It always helps when arriving at the river, to stand back and see what is around the water before putting on a fly. Matching the hatch, just by picking a fly similar in colour and size to what you see about is frequently quite successful.
I will use this page as a diary of the flies I am catching with and where and when I have used them. Most recent at the top.
Trout season 2017 (at last!)
Mayfly tied as Dave Southalls chenille bodied Mayfly. Brown thread. Light olive chenille, cock pheasant tail, mix of brown and orange dubbing, grizzle hackle. I tied this on a 16 barbless hook - Dave recommends 14 or 12
Finally they took a mayfly. I had seen no mayfly emerging until after 4 on the stretch of river I was walking. I tied these last year and they were very successful. Detached foam body (a greenish foam - not white), tall post of dun poly yarn, ginger or grizzle parachute hackle. Peacock tails - the foam is split so traps in the tails quite strongly - then I use this as the top of the fly
As I had seen no mayfly but lots of hawthorn flies I used my detached body hawthorn. Davy McPhail ties this on YouTube. A very visible fly. I use a peacock thorax - which I trap in when I tie the body on a needle - which gives a little glimmer and glisten to the underbody. 16 hook. This is quite a large fly. The fish really bash it when they take.
I tried the mayfly in vain - various styles. Though the mayfly were coming off the river the fish hadn't turned on to them. Thus I tied on a small grey thing, with a visible post - it caught fish. Maybe mayfly next time
River Noe.
The fish were free rising and plentiful, but there was this deep pool..... spotted fish and couple of rises. The risers didn't take what I offered, then the fish I spotted rose 3 times and failed to keep hold of the dry and was spooked on the 3rd occasion when it momentarily hooked. Thus I tried this nymph - the Mary - there is a tungsten bead head but the wire has slipped over it. The rest is cock pheasant tail and copper wire, hackle tail. 16 hook
River Noe. As two below, which I fished on the Don.
River Noe. A large dark olive quill fly. Purple glo brite head and butt. Grizzle hackle tied half palmered like a ducks dun. Orange quill. 16 barbless hook
River dancer rises on the River Noe. I use either a dark wing, dark body (caddis green) or a light wing, light body to hordes of flies dancing over the water. The dark one worked in this instance.
The pink sighter is my addition to Stu Crofts soft-wing caddis black dancer. I also tie in holographic outriggers on the dark pattern. Size 18 hook
One for the Don. On our Day on the Don with Paul Sissons we walked up river on the Don and passed a slow running, tree lined stretch with rises occurring quite regularly. We were heading for nymphing water so sat and had lunch watching the continued rises. On my return they were still rising, so I slipped into the river and tried a few flies. Finally I settled on the fly above. Small hook, 20 perhaps, tied by brother in law Gary Anderson. Always perfectly tied flies, always liked by the fish - and so it proved on the Don and also on the River Noe (see above)
A small (20 hook) claret spinner which found a large brown on the Wye. So gently was it supping I had no idea what I had caught for a moment!
Another 'I can see it' olive - but with a better photo so you can see it too. This is tied 'ducks dun' style with the hackle forming the abdomen, then trimmed underneath. 16 hook
Still not spotted any large female hawthorns, but this smaller version found fish - though I could barely see it on the water!
May 2017
An 'I can see it' olive. A poly post tied on 18 or 16 barbless hook
May 2017
This is another Peter Hayes style pattern from his book Outside the box. Unfortunately I either over hackled it or the tippet was too light. It spun - but it caught fish first! You may note a small hackle at the rear. A stuck shuck dun I guess. Tied on a 16 hook
May 2017
Olive jingler. The 'jingler' works in many colours. The Partridge hackle gives the fish something to see underwater on a this dry fly
May 2017
The same fly as April - Peter Hayes dry emerger
A Stu Croft style Poly Post Parachute - the post and tail (shuck) are the same piece of material. Tied on a size 16 barbless hook
April 2017
Hawthorn flies had been about in good numbers. On the River Lathkill when Hawthorns are about I have fished quite large dries with success, but the colder weather hasn't yet shown me any of the large females. Though this fly caught on the first cast with a browny, it then failed to raise anymore fish. This is a Davy McPhail style detached foam body fly. I use a vertical wing post so that I can see it.
April 2017
The fly above is based on a Peter Hayes fly that featured in August 2005 Fly Fishing & Fly tying magazine.His emphasis was on the paleness of the emergent dun and also the shuck - represented here by a brownish yarn that I teezed out. It also has Mallard as feather tips (supposed to be forward facing), but there is a tendency on a light tippet for it to spin if it is over hackled. It is clipped underneath. Tied on a 16 barbless hook
Around 4ish in the afternoon I saw a few swallows, so assumed flies must be hatching off on the river. So put on an olive. Size 16 hook. It has a poly yarn wing and pink sighter, plus a grizzle hackle, not trimmed underneath, olive dub body. I missed quite a few takes - including the fish that followed and grabbed and missed as it skittered and bounced across the surface on my retrieve to recast! Never take your eye off the fly..... I must remember
Arrived early afternoon at the river. A couple of very black flies (hawthorn black) flew over as I set up my rod at the car park. Nothing rising so I tied on this double badger. It is on a 16 hook. White hackle with peacock herl between front and back. I use one hackle feather and bind it in with thread and peacock herl, then tie off with a black head at the front. I didn't trim the hackle underneath
A parachute Adams on 16 hook. Tan hackle and pink post.
The Jingler still working! 16 hook. Tied with purple thread, showing at head and butt. Grey dub, with wire rib. Tan micro fibbet tails. Partridge hackle and grizzle
April 2017
Moving toward early evening after a lovely hot day, I spotted flies dropping eggs on the water, so tied on a spent spinner. 16 hook, orange thread, orange dub. Organza tail and fibres in wing, tied figure of 8 with white hackle wrapped through and trimmed underneath. Tying in the white hackle as a sighter helps see the fly and gives it good buoyancy.
They do say they take spent spinners gently, but not so this one - I missed a number of takes - the shclapp sound telling me I had missed it!
April 2017
This rather chubby foam fly is rather greener than the photo portrays. I did wonder if it would represent a grannom - certainly the fish liked it. One brownie that came at it 3 times (I then assumed it was a small fish) proved to be a very good size.
Tied on an 18 hook, it has cdc underwing, deer hair wing and a few grey partridge fibres on each side. Detahced body, 4 segments of green foam
This image is a little chewed. To see the tying and a better picture follow the link to Glen Pointons you tube tying of his "foam caddis"
This rather chubby foam fly is rather greener than the photo portrays. I did wonder if it would represent a grannom - certainly the fish liked it. One brownie that came at it 3 times (I then assumed it was a small fish) proved to be a very good size.
This image is a little chewed. To see the tying and a better picture follow the link to Glen Pointons you tube tying of his "foam caddis"
April 2017 - Size 18 hook, pale hackle fibre tail. Body of tan thread. Grizzle hackle with Tiemco poly wing as sighter. Hackle not trimmed underneath
Grayling season 2016-2017
October 2016
Trout season 2016
September 2016
The fish are back on after a sultry hot August - even though its a sultry hot September!
The dry hackled coachman rides again. This size 18 hook fly, having lost a little of its peacock herl, seemed to look rather like an iron blue representation. Though it has a gold tinsel butt, the red thread is also visible - not unlike my iron blue below. Certainly it found a lot of fish, both as a search fly and to rises.
Peacock herl, red thread, tag of gold tinsel. Hackle ginger/brown with a white hackle in front. This caught well last year too.
The pattern for this came from Greys website, but they have renewed the site and I no longer receive 'News from Greys'
A blurry iron blue. This is on an 18 barbless hook. Traditionally tied - red thread, mole dub, a black para hackle and white post sighter, dark tail. I thought this would make a good contrast to the fly that caught many fish in August - my bright day, bright fly with gold thorax
Watching the water and the rising and patrolling fish, there were a number of flies coming off, but then a very large sedge battered about on the water - until - of course - it was taken by a large fish. This is a large shop bought sedge, one I had avoided as I thought it too large. I was wrong. I made a few casts in the area - no takes. I decided to do a few loop casts - not touching the water, in the area of the fish - then dropped it - up came the fish - no second thoughts about grabbing it. I landed a good sized brown trout. I tried the fly again later in a narrower spot - it is now residing in a tree. Hmmmm.
Small fly - Size 22 barbless hook. I tied this as a variant on the fly pictured below. It has 2 long tails, a cdc wing tied behind the thorax. Spider web thread. I used a short grizzle hackle with yellow foam (as a sighter),tied this along the thorax projecting out over the eye, then fastened down between thorax and body. Body in yellow/olive dub. The foam on the original seemed to be finished at the head, but I found the fish easily detached that method - perhaps my tying? If anyone can advise on a better method of tying it would be welcome.
22 hook. My poorly tied copy is above. Don't know who gave me this, but it brought up a good brownie!
Still catching on the river dancer, Stuart Crofts design. It has a pink sighter and is tied on an 18 barbless hook. Poly post is black and grey or olive body dub. Thorax cdc tied in a loop and dubbed. The cdc thorax gives a good leggy result and longer lasting when tied in a loop.
August 2016
August 2016
A tiny fly given to me by Peter Arfield (Bakewell fly fishing shop) whilst we were fishing the Lathkill. Though it is tied with bleached elk hair wing - it is not a sedge. The wing gives it great visibility on the water. The dark hackle and dub appear to be a blue wing olive representation.
An overdressed but effective crane fly. Hackle as well as figure of eight poly wing make this an extremely visible fly and a very tasty morsel for the fish.
Elk hair orange dub caddis. An effective fish seeker and very visible even in fast water
Many variations on the crane fly, small and larger are catching well on the rivers - especially on those windy days. I fished yesterday with the only daddy left in the box - which I considered over dressed as I had tied poly wings figure of 8 style, all fastened to a 16 hook - except that as soon as I cast it into the river, up came a fish, which I missed. I recast and a duck continually chased it around the river. As I moved away and up and down the river, it kept refinding me and going for it. Finally a very large rainbow grabbed it before the duck - unfortunately the rainbow broke my line. The duck looked very dissapointed too!
Poly prop spinner. 18 barbless hook, orange quill, orange thread and dub thorax. Organza fibres in the wing. To make this more visible on the water I hackle it and trim it underneath. Though I have found tying a paraloop hackle is most effective.
August 2016
This was a sedge with a Mcflylon Lite copper wing. The rainbow had teeth! It is on a 16 barbless hook
Bright day, bright fly. This pattern of fly has been catching well for the past couple of Septembers I notice. I have tied these on 16 and 18 hooks - they are quite good in the bright days we have been having. Tan dub thorax - quite large, gold tinsel body and orange tying thread. A ginger or tan paraloop hackle - which I find nice and visible.
August 2016
A Stu Croft river dancer. It has a pink sighter and is tied on an 18 barbless hook. Poly post is black and grey or olive body dub
August 2016
A deer hair sedge with orange foam sighter - I have been using these into dusk. On a 16 or 18 hook, usually olive dub body
August 2016
Another deer hair sedge with white foam sighter. Olive body and mole dub over thread wraps. 18 hook
July 2016
July 2016
Crane fly or Daddy long legs. Detached body on a 16 hook.Pink post for visibility
Stu Croft posh dun 16 hook
Tan hackle, quill bodied, purple tying thread
I thought this was a 'Whickams' but apparently not. Tan hackle, tied parachute and two feather wing tips. Tan bulky thorax and gold tinsel body.
The jingler. One that has been very successful for some this year. Certainly it keeps working for me. I was using it in April too, with different body and thread colours. Clearly its leggy style works well as a dry fly.
Tied with olive thread body. Tan hackle behind grey partridge. Olive thread 16 hook. Coq de leon or similar tail.
Jingler. Tied with a quill. Dun hackle behind grey partridge. Black or brown thread. 16 hook. Dun fibres from a hackle, tail
Adams grey body dub. Grizzle hackle and dun tail
Sedge. Good and visible. Mole dub over wraps. 16 hook
Olly Edwards style footprint dun. Tie this in whatever colouring seems appropriate. The loop wing gives very good visibility and floatation
Olive sedge, size 16 hook
Sedge with grey body dub
Kites imperial with para hackle and pink sighter post
Stu Crofts cranked spinner. There is an organza wing tied in figure of 8 as well as white hackle. Long tails. 16 hook
Stu Crofts posh dun. No para hackle, a very slim body on the water. Good for slow glides. This is tied in pale colours
June 2016 Mayfly season
The fly I tied to match the fly given to me by Richard Ward (see below) that I lost to good fish.
This has a detached body and is photographed upside down - the fish eye view of it! I have since added brown dots to some segments, to more closely match the actual fly. It is a good visible fly. This example is before the chew of a fish!
My version of a crippled mayfly emerger. Shuck tail and Mcflylon tall wing posted with a para hackle to help it land upright. Palmer hackled detached body. I either palmered these on the hook or when making the detached foam body. The foam is split almost to the tail - which allowed me to trap in the shuck and also left some exposed underneath. These flies all found large fish (during the day)
Richard Ward generously gave me 2 of his spent mayflies. One I lost to the third fish in a row (note - always re-tie the fly after two good fish!). The other seemed to have flown off whilst being transferred from one box to another - it was that real looking, I am sure it must have!
My mayfly olive foam detached body emerger. No palmer hackle, just large parachute and tall dun post
Another slight variation on the olive mayfly emerger
Grey duster
small mayfly
Bushy mayfly that I tied to copy a fly that had found a large brownie
A freshly emerged mayfly showing its slightly green colouring
A good fly that brought up a few fish. Is this one of Mr Worthys? He kindly gave me quite a number of his flies to try for the mayfly. Sorry Chris I couldn't catch on your shadow mayfly. I must have been using it at the wrong time
Three mayflys! Or rather three flies that caught one day in May. My well chewed detached green foam body mayfly, one loop wing and a para hackle fly
This bushy mayfly was cast to a rising trout hiding under the tree foliage near Rowsley. Surprisingly I was able to cast twice to it without losing the fly - the second cast catching a lovely big brownie
The mayfly begins!
Detached foam body (a greenish foam - not white), tall post of dun poly yarn, ginger parachute hackle. Peacock tails. I only tied 2, but the fish didn't take the time to count them. This made a lovely light fly that didn't twist up the tippet or feel heavy to cast. The detached body occasionally missed hooking the fish, but I think I preferred that to the large hook below - which seemed a bit too large for small fish that grabbed it.
May 22nd 2016
The first fly that caught in the mayfly season!
It is a Philip White pattern, tied by my brother-in-law, Gary Anderson (an ace
tyer of flies) (note to Gary - I
only have two of these can I have some more?) It is the hair-wing mayfly dun
This is my LDO para emerger. Size 16 hook. Olive body, ribbed with Hends body quill. No tail. Pale para hackle
May 2016
I found 2 of these in my box - and I don't know what the body is. Looks like pale hares ear. Tan hackle, poly post - tied like a sedge. I lost both of them. They seemed to be the fly of the day - so then I went home.
This bulky hawthorn, tied with detached body and para hackle, was more visible on rough water than the one below. It was from a Davy McPhail video. The females are larger than the males and have a body shaped like a wedge - slimmer to the rear. Well I think that was the female? Its a hawthorn fly either way.
May 2016
A hawothorn fly. This was a very simple one on a 16 hook. The foam extending behind the hook - rather than detached body.
May 2016
Having cast flies of many colours over rising fish and failing to entice a take, I changed colour and size and went for a size 20 tan colour agapetus. It hooked a fish, which I then lost. So I went for a larger fly in orange that I could see. Fish to the net - followed by a few more
The first fly of May. Poly post parachute. Tying method Stuart Croft. This was tied as quite a pale fly. 16 hook. Very visible, with quite a large hackle.
April 2016
A jingler - apparently
Tied with Hends body quill. Ginger hackle behind grey partridge. Rust brown thread (should have been cinnamon, but fish didn't notice) 16 hook. Coq de leon or similar tail
This fly caught on the Lathkill. Grey bodied, poly post and tail
April 2016
I have no recall of where this fly came from - but it caught fish
April 2016
A fly recommended at the river side by a new fisher to the club. Clearly a knowledgeable fly tyer in Wendy Gibsons group. Thank you this went on to catch quite a few fish!
April 2016
The fish chewed fly that caught my first fish of the season. The one I tied after the conversation mentioned below with Stuart Croft......
The fish chewed fly that caught my first fish of the season. The one I tied after the conversation mentioned below with Stuart Croft......
Here is one I tied earlier and hope to try on Friday. It is
one I made up after a conversation with Stuart Croft. On a sunny day with a
cold wind a short time ago, he observed some small khaki coloured beetles
flying off the stems at the side of the river and heading over the river only
to be stunned by the cold wind and dropping into the river to be eaten by the
trout. I find beetles quite difficult to see on the water, but discovered last
year that a dry hackled coachman seemed a good substitute, and was quite
visible. Thus I tied my khaki coachman. It may work or it may not. It is tied
on a 22 hook, khaki ish hackle wrapped from hook end, over a stubby brown
thread body, trimmed and the hackle continued and tied off at the head.
Grayling flies 2015-2016
October 2015
Tungsten olive quill 16 hook. Using my 13' tenkara, fishing in fast water - saw a rise and bounced the fly across the river and the grayling took it from the top
Tungsten bead, glister thorax, pheasant tail body, wire ribbed and short tail
Tungsten bead, yellow quill with tail on straight 16 barbless hook
Tungsten bead on a jig hook. Peeping caddis. Not too large, tied on a 16 Fulling Mill czech nymph barbless hook
Small olive klink style dry 18 hook I think
Trying a wet fly - traditional orange and purple
Small dry. Tiemco fine aero dry wing
Palmer hackled red tag
Stu Crofts river dancer in a nice chartreuse, mole dub thorax. Tiemco or Niche aero dry wing
September 2015
A sort of Quill Gordon. Not quite a dun hackle, nor a quill for body - I used Fly rite #34 Quill Gordon dub, tied on a 16 barbless hook. A good hatch at midday and shortly after. Caught and missed fish in faster water with this visible fly
As the day progressed and hatches ceased, continuing to fish on a very hot and bright September day I remembered the 'bright day, bright fly' comment. Sure enough this tinsel ribbed fly found grayling and rainbow. This one has a para hackle and post - the one below a regular hackle
The hackled coachman flies again! An amazing fly that keeps catching fish. Recipe below in July list. Tied on a 16 or 18 hook. I prefer the smaller fly on the 18 barbless. I thought the fish thought it was a beetle, but come wind or shine they go for it. It is also much more visible than a beetle pattern. Keep it dry to ride nice and high.
The Orange otter again - see below for recipe
August 2015
The Orange otter. A small fly that continued being succesfull into September. Natural red (brown) cock hackle, tied in the middle. Orange dub, on a 16 or 18 barbless hook
The Royal Coachman. 16 hook, black thread. Tail golden pheasant tippets. Peacock herl with red floss body. Natural brown hackle. White duck or swan wing - didn't tie this with swan, but have since found some to try next time.
Olly Edwards footprint dun
July 2015
On catchup for the pictures not annotated below. A picture tells a thousand words.... or so they say
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Size 16 hook. Niche Adams grey dub body. Ginger hackle and tail. Simple fly that caught a large grayling on the Dove. The hackled coachman below also took a large grayling on the Dove. Must try them on the Wye!
Small olive (16 or 18) tied with 3 glittery tails, olive dub and micro poly hackle - poly hackle stays afloat much better than cdc!
Hackled coachman on a size 18 barbless hook. Peacock herl, red thread, tag of gold tinsel. Hackle brown with a white hackle in front.
Stuart Croft style Agapetus caddis. Size 20 barbless hook. Note the long hackle stalks in a vee. Stuart suggests cdc - keeping a barb from each side and the stem of the hackle tied in. This retains that vee shape. I prefer a hackle, it keeps that shape and helps the fly land 99% of the time the correct way up. It is tied in front of the body, before tying in the white poly yarn sighter, dubbed with mole. The fore and aft of the poly yarn keeps this small fly quite visible.
June 2015
Fly I tied some time ago. Not quite a mayfly, but similar colouring
Cannot recall the history of this fly, but it caught ok
My slight variation on the Royal coachman - I don't put in white wing tips - just a brown hackle.
Tied on a 16 barbless hook. Black thread, tail of golden pheasant tippets. Body peacock herl with red floss in the middle. Took a grayling on this.
Mayfly at this point in the day were being positively ignored. Small well hackled fly took fish. Size 20 hook I believe
Iron blue taken by the browns but ignored by the rainbows on the Bradford
This small mayfly which has a single feather pulled forward for an extended body and the tip as the tail
Neil Patterson Hotch potch fly
May 2015
April 2015
Glen Pointon style Ginger quill or Hendrie cdc and purple
Tied on a 16 hook. Orange quill, grizzle tail, 3 plumes cdc (including 1 white for visibility), thorax of cdc - using split thread technique. Butt of Glo brite purple floss
Fish rising, but nothing to be seen, so I put on this tiny spinner - hey presto - the fish took it.
This is a bought fly, with well chomped spinner wings, a fine chenille body and well spread tail
Olly Edwards - not quite a footprint dun, as it has a hackle - but close. The loop rides high and is quite visible when fishing. A great advantage. The sparseness of these flies has sometimes made me doubt using them, but they are working well this year.
A Haystack emerger tied Davie Mc Phail video style. Very easy to tie - simply splitting the deer hair with thread and dub. The dub on this fly is a dark olive Glister sparkel dub on an 18 or 16 hook. No tail.
Clearly you could use any body colour and thorax to vary this indefinately - note to self - buy more deer hair. The deer hair is so much more robust than cdc - you can refish after it has been mawed by a fish! Dab dry and a dip in some fish pimp and its better than new.
Haystack emerger again - slightly less chewed than the one lower down.
Small fly on a small hook - about a 20. A darker tailed darker hackled fly
Getting later in April and the fish are going for paler flies. This is a badly chewed version of the Haystack emerger, detailed below. This has a silver tinsel body over tan thread. Tan thorax. 16 barbless hook.
This seems to be one of my made up flies. The poly wing is tied with a hackle and a wing post, but also leaving some of the polywing down the back. Tan thread and a little tan dub, or mole for thorax, with pearl tinsel body. No tail. Nice and visible!
A bought fly that had been sitting in my box unused for years (note the compressed barb). Casting into some rough water, I used this fly hoping I would see it. Unfortunately I couldn't and missed two takes. Went upriver to slower water, cast upriver and on second cast drifted it down to a good sized grayling! Silver is the colour today I think!
The fish moved on to taking a paler fly. It was about 5pm, I needed a fly I could see and this fitted the bill. It is a Haystack Emerger (Davie McPhail) but tied slightly differently to the link given here. I tied this in 2013, the pattern has changed somewhat.
Mine has an olive thorax and a silver tinsel body overlaid with deer hair. The emerger on the video doesn't use the overlay and is quite simple to tie.
Kites Imperial. Tied with heron hurl, wire rib, pale hackle and tail. Tied with wing post for visibility.
The lack of the visibility of some of the grey cdc flies I have tied, does mean I leave them in the fly box when the fish do a quick grab and flee. At least if I can see the fly I have some chance of catching the fish!
A 'Glen Pointon' style, quill fly. Orange quill, purple thread. Might even be a Coq de Leon tail. 2 cdc feathers - one grey and one white for visibility....
Olly Edwards Footprint Dun. Hook size 16. A copy below that you can see more clearly. Though this lacks the hackle and has outriders instead.
April 1st 2015 the new season begins.....
....with stormy April showers and the River Wye closed!Fortunately I had booked the first day of fishing on the Lathkill. Normally excess water diminishes quickly on this river - but not yet.
Thus three of the four fish I caught were in the weir pool at the top of the run, the rest of the river running desperately fast and deep.
April 1st 2015
Is this an over long hackled double badger? Its tied on a 16 hook. I ws casting a long way across the river pool, so I could see this one - or see it vanish followed by me quickly lifting into a beautifully red spotted Lathkill trout
A chewed para loop hackled kites imperial
A damp cdc bodied fly with coq de leon tail. 16 hook. I must tie more flies with white rather than grey or natural cdc hackles. They are so much more visible on the water
Cdc bodied fly. Very damp, so a bit obscure. 16 hook
2014
The womens grayling day in October featured a few flies. I didn't get pictures of all the flies that caught fish but below are a few of them.
The first grayling of the day caught by Hilary on a pink post Klink
Oops. A bit blurry. Another Klinkhamer - different body colour
Now this very vivid fly was tied by Chris Worthy and given to Sarah to fish with. She caught on it. This was Sarah's first day fishing - she is now completely hooked. Chris accompanied us as support and very able guide on our day fishing. Thanks Chris.
River keeper Jan made our day fishing on the Wye possible. As well as guiding he also provided us with flies. This is his current 'go to' fly. You can see by its damp and chewed state that it works! Thanks Jan, it was a great day with fine weather and everyone caught fish...... no surprise there really with all those wonderful Wye fish!
October 2014
Fly tied in the style by Glen Pointon but thorax tied with Lathkill glister sparkle dub in brown. Yellow quill, 2mm or 2.5mm tungsten bead on 16 or 18 hook
Spider pattern variation of a partridge and orange
The ubiquitous grayling fly - the red tag. Nice visible white hackle
Small stoneflies (or needle or stick flies as I tend to refer to them) were about and plenty of fish rising on this warm October day. Thus this small detached quill body fly was attached to the line and caught several fish.
Brass head caseless caddis. The water was not so deep and fast so did not require a tungsten. In fact I felt not all the fish were hugging the river bed, the weather being so mild. this caught a good sized grayling between weedy runs.
A very good fly given to me at the river by the Darley Dale fishers member who keeps up the website. The site is a useful link to the EA site for river levels.
This pink tungsten beaded pheasant tail nymph with the glister dub thorax caught me a good sized grayling in deep fast water on the same day as the caseless caddis above. Different water depth, both good sized grayling.
Small flies were on the top of the water. This fly had its detached body detached by an earlier meeting with a fish. Thus on a small hook it represented the flies on the water and caught me a grayling. It doesn't always have to be a tiny hook to represent a tiny fly, a small amount of dressing can work.
Brass beaded GRHE
Spider. Dark snipe and purple
Spider. Partridge and orange - of which there seem to many slight variations. I have a number of lies in my box that I refer to as Partridge and orange They are most definately orange but not always partridge.
Tan Klinkhamer. Not to be use on the Peacock stretch of the Derbyshire Wye in the trout season but fine for the grayling fishing.
Beaded nymph. I think I won this one (and a number of others) in the raffle at the Grayling Society meeting in Bakewell . It worked!
Next meeting at Rutland Hotel in Bakewell on Wed November 12th (second wednesday of each month) has Charles Jardine as guest speaker.
Orange sedge. As tied by Regular Rod blogger excepting I have used Mole as thorax not a hackle
Para hackle olive and gold ribbed fly, photographed from underneath
Visible midge with pink post. Size 20 hook detached chenille body and poly yarn hackle
Tups indispensible. Pale fly.
Red quill fly. Tied (I think)after watching a Davie McPhail video on YouTube. The hackle tied as normal around the hook, is then drawn up and held with thread. Thus creating a low sitting fly.
Very bright red spinner with white rib
Para hackle olive
Gold tinsel body, dark hackle, wing tips and dark tail. Bright day, bright fly
Purple thread, grey dub, para hackle
Well chewed sedge with poly wing.
Olive greenwell tied with post to aid visibility
A variation I designed. Fluorescent green slim body made of thread. Peacock hackle thorax. Polyprop sight post and two tails made of glistening reflective material. When the fish are 'on' to this fly it catches well for several hours
Dennis's fly. Always a bonus to have someone give you a fly when you are at the river. A cdc body and hackle. Beautifully visible, a good floater and good fish catcher. Thanks Dennis
Small para hackle olive
Well chewed foam sedge
Dark hackled small olive
A little bit chomped by the fish. Another small pale hackled olive. Paler olive dub. With, I think, a sighter post.
Olive dub, tails, darker thorax and polyprop wing post
Tan Cdc hackle and body. Plus tails
The beetle is back on the trouts diet! It was unecessary to see the take - you heard it. Took quite a number of good sized browns on the Lathkill. Unfortunately these lovely beetles, tied by my brother-in-law have now all been chewed up or lost.
My grayling fly for August. So effective was this fly on the 15th of July that I took 5 grayling from a 40 yard stretch. Finally found the larger grayling at the beginning of the run where the river depth changed.
I tied a fly similar to this which proved an effective catcher of fish in July. the variation I made here was that the very slim body was tied in olive thread not fluorescent green. The thorax and butt were peacock, a tan hackle tied on white poly yarn post. On a 16 barbless hook.
Small cdc wing olive. Nice and visible, helps see those takes and also how the fly is moving gently with the river and not dragging. Bit of a gusty down river wind, was bending the cast back toward me, so seeing what the fly was doing was helpful.
Prompted by an article by Dave Wiltshire in August 2014 FF&FT I tied up a few gnats. My addition was a body tied with glittery thread, which usually attracts the grayling - and it did!
There had been a lot of rain and the Wye was closed. I was fishing a fast and clear Lathkill on a windy day. Finally spotting a fish rise and catching it with this fly.
A size 18 barbless hook, tied with red thread, gold tinsel body and tan hackle, pale tail. The reel seat has been sprayed black and the (cheap) rod varnished with Winsor and Newton varnish. Makes quite a difference to your visibility on such a small clear water.
Thorax Adams. Quite a bulky fly, but sometimes you just need to be able to easily see the fly!
Red quill, tied as detached body, with post hackle. Provoked a rapid take in fast water from a rainbow.
Not a good photo - taken on my phone. A Paraloop hackle (Ian Mouter style) Greenwell
The photo from my phone was not good, so I reshot the lovely sedge tied by my brother-in-law Gary. Had this in the box for quite some time. It is tied using CDC, twisted as a rope for the body and CDC used as the wings
My variation on a Royal Wulf tied in green. Fluo green thread for body and head. Peacock herl for thorax and butt. Ginger hackle on white polyprop wing post. 16 barbless hook. No tail.
This 'made up' fly of mine provided some exceptional sport one day in July on the Wye. So keen were the fish to take it, they followed it down the river. I observed this chasing, 3 times - each time I hooked and landed the fish - 1 was a brown trout, 2nd a grayling and the third a rainbow trout. Clearly a desirable fly. Must tie some more! Hope it isn't a one day wonder fly!
Sort of sedge. Similar to one tied by Neil Pattersen in Fly Fishing & Tying mag. Cream dub body, mole thorax, white hackle split by poly wing
Not quite sure what this is, but a pale fly was called for. It has a detached tube body in cream, mole thorax and split poly wing.
A hawthorn fly. Takes a lot of fish when the hawthorn flies are around in numbers. This has a detached foam body, segemented. Poly wing divided by foam thorax. Black hackle and knotted pheasant tail legs
Red Royal Wulff as shown lower down page in April
Forgot to tie the hackle when making this! It still caught fish.
Still the Red Royal Wulff kept catching fish.
CDC (damp) wing olive
Grey duster
Black hackled sedge like fly
Rather damp large dark olive. Tied Olly Edwards style with looped wing
Cream hackle and tails. Adams grey body with gold wire rib
Grey duster with tan hackle. Small pic from phone so not so good....
Grey Duster or olive? Again a picture taken on the phone. Aslo the blog handler wishes to rotate it!
This fly just keeps finding fish! It is (I think) a Royal Wulff. Size 16-18 barbless hook. Fluorescent orange slim midriff and peacock herl or pheasant tail butt and thorax. Polyprop yarn indicator and ginger hackle. This one has been in my box a few years. Tied by my brother-in-law Gary, it is finally proving incredibly effective.
Gary is an excellent fly fisherman and fly tyer and helps manage Blount Flyfishers, a small club based in South West Derbyshire, offering over 3 miles of superb fly fishing for Brown Trout and Grayling on one of the county's finest waters; Sutton Brook.
An experimental fly of mine. Tied with a red quill - from Cookshill Fly Tying. Deep red dubbing thorax, brown parachute hackle and polyprop wing post. 18 barbless hook.
That wing post really helps see the fly - and the lightning take of the wild fish on the Lathkill, Derbyshire.
The fluorescent orange had worked so well previously that I wondered if a deep red might also work? It did.
A well chewed cdc fly, quill bodied olive. Olive dub thorax. Size 18 barbless hook.
An olive, tied like an F fly, with white cdc wing (damp in this picture), olive tail and dubbed body (or is it a twisted cdc feather body?) and thorax, on a 16 or 18 hook. A quickly tied fly with reasonable visibility (for the angler).
I tied this as a Grannom fly similar to one found on the internet. The body is fluorescent green thread, ribbed with double black thread. The 2 cdc feathers - one white, one natural (I put the white on top to aid visibility) tied sedge like. Dubbed with mole, rather than a hackle. I tend not to put a hackle on my sedges, preferring dub which makes them sit on the water surface.
April 2014
The very damp version of the Royal Wulff detailed above. I used this fly when there was no noticeable hatch. It brought up browns and rainbows on the Wye and Lathkill. It is quite a small slim bodied fly. About an 18 hook.
Another well chewed fly. A grey dubbed bodied fly, with just a smidgeon of orange. Polyprop tail and cdc hackle
This orange sedge is the reason many of my flies for April were orange. Struggling to find fish on the first day of fishing on the crystal clear Lathkill river, having gone through quite a few flies, I tried a sedge, having no other orange flies to try. Up came a fish, shortly followed by another. Unfortunately I failed to achieve 'tight lines' on each of the takes and didn't get either fish to the net!
Slim, grey bodied white hackled fly
Rough cdc loop wing, gold tinsel body and overwrap of poly yarn
November 2013
Silver fly for a silver fish!
Fulling Mill barbless czech nymph black nickel hook in a 16. This is quite large for a 16 relative to other hooks I have. Five 2mm nickel tungsten beads. Red thread. One natural cdc feather.
Method:
Thread up the five beads onto the hook, then attach thread at eye. Use the thread wrapping between each bead to hook bend. Tie in cdc by the tip then wrap thread and feather to hook eye between each bead, trying to keep cdc strands clear. Tie in feather at eye and trim. Then whip finish. I smoothed the cdc downward and applied a little clear varnish. Then pinched off the cdc to the appropriate length.
Try it and send me your comments please.
Copper 3mm tungsten bead head. Lead wound body. Size 16 hook. Lathkill red glister sparkle dub. Tied with pink thread. No tail, it just got a litte chewed.
The Grayling Season begins. October 2013 flies
Fishing with just this single fly, my first two casts produced two fish! Was using my Tenkara rod to help improve my 'nymph' fishing. Tracking the line through the water was much easier on this rod. I used the 'Umpqua' 10' red hot tapered leader, which has a length of red line for sighting takes. Bought mine from Essential fly.
September 2013 flies
Again tied with a detached body tied onto a hackle stalk (See below August Crane fly).
Hook size 18. Silk crimson. Tail dark cock hackle fibres. Body Fly-rite #7 Dark grey, tip of crimson silk. Fine gold wire rib. Dun hackle (think it should be darker than this). Wing cdc.
With detached body, tied on a hackle stalk (as noted below for crane fly). Hook size 18. Dubbing, Flyrite #3 Dk. olive. Olive thread. Hackle, Black and dun combined. Wing cdc. Tail, 3 or 4 hackle fibres.
I tied a few of these smaller flies and tested them on the river today. Smaller fish released themselves as soon as the pressure was eased to let them off. A good sized brown took this with such a bang that it quite startled me. Unfortunately such was its enthusiasm it took it right down. I have now learned how far back the teeth on a large trout go! It also made some demands on the 13' Tenkara which handled it beautifully.
August 2013 flies
This is a detached body crane fly, tied on a hackle stalk held between 2 vices, or a vice and hackle pliers. This is a method detailed in FlyFishing & Fly Tying magazine, July 2013 in an article by Hugh Smith. The recipe for the 'Daddy' was from the September edition of the same mag in an article written by Allan Liddle.
I tied it on a much smaller hook than he suggests, an 18 barbless. Butt of pearl tinsel. Black thread. Body, natural hare's ear. Rib of tying thread. Legs, natural pheasant tail. Wing of natural deer hair. Hackle 3 turns of badger cock saddle, trimmed below.
I caught a good brownie with it, on the clear waters of the Derbyshire Lathkill, using my 13' Tenkara rod.
Recipe is: Hook size 16. Dubbing, Flyrite #3 Dk. olive. Olive thread. Hackle, Black and dun combined. Tail, 3 or 4 hackle fibres.
Size 18 barbless hook, poly wing, sparkle rib.
There being no significant hatch, I was trying terrestrials.
Had been trying a very small smut fly and was missing takes, some of them small fish, but one larger. I put this fly on. As the larger fish took it, I paused, the fish went almost vertically down, then I gently lifted - the grayling held and I got it to the net.
Tied on a 16 barbless hook, 'Mcflylon' lite copper wing, orange thread, orange dub, ginger hackle.
Two fish had 'missed' the olive I cast, so I tied this on. Up came the grayling and firmly took it.
Finally at 3.30 a hatch of some measure occurred, just prior to the rain as the wind eased. This fly took 4 fish, grayling and wild rainbow, in quick succession. Then the wind returned!
This fly works well in fast water, or on the ebb of fast water. It is also quite visible.
July 2013 flies
These two flies have been catching fish during the morning and evening. The left fly has a fine gold ribbed body, dubbed with Flyrite #3 Dark olive on thorax too, with a white hackle tied paraloop. You will see the link to how to tie a paraloop below.
The right hand fly is again gold ribbed with a ginger hackle. Body and thorax dubbed with Flyrite #46 Dun olive. Both on 18 barbless hooks.
The larger fish will rise to these from a long slow drift toward the zone where you saw the fish rise. I have fished them almost static in a slow eddy to have the fly taken confidently by good sized fish. The long drift (if you can avoid drag) keeps the water surface quiet and untroubled.
Either fly has also been taken rapidly in the dusk when there are a great number of rising fish about.
I copied the style of fly from some my brother-in-law, Gary Anderson gave me. My fly tying must be getting better - mine caught fish too!
June 2013 flies
Tied on an 18 hook. Light olive thread. Body, fluorescent chartreuse dubbing. Wing, camel poly yarn or aero wing. Thorax, tan cdc fibres.
Take yourself downriver when you see a host of these small flies, dancing back and forth over the water. Their competitive behaviour, whilst they hang around waiting for females, creates casualties. Watch for the rising fish a little further downriver. Then try one of these.
If they are dancing up and down, they may be a black dancer. In which case, substitute with caddis green dub and black poly yarn.
May 2013 Flies that found fish
Surprisingly I didn't do too much fishing in May, so missed the mayfly bonus. So there are no mayflies in this section this year.
This must be one tied by my brother-in-law Gary Anderson - note the antennae detail.
A fly I purchased (note the crushed barb) that caught a good brown
April 2013 Flies that found fish
Olive with hackle trimmed underneath to sit low in the water. This took a wild Wye rainbow.
The 29th April and so cold I am wearing my cycling gloves! They make excellent fishing gloves, easily washed and they don't catch the hooks like fleece.
It is tied on a size 18 hook with cdc wing. The tippet material seems very visible on the photo but in the water it disappears. It is Stroft GTM 0,12
This fly took a good sized very coloured rainbow which surged out of the water on a weir. I dropped the fly into the line of fast flow and it seized it.
April 1st 2013 - flies that caught today
Two fish to two flies
Thorax Adams
Think this was tied on a 14 or 16 hook. Grizzle hackle, body Fly-rite Adams grey #26
March Brown Footprint Dun
Tied as Oliver Edwards Footprint Dun on a 14 hook. Didn't tie this with Niche polypropylene, so had to use extra floatant on wing. Body and thorax Fly-rite March Brown #30. Orange thread.Micro fibbet outriggers and tail - these give it the 'footprint'
Polyprop Glitter Bug
It is tied on a size 18 Hanak H130 barbless hook
The wing, tied like an F fly with Niche polyprop yarn
Black thread
Body and thorax tied with some sparkle rib material from Steve Newsome
A few other flies
Below are some of the flies I originally featured on this page and which may feature again higher up the page.
This is tied on a 14 or smaller barbless hook. The method was from Davie McPhails You Tube video.
It has a foam detached body, but you could use chenille. He gives a good method to create detached foam bodies that work on daddy long legs and mayflies too.
I like the look of these flies Irene. The sparse, bedraggled, buggy appearance must fill you with confidence when you use them...
ReplyDeleteRR
They look extemely bedraggled in some instances - mainly because they have just been retrieved from the fish!
ReplyDeleteThe barbless hooks are great though, generally just taking the weight of the fish in the landing net removes the hook. Which also means I don't handle the fish.