Life cycle of the mayfly (order ephemeroptera)
Insects such as Mayflies, Stoneflies and Dragonflies that have part of their life cycle in the water provide a significant part of a trouts diet.
BBH fuzzy nymph
This is the lightest of my bead heads and has its place in both river and still water environments. In rivers they can be fished in the current with as little line drag as possible, can be retrieved at various speeds or can be fished on the drop or through the lift in slower water and pools. In still water that can be fished as an anchor fly in a team or alone. I tie this fly in a couple of sizes in black and olive versions.
Caddis grubs
Most caddis grubs make a retreat of silk with sand or detritus matter stuck to the outside. Similar in form this fly represents a caddis grub that has been dislodged from it retreat. Colors include cream, lime, fawn, and light browns and olives through to dark browns and olives.
Soft hackle winged bob flies – Chatto’s version
Whilst it has been tweaked at the edges a little this Mallard & Claret pattern remains remarkably similar to the original fly pattern that has its origins in England some 500 odd years ago except for the introduction of a fuzzeled body rather than a hackled body and a soft wing instead of feather slip wings. I carry both the mallard and claret and an olive version of this fly in my lake fly box.
Wings – wet fly wings
Wings on wet flies are powerful trigger points and also aides in the mechanics of the fly. As triggers they add valuable movement and viability and from a mechanical point of view they help the fly maintain its upward stance and help stop the fly from twisting.
Wings – wet fly feather slip wings
Feather slips for use as wings for a wet fly are most often taken from duck feathers but other feathers such as turkey and pheasant etc. are also used. The best feathers tend to be the secondary flight feathers as the primary feathers have much thicker barbules that can be difficult to tie in.
Hair winged royal coachman
I tie a few hair winged duns but don’t tie them as representations of any particular Dun or Spinner (imago) stage of any specific insect. The Hair Winged Royal Coachman is an excellent example of a hair winged dun. It evolved from origins in England of the 1800’s.
Hanging midge
This fly hangs from the surface with the bend of the hook down much in the same way as the natural hangs just as it is breaking the water surface – anyway that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. In any case it is a suggestive fly that has taken many fish during evening midge hatches.
Killer type flies
The term “Killer” flies refers to a style of fly rather than just a particular pattern. The common ingredient in the style is that successive pairs of feathers are tied along the side of the flies vertically. Although there is some controversy over the actual origin of the style New Zealander Frank Lord is generally accredited with development of the style.
Fly lines
The weight of a fly line can also be expressed in ‘grains’ of weight where the number represents the weight of the taper of the fly line. A simple conversion of line weight, for single handed fly rods, to grains is expressed in the following table.