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For the sake of convenience I have broken my fly suggestions up into 5 distinct sections. I have put those sections in the order in which I methodically go through as I determine what fly or flies to tie on.

MATCHING THE HATCH WITH DRY FLIES

It's hard to beat the exhilaration that comes with surface strikes particularly if you have the opportunity of watching it all happen so I put my match the hatch dry fly suggestions as the first pat of this list. It doesn't matter if its a competition or a social outing I can't imagine that any experienced river fly fisher would turn up at a river where fish are rising and not start fishing by matching the hatch. Presenting a dry fly or emerger that is as close as possible in form and function to the natural can be a lot of fun. If there's no hatch on or visible don't rule out the opportunity of some surface action. A good idea is to have a good look around when you first arrive at a river as there may be enough evidence close by to give you guidance as to what selection to make. Have a look under a couple of rocks and determine the type, colour and size of the local nymphs. Use that information, local knowledge, what you have read about the fishery or close by fisheries and what other have told you to match the hatch with your selection for a dry fly or emerger that may bring a fish up.

There is of course the mid point between fishing a dry fly or moving onto what I regard as the "money game" which I see as fishing two bead-head nymphs.

That mid point is fishing a wet fly under a buoyant dry fly and there is plenty of justification for that. I have not embraced that option very much myself but I do know that it is very popular with a lot of fly fishers. One of the reasons this approach is popular is that the dry fly can be a very visible indicator of a fish taking the wet fly below. The wet fly can of course be a bead-head nymph or a lightly weighted or unweighted nymph with much of the choice of the dry indicator fly and the wet bait fly being determined by the buoyancy of the dry fly and of course the weight of the choice of the wet bait fly. To make that choice a little easier for the dry indicator fly I have identified the flies best suited to that indicator role by showing those dry flies across the two columns in the first part of the following table.

Generic dry flies

These are not tied to represent any particular insect but rather are very buggy looking on the water and have a proven track record.

#10 to #12 Royal Wulff

#12 to #14 hair winged royal coachman

Hoppers & crickets

It's not unusual to see fish taking the occasional hopper as it floats down a river and they do of course work well as indicator flies in nymph under dry team.

#12 summertime hopper

Stimulator

Foam cricket

Beetles

It's not unusual to see fish taking the occasional beetle when its floating down a river either.

Foam beetle

#12 to #16 red tag

Coch-Y-Bonddu

Mayflies

Some rivers have full blown Mayfly hatches whilst for other rivers it may just be spasmodic hatches particularly late in the afternoon. In any case I reckon that mayflies are like candy to trout so if there is any mayfly action at all it is certainly worth giving a mayfly imitation a swim.

#16 CDC mayfly dun

#12 or #14 plume

#12 or #14 iron blue dun

#12 or #14 possum brush emerger

Brown Para-dun emerger

#14 to #18 Caenis Dun

#10 to #12 Lepto Dun

Ants & termites

If you get an ant or termite hatch on the river it drives the fish crazy.

Black ant

Termite

Caddis

Caddis flies are also known as sedge because of their habit of clinging to sedge grass along the banks of rivers and impoundments . . . well at least in the UK they do. Caddis flies have four wings which, even though one set is slightly forward of the other , basically present as a v shape running back along the body of the fly. They don't have tails but they often have long antenna.

Elk hair caddis

Hot butt caddis

Wedge sedge

Spinners

Often in the glides you will find fish rising generally to red or orange spinners but sometimes to black spinners.

Black spinner

Red or orange spinner

THE MONEY GAME - FISHING TWO TBH NYMPHS.

I mentioned above that for me the "money game" or the most productive river fishing method is to fish two tungsten bead-head nymphs. There is no substitute for presenting your flies bouncing along on or close to the bottom in much the same way as a dislodged nymph or a drowned terrestrial. This part of the list presents 16 flies that I select from to fish generally in teams of two.

These are the 20% of my river flies that catch 80% of my fish and consequently the flies I turn to for most of my river fly fishing.

I am still very conscious of matching the hatch and make my selections from the above and from the next section of the list which is my non bead-head unweighted and lightly weighted nymphs with matching the hatch very much in my thoughts.

Also it's always worth keeping in mind that when there is no evident hatch it's prudent to think outside the square for help with your fly selection. Often if you keep a weathered eye on your surroundings there may be something there to give you some guidance. Good examples are the shuck of a recently hatched nymph on a rock or on vegetation or alternatively it may be the presence of terrestrials either on the wing or in the close by vegetation.

If there is nothing there to give you some guidance make your selection carefully keeping in mind what is likely to be around in the specific river your fishing at that time of year.
These lists may help you in that regard.

What trout eat – Central Tasmania
What trout eat – Central Victoria
What trout eat – Snowy Mountains of NSW and Victoria
What trout eat – sub alpine NSW and Victoria

TBH black inch nymph

TBH Brown inch nymph

TBH Olive inch nymph

TBH "Adams" inch nymph

TBH Claret inch nymph

TBH CDC prince nymph

Gold TBH skinny PTN

Silver TBH duracell

TBH brown caddis nymph

Gold TBH orange spider

Czech nymph

#12 & #14 pink collared gold TBH hare and copper

#14 purple or red tag shock flies

#12 copper TBH stone fly drone

TBH collered copper Mary

#14 pink TBH natural CDC chocolate jig

Bombs - #10 & #12

Micro nymphs - #18 to #22

Non bead -head un-weighted and lightly weighted nymphs

I am still very conscious of matching the hatch when I make my selections from this section of the list. Even with that in mind I still only generally select from this range of flies when:

1. I want the point fly to swim a little higher or more naturally in the water column.
2. The water is too slow or shallow to fish two TBH nymphs, even those with quite small beads
3. I want to fish a nymph under say an emerger to fish taking close to the surface,

When I do these flies they are generally in the sizes #12 to #16 range and I fish them on the point with one of the flies from the above TBH combinations on the dropper or a buoyant dry fly on the dropper.

PTN

Lake nymph

Brown fuzzy nymph

Black spectra nymph

Olive fuzzy nymph

Black & peacock spider

Red tag spider

Gold ribbed hares ear nymph

Dwial bach

WOOLLY BUGGERS

I always like to have a few small jig head woolly buggers in my river fly box just in case all else has failed. I like the jig heads because they tend to swim hook point up so do not get snagged up as much as straight hooks and of course the holding power of a jig hook is greater than a straight hook. You can fish them on the point and have a second nymph on a dropper or you can fish the bugger alone on the point and twitch it through likely looking water.

Silver TBH MKII black/red jig woolly bugger

Gold TBH MKII olive/orange jig woolly bugger

Red or orange TBH black sparkle jig woolly bugger

Silver TBH duracell jig bugger

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