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 or […]

Learn more →

The Woolley Bugger

Beginners Lessons
The Woolley Bugger

This is a lure which is equally effective in rivers and stillwaters, particularly for rainbows. The most popular colours are olive, black, orange and red. Can be tied on longshank 8s, 10s, and 12s. For rivers I prefer a size 8 wet fly hook. Early season on stillwaters a size 8 L/S olive fished on […]

Learn more →

The Cormorant

Beginners Lessons
The Cormorant

This fly has its origins in fly fishing competitions.  It is neither a nymph nor a lure but can be fished as either. Primarily a still water fly it can also be used on rivers and tied with  a silver or holographic body.  It bears more than a passing resemblance to a butcher , only […]

Learn more →

The Stickfly

Beginners Lessons
The Stickfly

This fly has been popular with reservoir and stillwater trout fisherman since the seventies. It is an imitation of the caddis grub in its shell. The caddis grub eventually matures to be a sedge which is also popular with the trout. This fly can be tied on all sizes down from long shank 10s. Smaller […]

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 →

The Minkie

Beginners Lessons
The Minkie

This fly has been around on UK stillwaters for about ten years now. It was not mentioned in the 1992 edition of Fly Patterns by Taff Price. I first heard about it when I was working as a warden at a local trout lake. Until that time I had been tying zonkers. The principle for […]

Learn more →

The Soldier Palmer and The Zulu

Beginners Lessons
The Zulu

The Soldier Palmer is an old pattern which still finds favour as a bob fly by boat anglers. There are three flies of a similar vein which are tied in basically the same way, the others are Grenadier and Zulu. If you can tie one you can tie them all. There is a more recent […]

Learn more →

The Partridge and Orange and The Greenwells Glory

Beginners Lessons
The Partridge and Orange

Today we will be explaining how to tie wet flies and spider patterns, the old standard, partridge and orange popular in the north country and the Greenwells Glory, which is more universal, and has also stood the test of time. You will find them both easy to tie and well worth a place in the […]

Learn more →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →