My 'trout' river wet fly box

This fly is one of a series of four woolly bugger flies that I tie specifically for river fishing. They sinks well and the jig hook encourages the fly to bounce along the bottom hook point up which of course mitigates getting snagged up. Most jig hooks are suitable for this fly but my preferences…

Prawns and shrimp are crustaceans, of the family Isopod, and are endemic to our Australian estuary waters. They are toward the top of the food chain for a lot of coastal species of fish including bream, flathead and whiting. Prawns and shrimp are similar in form and function to each other and have…

There are over 470 species of Caddis flies in Australia and they all lay their copious numbers of eggs in water. Given the numbers of caddis pupa (or nymphs) that hatch it's not surprising that Caddis fly pupa form arguably the largest part of a trout's diet. Caddis flies are of the order…

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…

This fly whilst not being representational of any particular caddis is a good buggy looking fly that incorporates a hot spot in the form of a ultra violet (UV) emerging wing bud. Caddis are are common throughout the year but with the greater concentrations occurring from September through to March….

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,…

Jeremy Lucas was our river coach leading up to the 2012 World Fly Fishing Championships and one of the flies we fished was a flash back bead head nymph but it was unlike other flash back flies we had all fished in that the flash was very thin. Jeremy's view was that too much flash spooked the fish….

A very effective fly yet perhaps the simplest of bead heads to tie. I think it's all about form and function and of course the hot spot added by the collar. This is one of my heavier flies and as well as the tungsten bead includes 9 or 10 wraps of the appropriate size lead wire. Materials  …

I was introduced to spider fishing a couple of years ago and had the opportunity in 2010 of tweaking my spider fishing skills when I fished the Eden river just outside Penrith where I was born. Fishing spiders or particularly swinging spiders has always worked well for me, I guess its in the blood….

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. Many English flies have a spider version and…

If you were to suggest to a traditional North Country (UK) fly fisher that there is such a thing as a bead head spider they would think your a rod section short of a fly rod. For their sake you could call this fly and my other "bead head spiders" "bead head soft hackles" but I find that more people…

If you were to suggest to a North Country (UK) fly fisherman that there is such a thing as a bead spider they would think your a rod section short of a fly rod. For their sake you could call this fly and my other "bead head spiders" "bead head soft hackles" but I find that more people get the ideas…

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 streamlined fast sinking fly that will anchor your team. Materials Hook Head Extra weight (optional) Thread Tail Body Thorax Coating Hanak 300BL #14 / #16 3.0mm / 2.5mm slotted faceted gold tungsten bead 0.010 lead wire Fl fire orange UTC UV thread Coq de Leon Fibres Brown Micro Glint Black nail…

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. For their sake you could call this fly and my other "bead head spiders" "bead head soft hackles" but I find that more people…

In 2018 I represented Australia at the Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships in N. Ireland and in the lead up to that event I was introduced to 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…

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…

This fly is one of a series of 4 woolly bugger flies that I tie specifically for river fishing. They sinks well and the jig hook encourages the fly to bounce along the bottom hook point up which of course mitigates getting snagged up. Most jig hooks are suitable for this fly but my preferences are…

This tungsten bead head / cul de canard river bugger is one of a series of six 3.5cm bugger variants that I carry for those occasions in rivers and still water where I need a small very buggy looking fly to either fish alone or in a team. In rivers they lend themselves to being swung down and…

This fly is one of a series of 4 woolly bugger flies that I tie specifically for river fishing. They sinks well and the jig hook encourages the fly to bounce along the bottom hook point up which of course mitigates getting snagged up. Most jig hooks are suitable for this fly but my preferences are…

Whilst there are over 5000 different species of aquatic bugs Australia only two are of significance to the fly fisherman. The family Corixidae or Water Boatman come in a variety of shapes but all generally consist of a body between 5 and 10 mm in length. They have two sets of wings with the font…

Snails are a food source for trout throughout the year. Having said that they are often overlooked by fly fishers. In colours imitating the naturals in the area to be fished they can be slowly twitched along the bottom or around the weed beds with great results. They are also a good ambush fly for…

This fly has it's origins based on my non bead-head inch nymph fly that I started tying over 20 years ago. For about 10 years now I have been tying this bead-head version in in black, dark olive, Adams colours, claret and brown. It's a great buggy looking fly and one of the on-going inclusions in…

When Chironomids move from the detritus matter in which they hatch and live for a substantial part of their pupal life they are often blood red and consequently are known as blood worms. As they move toward emergence the blood red colour gives way to brown, olive and even almost black coloration….