One of the things that many fly anglers puzzle about is what flies to use; whether it is on the River Usk, River Monnow or any other river; or, for that matter, which flies are working at a certain lake. So I have decided to focus this months blog page on exactly that subject.

With the thought of Mayfly fishing on the minds of many fly fisherman, you would think it the obvious place to start, but its not really as these don't put in an appearance until the latter half of the month.
Until then the trout have all sorts of insects on the menu and we, as practitioners of the art of fly fishing, have all sorts of interesting imitations to cast upon the water. So this month I am going to divide the blog entries into rivers rather than date. I will try to give a link to "Step by Step tying instructions" for each fly I use or mention.

What flies to use on the River Usk

I have spent the last couple of days fishing on the Usk and there have been a plethora of flies and insects on the water but which are the best flies to use on the River Usk?
The most common was probably the Black Gnat. I found a good imitation fly for this was either a Griffith's Gnat, or best of all, especially when the trout are just sipping at the emerging insect, has been the Shuttlecock Buzzer. Although I did have a couple of fish on a Deer Hair Emerger or DHE as it is often called. A step by step for this fly can be found here. The one I was using was tied with a seal fur substitute body of yellow to imitate the Yellow Mays(Heptagenia sulphurea) that were hatching earlier in the day.

This weekend I am off to fish the River Monnow for two days with a group of friends. I will update the web page with what are currently the best flies to fish on the Monnow when I get back.

What flies to use on the River Monnow

Fishing on the river Monnow over the weekend there were a fair few different flies on the wing for the trout to munch and the fly fisherman to imitate.

While I was on one of the tributaries of the River Monnow, the Dore, there was a good hatch of Large brook duns. These can be imitated well with Greenwells Glory size 12-14 or a Parachute Greenwell. I tried both of these patterns and neither really raised much interest from the trout. Another of the flies that were hatching were midges or chironomids so I tried a small black shuttlecock (see above in the Usk entry for link to tying instructions). This was the choice of patterns for a good part of the afternoon until I saw a mayfly or two hatch from one pool. From then on I fished a mayfly nymph with a gold bead on until the evening. I caught a few fish with it including this nice brownie from a deep rooty run.

Once evening came and the Large brook duns fell as Large brook spinners, I fished a parachute Adams variant with two large fibbets tied in as tails. The trout took this fly with gusto. They were some of the best dry fly fishing takes I have had so far this season.

The tying for a parachute Adams can be found here:

Step by step for Adams Parachute.

For the Greenwell variant: change the colour of the dubbing and hackle to suit.

This may also help:

SBS basic Parachute Fly

Frank

Top of Page

Top of Page