The Klinkhamer Special needs no introduction. Developed by Hans van Klinken in the 1960s, the pattern has become known as one of the most widely used flies worldwide. I love this pattern when fishing my home waters in South Wales, UK, and more so on the small, fast-running streams for…
This is a pattern that (if you've ever fished with me) you'll know is on my leader pretty much every outing, and sometimes regardless of what's hatching. This is one of those perfect everything-and-nothing flies and one that imitates not just midge but also small olives/mayflies/Ephemeroptera. Materials Hook: Fulling Mill…
She's finally starting to wake up. After what seemed like a season full of heavy rain and high levels, May finally gave the feel of a river alive with invertebrates. More importantly, trout were looking up. https://youtu.be/miM2gcJct8g
"I can't see what they're taking. What should I use?" "I've tried every fly in my box, but I just can't get the trout to look at my fly!" Dimple rises. Those tiny, sometimes almost imperceptible indentations of evidence of feeding trout. Even on the coldest days on our Welsh…
A cold start followed by warmth, but several stalling hatches of Brook Duns, Large Dark Olives, Chironomids and Alderflies (likely due to the cold north-easterly gusts) failed to elicit any significant surface activity throughout the day. Luckily, we did find one consistently surface-feeding trout, creating the type of rise which…
It is the end of February, and the start of the new trout season in Wales is just six days away. Focus from most of the fishing community is currently on the upcoming voluminous hatches of the March Brown (Rhithrogena germanica) and Grannom (Brachycentrus subnubilis), however, there is one invertebrate…
Initially developed by Bob Wyatt as a follow-up to his Deer Hair Emerger (DHE), the Snowshoe Hare Emerger (SHE) is a fantastic pattern that imitates a vast range of invertebrates and caddis and, at a push, I don't see why it wouldn't feel comfortable imitating midge. Its messy, noisy, buggy…