Hello all

I am having trouble matching the hatch and deciding which fly to use. I have various flies in my box that were bought because they looked good, but I guess I am not alone in this respect. I have been reading a copy of Pat O'Reilly's Matching the Hatch and was wondering if anybody has fished just using these. It would make a lot of sense if one was unsure as to what fly to use but just to have seven flies in the fly box is a big ask. I was thinking of giving it a go what do you think.

Steve M

Hi', Steve. On the strength of many years experience of dry fly fishing on the River Eden and its tributaries, about twenty-two/three years ago, I tied up 50 each of my 6 top flies, just in case my eyes let me down. The patterns were three of my own design which copied Large Dark Olive, Medium Olive, and the lightest coloured dressing to copy Pale Wateries, Small Spurwings. The remaining 3 were Ginger Quill, Pheasant Tail and Black Gnat. They were all plain, hackled flies, the first three employing olive cock hackles in front of blue dun, with tails of mixed hackle barbs (fibres ). The shade of the hackles was choseb tomatch the relative shades of the three 'Olive' dressings.
Ginger Quill was just ginger, but Pheasant Tail had red game in front of blue dun at the shoulder, and Black Gnat was just black hackled, but I always tied them with a tail -- unconventional, but the floated better that way.
If I had to add to my original list, it would probably be a deer hair sedge of some sort. Cheers TC

I think the 7 is a great list and they are all in my boxes.

However I can't resist buying flies ............. I love sitting on the bank poking around in my box deciding on the next killer selection ........... I do a lot of sitting on banks, but that's part of the pleasure.

__________________
Carl

http://www.wandlepiscators.net/
http://teiseangling.co.uk/index.htm

TOMORROW THE TRENT COULD BE YOUR FISHERY! When are YOU going to JOIN THE ANGLING TRUST?

Hi Steve,
I was fishing on Wednesday (on the Wye at Builth) and fish were rising all round. I couldn't see what they were taking but as there were olives coming off I guessed it had to be olives. Anyway, I tried 5 different dries without a sniff before reverting to a size 14 and a size 16 GRHE fished just sub-surface.
I was into fish straight away, and had four, almost one after the other.

If I had the courage of my convictions I would only carry two flies - GRHE in various sizes, and a Griffiths Gnat for when anything black is coming off.

As per normal though I carry two boxes stuffed with flies, most of which I'll probably never use.

__________________
http://www.a-c-a.org

I think the vast majority of us carry a large percentage of flies that we will never use.

I have really tried on occasion to reduce the number of flies and the number of patterns but without much success. The problem is "the just in case" patterns.

What I have managed to do at the start of each season is to eject any fly that isn't tied to my satisfaction so that only flies that I will actually tie on are in my boxes. I do agree that if I were limited to just 7 patterns I would catch virtually the same number of fish.

The seven river flies that I use most for trout are:

F Fly
Parachute Adams
CDC & Elk
Grey Wulff
Kites Imperial
Griffiths Gnat
Flashback Nymph

I'd need another set of seven for each of stillwater trout, grayling, sea trout and salmon.

__________________
“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

I definately think most of us carry far, far to many flies. The vast majority of the time I just need three patterns of fly (I virtually only fish rivers now). Like many others I still carry the "just in case" patterns. I think if you're newish to fly fishing this can be a BIG mistake.

You can get lured into the "see if this one will do the trick" scenareo. Forever changing flies and having confidence in none.

Much better to stick to a few tried and tested patterns and if the fish become pernickerty at least you can concentrate on presentation and have confidence in your flies. There's usually a few fish that will make that hoped for error!

For most fishing situations a few good patterns are all you need. Stick to them and concentrate on fishing them correctly and the takes will come.

My list for the rivers I fish (in no particular order of merit) is:
CDC & Elk
Comparadun
Small Klink' (16 Kamasan B100)
Gold Head Hares Ear nymph (rarely used but sometimes effective)

That's all I need. This is not a definitive list and I'm not suggesting you use these patterns. It's just the ones I have found work for me over many years. Half the fun is finding out what suits you and coming up with your own "Magnificent Seven". I have TOTAL confidence in mine and if I can't catch with these, it's a very unusual day!

Must add that to this I do sesonal specials when required such as Mayfly.

I agree with river rat.
I get away with only a few patterns or designs and after that its just size and colour.

My seven are:-

1) Klink ( i have done without this so far this year)
2) CDC and Elk
3) Bread and butter (a CDC comapradun)
4) A Parachute fly like the Adams
5) Cul de Cannard (an F fly on a curved buzzer style hook)
6) An emerger parachute (just a wee klink really without all that fuss at the thorax)
7) A another emerger with the CDC wing mid body (i did a sbs called LDO emerger)This pretty much has caught all my fish this year

I dont really bother with nymphs for trout anymore but if i had to i would use a PTN (both weighted and unweighted).

Thats eight