small river/burn flies?????

[flyboy]

hi folks, ive been chatting with another forum member about fishing a local burn. i have aquired the flies that were recommended....small dries and nymphs. is there any other flies i can take in my armoury to tempt fish from a small burn as i have very little river/burn fishing experience. should i be fishing these flies "across and down".
regards
 brian.

[tomcatin]

Like Brian, I would recommend a close study of Col's reports.

I would never stray onto a wee river or burn without a pocket full of emerger patterns (parachutes, CDC emerger patterns and klinkhammers .......... particularly the iron blue dunn parachute). My experience of wee waters are that other during a big hatch, the trout are not fixated on any particular target food, are complete opportunists and are on the lookout for anything passing over or under their noses. When there are no obvious rises, I often concentrate running parachutes or CDC emergers down the main food lines (particularly down either side of the streamy bits or where there is a bit of sanctuary, for example behind a boulder) and its astonishing the number of fish you will raise. 

I am also in agreement with Brian on the upstream cast, you will get much better presentation ......... but do not be afraid to improvise (I know a spot behind a boulder on the Devon that sometimes holds a nice fish, but there is no cast, so all I can do is literally drop the fly above the boulder; it gets a drag free drift of perhaps three feet which can be just enough to tempt a fish  )

Persevere ........ it will be worth it!