Tag Archives: Dry fly patterns

Winter fly tying

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With only a short number of hours in the day for Fishing the next best thing is tying flies!

I’ve done a fair bit over the a few months and posted quite a lot over Facebook and not here so making up for it. I’ve done a few smaller boxes of dries but mostly nymphs in all colours and sizes.

The nymph below has been the bomb for the grayling so far me and my good mates!

Hook, size 14 Hanak h450bl

Bead, 3.5m gold

Body, squirrel hybrid black pepper

Tag, glo bright 5

Rib, gold medium wire

Thorax, small amount of 17 spectra dubbing

To finish off add more squirrel in front of the 17 and brush over, it Gives a great affect when wet!

Winter bugging for grayling is something else. U love it or you hate it, and I love it! Everybody has there favourite pattern and for love no money you won’t get a look in but me I’m happy to show the world. Presentation and size and a splash of colour for good measure does me well 🙂

More flies to follow in the next posts I’ll be adding tying videos soon also. Hope you like the pattern and if you do tie it I’m sure your not going to be disappointed!

March Brown Fly Pattern!

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It’s that time again that the March browns are starting to show up in and around the large dark olive hatches so I had to restock the dries box for the pattern that I use to match the hatch. I didn’t have many left from last year so it was a few hours on the vice and I was ready to go!

I do enjoy this time of year when the March Brown’s starts to hatch because this is the time that the larger trout start to show looking for a mouth full after the long winter months!

I find the key to catching the larger trout of the river is to spend a lot of time watching the water and timing the hatches perfect In certain spots of the river.  Most large deep pools hold the bigger fish but they are not always seen! I can spend the whole hatch watching one place of the river and waiting for that tell-tale sign or sound, the dimple or the slurp! This can get the pulse going and the hands shaking for sure. It doesn’t  always happen but when it does its fantastic!

This trout below was one of them fantastic days 🙂 Watching and waiting will pay off in the end!

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When I get to the river bank I decide there and then what im going to do after looking at the conditions. if it feels right I go looking and watching. But other days I just like to amble my way up river fishing most spots and taking in the scenery and the local wildlife..

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I’ve also been tying the March brown nymph that works very well before the hatch starts. I like to fish this with the French leader in the long slow pools where the larger fish tend to wait around waiting on the hatch to start, I also fish this nymph if there is a tricky fish feeding that don’t want to eat the dun. I like to put a small amount of gink to the cdc and the tail, this helps to slow the fly down as it goes through the water column.  This can be a killer and has worked on so many occasions for me!

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Large dark olives are out in force!

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Headed out this morning around half past 9 with a plan 🙂

The plan was to see if the trout had moved into the shallower glides and runs already with all the fly life that has been going on, I did turn a few rocks over at the start to see what was going on under there. loads of stone clingers and olive nymphs ready to emerge 🙂 The wind and the bright sun was a bit of a pain from the start so I did wonder if the flies were going to make a appearance later on in the day with any good numbers. Only time would tell.

As ive said in other posts, early season can be tough and frustrating but it does get better as it goes on so hang on in there!.  I started with fishing the French leader with only the single nymph. set up was 4ft of 1.40 stroft around 3ft from the indicator to the point fly, the fly choice was a 3m silver head hares ear hotspot, scruffy as hell thing but a good early season fly for me!

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 The dry fly patterns I use to match the large dark olive hatch are the cdc emerger for the start of the hatch that works a treat and as the hatch goes on and the trout switch to the dun I use something a little different 🙂 Both patterns below!

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As I was bugging my way into the second run of the morning my good mate Sion Lewis AKA Lewy give me a ring asking where I was, not long after Lewy met me on the river hoping to brush the cobwebs away after a long absence off the river due to work commitments. It wasn’t long and lewy was into his first trout of the season for him.  Not a bad trout for the first either, lucky bugger 🙂

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As we moved our way around the river the olives started to hatch and the trout started to feed hard, we both were taking fish on the nymphs and the dry but we both decided on moving out of the faster flowing waters to go on to the flat pools concentrating on the rising fish!  The olive hatch was in full swing and fish started to rise all over the place. I did see a good number of March brown going by. I did catch one and give it a good looking at and they were march browns! It’s nice to see them in good numbers on the river Taff, over the years the hatches of the march brown have been very rare. I’ll try to get a good photo next time out, my little camera just doesn’t do the job so ill have my kit with me on the next outing. .

I’ll leave you with a few photos of the trout that we both caught 🙂

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Pheasant Tail Emerger Pattern

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It’s great to have the dry-fly setup once again and my go to pattern early season is the pheasant tail emerger. Fishing is still slow but I enjoy just creeping around the river when the hatches start. At the moment the large dark olives are coming on around 11am to about 2pm and then they tend to peter off, but in this time you can have a little fun, they don’t turn their noses up to this pattern and It have accounted for many of my big fish that I’ve managed to catch over the years on my local waters!

 I tie this fly in size16/14/12s

  • SONY DSCHook. Kamasan B100.
  • Thread, Black UTC 170.
  • Body. 4 pheasant tail fibers
  • Rib. 2lb mono.
  • Hackle. Blue dun.

I like to tie this pattern on the kamasan due to the quality of the hooks and the strength. It’s Very important to have full confidence in the hooks when you hook into that fish of a lifetime! These have the thumbs up from me! Here is a link for the hooks so please check it out they won’t let you down! ..https://www.cliff-harvey-angling.co.uk/search_prod_list.asp?maingroup=HOOKS&thirdgroup=Kamasan&cha_product_category=8

 

 

 

Trout season is here and yes i’ve been out finally!

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As we all know the start of the season can be a killer, slow and very frustrating trying to catch your first trout of the new season, but don’t give up there is always one or two that like to play ball somewhere!

It’s trout season finally and the grayling are still playing ball also and are fun and I won’t turn no fish down but they can be a pain when your trying to locate a trout. At the moment the large dark olives been hatching slowly but getting better as spring arrives.  On the saturday the weather was very unsettled  with bright sun and a down stream wind so that was a washout but  sunday was a much better day with light rain and less wind. Good conditions for a better chance of a good hatch of dark olives. Around half past eleven, the LDO;s started to appear and steadily the hatch got better as the afternoon went on, the grayling didn’t wait around just mopping them up but I wasn’t looking for grayling,I was looking for a spotty! But i did have a little fun before moving on 🙂

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I moved away from the grayling and made my to the very ends of the pools waiting for a trout to poke its head out. Grayling tend to rise around the middle of the river and trout can be more tighter to the backs from where I was fishing, so that’s where i was watching. Finally I found two fish rising, i managed to catch the one and the second slipped the hook the bugger 🙂 I love this time of the year because on the river Taff you have to work that much harder to find and catch the trout!

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Not much trout action in the day but the grayling were fun and a few hours on the river is never wasted time! Looking forward to getting out next and maybe finding a few more trout rising and just maybe finding one of Taff monsters poking its nose out! Who knows what could happen!

The dries were in and the bugs were out!

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Over night rains put the local rivers out of action but there is always one or two cheeky fish that will rise in places so don’t let it beat you get out there and look for them spots! sometimes in can be very rewarding as you can see below! 🙂

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The river Taff below the house was up and brown due to the over night rains but this didn’t stop me and my mate Tony  from getting down there and seeing if we could winkey a few out in the conditions! The water clarity was very poor and there was debate on just saying bugger it and go home, but we kept at it looking and checking out the slack spots in the shallower runs. In this time we walked around a fair bit and as we were doing this a good steady hatch of blue wing olives started to hatch with a good number of august duns putting in appearance.  finally we found a few fish rising and i stuck 2 the dries and my mate stuck 2 the heavy metal bugging everything as he does 😉  check this  greedy stone loach out trying to eat my mates huge bug haha classic eyes way to big for its belly!SONY DSC

 

As i was saying i found fish rising so my setup was a 12ft tapperd leader going down to a 4lb point and at the end i tied on around 2ft of 1.40 stroft, ..love the stuff!. The dry that i tied on was a size 16 bwo pattern i tie, works well nothing to perfect but it works! didn’t take long and i was into the first fish and then the second and so on! was all good fun on the light tackle the 3wt took a beating because of the flow of the water, even the small fish put a hell of a bend in the rod that made things quite interesting until you had the fish under the tip i couldn’t tell how big they were really!

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I was surprised how many fish we both managed to catch in the rubbish conditions but was worth sticking it out for sure!. It was a tough few hours but well worth it!  Ill leave with a few photos below , hope you enjoy!

Dry flies to Match the Hatch!

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At the moment the Blue wing olive’s are still hatching and the August duns are putting in a show so here are the Three flies that i’ve been using mostly to cover the hatch!

Nothing special but they work!

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Fishing Photos.

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Sorry about the lack of posts all but ill be getting on top of it soon so keep checking in now and again and see whats new!

I’ve had a few trips out on my own over the last few weeks and also a few trips out with my mate Sion Lewis, AKA Lewy 🙂 but due 2 family commitments i really haven’t had the time to sit down and write about the trips so i’ve put a load of photos together of the days out so hope you like!

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On the trout’s menu right now!

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Well  at the moment the large dark olives are on the trout menu because that’s all that’s bloody hatching at the moment with these wild winds and mad cold weather that has stuck with us. Please give us a break and move on winter weather, its spring for god sake!

The hatches have been starting around half 12 and going on for an hour to an hour and half at most, so be ready because it’s over before you now it!

These are  patterns that ive been using for the last few weeks on the river and they have been very successful.

Olive Emerger.

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Olive dun below.

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Check out a few trout that  have been enticed by these patterns in the last few weeks.

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Flicking the dry fly

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After chatting to my mate Sion Lewis on the phone, we decided to have a few hours out before the rain kicked in as it was forecast to come in later on in the day.

Sion being a good man that he is come and picked me up and off we set looking for rising fish. The timing was perfect really when we finally got on the bank with blue wing olives coming off nicely and the odd rise, but it didn’t take long for the trout to lock on and start gorging on these little wee sweeties.

The fly pattern that I used to match the B.W.O

Makes you think on these times that all the time you have fished the river and fished these parts and not even having a take or even seeing a fish move. They are there but not bothered, but soon as these little jems start coming off every fish in the river goes mad. This can be a fantastic time for the dry fly angler and some great sport, you can even be cheeky and walk past fish and look for the better ones feeding. These better trout tend to be just ofF the bank and on times its like they are touching it, I had one today that was along side a large rock, I swear it must have been leaning on it and taking the flies that were touching the rock when coming around it in the flow. Love this kind of fishing because these tricky buggers can test the casting and presentation skills.

Me and Sion took turns on giving the tricky fish a go and just trying to target the better fish moving all the time we were out, it was great fun! Today the bugging rods didnt have a sniff and were set aside to keep out of the way.

Just a few photos below.

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