Was on my local river yesterday evening again . Lots of fly life...I fished badly but caught a lovely brownie on a sedge ( my first ever on a sedge !) and some smaller fish too.

I'm still completely confused re entomology though.

For example, whilst i can catch olives in the air, other species are flying around and i cant get near them ....none of them seem to float down the river to my waiting hand the way they say in the mags.

Can anyone describe how sedges fly? The flies i was looking at were flying very low to the water, reasonably big, with a sort of madcap style of flight ...also, some of them would occasionally just drop down to the water from a height of about 1-2 ft, like a pilot whose parachute has been holed.

Sorry to ramble, but I'm going to have to take my 4 yr old daughters seaside net down next time - i couldnt lay a glove on them - and i have fast hands !

Tks all................

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

up and down, left and right....chuckling here. They fly in a similar fashion to moths. They look a bit like a moth too except for their rooflike wings when at rest.

You are probably describing sedges and your best chance of catching a sedge is that they will occasionally land on you but if they don't have a look amongst the bankside trees and reedbeds as they often sit in there before flying back to the water to lay eggs especially if it has been raining.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

They didnt quite look like moths although i have heard that before.....they were bloody quick, flying around like they were on steroids! I presume a CDC and Elk would be a good imitator of them , assuming they were sedges?

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

Yes it would.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

So you are obviousley doing something right

So am I and I have been fly fishing for 40 yrs

Dont beleive magazines

Sounds like them try to catch on on bankside vegetation as posts above.

Fun isnt it sounds like your doing fine to me...

Tks all................[/QUOTE]

Keep at it.....get a copy of Goddards waterside guide...

http://brooksandbecks.blogspot.com/

Cheers, i might just do that ...i have another book of a similar nature, but i need more GISS advice, rather than specifics. Thanks for all advice, much appreciated.

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

they were sedges. elk hair caddis,cdc sedge,balloon caddis in green,dark brown,silver grey and ginger and pupa's dont forget the pupa's

I usually find what I see in the water is spent caddis larva cases floating by and it is a sure sign of sedge. I also find them climbing up my leg when I'm in the river. they use me for sanctuary. Scary when they climb up round your neck and freak the heck out of you though.

Bob, next day I also came across amber coloured pupa cases, just like in the mags! Feel like I'm improving fast. In fairness I'm a competent fly fisher and tier but had become stuck in a small rut of Klinks, CDC olives, goldheads and griffiths gnats as the river i used to fish never seemed to have any sedges.

Beautifully, I tried a new stretch of water the other day on a whimsy, upstream of a place i used to go, and discovered a whole new stretch of river, with some decent sized trout aswell. I was in trout heaven, and not a sinner about !

And in fairness to the mags ( Paul Proctor in particular) , there under the trees were small, and not so small, trout gently taking flies - almost certainly aphids and small black things ......every time the wind blew, the trout would rise like clockwork to seize the things that presumeably fell from the trees.

Happiness is ! Now if I can just learn to tie that CDC and Elk.....

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.