CDC and Elk

Such a simple fly but one I've not tried before. I have never had much luck with dry caddis patterns, they've been more of a chance it method rather than being the fly to use. I did witness a caddis hatch this year, though the fish were taking to ascending pupa rather than the adult I was pleased to actually see a proper hatch. Most of this really does boil down to my fishing times being of a social nature. I rarely fish late. I'm too considerate to my partner, it would be unfair to fish into darkness and leave bedtime duties solely to her. Despite all this it would be foolish to not have any adult caddis patterns in your box. This is one I have now added to mine, I'll make an effort to use it when I can.

Tan CDC

White cdc dyed with a Kurecolor marker colour 504

Dark brown cdc

Tan CDC

Dark brown CDC

50 shades of grey bodied dries

I wonder if I'm alone in having several successful dry-flies that possess grey bodies. A fail safe pattern that I would never leave without is the Adams Klinkhåmer.

So it would be safe to presume that the original Adams along with other variations would serve well.

Adams in its original guise

Adams paraloop emerger

Another established pattern is the Grey Duster. Originally tied to represent an emerging midge, many use it to imitate olives.

Grey Duster with golden badger hackle

What about Oliver Kites Imperial. Tied as a Large Dark Olive pattern it incorporated heron herl for the abdomen.

Kite's Imperial variant tied with a medium ginger hackle

Peter Hayes' PhD is without doubt my favourite olive imitation. Muskrat provides the grey in this pattern; also in common with another successful grey bodied fly it has an underbody of yellow thread.

PhD showing the underside. The hackle is tied paraloop style.

Front view showing the paraloop hackle and split wing

The Waterhen Bloa is one of the all time greatest north country spiders. A body of yellow silk with a misting of mole fur for dubbing. So it would be safe to apply the same to a dry-fly. Having never spoken to john Tyzack I don't know if the WhB was the inspiration behind his JT olive, but I like to think so. I have never used this pattern before but I have plenty tied up for the coming season.

The JT olive

JT olive tied with a sparsely dubbed body

Sculpin, Trout and Shrimpy went fishing up North.

Took a rare trip up North today. Met up with Mike (Luke Troutstalker) and Danny (Pinkshrimp) and fished a couple of rivers for grayling. A blip in the river levels kept us anxious, I've been trying to arrange a trip with Mike for a couple of months but childcare being the reason for postponement.

One of Danny's fish

The fishing was hard today, recent reports suggested the fishing would be good but proved to be less than anticipated. We started on a smallish river that carried a dark peaty colour, with the water level at a good height. It was stark contrast to what I'm used to fishing, although the river sizes are similar, this river has a larger volume of water flowing in it and not being able to see the bottom made for interesting wading.

I started on a nice run with the current flowing down the far side creating a crease down the middle. Mike and Danny headed downstream to fish a different part. I fished the run through but only an OOS trout caught on a JP pupa rewarded me for my efforts. Mike caught a 14" grayling from the section he fished.

Danny and Mike fishing a run

We all made our way upstream leap-frogging and fishing various stretches. I managed a size-able grayling on a Utah killer bug and Danny added a couple of grayling to his tally. We fished for an hour or so and once we'd reached a weir we turned and headed back to the car.

For once I had a picture of  me

A quick drive took us to another river, this being larger with a greyish tinge to the water. A productive riffle was our port of call. A side stream flowing created another crease which we focused our efforts on. Only one grayling came out on this part to me; this was after Mike had fished through moving upstream. Further upstream collectively we winkled out about half a dozen grayling of various sizes. Another weir signaled the end of this stretch. Just above the weir sill I could see a grayling rising, but the rises were sporadic and the fish was moving around a lot making it hard to pin point it's location. A quick fly change saw me tie on a klinkhåmer but I failed to locate the fish.

Another move; same river different part. A pacey run failed to produce but Danny found a lone grayling in a small tongue of current. I found my biggest grayling along with a shed loads of sprats at the top of the run lying hard in a crease. By this point Mike and Danny had moved off downstream. After I had fished out the run I ventured down to find the other two. On the way down I caught another OOS trout.

Plenty of sprats about, bodes well for the future

My biggest grayling of the day

Danny told me that some fish had been rising upstream of them. I had almost had enough by this point, it had been long day and I was starting to get cold but the thought of catching one on the dry fly renewed my vigor. Off came the bead heads and on went an Adams klinkhåmer. Danny told me where a fish had rose. It was lying just off from a tussock of grass. Second cast saw it suck down the fly, an almost immediate lift connected the fish. I took a further two more to the dry, one was a sighted fished that took my fly four times before I finally connected with it. The other was found with some classic watercraft. Near the bank I could see all the floating and submerged leaves being funneled showing what probably was a food lane. An accurate cast located another grayling and Danny managed two grayling on dries too.

Despite squally winds and lower temperature the fish were willing to look up

One of Danny's dry fly caught grayling

CDC and biots with a small shower of tungsten beads and stripped quill

I have recently put my house on the market, time has been precious. As a result, and wanting to still be able to knock out a number of flies in readiness for next season, I opted to tie some simple, but no less effective CDC duns. I have used Nature's Spirit biots, the CDC is from Troutline. The flies tied with biots have a small amount of chopped grey squirrel just to cover up where the biots are tied off and to offer a little more suggestiveness in the pattern. I have tied the stripped quill versions without any dubbing; these for me will be used on ultra smooth flats. 

Blue-winged olive biot

Grey-olive biot

Callibaetis biot

Pale Morning Dun biot

Nature's Spirit bleached and dyed peacock quill blue-winged olive

Wire bead head nymph

Micro Killer bugs to order.

Had a request to tie some Sawyer's killer bugs. Generally I tie them in 14's and 16's; I was asked if I could tie some 16's and 18's. Now I've got to say that those size 18 Killer bugs looked ace; small and inconspicuous yet substantially heavy. I have used the same thickness of wire (0.20mm) that I do for all the KB I tie but with a reduced number of yarn layers. I don't think it will make a difference not having the full three layers but I'll await feedback.

I'll save these July and August skinny water fishing, they should do the trick.

Size 16 nestled amongst 18's

This week I have mostly been tying...(part 2)

More bead head nymphs, River Daiwl Bach and some paraloop gnats.

Biot bead head nymph, peacock thorax

Biot bead head nymph, squirrel thorax

Goose herl bead head nymph

Caddis pupa, nymph skin body, squirrel thorax

River Daiwl Bach with black wing buds

Paraloop Griffiths Gnat

Paraloop Black Gnat

Jamiesons Shetland yarn

Jamiesons Shetland spindrift yarn; Oyster, Fog and Leprechaun. 

After stumbling across the Utah Killer bug, I knew the sample of yarn used to tie it wouldn't last me long. I bought some balls of the same colour, Oyster, along with two other colours I fancied trying.
One of them was similar to the Oyster. Called Fog this yarn looked a lot greyer and in the hand contains a lot of green streaks. This I wanted to use for general shrimpy bugs, tied as the UKB is but providing a different shade. The other yarn called Leprechaun is a multi tonal green yarn with yellow flecks running through to break up the colour. When I saw this colour I immediately thought Rhyacophila larvae. Although the wool turns darker when wet it still makes a nice fly. The fly tied with Fog caught me a number of roach from a small pool in a river I fish. This may mean nothing but those same fish refused a JP Caddis Pupa when it had been hammering all other fish in the river from dace, chub to trout. I feel it has already earned it's place in my fly box.

There are some other colours that I am looking at; there's an apple green which looks spot on for the proper shade for a Rhyacophila, so watch this space.

Shrimp bug tied with Fog

Rhyacophila larvae tied OE style