Fishing and tying small flies has been a huge passion of mine for a long time. These small bugs are in our rivers, streams and lakes all year round and are a major food source for trout. Tying small flies will also help you become a more proficient fly dresser,…
In this video, I tie a fantastic generic emerger pattern for trout. While I actually tie a March Brown Emerger imitation in this video, the pattern can be easily tweaked and adapted to cover any emerging upwing by simply changing its size. This generic, template-style dry fly pattern gives a…
It's always a blast demonstrating for fly tying clubs, and none more so than the Potteries Fly Tying Club. This was my third time tying for the club, and it was fantastic to visit Stoke-on-Trent again on Monday, 28th October, where I tied and chatted through a range of dry…
The first event of 2025 is booked, and I'm really chuffed at being invited back for my 12th year at BFFI. The show is easily the biggest and best in the UK and sees an unbelievable pool of fly dressing talent from all over the world converge on Stafford, UK,…
In this video, I tie the famous CdC and Elk, a pattern (developed by Hans Weilenmann back in the 1980s as a result of his time spent fishing in Montana) wielding CdC as an alternative to the equally famous rooster-hackled cadis imitation, the Elk-Haired Caddis. This is a pattern that…
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…