Some of my best fly fishing comes during the dog-days of mid summer. All that is needed is a careful choice of where & when to fish.
Fishing a lake near me. Manningford trout fishery.
I cast again a little further ahead than I thought necessary and began a very slow figure of eight retrieve just to keep in touch with the fly as I could not see the fish or their reaction. A few m...
Black Gnat Dry Fly Imitation for Dance Flies
I find that a size 18 Black Gnat works as well as any other fly when trout are taking the occasional Dance Flies.
Daddy Long Legs - The Daddy of Dry Flies
Dry fly fishing can be exciting when Daddy Long Legs are hatching. David Southall talks us through the best leader for dry fly fishing, when to use the Daddy as a dry fly and if sunken Daddies are ...
Hawthorn Flies & Black Gnats - Terrestrial Flies
Late April is the start of ‘Terrestrial Time’. The 25th of April is St. Mark’s Day, the time when the Hawthorn Fly (Bibio marcii) traditionally appears. Some years there is a glut of these relativ...
Large Dark Olives for dry fly fishing
Grayling have been rising to microscopically small midges & I’ve usually had to drop down to size 30 CdC flies to consistently tempt the fish. This has necessitated the use of soft actioned lig...
Competition Fly Fishing in Winter
One big brown of about 5lbs hit the back of my net which meant I avoided the blank but the whole side of the lake seemed to be void of fish! Although, the quality of the fish made it worth it.
Wild fish versus stocked fish | What side of the river's fence are you?
Written by David Southall with our thanks. When I first got into fly-fishing I was more than happy to catch stocked trout. They were usually significantly bigger than the wild fish & easie...
400 species of Chironomid. What to use?
It always amazes me how few fly fishers fish with tiny Midge imitations, particularly in winter when Midges are generally the only flies to hatch. There is not a single day in the year that some Mi...