Sunday 16 February 2014

Some Classics

Yesterday after a day of trailing around the shops in York due to the weather and another weekend of no fishing with the river peaking at 1.84m this years Grayling season has been a total washout and it wont be too long before that will be it for another year so when I got home it was nice to kick back and reflect on things from the past, I recently added this 2nd edition book from 1946 to my collection and well worthy of a read if your an avid Grayling angler.

 Looking forward to the future I dug out my previous seasons trout diaries & started looking through at what flies appeared most over the years and no surprise it was some classic spiders so last night I decided to get the vice back out and sit for a while tying the ones up that have gave me some good fish over the years. Like every other angler currently we must have more flies tied than we will ever fish with, so tying 3 up of each pattern, I remember a statement sometime back by a friend, one for the fish, one for the trees & one to give away and have kind of stuck to that rule but its how many 3s I've tied......




The Partridge & Orange a go to fly for most of the season and  tied in various formats depending which part of the country you live in, Some of the lads I fish with on the River Ure tie it with a gold rib up the body whilst up on the clyde I've seen it tied with a peacock herl behind the thorax.









The Snipe & Purple an excellent point fly and a proven fish taker over the years.


Waterhen Bloa  when olives are hatching this is a deadly fly and again one of the all time classics.















Woodcock & Red a fly which has personally been good to me here in Yorkshire & County Durham 
4 of my spiders that have accounted for most of my fish over the years and would never go out without them in my box. This year I plan also to tie up some old classic North Country spiders which have some roots here in The Yorkshire Dales and surrounding areas, after being given a few patterns by some of the old Yorkshiremen in one of the clubs I belong to. 
Wont be long to the long lazy days with the sun beating down on our backs, I HOPE!




4 comments:

  1. I used to enjoy fishing with spiders but these days I live by the side of dry fly water so they sit in my tin untouched. Have you ever tried the trick of tying a size 14 or a size 16 spider on a size 8 or 10 hook? Slim fly still but sinks faster...

    Congratulations on that book. Not easy to find a nice one these days.

    RR

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  2. Hi Richard,
    Nice to see you again, I have tied the spiders on bigger hooks but years ago, We used to do the same sort of thing for gloamin flies on the clyde, Tie the same flies on larger hooks for fishing through the gloamin & into the dark. The book has been very good and its always nice to read books from yesteryear to see how things have remained or moved on.
    best regards
    George

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  3. Can't beat the classic George. I really love north country spiders and I guess instead of dismissing them I probably should give them a go. I've just not had the confidence to try and my rivers are crystal clear and often with a smooth surface, though I'm sure I could find a riffle or two to try them in.

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  4. Hi Ben, it's great fun and I'm in the right place, something I've been brought up with & wouldn't change it :)
    Best regards
    George

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