but they work surprisingly well

One old book that I have; Making and Using the Fly and Leader (c.1933) by rod builder Paul H. Young , assumes that if you're fishing dry flies, then they're likely a bivisable.
Must have been very popular at the time.

 

[ddb]

Same thing as bifocals? (grin)

Seriously an old favorite of mine -- so old, I thought it was a secret! Try bigger ones -- 6-8s -- early and late at night with strong leaders.

ddb

 

[Ard]

Can't let JP be the only one to share a picture, this one appears to have been unused.

I tied just enough white on them to ais in seeing them as they bobbed along. Good stiff hackles are important, I liked ddb's suggestion of using them at night. I never did that but did go as big as a #8 when I used the pattern on bigger creeks in the riffles. Originally I tied the Irresistible pattern for the swift waters but spinning deer hair on size 12 bodies can be tedious. The Bi Visible was so easy you just had to love them.

 

[tcorfey]

Thanks everyone got a little reading to do now.
I vaguely remember using bivisables back east, now that I think about it.
But, for some reason they really caught my eye this winter.

Regards,

Tim C.

 

[flav]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say I don't use bi-visibles, but I'm also going to ask you guys why you do?
I like digging out old patterns from time to time, but this is one that baffles me. I remember seeing the fly in old tying books as a kid, they were easy to tie so I made a few, but I don't think I ever caught anything on one. The fly doesn't really imitate any specific bug, there are many other very visible flies that are actually designed to represent bugs, and all that hackle seems like it might make hooking fish more difficult. The fly just seems all wrong to me.

 

[Ard]

I'll take a shot at answering why.

Without any reading to base this on I'll tall you what I think having grown up fishing for brook trout in the mountains of North Central Pennsylvania. This pattern was never touted as the fly for use on spring creeks where the flows were smooth and the brown trout wary. It was developed to be 2 things, a good floater and visible to the angler.

Brook trout living in the elevations where tine streams race quickly from one plunge pool to the next do not have time nor advantage of closely examining each morsel that falls or lands on the surface, they must react. When properly tied and dressed with a floatant the Bi Visible rides high and so does not look much like a piece of leaf matter or a stick and so the little trout generally are triggered into making a quick dash and grabbing the fly.

In my own experience the fly was a good bet when the stream had two aspects; not under heavy fishing pressure and full of wild trout. My little streams produced several prolific May Fly hatches and of course I made and used many traditional patterns to imitate those flies but between hatches the Bi Visible was just fine and a searching pattern in the riffles. If ever you saw a fish examine the fly then not grab it you always had the option of changing to something a bit more realistic as the Bi Visible had done it's job already.

I see these old and obscure patterns as having their place forever in fly fishing, like the Long Bow in archery, why would you use them with compound bows available. Perhaps not a great comparison but of course the answer is simply that some will always chose the old ways.

 

[falcon53]

The pics posted look like they are tied true to pattern. Meaning a larger hackle is wrapped on the front of the fly and tapered smaller towards the hook bend. I don't really know if it makes a difference but others say it does. I keep a few handy.

 

[redietz]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say I don't use bi-visibles, but I'm also going to ask you guys why you do?
I like digging out old patterns from time to time, but this is one that baffles me. I remember seeing the fly in old tying books as a kid, they were easy to tie so I made a few, but I don't think I ever caught anything on one. The fly doesn't really imitate any specific bug, there are many other very visible flies that are actually designed to represent bugs, and all that hackle seems like it might make hooking fish more difficult. The fly just seems all wrong to me.

It seems to me that you've provided several answers right in your question.

1) "they were easy to tie"
2) "doesn't really imitate any specific bug" No, they represent a lot of different bugs, meaning fewer flies to carry

Things you didn't mention:

3) They float like a cork
4) They're easy to see

Combining the last two virtues means they make good strike indicators.

5) They make wonderful midge clusters. Like a Griffith Gnat but easier to see.

I've caught lots of fish on them, including many from "technical" limestone spring creeks.

I can't think of a bad thing to say about them.

 

[cab]

Imitates nothing, resembles everything. These are the kind of flies in my box(es).

CAB

 

[ddb]

I'd add one other feature, Bivisables skate on their hackle tips and drag -- within reason -- does not leave the wake that flies resting in the film do, Rather, they tend to 'dance' more than plow. Some really good sized and otherwise cautious trout have found that action to be a deal closer.

DDB

 

[moucheur2003]

I'd add one other feature, Bivisables skate on their hackle tips and drag -- within reason -- does not leave the wake that flies resting in the film do, Rather, they tend to 'dance' more than plow. Some really good sized and otherwise cautious trout have found that action to be a deal closer.

DDB

For this reason, the inventor of the Bivisible, Edward Ringwood Hewitt, thought they probably imitated caddis. In his original design the tail was made of two cock hackle tips, which can resemble antennae, depending on how they are tied in. However, he did not invent them as an imitator but as a general atttractor that would be easy to see in dim light.

Ray Bergman liked to tie them with badger hackles, thinking that the dark center of the feather palmered around the hook shank suggested an insect's abdomen and the barb tips suggested movement.

 

[dennyk]

Just for grins a tied a couple size 14 brown & white Bivisables last night. Today I gave them a try, caught 4 Brown Trout, and one of them wanted to see if my drag worked!

:thumbup:

Denny

 

[dillon]

I have a row of Buzz Balls in one of my boxes. They can be very productive at times. Do they count as a bivisable?

 

[Joey Bagels]

Not quite bivisibles, but I’ve always used Griffith’s gnats and more recently, Orange Ashers on lakes and ponds to imitate midge clusters. Also on quiet stretches of rivers. Usually 16-20. They work extremely well on mountain lakes where they can also do double duty as imitations of terrestrials. Renegades are essentially bivisibles with a peacock waist and they’re equally good and always in my box too.


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