From the category archives:

Intermediate Lessons

The Vibrating Daddy

Intermediate Lessons
Thumbnail image for The Vibrating Daddy

This is not an accepted fly pattern (none of the experts have devised it yet). Over the years the use of vibrating rubber legs has become popular with some anglers. The early flies used flexi floss which did the job but were not as good as the modern materials. Their success on the stillwaters for [...]

Learn more →

The Prince Nymph

Intermediate Lessons
The Prince Nymph

This fly is a popular American pattern which is not tied to represent any particular nymph. It has found favour with quite a number of stillwater fly men here in the UK. The use of paired goose biots to represent the tail and wing is unusual but should not present a major obstacle in the [...]

Learn more →

The Yellow Dancer

Intermediate Lessons
Thumbnail image for The Yellow Dancer

The Yellow Dancer is a relative newcomer on the fly fishing scene.  It is a ’sport’ of the original Woolley Bugger devised by our friends north of the border. It has proved to be a ‘must have’ fly on most Scottish still water trout fisheries. As is always the case it has spawned the usual [...]

Learn more →

The Sedge Fly

Intermediate Lessons
Thumbnail image for The Sedge Fly

This pattern sits better in the water and either static or moving it does behave like a sedge. I even found that when it was gunged up with slime and sunk it still caught fish. I suggest you tie some up in 10s and 12s and and keep them ready in your fly box. I [...]

Learn more →

Daddy Longlegs (Crane Fly)

Intermediate Lessons
The Daddy Longlegs [Crane Fly]

The crane fly is a land based insect which features in the fly fisher’s armoury because it is an ungainly flier and regularly finds it’s way on to lakes and rivers by accident. They usually appear about August time and can be quite an abundant food source for the trout either on the surface [...]

Learn more →

The Klinkhamer

Intermediate Lessons
The Klinkhamer

The Klinkhamer was originally designed by Hans Van Klinken to copy the fly emerging from its shuck as it made the change to a flying insect. There are ‘puritans’ among us who refuse to accept this fly as a true dry fly because the fly has not been airborne. To those of us who just [...]

Learn more →

The Booby

Intermediate Lessons
The Booby

The Booby is a relatively recent addition to the flyfishers arsenal.  The original patterns were tied using polystyrene balls tied together in the mesh from ladies tights and tied in at the eye of the hook.  The way they wobbled about was how the fly acquired its name.  Their other main disadvantage was that if [...]

Learn more →

Texas Rose Muddler

Intermediate Lessons
Texas Rose Muddler

The original Muddler Minnow was introduced in to this country from America in the late 1960s.It was tied to be an imitation of the sculpin minnow.  The original pattern enjoyed great success on the Midland reservoirs when it was first introduced. British reservoir anglers, as always, have this shameless habit of ‘improving’ everything that they [...]

Learn more →