My trout river wet fly box

River trout fishing can be both challenging and fun. One element that can add to the fun is whilst having the right flies, don’t carry so many that your spoilt for choice or that the number of fly boxes that you carry is becoming to much to lug around. The “wets” that I carry when river fishing are all in this one fly box. This included both bead head and non bead head nymphs and spiders as well as one row of small woolly buggers. If you carry this fly box and my dry fly box you will have flies available that can be successfully applied to the vast majority of ‘trout’ rivers and streams in Australia and New Zealand.

 

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Beadhead nymphs 

I am a firm believer that when fishing rivers you have to get down to where the fish are holding and also that flies particularly in faster running water should include “hot spots”. Bead head nymphs are an important part of my ‘trout’ river fly box because they help satisfy both of those criteria. I like to fish them either on the point or first dropper and find that are a great adjunct to a second weighted fly or an unweighted nymph, wee wet or spider.

WIP:
#16 / 2mm copper TBH Droz variant
#16 / 2.5 mm silver TBH Droz variant
#16 / non bead head slightly weighted Droz nymph variant

Duracell jig nymph

I was attracted to this fly because it is made of two of my favourite fly tying materials UV Ice dubbing and CDC. It has looked like a winner since I first saw this fly and it has not let me down. Designed by, as I understand it, Craig McDonald it is a very popular fly in Europe and fast developing a following in Australia and New Zealand.

TBH chocolate caddis nymph

Caddis are are common throughout the year but with the greater concentrations occurring from September through to March. They inhabit both running and still water and are a significant food source for most trout often reputed to represent up to 30% of a trout’s diet.

TBH collared hare and copper

A very effective fly yet perhaps the simplest of bead heads to tie. With elements of the hare and copper and an Adams fly in the dressing its logical that its default name became “hare and adams”.

TBH Dross nymph variant

In 2018 I was introduced a fly called a Droz nymph that had skipped my attention even though it has been used for several seasons with great success in Tasmania, Victoria and even NSW. It’s now one of the first river flies that I tie on.

TBH flash back PTN

Jeremy Lucas was our river coach leading up to the 2012 World Fly Fishing Championships and was very keen on thinner flies for this early season competition. I think its a great interpretation of a classic fly and commend it for your consideration.

 

Beadhead spiders 

I am a firm believer that when fishing rivers you have to get down to where the fish are holding and also that flies particularly in faster running water should include “hot spots”. Bead head spiders are an important part of my bead head ‘nymph’ fly box because that help satisfy both of those criteria. I fish them in two ways. The first is in conjunction with an unweighted spider and the second is with a bead head nymph. In each case I fish the heavier fly on the dropper.

Pheasant tail and partridge TBH spider

If you were to suggest to a North Country (UK) fly fisher that there is such a thing as a tungsten bead head spider they would think your a rod section short of a fly rod.

Tungsten bead head chartreuse and partridge spider

Bead head spiders fish very well in conjunction with traditional spider flies and give you the opportunity of adding a bit of flash to your team and more importantly get your team down a little. The benefit of that of course is that the added depth gives a little more vertical travel to your team of flies as they swing round at the end of the drift and start to lift, which as we all know is when the majority of hits occur when swinging spiders.

Tungsten bead head orange and partridge spider

I nearly always fish my bead head spiders on the point in a team of two flies and with a relatively heavily weighted nymph such as a TBH duracell jig nymph, TBH collared hare and copper or TBH chocolate caddis nymph on the top dropper on the dropper 60 or 70 centimetres up the leader.

 

Nymphs 

The word nymph has of course two fly fishing meanings. The first is “Juvenile, sexually immature stage of certain insects, usually similar to the adult in form, and which require an intermediate stage before becoming an adult. Mayflies, Caddis flies, Dragonflies, Damselflies, Stone flies and Midges are all insects that spend part of their life cycle in the water and have a nymph stage.” The second is flies tied to imitate the first i.e. “the nymphal stage of an insects life cycle”. I have narrowed down the selection of nymphs that I carry to just the list below.

Czech nymphs

The uncased caddis have quite a few similarities. They often adopt a curved fetal position and when they are free swimming they are more elongated still with a curved back but with a lifted head. The have short tail like filaments, have bodies of around seven or eight segments that may have abdominal gills at each segment, have darker heads with two or three segments and have 3 or more sets of legs below the head or toward the front of the grub.

Gold ribbed hares ear

This is probably up there in the top 3 or 4 best known nymph patterns. It’s a pattern that has stood the test of time and is suggestive of a wide range of caddis and mayfly nymphs and is best fished close to the bottom. It doesn’t matter if your in Argentina or Australia or any where between, past, above or below this is a true universal fly pattern.

 

Spiders 

I am a firm believer that when fishing rivers you have to get down to where the fish are holding and also that flies particularly in faster running water should include “hot spots”. Bead head spiders are an important part of my bead head ‘nymph’ fly box because that help satisfy both of those criteria. I like to fish them either on the point or first dropper and find that are a great adjunct to a second weighted fly or an unweighted nymph, wee wet or spider.

Greenwells spider

Many English flies have a spider version and Greenwells Glory is no exception. An interesting aspect of this fly is that the wing has been tied in beard style so as to camouflage the pint of the hook. The combination of the buggy shape, the movement of the soft hackle in the water often produce a hit. There is also the added benefit that they are so easy to tie. All river fly fishers should have a selection of English Spiders in their fly boxes.

Red tag spider

This fly whilst being very different to a sparsely dressed north country spider has proven itself as a prolific fish catcher and has earned a place in my nymph fly box. I have no hesitation in tying it on either in combination with a traditional spider, a bead head nymph or heaven forbid a bead head version of a north country spider.

 

River buggers 

These are small woolly bugger variants that I keep handy for river fishing and also as back ups when small buggers are need in still water fisheries. They are generally tied in jig hooks and around just 3.5 cm long.

River Jig Bugger – CDC orange TBH and black

This is really good representation of a woolly bugger for river fishing. It sinks well and the jig hook encourages the fly to bounce along the bottom hook point up which of course mitigates snags. Whilst I have set the recipe out below for the brown, black and olive jig buggers I also tie my sparkle bugger and skirted buggers in the form of a jig bugger as shown in the photos below.

Silver TBH CDC black sparkle fuzzel bugger

This one of the 4 colours of TBH jig buggers that I carry in my river fly box. It’s a great buggy looking fly that sink well and swims hook point up so less likely to get hooked up on the bottom othan flies that swim hook point down.

Silver TBH CDC black/red MKII fuzzel bugger

MKII woolly buggers without any weight are amongst my favourite top dropper flies when loch style fly fishing in lakes and these smaller versions with a silver tungsten bead are up there amongst my favourite river flies.

TBH / CDC river jig bugger – brown

In rivers they lend themselves to being swung down and across shallow water or to being swum down where the fish are holding in deeper pools. They also work well in a two fly Euro Nymph style team. In still water they are a great option fished alone at any depth to nervous fish and are an ideal middle dropper or point fly in a team of two or three buggers.