CDC emerger...

I have been restocking fly boxes over the last few weeks.  One interesting aspect of that is by inspecting the various boxes I have it gives a pretty good review of what worked last year.  The box of mayflies and sedges   was pretty much untouched all year apart from the daddies.  The wet year meant that the crane flies had a bumper year and when the rivers were fishable the daddies did well. My  box of yorkshire spiders was virtually intact from last winter.  Whereas the small dries were largely unused apart from the tiny size 18 and 20 adams.

One box that was virtually empty was the CDC box.  F Flies and IOBO humpys were thin on the ground and my version of a CDC emerger had been completely exhausted despite tying some more misd season..  This fly has been a killer for me the last couple of seasons and seems as useful for Grayling as for Brown trout.  Tied in sizes 14 through to 18 .  It seems to be effective across the board.

Sometimes I include a light dubbing of rabbit around the root of the wing . It is a fly that has caught a very large proportion of all the fish landed by me this year.  A very simple tie but very effective .  I have recently started to reinforce the stripped herl body with UV resin .  The hooks can be the very light Varivas 2200 or my preference the Daiichi D900.  These are all tied with natural quill but of course dyed quill can be very effective...

Happy Christmas

I wish all my readers wherever you are a very  happy Christmas and tight lines for the new year....
I wish you all a spring and summer of perfect river levels and soft summer evenings filled with rising trout.

  My evening fishing was perfection, kingfishers buzzed me and swifts screeched. Columns of mayfly spun their magic. Casts were straight and fish rose.  The evening blessed me with 8 or 9 fish all various sizes of perfection.  Cocooned between the deep banks and wrapped in the clear water for just a short time, like the river. I became a part of the whole. 

 Andy