The beginning of every trout season is always a time that I look forward to, dreaming of the warm summer evenings casting a fly to some wild fish on the upper reaches of my local river Derwent.

The one aspect I don't necessarily look forward to is the stock take before the season starts!

This one was quite eye-opening, we actually had more stock than we were expecting ... and, we also found some flies which we knew we had but we just didn't know exactly where they were!

The flies in question (above) are some really special patterns which we originally stocked a few years ago from Stan Mankov (the Bulgarian fish whisperer) this was a restock we received, but for some reason they never found their way onto the website last season!

The pattern is Stan's signature Sedge imitation:

Also known as a Caddis Fly over in the USA, the Sedge is a fly which will start to make an appearance on a water near you, very soon.

The Sedge fly is a member of the Trichoptera family (trichos, meaning hair and ptera, meaning wing) - consisting of around 200 distinct species found in the UK. Throughout the world, there are over 3,000 species of Sedge, with the majority (over 1,200) being found in the USA.

These flies are easily identified, just look for the way the insect flies, if it looks very haphazard and like it's about to crash land, then it will be a Sedge fly. All sedge flies have wings that fold over their backs to form a silhouette which looks like a roof/tent - that's the reason you may also see these flies referred to as roof-winged flies.

Sedge/Caddis flies are nocturnal and the fish love to feed on them early in the morning, just as the females are returning to the water to deposit their eggs. If you want some fantastic dry fly action this early in the river season, then it pays to get our early and tie on a sedge.

We now have these Mankov Sedges for sale as a selection of 12 for only £15 - which includes four each of sizes 12, 14 & 16.

Our selection contains 12 Sedge imitations, all you need for a great day on the water this spring and summer:

Top Sedge Fishing Tips 

The two main dry fly forms of imitation for the Sedge are the Emerger and the Adult Female. Use one of the parachute-style flies to imitate the emerger and just treat the post of the fly - this will sit the fly are the correct angle to imitate the emerging insect.

When fishing a dry fly, keep in mind that the hatching sedge is very skittish, they make quite a lot of movement on the water, therefore remember to give your dry fly a tweak every now and then to generate some movement.

Just as a reminder:

Our Mankov's Sedge Selection contains four each of:

• Mankov's Specialist Sedge - size 12
• Mankov's Specialist Sedge - size 14
• Mankov's Specialist Sedge - size 16

In total this selection of Sedge imitations contains 12 flies, all supplied in our eco-friendly recyclable packaging. Our Mankov's Sedge Selection is now available for only £15, delivered in our eco-friendly and recyclable packaging.

Each of the above flies can also be bought individually for only £1.50 each - just click here.

Go on, you know you want to!

Tight lines & have fun.

P.S. If you fancy 'rolling your own' flies, please take a look at our specialist fly-tying site - Feathersmith - the home of our pattern-specific fly-tying kits and a whole host of other quality materials, hooks and tools - just click on the image below to visit the site: