Tiny flies and Brown trout

I had a short trip to the Yorkshire Dove yesterday ,  the river was still reasonably fresh following the recent rains and although at a typical low summer level it was carrying a tinge of colour.  There were few signs of fish rising other than the the tiny fish that were in the fast shallow runs.  The best tactic I have found when the river is slow and there are few rising fish to target is to use a small CDC F fly either a 18 or 20 . This general pattern seems always able to winkle out the odd fish when cast to the holding places and in to likely lies.  Either that or a Nymph into the deeper pools.  Today it was the F Fly approach .

Today three hours fishing resulted in 3 trout it was hard going .  Two were about 4oz apeice the third was this beauty that was sipping something tiny from the edge of the reeds on a slow glide.  It gave a very good account of itself with that paddle of a tail. The fly was a size 20 on a 2lb point.

After witnessing a kick sampling session on the river recently and viewing the results the comment was passed that generally we all fish with flies that are way to large, this after seeing the average size of the nymphs and resultant olives that hatched in the sampling tray afterwards .  A size 20 cdc is about as close a match as you can get.  perhaps the trout dont care , but my view is that sometimes they do and sometimes its essential .  I think that strict imitative patterns are ok but generally what really matters is size and presentation.  So often I see anglers on the river with boxes of different patterns but only in size 14 and maybe 16 , perhaps its because that is what the shops sell.  Who knows?  but I probably use less than a dozen patterns for 95% of my fishing but I will have sizes right down to a 20 , I would have 22s as well but my eyes arent up to the job. I am convinced that fishing flies and nymphs down to a size 20 dramatically increases my catches...

The Dove carrying a little extra colour.....