what dry flies and nymphs are a must for river fishing i want to get a selection of both so i can make a flybox up purely for river fishing my local river has mainly brown trout and grayling any help will be appreciated.

A big question and I am sure you will get a different answer from every fisherman.

I personally like to take a small selection of nymphs, mainly north country spiders, some gold head PTN's, some czech nymph/grayling bugs, and some Oliver Edwards baetis, hydropsyche and ryacophila (I try and make these myself and I doubt Mr E would recognise the things I end up with!). You need to have a variety of weight so you can fish at different depths. Dries I would suggest klinkhamers in different sizes and colours, Griffiths Gnat, Elk Hair caddis and perhaps F flies. There are thousands more but these are what work for me.

Dry - hare's ear

nymph - hare's ear

Wet - hare's ear.

If you get really stuck, try a hare's ear.

I must say I do like a hare's ear.

However I've found that needs definitely vary according to the time of year, certainly on the Wye and tribs.
Early season - up to May - the hare's ear (GRHE) is excellent fished wet, or sub-surface to fish which are showing/rising. I've found the best GRHE nymph pattern to be a size 12 goldhead, but this is really only effective in highish or slightly coloured water.
If your river has a grannom hatch you should be prepared for it. Having said that a sub-surface GRHE in the right size (without a tail) represents a good grannom emerger which will often take fish when a more realistic floater would be lost in the grannom explosion..
In May the midges usually show up so have some midge patterns handy - a Griffiths Gnat is ideal.
In June and early July the upper Wye had small black sedges coming off afternoon, hiding in the bushes and trees and coming back onto the water to lay in the evening. The grayling wouldn't look at anything else, and any small dark sedge pattern will work for these.
Bigger sedge patterns work in the evening on most rivers at this time of year.
July and August tiny dries often work well. Just try to match whatever is about.
In September you can bring out the GRHE again.

A weighted shrimp (if you have shrimp in your river) tied to the Goddard/Patterson pattern works well for grayling throughout the grayling season. It's an easy one to tie too.

Not forgetting - ask some local anglers what they fish throughout the season too.

Get thee a copy of 'Matching The Hatch' by Pat O'Reilly. It'll cost you roughly the same amount as 10 shop bought flies and save you untold amounts in the process. As a basic guide to the old chestnut of 'What fly?' it cant be beaten.
(And yes, it'll advise you to get a stack of GRHE's!!)

Andy

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GAIC Single Handed Casting Instructor

http://www.andygreyfishing.com/

hi, if you are looking for river flies id recomend talking to buzz, i just received some amazing flies and at a great price, he will give you great adive also if you need it