River beginner

[invictor]

Evnin gents,I am trying to put together a fly box of patterns for the Clyde.
Nymphs wets and dries, I have fished lochs and still waters all my days, the result is
I haven't a clue about running watter.
when you look at the modern dressings,IE DHE ,Klinkhammer, would these style of fly
done in different sizes and colours cover most hatchies.

The same for nymphs, the GRHE, PTN,and shrimpy type things,

would it be necessary to have dozens of wets.

When you look at the Clyde style fly they are all common in one thing, very spars,
imitating the natural insect.

Would you start with only a half dozen patterns in assorted colours and sizes.

I would be grateful for you thoughts.

Alistair.

[Malcolm]

One of the great things about this forum is that there are people who know every wild water in Scotland!

If it was me I'd ask an expert on the water in question - for the Clyde I'd ask Alex (Hare's Ear) or Buzz. Chances are you'll find that for any given time of year they will have a short list which will do very well indeed.     

[invictor]

Malcolm, Thanks for the advice,would that not be cheeky contacting a forum member direct.

Davy, Thanks for the link, I don't know how I missed that. It was the type of information I was looking for.

Buzz, A lovely selection of flys,but Ive a bad back I canny carry that amount of boxes to the watter.
        Please, could you select a few of your favorites. By the way what is the other forum mentioned.

thanks again Alistair.

[Wildfisher]

I just posted pictures of my fly box on the "other" forum.

Bloody hell Mark, I thought I carried a lot of flies?  :shock:   

[Clan Ford]

I just posted pictures of my fly box on the "other" forum.

........................

Any question about its contents please fire away.

Your slacking Mark,

There is a lot of space in those boxes, with a bit rationalisation I reckon you could get away with just the three :shock:  Mind, given you tackle collection, probably just about enough flies there for one per rod and reel :lol: :lol: :lol:

Norm

[Malcolm]

Malcolm, Thanks for the advice,would that not be cheeky contacting a forum member direct.

Well if it is then there's a lot of cheeky people on the forum including me! 

[invictor]

Iv enough information to be going on with now,  :shock:
Its pretty daunting thought starting to fish a river like the Clyde.
I know i ll enjoy it, but should success only be measured in the number of takes,
or just enjoying the day.

Now for the Minor problems like casting, presentation, entomology, river craft, am getting a sore hied now.

thanks again all.

Alistair.

[Wildfisher]

If you are used to loch fishing, especially in places with big populations  of small fish, you?ll find it a whole lot different. Expect a lot of blanks or few fish until you get some experience under your belt. I don?t know the Clyde, only fished it last September ? first time for 40 years ? and I blanked ? but so did Alex who knows it well. Like the Don, it?s not an easy river. Stick with it though and I am certain you will find the rewards to be much higher than pulling wets on a loch.

[haresear]

I'm certainly no expert, but I do usually manage to get something out (unless I have JonahCRob with me)

Flies have been gone over in the previous post, but at the start of the season I would have a selection of nymphs, mostly in sizes 16 to 10. I suppose I mostly use hare & copper nymphs(with and without tungsten beads), my wee wire nymph in brown and a simple ryacophila tying.

Mostly these are fished under a slideable yarn indicator, but sometimes the wee wire nymph will be tied on below a searching dry fly like a klinkhamer or deer hair emerger.

For dries at the start of the year, it is pretty much olives and march browns in sizes 16 to 12 with 14 being about right for a large dark olive and a 12 for the march brown. Very wee dark flies can be useful to have in your box too.

Actual patterns I chop and change, but I do like to have different profiles of fly to try. By that I mean a high floating fly, a parachute and a sunk abdomen type. For casting to a rising fish I like a sparsely tied fly and for fishing blind I like a highly visible sunk abdomen pattern.

Some of my current early season favourite dry/damp flies are olive parachute, cdc emerger, cdc comparadun, deer hair or yarn emerger, parachute adams. Also a home tied job with a hares ear abdomen with fine copper rib, black cock for hackle and tail and a brown partridge hackle wound through the black hackle.

Wets I don't fish much at all, but if I do it will likely be Clyde style spiders in olive, brown, grey and black. Snipe, starling or partridge for the hackle and superfine dubbing for he body. I rarely rib them and don't add tails.

Add wooly buggers in black, brown and olive and that's about it for flies until late Spring, when I make a few changes.  


As for the actual fishing. I like to look at a few areas until I get a piece of water to myself. I stay out of the water as much as possible and when fishing blind, always assume there is a fish lying tight to my bank. There often is.

If I have to walk downstream to get water to myself, I'll avoid walking along the bank if at all possible and while I'm doing this, I'll take advantage of cover to sneak up to a vantage point where I can try to spot fish. If I see a good fish I go for it there and then. If I don't, I circle around and continue downstream to my chosen starting point.


If I am forced as often happens, to fish up behind someone, I fish differently. Whereas before I would have stayed out of the water and fished the near bank, I now watch how the other guy is fishing and more importantly where.

He will likely be scaring all the close in fish so most of my targetted areas will be the steady deeper runs and fish lying on the far side. If fish aren't rising, I'll try the nymph under the indicator and I'll be treating that indicator just like dry fly, avoiding drag like the plague.

I'll be much more likely to wade now, to avoid drag as I know the previous angler has spooked all the close in fish anyway.

That's pretty much how I approach most days. Things change in summer, when I start experimenting with big foam flies and the like.  

Hope that helps a bit Alistair Oh, forgot to say, I always work upstream.

Alex

[Harpo]

If you are used to loch fishing, especially in places with big populations  of small fish, you?ll find it a whole lot different. Expect a lot of blanks or few fish until you get some experience under your belt.

I would second that, being new to rivers myself. Be happy with any fish you catch of any size and don't be concerned about length or weight, i've only manged one 1/4 - 1/2 lber on my local river in 4 trips. However it was caught fishing up stream, changing flies in between casts as the "riser" wasn't taking what I had on, eventually the wee fella took my fly and it's one of the fish that stays most clear in my memory.

Same with the fish I catch on my favourite river, mostly small a 1/2 lber is a good fish but they are al very satisying to catch, per attached.

Have fun !, I fished the Clyde once ...last Easter Monday....an it was snowing !! :shock: