My 'trout' lake wet fly box

One of the first loch flies I was introduced was a mallard and claret tied in a traditional way with a pair of feather slip wings. I thought it was the bees knees as a bob fly and used it any time when mayflies were around. Over time I modified the tie until I reached the variation below. For me…

A “Dun” is that stage of the life cycle of a Mayfly when it emerges and rests on the surface of the water or nearby vegetation whilst its wings dry. During the Dun stage it is very vulnerable to passing and searching fish. The Caenis Dun is a generic representation for members of the “Caenidae”…

Mudeyes are the nymphal stage of the Dragonfly. There are two families that are particularly important to freshwater fisher folk in Australia. The Couta Mudeye is of the Family Aeshnidae, genus Hemianax and is one of the most popular freshwater fish bait throughout Australia. The lava or nymph are…

Developed in New Zealand as a lake fly probably to imitate their small native fish called a Cockabully or perhaps a frog this fly has heaps of applications in our Australian fisheries. We don't have Cockabullies here or an equivalent native fish but despite that they are one of our most successful…

I subscribe to a couple of British fly fishing magazines so its not surprising that I have been aware of "Mary" nymphs for quite a while. They are a recurring feature of many of the articles. I had tied and used them on and off for  few years but they really didn't come into their own until I…

Based on the Montana nymph which was developed in the earlier days of fly fishing in Montana America as an imitation for a stone fly. It has two distinct uses. The first is as a bait fly when fished behind a bead head nymph in faster rivers and streams. The second use is as as a middle dropper fly…

This is the lava of a Caddis fly (or Sedge) and is common from September through to December particularly in the flooded margins of lakes. Can be fished relatively static as a prospecting fly with a very slow retrieve or used as an ambush fly when polaroiding. Materials   Hook Thread Head Legs…

This fly has stood the test of time and has been on this web site since 2005. Over the last 10 or so years it has been my 'go to' fly when fishing to sighted fish or prospecting the shores of Lake Jindabyne particularly around our home village of Kalkite. The medium weight of the TMC 3769 hook is…

As many of you will be aware there is a Welsh fly called a "Green Peter". It was designed as a dry fly. In a crunch one day when I was fishing a slick and targeting fish that were taking just below the surface I included a Green Peter dry fly in my team with two English wee wets behind. There was…

In entomological terms a 'Bibio' is a March fly or St. Mark's fly both of which are true flies of the order Diptera. True Bibio larvae grow up in grassy areas and are herbivores and scavengers feeding on dead vegetation or living plant roots. They do not spend any part of their life cycle in the…

The name of this fly is Welsh and literally means "little devil". Regarded by many as one of the best flies ever created this fly is a great tie on as trout take it for everything from midge pupa right through to nymphs and stick caddis. I normally fish smaller sizes as a midge pupa and from time…

There are plenty of "Blobs" around but many of them look very much as the name suggests – just a blob of fur and feather. This is a "blob with attitude" and because it actually looks like a fly I find it a little easier to tie on than its very basic second cousins. It has a place in my fly box…

A variant of a old English wet fly this variant is in the same class as an Alexandra this fly as an attractor fly particularly when rainbows are the target. It is different to the original in that the dyed blue hackle has been replaced by blue barbells from the chest feathers of a male peacock and…

The 'Fiona' (Shrek's lady) as I have called this fly is a counter balance for the increasingly popular fly called a Shrek. It is in fact the same tie as the Shrek except that it incorporates different coloured materials. Both are basically Woolly Buggers by design and just as the emerald green is a…

This fly was out of left field as far as I was concerned and when I was first introduced to it I had no great expectation of it finding its way into my fly box. I was wrong. The bright tinsel body certainly stands out and rather than spooking fish as I expected it seems to trigger a response from…

Published: Mar 14, 2011 Midges are part of the Chironomidae family of true flies. They are very small as the name implies and their cycle is similar to the mayfly or the Caddisfly. When fish are taking midges the midges are generally available in large numbers. The Lava is between 6 & 12 mm in…

One of the best search flies in slow moving or still deeper water using a sinking line and a booby. If fishing from a fixed position cast it out, let the line sink to the desired depth, and then retrieve the line using a constant stripping motion, a pumping retrieve or a combination of both. The…

The Zulu tied with a black hackle body and a black tail has origins that go back to circa 1600 England. This fly deviates from the standard a little and has a white under-tail of antron tied in to represents a trailing shuck, seals fur dubbing and a soft hackle at the front so if it is used as a…

There are a few flies that I have absolute confidence in and consequently have no hesitation in tying them on if I am in unknown territory and am up for a bit of prospecting. This fly is really a merging of two of them and it is so consistent that its has earned its own place amongst my top 10 or…

My first fish on fly fell to the magic of a Woolly Bugger and many have gone the same way since then. The woolly bugger has its origins in America where it appears to be tied, as a leach imitation but there is also an English version with bead chin eyes called a Dog Nobler. Whatever the name it's a…

My first fish on fly fell to the magic of a Woolly Bugger and many have gone the same way since then. With its origins in America where it appears to be tied, as a Leach imitation there is also an English version with bead chin eyes called a Dog Nobler. Whatever the name it’s a very good fly. Its…

The Dunkeld is certainly one of my top 2 or 3 middle dropper flies for lock style fly fishing. Until mid 2012 I was using a version of the Dunkeld that had a hackle Palmered along the body as in the original. At that time I was experimenting with "fuzzeled" bodies an an alternative to bodies with a…

Another old fly this little beauty has its origins on the salmon and trout streams of Ireland probably around the 1820's. Its alternative name of  'hares ear and red' gives away its ancestry. Early versions of the fly presented were no more than a gold ribbed hares ear with a woodcock type wing…

This tungsten bead head / cul de canard river bugger is one of a series of 6 bugger variants that I carry in my trout river fly box. They are all very buggy looking flies that lend themselves to being swung down and across shallow water or to being swum down where the fish are holding in deeper…

In entomological terms a 'Bibio' is a March fly or St. Mark's fly both of which are true flies of the order Diptera. True Bibio larvae grow up in grassy areas and are herbivores and scavengers feeding on dead vegetation or living plant roots. They do not spend any part of their life cycle in the…

The name of this fly is Welsh and literally means "little devil". Regarded by many as one of the best flies ever created this fly is a great tie on as trout take it for everything from midge pupa right through to nymphs and stick caddis. I normally fish smaller sizes as a midge pupa and from time…

My bag fly is based on the Tom Jones flies and is suggestive of a number of items that find themselves on the trout's menu from time to time. They vary from the original Tom Jones flies in the materials used and the inclusion of an under-tail and beard. They are a good buggy looking fly. In…

It was the summer of 2000 that I first became involved on English style Loch Style fly fishing and slowly I accumulated an arsenal of techniques and flies. The Mallard & Claret was the first for me in this series. Whilst it has been tweaked at the edges a little this Mallard & Claret…

If your fishing in water with reasonably large numbers of caddis your going to want to give this small to very small bugger a swim. Caddis represent up to 70% of a trout's diet and whilst this fly is bigger than any caddis nymph I have seen trout love it. It is also a must tie on fly for…

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,…

The cormorant fly is a popular loch fly and particularly in rainbow trout waters. The original tie has a peacock herl body with silver rib, no tag or tail and no lateral flash so this competition version has a few more trigger points. It can be tied with a brass or glass bead head and the colour of…

The Cormorant was popularised by Graham Pearson who was a boatman in one of the English youth internationals. As the story goes it was one of those competition days when the fishing was tough and very few anglers boated fish. One of Pearsons angler bucked the trend and landed three fish using a…

In the late 90's I was president of Illawarra Fly Fishers Club (IFF) and lived in Wollongong but was lucky enough to have a holiday home on the shores of Lake Jindabyne. My favourite form of fly fishing at that time was polaroiding wild brown trout along the shores of Lake Jindabyne. That process…

There are over 100 different species of Damselflies in Australia and the lava which are usually slender with three terminal gills, that present as tails, form a significant part of a trout's diet. Their bodies have around 10 segments, they have 6 legs and they often have emerging wings. Most appear…

One of the first wet flies tied was the coachman and that consisted of just a black body and a set of white hackle slip wings. Over time flies have evolved and one path the coachman took was the substitution of a "royal" body for the simple black body. Many versions have been tied since and this is…

At different times of the year you will start to see swallows dipping on the water feeding on midge. This is the time to start thinking about fishing either damsel buggers or olive woolly buggers because unfortunately for the midge it's not only swallows that have them on their menu it's also…

Keep an eye for swallows dipping on the water feeding on midge. That's a sure sign that there will also be damsel nymphs around and then of course further up the food chain there are likely to be trout feeding on both the midge and the damsel nymphs. This is the time to start thinking about fishing…

As long as there is a flow in a river to work a fly then English Spiders are an option. Particularly if you want to target educated fish in clear slower water. Traditional (i.e. North country spiders) land softly and are suggestive little flies. The combination of the buggy shape, the movement of…

You can of course tie a hot head on any fly and from time to time when I am tying flies I add hot thread head to a couple of flies just to ensure that I have some options in my fly boxes. This fly takes the hot head concept to the next step and includes a bigger than average thread head which is a…

You can of course tie a hot head on any fly and from time to time when I am tying flies I add hot thread head to a couple of flies just to ensure that I have some options in my fly boxes. This fly takes the hot head concept to the next step and includes a bigger than average thread head which is a…

At different times of the year you will start to see swallows dipping on the water feeding on midge. This is the time to start thinking about fishing either damsel buggers or olive woolly buggers. Unfortunately for the midge it's not only swallows that have them on their menu it's also carnivorous…

If your a competition fly fisher, I would go as far as saying, this is one of those flies that you should have in your fly box. It can tied in any combination of colors but for me the three shown below are from my point of view the best options. I have called this a variant as my version includes a…

Even though I am not sure that I have seen any orange naturals that trout aggressively target they do readily take this fly in a range of conditions in both lakes and rivers. Tied with natural seals fur it is a fly that sits well on the water and easily sheds water with a snappy false cast. Easy to…

More of a class of fly than a fly in itself because you will find UV crunchers tied a all sorts of colours from black right through to dun colours and pale olives. I like this particular tie because it incorporates peacock herl which is one of my favourite fly tying materials. Materials   Hook…

Based in Maple Ridge, B.C. Todd Oishi designed his "leach" (Vampires are also a blood sucker hence the name) fly with a tail of black rabbit fur or black marabou and with Vampire Vippy as the body. I have not been able to find any Vampire Vippy and tie my Vampires with UV straggle fritz which I…

a.k.a. Shuggie This 'frog or dog nobler' type pattern by David Downey is a fusion of two flies. The first was 'frog or dog nobler' variant tied by Loch Leaven anglers Jock Hodge and Dusty Miller. That fly had small bead chain eyes on top, a black body palmered with an olive hackle and a tail of…

This is a variation of a bead head woolly bugger that has worked very well for me in Lake Eucumbene and Tantangara Reservoir on brown trout and on Lake Maroon for bass. Materials   Hook Bead/weight Thread Tail Rib Body Hackle Collar Knapek S #6 to #10 Metallic/anodised TBH pink bead 6/0 brown…

Based on the design of the carrot fly this version is particularly appealing to fish feeding on emerging Mayfly in Tasmania's central and western lake. Materials Hook Thread Body Hackle Hanak H300BL #12 Danville's orange 70 denier Orange seals fur Brown cock hackle Process   A Wind the thread…

When browns and rainbows are feeding on hatching midges at the exclusion of all else this buzzer chironomid pattern and when a little lead is added for weight in the tie I find is a good choice for point fly in a team of three flies. This buzzer is basically the same as many that are in common use….

Technically the term 'spinner' refers to that stage in a Dun's life cycle when it has moved off the water or, vegetation etc. after drying its wings. The adult or imago of all Mayflies, Caddis flies and Midges can technically be regarded as spinners. Having said that the term is generally used only…

It took me some time to get into using blobs but these days there are plenty of trout waters where I include a blob in my team most of the time. One of my favourite flies for waters where there is midge activity is the bibio and when I am fishing those waters most of the time I have a bibio on the…

Both boobies and blobs are each tremendous search flies in their own right particularly for stocked rainbow trout. This fly presents the best of both of those worlds and has the head an tail of a booby and the body of a blob. With a little flash in the tail it's one screamer of an attractor…

When Chironomids are around they tend to be around in large numbers and trout become quickly switched on and gorge on them. There are number of techniques to target chironomid feeders and one of my favourite is to fish three chironomid imitations with the heaviest on the point with a long leader on…

Any time there are caddis on the wing this fly is worth a swim in the middle position of a team of three loch flies. One of the most important things to remember when tying this fly is not to overdress it … make sure you can see a gap between the two wings even when the rabbit fur is dry and…

This fly is somewhat of a fusion of a traditional caddis pupa emerger and a squirmy wormy and it has earned a place in my fly box as a great middle or top dropper fly for both a loch style team and a river team. It is certainly worth tying on in the early stages of a caddis hatch as the pupas are…

[map state="NSW"]Completed in 1967 Lake Jindabyne is part of the iconic Snow Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme. Its an iconic lake has a reputation as a brown and rainbow trout fishery. It also produces reasonable numbers in the coldest of months. Jindabyne is the gateway for the NSW snow resorts and…

[map state="NSW"]Tantangara is one of my favourite lakes not only because its fishes well most of the time but also because it is harder than most of the lakes in the scheme to access and consequently it doesn't get as much fishing or boat pressure as some of the other lakes. Completed in 1960 by…

Technically the term 'spinner' refers to that stage in a Dun's life cycle when it has moved off the water or, vegetation etc. after drying its wings. The adult or imago of all Mayflies, Caddis flies and Midges can technically be regarded as spinners. Having said that the term is generally used only…

It took me some time to get into using blobs but these days there are plenty of trout waters where I include a blob in my team most of the time. This is one of my favourites blob flies particularly when the waters have a good population of rainbow trout. Materials   Hook Thread Tail Rear half…

This fly is one of a series of 4 woolly bugger flies that I tie specifically for river fishing and if I only had one woolly bugger in my river fishing fly box this would be the one. Most jig hooks are suitable for this fly but my preferences are Hanak, Fulling Mills and Knapek. I generally tie my…

I first used this fly in Canada in 2016 at the Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships. Tied by Josh Flowers from Tasmania I doubt that a session on the lakes passed without every team member tying this fly on their version of this fly on for at lease some of the time. I have since learned that it’s…

If you went back just a few years and you a asked an average fly fisher to name his for her favorite fly chances are it would be an unweighted, or lightly weighted probably with a few turns of lead wire, Fuzzy Wuzzy. The traditional Fuzzy Wuzzy has always been useful as a river and lake fly leading…

My first fish on fly fell to the magic of a Woolly Bugger and many have gone the same way since then. With its origins in America where it appears to be tied, as a Leach imitation there is also an English version with bead chin eyes called a Dog Nobler. Whatever the name it's a very good fly. The…