So first post and brand new to fly fishing so be gentle with my ignorance and potential mis-use of the forum please.

Having had a lesson I'm now up for fly fishing proper, specced my kit and on the buying cycle.

One thing which trouble me is flies, I don't know one end from the other apart from one end hurts, once my Match the Hatch book comes it will be glued to my hand for weeks to get this dry, wet, emerger thingy sorted.

I have bought a 50 fly grab bag for stillwater, but right now they just look like the contents of my hoover bag. As for dry, wet etc, I guess I'll just have to drop them in a bowl and sort the floaters from the sinkers.

That is unless there is some kind of standard to distinquish the types, is there, gold hooks= dry fly, black hooks= wet fly etc, I'm guessing not.

So I was thinking there must be a foundation set of flies, the staple diet of the Trout. I get the fact that it depends on tempature, local food sources, star sign, luck, and advice from the balif.

To avoid my confusion I'm now thinking keep it simple, my question to all you clever folks is what would be your top 12 flies for south of England stillwaters (fair weather, don't do cold & wet).

I plan to compare the responses and buy the top 12 for now please, would you normally buy the same pattern in different sizes? talking of size I'm told a #12 is a good starting point?

Thanks...... off to look at reels now, Lamson Guru, Sage 4250, Hardy's ujamaflip, so many toys, so little money................

Welcome!

Having just come out the far side of the first 2 years of confusion, here's what I would recommend (and now accounts for 90% of my fishing):

Nymphs (small, compact, cigar shaped, drab, designed to sink; imitate larvae):

Size 12, 14 and 16 pheasant tail.
Size 12, 14 and 16 bead head hairs ear (in black, olive and natural)
Size 10-16 black buzzer (some red and some green heads)
Size 10-16 diawl bach

Wets (small to quite large, quite fluffy, compact body but often with an obvious wing and/or leggy collar, can be very brightly coloured, designed to sink slowly or sit in surface film; more impressionistic imitation of larvae or outright 'lures'):

Size 14 black spider
Size 12-14 endrick spider
Size 12 Alexandra
Size 12 March Brown

Dries (variable size, fluffy or spiky, very light, often contain things to help them float like foam, designed to float in or on the surface; imitate adult insects):

Size 12-16 olive paradun
Size 12-16 cdc dun
Size 12-16 cdc daddy
Size 12-16 elk hair sedge

Lures (large, usally with long mobile tail, often very brightly coloured even garish; imitate small fish, tadpoles, damsel fly larvae or are just outright lures):

Size 8-12 minkie (in black and white, with and without a bead head).
Size 8-12 olive damsel (with and without beadhead).
Size 12 viva
Size 12 cats whisker
Size 12 olive booby (assuming you have a sinking line)

You could comfortably fish with just the pheasant tails and hares ears and do absolutely fine.

Best of luck

Matt,

Your a legend, thank you for such a comprehensive and clear description.

Welcome to the forum

I don't know if you are serious about buying reels but if you are and before you spend a fortune, have a look at Sunkistbob's reels on here or contact Grommit and tell him what you're looking for - they've both got a good reputation on here.

As for flies. What I would do, if you haven't a buddy to go along with you, is to go to the stillwater in question and ask the manager/bailiff or whoever is around what the fish are taking/likely to take. Show him your flies and ask him what would work and (important) how to fish it.
Fishing isn't easy this time of year so don't get discouraged.

Matching the hatch is an important and fascinating part of fly fishing. But often there isn't an obvious hatch. Also how you fish your fly is often as important as to which fly.
The first questions then, IMO are
When and How do I fish a Lure/nymph/buzzer/emerger/dry ?

Once you get started, it'll start to fall into place pretty quickly - the rest is a lifetime of discovery

Good luck.

BTW what fishery (ies) are you intending to start on?

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"Take not out your 'ounds on a werry windy day" Surtees.

This post might help you with a strategy for your flies and your approach to fishing a stillwater...

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Thanks Bill I'll take a look at the reels you recommended, I've bought a Sage Z Axis 9ft #6 and thinking the reel will be used as a line store mainly so spending a bucket on it may not be wise.

As for where to fish, I travel around the south a fair bit and will grab a few hours here and there, so mainly Cotswolds, Hampshire, Berks and Bucks.

My goal is to fish rivers as big lakes don't really do it for me, but I'll need to learn the craft first as rivers look pricey and I don't want to spend my time un-snagging from banks, ducks and my right earhole.

Reels-I have used J W Young 1510 series for some 25 years and no intention to change.I don't see the point of an expensive reel as all it does is hold your line.

Oh - and add size 12-16 parachute Adams or grey duster to the list of dries.

Don't agree about a reel only being a line storage device. I bought several () cheap Shakespeare reels. The gearing went on one when I was playing the best fish of my life on the reel, the drag went very quickly on 2 others and the line used to get caught between the spool and the casing - incidentally doing no good to the line, jamming when playing a fish or pulling out line to cast.
Also some cheap reels break easily if dropped.

In my view, "reliable" is the word and you don't have to pay a fortune but if it is seriously cheap, there is probably a reason.

(Hey, Mat b where is the shipmans on your list?)

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"Take not out your 'ounds on a werry windy day" Surtees.

Bloody useless things... they're my bogey fly.