Hello, im a beginner river fisherman, i was wondering if anyone could tell me a few things about Tying river trout flies, i know about the general hares ear/ PTNS and black magics, if would be gratefu if you could tell me ;

What hook sizes to tie nymphs and dries on?
What flies to tie and different dubbed flies etc?
What size beads to get?
What dry fly dubbing to get?
What sort of leader setups to fish dries and nymohs and different styles of fishing them?
What sort of pulls/areas of the rivers to target whe fishing nymphs/dries?

I currently have a 4# 8ft rod, with a 4# reel and some thigh waders so im prepared for fishing just what/where/how to fish them

Not much then .....

Let's start with sizes of nymphs and dries....

Sizes 12 down to 18 will cover most eventualities. A fine wire hook for the dries TMC100 or TMC103bl if you're looking for barbless. The Partridge Flashpoint Ideal Nymph Hook is a good allround hook for nymphs.

What flies to tie ... very much depends upon the time of year and where you're going to be fishing. For a good range of quite general patterns for river fishing Mike Weaver's, 'The Pursuit of Wild Trout' is a good starting point.

Bead sizes? A range of tungsten beads 1.5 to 3mm should do it ... I like copper as gold often seems a touch too bright ... personal foible.

Dubbing. I'd go for one of the 'Super Fine' dubbing cubes - the Oliver Edwards one contains all the colours you'll need.

Your last two questions are rather difficult - so much depends on where you're fishing, conditions, time of year etc but for a 'general' dry fly leader I start by needle knotting a 5x tapered leader to my fly line. I often cut off the first two feet of the butt end to shorten the tapered leader to 7ft or so, then add my tippet - I use Rio Powerflex 6x and 7x mostly. For nymph leaders I prefer Stroft.

Where to fish? Fish will lie in those places where they can feed with the minimum effort and where food comes to them. Shallow depressions, creases and on the edge of eddies created by stones, tree roots etc.

__________________
[I]"I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel."[/I] Roderick L Haig-Brown

[url]www.wildfly.net[/url]

[url]http://www.gameanglinginstructors.co.uk/[/url]

Thanks Lighthouse, i will be fishing all year round on the Kelvin, Clyde, and in IReland

I'm not familiar with either the Kelvin or the Clyde but I suspect some spider patterns might be beneficial too ... flies like the Snipe & Purple, Dark Watchet and Early Brown may well 'do the business' especially in the early season in sizes 14 and 16.

__________________
[I]"I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel."[/I] Roderick L Haig-Brown

[url]www.wildfly.net[/url]

[url]http://www.gameanglinginstructors.co.uk/[/url]

Certainly the Klinkhammer is a must-have dry fly for the river angler. If you check out River Fly Box, trout, flies, tying, patterns, CDC, emergers, dry, nymphs you will find great tutorials on how to tie all sorts of river flies.

If you have all or even some of these flies in a few sizes and colours, you will be more than ready to fish. Of course, you will want to make your own variations on these flies and invent your own flies, but most of the skills are available here.

There is a Woodcock & Hare's Lug spider here, but the tying sequence can be more or less copied to tie other spiders like the snipe and purple, waterhen bloa, partridge & orange and black magic.

I would add a CDC and Elk CDC&Elk (there's a video tutorial of how to tie it.)

F-flies are great, like the first photo on the left here River Fly Box, trout, flies, tying, patterns, tying with CDC, cul de canard, dry fly

I would say generally fish a dry upstream, maybe at 45 degrees rather than directly upstream (if possible) because that way a fish has less chance of seeing your leader and tippet. Importantly, unless you are immatating sedges, keep the dry fly drag free, letting it drift with the current instead of being pulled in an unnatural direction (that's often much easier said than done).

theres no rules but this is what i do for nymphs.

12's - 3.5mm tungsten bead (normally on the point to get the nymphs down)
14's - 3mm
16's - 2.5mm

i dont bother tying any smaller than 16's on my nymphs as these tend to do the trick in general, but im sure many do.

if im tying a shrimp which is doing well atm, i will use lead instead of a bead. tie some wraps around the hook and build up a small nice shrimp shape. i tend to tie these on a 12.