which fly for dy fly fishing in june...

johnpawl

I have been fishing wet fly for the past few years and am hoping to get into dry fly fishing now. I was just wondering what flies would i buy to have the best chance of success? any advice would be greatly appreciated...
Usual river i fish is the cork blackwater.. Thanks..

coolwings

"Trout Flies for Irish Waters", by Michael Kennedy, Ph.D.

http://www.cfb.ie/pdf/troutflies.pdf

okedoke

John
at the moment I'm mostly fishing midges (sz18/20 grifffiths gnat) and small olives (sz 18-14) during the day and spinners and sedges (elk hair caddis mostly) in the evening - obviously it depends on what's on the water at a given time.

Whats the water level on the Blackwater like at the moment?

okedoke

BoarHunter

+1 for me at the moment the elk hair caddy is the one out of the box.

johnpawl

okedoke wrote: »

John
at the moment I'm mostly fishing midges (sz18/20 grifffiths gnat) and small olives (sz 18-14) during the day and spinners and sedges (elk hair caddis mostly) in the evening - obviously it depends on what's on the water at a given time.

Whats the water level on the Blackwater like at the moment?

okedoke

hey okedoke.
thanks for the advice, water level extremely low at present, would that have implications for dry fly fishing? In relation to matching whats on the water at a given time, to tell the truth i find it hard to discern whats on the water or what they're feeding on........!

coolwings

John If you want specific suggestions here is a "list of essentials":

Either White midge or yellow midge = caenis imitations size 16-20
Little red sedge, or any small ginger brown sedge = a multitude of sedges and moths, size 12-16
Red spinner 16 = olives in the evening
Ginger quill 16 = olives in the daytime
Badger quill 16-18 = general purpose olive or midge
Black gnat 16-20 = always a few flitting about
Pheasant tail nymph 14 - 16 = general purpose olive before it hatches, ie morning or afternoon
Bead head PT 14 for fishing under an indicator or sedge = deeper fishing version of above
1" polystickle tied thin = what you use when they are hunting fry, or not eating your dry flies

This covers almost everything for June - August on fertile streams. Mountain streams would have a few other flies about.
There are many alternative patterns, for every alternative that is adequate, the equivalent one of the above could be done without.

If you can't identify the flies on the water, the free book link I gave above had them all with no pictures. For photos get one of John Goddards books or a GB and Irish fly book (not US - their flies are different) from the library and read it. But size and relative brightness of darkness of a natural are the important features, not absolute colour matching.

okedoke

johnpawl wrote: »

hey okedoke.
thanks for the advice, water level extremely low at present, would that have implications for dry fly fishing? In relation to matching whats on the water at a given time, to tell the truth i find it hard to discern whats on the water or what they're feeding on........!

Johnpawl
at this time of year and with the river levels so low at the moment and the sunny weather there's very little going on during the day in terms of dry flies. Once light levels start falling around 9.30 or so the river should come alive with two main types of fly
1) spinners - these are the final stage of development of upwing flies (like the blue winged olive). They fall on the river's surface and trout sip them down gently.

2) various types of sedge - these look a little like moths and flutter around above the river surface - usually brown in colour - they really get going once it almost dark. Trout will go mad at these and violently slash at them.

Because of the difference in the way trout usually feed on sedges (violent slashes/rises) and spinners (gentle sips that dimple the surface) it's usually easy to determine which fly to use.

I would concentrate on fishing sedges - much easier I think. Elk hair caddis (sizes 12 - 16) or cdc bubble sedges (same sizes) are my two favourite sedge imitations.
Elk hair caddis http://www.theessentialfly.com/caddis-trout-flies/elk-hair-caddis-brown-trout-fly.html



I was fishing on the Suir last Sunday from 2pm. I caught I think 3 trout until around 9.30 and about 20 on sedges and spinners between then and 11 in a 20 yards run. Great craic and pretty much the easiest fishing of the year.

okedoke

jack01986

Just tied up a few of the sedges there will try them out tomorrow Id say.

BoarHunter

Elk hair caddy worked the treat again tonight ! 5 fish in 50 minutes, all back to the river.

davidk11811

I'm just getting into fly fishing and I was looking on amazon for some flies, I found 50 trout flies for 7.50 pounds including shipping. I was wondering were they a good buy or am I just wasting my money. Heres a link so you can see them
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00322CNM6/ref=s9_simh_gw_p200_i3?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1PE8VZ24YGSDT4W2C1X9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467198433&pf_rd_i=468294

coolwings

davidk11811 wrote: »

I'm just getting into fly fishing and I was looking on amazon for some flies, I found 50 trout flies for 7.50 pounds including shipping. I was wondering were they a good buy or am I just wasting my money. Heres a link so you can see them
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00322CNM6/ref=s9_simh_gw_p200_i3?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1PE8VZ24YGSDT4W2C1X9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467198433&pf_rd_i=468294

They are fancy lures - what you fish for rainbow stocked trout when you don't know what they are really eating. A few of the smaller black ones would catch wild browns, but don't buy them unless it's rainbows you hope to catch.

davidk11811

coolwings wrote: »

They are fancy lures - what you fish for rainbow stocked trout when you don't know what they are really eating. A few of the smaller black ones would catch wild browns, but don't buy them unless it's rainbows you hope to catch.

That makes sense, I won't be doing any rainbow fishing so I may aswell spend the money on some good brown trout flies, any suggestions on what kind I should? Just some basic flies as I don't intend to spend a fortune. Thanks

johnpawl

thanks alot for the help lads, I'll try ye're advice next week and see how i get on....

ironbluedun

davidk11811 wrote: »

That makes sense, I won't be doing any rainbow fishing so I may aswell spend the money on some good brown trout flies, any suggestions on what kind I should? Just some basic flies as I don't intend to spend a fortune. Thanks

Those Amazon things are next to useless and I would bet the quality is crap.... good flies are expensive so it depends upon where and how you intend to fish... starting off i would stick to the traditional patterns in small sizes bibio, green peter, black pennell, gold ribbed hares ear, etc the tried and tested patterns... dont fall into the habit of accumulating too many flies and too many patterns.

coolwings

ironbluedun wrote: »

....... dont fall into the habit of accumulating too many flies and too many patterns.

Welll said!
If there is problem that can paralyse you as an effective fly fisher, I think it has to be that one.
If you cast badly, you are still fishing the water nearby. But if you are changing flies all day, your hook is out of the water.

BoarHunter

coolwings wrote: »

Welll said!
If there is problem that can paralyse you as an effective fly fisher, I think it has to be that one.
If you cast badly, you are still fishing the water nearby. But if you are changing flies all day, your hook is out of the water.

when you know you are covering rising fishes but that your fly isn't taking you need to have a browse i suppose

johnpawl

couldnt get an elk hair caddis in the two shops I tried, so tried a CDC and didnt have any luck with it, will try again tonight though...plenty fish rising alright though....will try get an elk hair caddis during wknd..

okedoke

johnpawl wrote: »

couldnt get an elk hair caddis in the two shops I tried, so tried a CDC and didnt have any luck with it, will try again tonight though...plenty fish rising alright though....will try get an elk hair caddis during wknd..

Johnpawl
theessentialfly.co.uk, good quality, quite cheap flies and pretty quick delivery to Ireland. They shoud have everything you need.

Okedoke

johnpawl

well I finally managed to obtain an elk hair caddis...will it still work for july do ye reckon??when is a good time for dry fly fishing in relation to a flood (flood up now on my local river, must get aftr salmon)