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Because the 2019 trout river season due to open across our eastern states I have started a review of my various fly boxes that will come in to play.

For me

My "trout" river wet fly box

is the most important fly box in the open season so that has been my first fly box reviewed.

These are the changes I have made:

• 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 one fly called a Droz fly that had skipped my attention even though it has been used for several seasons with great success in Tasmania, Victoria and even NSW. Anyway the big change to my fly box this year is that I have added three versions of that Droz fly to my trout river wet fly box.

#16 / 2mm copper TBH Droz variant

#16 / 2.5 mm silver TBH Droz variant

#16 / non bead head slightly weighted Droz nymph variant

• The other big change is the indicator that I use. Until the 2018 Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships in N. Ireland I was using a section of coloured line as my indicator when fishing two flies European style in rivers. At that event I was introduced to neon wax and I have to say for me it's the absolute bees knees leader indicator for me. It's easy to apply to any knot or just the leader, comes in a range of colours including orange, red and chartreuse and can be wiped off your line if you decide that the indicator is at the wrong depth or spooking fish.



• Finally the other change I have made is in response to there seeming to be declining numbers of fish in the trout rivers and streams that I fish and those that are there seem to becoming more finicky and more responsive to smaller flies. With that in mind I have started tying many of my flies one size down from earlier seasons ... I'll let you know how that goes.

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