Finally after lock down computer failures battles with new software non payment by clients and any number or other interruptions hurdles and inconveniences I finally managed to hit the water. There was a time when I wasn’t even thinking about it; too busy trying to keep the home fires burning my head above water the […]

Today I am going to take a look at one of my favoured patterns for the streams of the Western Cape the goose biot parachute caddis. Previously we did look at a parachute caddis fly with Guinea Fowl wings (you can of course use any other feather fibre to create a similar pattern). But […]

This is a direct excerpt from my book “Guide Flies” not only is it the story of an exceptional stillwater pattern particularly for the bank angler but equally a tale of the evolution of a pattern and the processes which took a basic fly from something of a concept to a simple and functional pattern […]

Day 20 of our now extended lock down here in South Africa one more day to keep to my original commitment. For now a larger and perhaps slightly more troublesome pattern although more fiddly than difficult. The Mobile Marabou Dragon. Although dragonfly nymphs don’t feature heavily in the fly boxes of some anglers in a […]

An apology whilst analysing the output on this blog over the past three weeks I found that I had failed to add the video clips related to the Invisi-ant and the Invisi-beetle featured on Day 10 thus making them even more invisible than intended   I have now added those video clips should you wish to […]

Corona Virus Lockdown day 8 One of the negative issues of being a fishing guide is that all too often one doesn’t have the time to spend on complicated patterns. Much of the in season fly tying revolves around whipping out quick and effective flies to replace those lost in action over the course […]

Corona Virus Lockdown day 9 The Parachute Spider (Variant). Spider patterns have been around for a long time and they suffer from a nomenclature problem. To some anglers spider patterns are just that imitations of actual spiders and there is little doubt that the fish will feed on such things. Then the term “spider” has […]

Corona Lockdown day 10 Now it just so happens that I am fortunate enough to fish waters where dry flies prevail where a combination of poor hatches and low clear water mean that fish can frequently be drummed up to a dry fly even when not a fish rises or any obvious insects are emerging. […]

Coronavirus Lockdown day 11 So we have been at this self-isolation fly tying lark now for 11 days that is significant because TODAY IS HUMP DAY.. that imaginary spot on the calendar where you are now getting closer to the end rather than simply further from the beginning. (I have my doubts that there won’t […]

Corona Lockdown day 12 Something a little different today and really a shout out to the novices out there. The very first fly I tied was held tight in my father’s woodworking bench vice (less than ideal) and tied with my mother’s sewing thread and some raffine as wings. It was in today’s language I […]

Corona lockdown day 13 Day thirteen of our lock down fly tying series the idea was to assist me and perhaps you in not going totally stir crazy I am not so sure at this point it is helping. All those on line video clips of trout rising to dry flies are making me hanker […]

Corona lock down Day 14 Two weeks two whole weeks of being at home hard on all of us although it does strike me that it is odd that I could rarely “find a day” to go fishing when I was allowed to I think that might change in the future for many of us. […]

Probably all of us at some time battle to see a fly either because it is small or perhaps dark or even submerged and the use of some sort of indicator can be helpful in either monitoring takes or in “finding” the fly. It is remarkable how often if one has some sort of sighter […]

Getting good and getting quick With all of us shut in and boredom taking hold I run the risk of making you all even more bored sorry about that. But today I thought we would look at how you can get better at fly tying and quicker too. To be honest I am not the […]

As they say on Monty Python’s Fly Circus: There are many people making an effort to lessen the trauma of this universal lock down which has so many of us tired bored and frustrated. One of those initiatives comes from the Rhodes University Fly Fishing Club and a 21 day fly tying challenge. They […]

Lockdown: and free fly tying instruction. Well here we are in the midst of the biggest health and economic crisis in memory and there is very little that we can really do about it except shut the doors and get on with life as best we can. Many readers of this blog will know that […]

So day one of my self-imposed challenge and to be honest I am not quite sure how best to do this as have never tried to publish anything like this previously. So please bear with me if it isn’t quite as organized as I might otherwise like. I figure that better to try to keep […]

Lockdown flytying Day Two a focus on hackles A fairly simple overview of different kind of hackles and some flies to attempt/practice on. Having jumped in with a mass of information on day one in an attempt to include everyone from beginners to more accomplished fly tyers I hope I haven’t overwhelmed you all. Anyway […]

Covid Lockdown Day Three   It is all very well tying flies and fishing flies but what are we trying to imitate when we do so? Having a basic understanding of entomology and the insects both aquatic and terrestrial which fish feed on will help with both fly tying and fishing. Today I thought we […]

A focus on parachute hackles I can still remember the first time I was introduced to “parachute hackle dry flies” when a fishing companion on a reservoir in the UK proudly told me that it was the “only dry fly he used”.. At the time I was so brainwashed by the “Halfordian” or “Catskill” style […]