hi all, having just bought a job lot of spiders from beacon beige i thought i would ask a few of you more experienced in this type of fishing how you go about fishing these flies. any books on this style worth a read? thank you in advance. jon mcmillan.

Have a look at Ollie Edwards dvd... on North Country Spider fishing. Very clear advice.

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"A homeward tramp thro' mist wrapped night,
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Complete content, the day has brought it,
They fished for pleasure - and they caught it"

P F Morgan
taken from the catch record book at Llanthony Hotel, Honddu Valley, Aug 1942

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Three spiders twenty inches apart on a longish leader. Cast across and down with the rod held high enough to keep the fly line off the water. Let it drift with the speed of the current for as long as poss before allowing it to drift and rise across the current. Someone may point you in the direction of a clip of Ollie's to show it in practice. Very effective, but sometimes attracts microscopic fish. ATB, Alan

Most of my success has come fishing them on the downstream swing or cast just slightly up and across and letting them drift a ways before swinging them down.

Wetfly fishing in general, and spiders in particular, is probably the third most deadly technique for river trout, after nymphing and streamers. Get the right day and the results can be absolutely astounding. None of the sub-surface techniques is as easy as dry fly fishing, but if catching fish is the goal, then learning to fish the wet fly is worth the effort.

Grouse

thanks lads sounds simple looking forward to trying it out. off back over to wales first week of next month. cant wait. jon.

jon,

not only are they a superb river fly ,they are an excellent stillwater fly aswell ,i had a day at maran lakes with john(tk8456) and all my fish came to a stewarts black spider,barring one on a hopper, john will verify to that fact if need be..

have a look here john some excellent reading more than i can tell you about them ..... just scroll down a bit ..

http://www.fishingwithstyle.co.uk/no...ntry.htm#When2

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

Yeah fairplay I was a little shocked something so plain and small would work on stillwaters

I caught 5 and Bruce had 6 on his small black spider.
I disgusted Bruce with my Xmas tree type lures and nymphs and he impressed me with his simple spider.

Most came on the hang fished still under his hopper, when the hopper sank he'd retrieve them slowly. Both methods seemed to work

I should have left my Xmas tree on, I'd have slaughtered him

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John Danter

thanks john ,

oh and you couldnt cos the trout nicked it off ya, and you gave away the other one

__________________
WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

WW,
To restrict your use of spider patterns to down and across is to under state their overall effectiveness.
These small sparse patterns were design for the rough spate rivers of the North and were used on still waters with much effect.
Our forefathers fished them upstream and only moved to a downstream approach when certain conditions prevailed.
The three techniques which I teach are (a) Upstream (b) dead drift (c) downstream (similar to what has been suggested here.
The additional knowledge required is to match these old traditional patterns with the fly life. This is reasonably simple and if you look on my website you will see a chart n when and what to try. However, I must state that this is for the Northern rivers and it may differ from elsewhere.
I am about to release a small booklet on this (will post on the forum when it is available in 2 weeks) where I have 'culled' the numerous patterns down to a 'deadly dozen' which will help learners.
Make no mistake about these patterns, they really work. For example I cleaned up recently while out fishing (I rarely get to do it now) using a 'Dotterel' spider as a dry.
Unfortunately, like all patterns, they are varied over time so some of the patterns you have may not exactly match some of the older ones.
However, become adept at using them and you will have a ball catching fish when others blank.
Cheers

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