Countdown part 3 - and the rest....

Less than 1 week to go now and preparations are well under way. I've added some more trout-tempting morsels to my armoury including some Midge emergers and Baetis nymphs and adults. I'm still focused very much and the small end of the size spectrum as I'm enjoying using my new vice with its "midge jaws".

One of my regular go-to flies last season was a tungsten head Pheasant Tail Nymph (PTN) which is a highly versatile nymph representation. I make these up in sizes 16 down to 22 and usuually add some flash to the thorax. The type of tungsten bead I use varies also from black, to gold and to silver. This has been a real fish-catcher for me in the past so I always make sure I have some tied and ready to go.


#20 Pheasant Tail Nymphs

These PTNs should take fish when the early spring Large Dark Olive hatches are underway. During these hatches and when the trout start looking upwards for their food, emerger and adult representation should bring success. I've prepared some RS2 designs in various shades of olive with size #20 and #22 hooks. These are really simple to tie so a great choice when starting fly-tying at the small end of the scale. I found the micro-fibbets (tails) a bit fiddly at first, but there's a great video (here) on how to tie a RS2 which really helped me. It includes a really neat tip on using the tag-end of your thread to split the tails.



#20 Olive RS2

On the midge front, I've expanded on the larvae imitations from the previous post to include some pupae and emerger representations that should be fished higher in the water as midge hatches develop. Here are two examples - a grey midge emerger with some UV Krystal Flash as the main trigger point; and black spider patterns with a small soft hen hackle plus a little flash for a trigger point.

#22 Grey Midge Emerger

#22 Black Spiders with a flash trigger

Finally, I'm doing some research into March Brown patterns so I hope to post some new ties in the next 'Countdown' entry.

Countdown part 2 - Midges

The new vice is earning its keep. Having been inspired by several excellent reference sources and blogs on the art of tying small flies (to my mind that's anything size #18 or below) I took the plunge and bought a new vice which included a set of jaws for "sub 18 undertakings". The whole concept of going down a few sizes presented some challenges initially but I've got the hang of the basics and made the necessary adjustments, to the point where I feel I'm tying up some usable designs. The forthcoming season will be focused on learning how to fish them...I like a challenge!

In a previous post I said I'd have a go at some midge imitations as part of my preparartions for spring. I've kept to fairly simple designs as I get used to sparsley applying the requisite materials. The result has been a variety of straightforward midge larvae imitations in a variety of colours, all ready to be experimented with on the river.




Various Midge Larvae tied on #20 & #22 hooks


It's quite hard to imagine that a trout is (hopefully) going to be fooled by these tiny offerings as they skip past in a flash through the water. Just can't wait to give them a try when the opportunity arises!

Usk Season Rod

Got back from a business trip to Belgium today and to my extreme delight a season ticket for the Breconshire Fishery had arrived in the post. Thanks to Allyson Williams at WUF for turning this around so quickly. All part of the build up to 03/03/11 and small things like this just fuel the anticipation. Back to my vice now!

Countdown (part 1)

Late January sees me getting busy with preparations for the season ahead, which this year has included investments in a new fly tying vice and a multitude of tying materials. Vague plans for the forthcoming season's fly construction requirements have been driving me insane with decisions on what to stock up on. However my plans are becoming less vague as I think about the onset of March. I'm about to embark on my second season of river trouting. Having learned a liitle about this noble art last season (many thanks to Frank Williams for getting me up & running last April) I wanted to build on these foundations. Step one, and the focus of my preparations during January, is to have stocks of flies ready for the different hatches and trout feeding habits throughout the season. For now this is dedicated to March & April which should mean Large Dark Olives (LDOs), Grannom, Midge and perhaps the elusive March Brown. These are the key insect species that most Usk fishermen will tell you to focus on at the start of the season and I'm not about to argue with their superior knowledge!!

Here are a few of my initial lash-ups starting with none of the above - plans gone awry already! The Usk Naylor is a bit of a mysetery to me. I don't know what it's supposed to imitate and I've never fished it before, but having read a few articles and been lured by its mystique I've tied a few to experiment with. I guess there's as much entemological reasoning to the success of this fly as there is to the Snipe & Purple (a classic pattern of northern origin). It just works....apparently. Here's my own Usk Naylor tied to the original recipe. I hope to write about my success using it in the near future.

Usk Naylor

Next is the Grannom, the hatches of which have brought the Usk a certain notoriety. The larvae of this species are "cased" and may not be accessible to trout, but the pupae, emergers and adults are most definitley of interest. I can speak with a small degree of authority here as I fished a Grannom hatch last April and the feeding activity was prolific. I've tied three patterns here to cover most of the key stages of the hatch.

1. An early pupa pattern - tied on a heavy buzzer hook, this is essentially a spider pattern but I wanted the buzzer curve to imitate the natural's wriggling-swimming motion after it has emerged from its case and started to make its way to the surface. I'll fish this at a variety of depths to coincide with pre-emerger activity of the hatch


Grannom Pupa



2. An emerger patter - this is a CDC shuttlecock pattern aimed at representing the emerging Grannom at a stage where it is most vulnerable to predation


Grannom Emerger



3. A newly emerged adult - a dry fly pattern kept afloat with CDC and Elk hair winging. I took fish on a very similar pattern during last year's Grannom hatch, but it also makes a great fly as part of a duo-rig and should carry a 2mm tungsten bead pattern on the point with relative ease.


Grannom Adult dry-fly



So that's part 1 of the "Countdown". A few more nights of tying should see enough material for a follow up post covering LDOs, midge and March Brown.

Master Angler

This made me smile....

Did anyone spot the "Master Angler" on the Wye & Usk web cams yesterday? This kingfisher was captured on the Brecon Usk web cam. Good to see that the Wye & Usk Foundation's river level gauges are helping British wildlife. Maybe he's auditioning for Springwatch!