I couldnt let the day pass without dropping a line of thanks to all those who helped me on a brilliant thread recently re refusals to the dry fly.

Buzz, Coasty, Steve 101, Sewinbasher etc gave me top class advice and this morning it all came together .

I have now dropped the 4lb flouro and biggish Klinks ( for this time of year ) , and changed ( today anyway ) to tiny size 18 Griffiths Gnats and 5x or 6x copoly.

In a river with only sporadic rises, today was just an amazing thrill and my father John Reidy (RIP) , a brilliant fly fisherman, would have been well impressed !

Today, I nailed dry fly fishing .

Of course we can always improve and we must keep on that road, but today I cast like a legend, the Vision 3 Zone was awesome, the furled 5 ft leader from Phil at Spidersplus was excellent, and the self tied size 18 Griffiths Gnat gave me a different fly fishing feeling than I think I have ever had. And this on a slow moving glide. It was incredible - thrilling.

The only thing that came close was when i learned that Spiders were lethal on stillwaters - the takes are lovely, especially when some anglers around you scoff at the choice of fly - I just love those flies but have never really used them on rivers, to my shame !

What a fly the Griffiths Gnat is - the type of take ( when they didnt refuse ) was so leisurely, just a kiss / sip and all that because of great advice and a great fly.

For someone who asks loads, I actually catch a lot of trout and havent blanked in a long time, but thanks to all the advice here , Spider hit an important landmark today.

So thanks again to all.

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

Nice one, now you won't ever look back

Good work skipper

I can vouch for spiders effectiveness on stillwaters
I was matched quite easily on my shiny Xmas tree alien invasion lures bs a small giffiths gnat only a week or so ago thanks to barbusbruce.

Such a simple fly I've since tied up lots but in different colours

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John Danter

Brilliant, simply brilliant.

nice one spider, tough time of year for dry fly fishing, good choice with the griffiths gnat. Hopefully September will bring some easier dry fly fishing.

steve

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Steve


"There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked in the process." Paul O'Neil

spider,what approach and method for using phills spiders on reservoirs would you recommend, cheers.

Steve, thanks for that. Didnt realise that September was good for dries ?


Gelert, for stillwater, floating line and tapered leader. I used to use a light flourocarbon but probably wouldnt now that I'm a copoly convert.

I used to use only one spider on the leader.

One of:

Snipe and Yellow
Black Snipe
Black and Peacock Spider ( thinly dressed )
Greenwells Spider


I actually used barbless dry fly hooks for my Spiders in stillwater to keep them very high in the water column but they work lower down aswell.

Just get a good cast out and tweak them in ultra slowly, with occasional quicker motion.

Onve the buzzers and olives start to appear they are excellent.

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

superb mate keep it up

Thats mint and well done,,,, but when you think you have "nailed" dry fly the next time you try the same tactics you will catch buccer all

Thats what makes it so satisfying,,,,

I still love nymphing though and if i dont see much happening initially when i hopefully get out tomorrow after work, the nymph will be first on, under a Klink.

I am definite though that trout are put off taking the Klink at the last second as they may feel the line running from the klink to the weighted nymph.

Makes sense to me anyway !

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.