Blog

Your stillwater Corixa - tie it and fish it!

Get ready!

Are you enjoying your summer fishing?

Have you ever heard of a Tailless BWO?

Fishing & Tying For Stillwaters

As we expect to see more caddis on the wing in June, arming yourself with some sort of imitation is never a bad idea. Granted, most of the surface activity will take place in late afternoon and into the evening, but adult caddis can be on the wing at anytime of day, especially given a light breeze. Early mornings are a key time too, particularly before the sun hits the water.

What’s Happening?

With the best of the spring upwinged hatches but a memory now, we can look to June with caddis (sedges) in our sights. There are many caddis species throughout the UK, though it’s not a requirement that we are able to identify them all. The main two groups are Hydropsyche and Rhyacophila, which both hatch in open water and generally towards evening time. That said, if we experience cool, wet days then they can emerge from the afternoon to early evening.

What’s Happening?

June heralds the start of damsel fly activity proper and whilst adult damselflies occasionally interest fish, it’s the nymph form that excites trout most. Best of all too, is the nymphs migrate shorewards before crawling up reed stems and the likes to emerge from their nymphal shuck. And in doing so, they inadvertently expose themselves to cruising trout, which will be quick to take advantage.

When it comes to river trouting - May definitely belongs to our largest ephemerid species the Mayfly. Best copied using #10 and sometimes #8 hooks the sheer size of Mayflies make them instantly recognizable. If there’s any doubt the olive/yellow body and heavily flecked wing of Mayfly duns are a give away.

May is an exciting month for fly fishers. It seems spring has now sprung as everything has burst into life.

The month of April plays into the dry fly enthusiast’s hands in April. Not only will there be the leftovers from Large dark olive hatches, but Olive uprights, Large brook duns and Iron blue duns will be on the menu too. The latter might be small, but IBDs often appear in huge numbers, making them an important hatch for trout. Often too, all the above flies will hatch side by side, giving us some of the finest dry fly sport of the season.

Sometimes accidents happen but in a few cases, it’s a fault with the product that needs to be rectified under warranty. Here’s some information on how the warranty works to get you and your kit back fishing...

Check out these great tips from our Pro Anglers designed to get you catching

Olive Klinkhamer

In spring the weather can go either way. Faced with angry flood water, obviously nymphs we will need to scour the riverbed using nymphs

What’s Happening?

Blessed with mild weather, expect to see dark buzzers hatching with black and brown shades still the dominant colours. In shallow bays, immature damsel nymphs will be active thought these are a fraction of the size of those mature nymphs we see in early June.  They are also much lighter in colour too, either a pale green, or straw colour.  Along stony shores where gravel occurs, there’s a good chance of cased caddis and if the weather remains chilly then trout are likely to be grubbing about for these.

Understandably, river anglers will have their fingers crossed and be praying for decent conditions come the brown trout season on rivers. Chances are however there’s likely to be a deluge beforehand, rendering rivers out of sorts for dry fly fishing. With caddis larvae busy developing over the winter months the opening weeks of the season see many of these sheltering in their cases beneath stones and the likes.

Beadhead Straggle Tadpole Come spring, we’ll all be praying for mild conditions and hatching buzzers, yet the truth is we’re often subjected to chilly winds that send temperatures crashing. Often now, we have to adopt search tactics to cover more ground and hopefully, find the trout!

What’s Happening?
With winter beginning to release her icy grip, March sees fly life wake up on stillwaters. Blessed with reasonable temperatures upwards of 7oC we can expect to see dark buzzers emerging with dark brown and black being dominate colours. During more inhospitable conditions, trout are likely to be grubbing about in search of shrimp (gammarus) or cased caddis.

With so many manufacturers what size clothing do you need? Here you will find a size guide for each manufacturer available to The Essential Fly for easy measuring.