Not over until the Fat lady sings

The Grayling season is near the end, with the high water levels throught the winter it has got to be one of the hardest times i have experienced in fishing.. I can count on one hand how many times the Dove has been near ideal conditions.
I decided a month ago the stop thinking of grayling and get on the vice and do some homework on my early season trout ventures.
But today within a few weeks of the grayling season closing it looks like there is going to be a mad flurry.
Today i got my fix big time!!

Jelly Bean Caddis Dry Fly

Through out the Grayling season i have been messing around with the deadly but horrible squirmys !!
while using this weird material i started to stretch it around a body of a fly and noticed the amazing translucent effect this gave off.
so before long i was experimenting with the weighted tungsten bugs and the effects were amazing for such a easy fly to tie.
So while out bugging i did notice that the flys never seemed to go down to the depths of the river as good as a hairs ear type fly and then on returning home i threw a length of this squirmy material into a bowl of water and was amazed to see that it floated like a cork!
That was then when i thought what a good dry fly this mad stuff would be..
There are plenty of other materials on the market that can give a good transparent effect but as we all know but  they are a pain to use and sink !
so what are the advantages of using this material for the jelly bead caddis?
1. it floats
2. soft touch feel
3.dirt cheap
4.water proof (wont drown your fly)
5. gives a sick effect that hopefully the trout will love!
6. very realistic
7. very easy to use
8. using different squirmy colours and threads the limit is endless what effect you want

When i showed my mate Scott Webster he was laughing his head off as he said it looked like you could pop it with your fingers and goo would pop out !!
So below is the Jelly Bean Caddis emerger, i hope you have ago and come back to me with your results..
have a mess around with different threads and coloured squirmy.
Will it be better than any other Caddis dry fly? i dought it but its one cool mother fooking looking and easy to do..
Live the Dream
GP

Materials
Hook...Tiemco 212Y size 13 or 15 (funky fly)
Thread body...globrite "12 green (veniards)
Thread ...Roman moser (funky)
wing post ... flo yellow tiemco aero wing (funky fly
squirmy... glo green (funky fly) tan is cool too
attenae ... mallard bronze (brando fly tying)
CDC ... wild natural (brando fly tying)
Thorax...Harline uv lavender (funky fly ) or use squirel dubbing
wing...deer hair natures  spirit X caddis deer (funky)

jelly bean caddis emerger

whip down shank with globrite "12 (i will not say touching turns as thats for geeks)

Tie in half a aero wing at the point shown  on hook

make a nice little post!

build up thread on rear of hook to add a 'hump' like the natural

Tie in some squirmy... stretch the unwanted end off and trim off..

wind up stretching the squirmy to create the sick effect and tie off at post

fold back wing in F fly shape and tie off

Now start with some roman moser power silk and tie in the Mallard antenna

tie in some wild cdc (4 plumes tips) dont trim or looks shite

dub in some sparkle here to create the effect of a bubble, use squirel too if needed 

scruff up the thorax with a needle and tie in some deer hair for wing

finished fly ... looks like it will pop!!

fish view!! how can it fail!! slurrrrpp bang snap

some nymphs below using squirmy

Hendries CDC&PURPLE

Here is a fly I have developed over the spring period that has taken me so many fish.

It has all the triggers of a large dark olive tyed in size 14 or 16 

The cdc footprint wound around the throax gives a almost perfect profile ontop of the surface film..

Notice the 10 or so spleyed tails to stop the flys back end from dropping down. ..

I will be doing a video soon so keep a eye out on here .

Materails 

Tails ... Grizzle hackle cock 

Thread ... Glo brite #15 purple floss

Abdomen ... Stripped quill ginger 

Wings ... Three plumes of wild cdc 

Throrax ... Split thread style cdc

Purple triggers ... # 15 glo bright 

Spade Hooks getting me on the water film!!

Its been a while since i did a blog post but i have been updating my fishing adventures on facebook and twitter, it seems these days that thats how social media has gone but my blog has always been my highlight for me and the ammount of people who contact me from it is mad..I have done write ups for Steve Cullens Total Fly Fisher which has been brilliant but i cannot stay away from the fact that my blog has got me places you cant imagine.
This season i have had probably the best seasons fishing in my life, i have met many new friends and even got to meet up with my mucker Mathew wright as we shared the most memorable two days fishing on the Derbyshire Wye and Lathkill.
As always in my fishing life i am still living and breathing the rivers , i am still searching for huge trout and grayling, some would say this is not what its about but even from the age of 8 years old fishing the river churnet with a legered maggot i have always had the amazing feeling of catching a big special fish, this is what drives me and always will.
On my previous post i caught the fish of a lifetime on a dry fly, will i better it? surely one day i hope..
i had a few people question if this fish was wild!! it was quite obvious to me, but speaking to Tim Jacklin of the wild trout trust summed it up for me, he said he would bet his house on it being wild, its a male (they only stock females) and the markings and the size of the pectoral fins says it all.
Even Warren Slaney congratulated me, he could spot a stocky from a miles away!

Anyway enough of my updates, here is a fly that has blown me away this season for many reasons but i would like to start with a new method that i have been testing.
I remember speaking to Stuart Croft about getting the right profiles on dry flys and he stated that we always have one problem... we have a piece of metal attached to our fly and this totally messes things up to a degree and there is no way out of it..
Yes he was right, i have always had the problem of finding a lightweight hook, the only ones on the market are the Tiemco 103BL, these are lightweight and do a superb job but they tend to snap on occasions especially when hooking a big nasty brown.
I often take a look in my local coarse fishing shop for different bit in there game and as i walked past the hooks i saw some of the finest black light gauge hooks i had seen.. but on closer looking i saw the dreaded spade end..
To put in plain, spade hooks are still used by the match men because they can be manufactured extra fine and sharper than a eyed hook due to not have to form a eye.
This gives tem the edge for better presentation and so it would me!!
I bought some and set out to combat the spade!!
This season i had made what i call a daytime spinner, without going into detail it was tied on a size 16 up to a size 22.. it has caught me so many fish but using a extra light hook would really send the fly into a proper profile on top of the water film..
here is the you tube link fly tying video and i explain all about my theories in the fly... LTD Daytime spinner

The hooks that i have been using are a Mustard 60200NPBLN that can be bought from any tackle shops.they are super light and strong and around a quid for ten...

So what does this super light hook do on flys? it makes them sit right ontop of the water film which is more like the natural on fully emerged drys and spinners alike.. Also using size 22 tiny flys you are able to see them perfectly as they are not sitting half in the film...

To tie the proper knot on a spade hook is a no go on a tied fly, there is always the option to tie the line on then tie the fly so its all made up ready but i think this would be too much pissing about..
I have come up with a method that is easier than tying a normal eyed hook on, and also gives a added bonus for presentation.
I simply just make up a clinch knot on the line, slide the loop over the spade on the tied fly, wet and tighten up!
If you do this with the knot pointing down the line sinks under the water film for a few inches giving a deadly profile.
The only downside of this method than i can see is on weak lines the spade might slice the line but as yet i have had no problems at all.
I have also started to use the tying method on eyed hooks too which again gives a deadly profile and sinks the first bit of line..

Below is a picture of a size 14 hook with some big line to show what i am doing...

Below is a spinner tied on a spade hook with the line for illustration

Please email me if you have any questions and i am always happy to help where i can to fellow brothers on the fly

Still Living the Dream
Are U ?

GP

The bubble in the rise

The question that many anglers often ask is how to spot a grayling rising?

Well being on the river studying fish as often as I do you get to observe certain ways of rising fish..

People often say about the bubble left by a grayling which is very true but trout can do the same affect too so it's not a sure sign.

I often target grayling as my preferred fish for the dry fly as the satisfaction is much more than a trout due to how much your presentation needs to be spot on.. Without going into detail a persistent rising grayling  in my view will be become more preoccupied with the given hatch than a trout which can be tempted without matching the hatch (sometimes)..

A grayling will hold station in a feeding lane at the river bed and can see so much more than a trout that sits inches below the surface..

Therefore drag and the right choice of fly has been critical for me..

Last evenings fishing was all that I needed to get my hatch fix of grayling..

The BWO spinner falls are becoming less and the river did not have the prolific hatches of these spinners but never less there was enough to find around seven rising fish in the last hour which I managed to land 3 grayling and 2 trout with Richard Wards poly prop spinner..

Both trout were hit on first attempts and the grayling put my fly presentation to the test with 3 or four attempts..

The proof is there for me, any dry fly man I see catching 'proper' grayling on the dry is doing his job well..

I am out most nights this week getting my fix so plan to start updating my blog on a more regular basis..

Podcasts are going well and I have some real treats up my sleeve so to any readers or listeners get yourself off the couch on get these last few months of dry fly fishing before its too late

Nice one

Glen

 

OMBRÉ of the river Dove!

Ombré known by the French anglers for grayling meaning 'shadow' 

My Dove record graced my net earlier this week, a 49cm 3lb plus fish taken on a stripped quill F fly..

The love for these fish is becoming part of me..

Living the dream