Small(er) Flies = Summer Success

Now that the Mayfly season is starting to peter out (well at least in southern parts). I wanted to try and get us ready for the more challenging part of the season - the post-Mayfly lull.

This part of the season usually sees the fish quite languid - full of Mayfly and very lethargic (at least for a couple of weeks).

In this missive, I'm going to give you what is, hopefully, a good grounding on how to approach these conditions, and that is by using - small(er) flies.

Also, we have just received a NEW Match The Hatch Selection - we've a Special Offer for you - and a superb NEW fly box from the guys at Tacky (Fishpond) over in the USA, ideal for storing the smaller flies in your collection.

P.S. This email is going to be quite long, so you might want to grab a brew before you start reading! - if you want to grab the offer now and save reading the email until later ...

TL;DR - Too Long; Didn't Read

I know that some of you are pressed for time and save our emails to read later in the day, by this time our selections are usually sold out (I get lots of emails from customers pointing this out to me).

I've put this section at the beginning, so you can grab your flies now - and save reading my musings for later, safe in the knowledge that you have already secured your 'Match The Hatch' fly selection.

This email is all about fishing with small(er) flies - specifically gnats and midges, insects which the fish will switch on to in the very near future.

In this email, we are launching our Gnat & Midge Match The Hatch Selection - a boxed selection of 12 flies, 3 of each of the four most successful patterns used when imitating Gnat's, Midges and a whole host of smaller flies. All the included patterns are tied using the very best quality materials on the best hooks available - AHREX. 

We also give you access to all the hatch information, pattern information and watercraft specific to fishing Gnats & Midges - all this for only £20.

Plus - for today only - if you add in our "Small Streams & Small Flies" book, you will receive it at half price (only £4.99).

I've no doubt that we've all seen swarms of midges above the surface of the water - especially when there are sunlit pools.

Low water levels and spooky fish means using small flies. Some waters are not as full of nutrients as others, it’s these which tend to fish better using smaller flies, due in part to the fact the water cannot sustain the natural production of the larger specimens. In these waters trout can still flourish, they just alter the way they feed. Instead of selectively taking insects as and when they please (as insects are in abundance on the more nutrient rich waters), the trout in less rich waters are more opportunistic feeders.

This is where the small, imitative fly is king.

In essence:

small(er) flies = lighter tippet = longer leaders = softer rods

The remainder of this email will take the above and hopefully shed a little light on each.

Small(er) Flies

When you encounter low water it's time to turn to the smaller flies in your box - when I say small, I am referring to flies which are size 18 and smaller.

It is the one piece of tackle that the fish sees and makes their decision on to eat or not. The most important part of a fly is without doubt the hook, even more so when we are using very small hooks. It is important when choosing small flies to look at the gape of the hook (i.e. the distance between the hook point and the body of the hook), make sure that the tied fly still has plenty of room between the body and the hook point, if there is hardly any room between the body of the fly and the point it will make it very difficult to hook a fish.

Generally, the hooks which are sized at 18 and smaller all are ‘wide gape’ - like these in our NEW Gnat & Midge Match The Hatch Selection.

Often, the reason small flies are dismissed by anglers is that they have trouble seeing them, there are a few remedies for this:

• For most dry fly angling it is not a necessity to actually see the fly, generally you will have a rough idea of where the fly is, if you see a rise, just lift into it – 9 times out of 10 it will be to your fly!
• If you do want to know where your fly is, either use a small fly with a hi-vis sighter post, or use the ‘Double Dry’ technique, where you use a visible dry fly and then tie a smaller dry fly from the eye of the hook on a long dropper – just like the klink n dink method, but using 2 dry flies.

Having a selection of small flies (both nymphs and dries) is essential when fishing through July and into early September. We've got you covered with all the smaller flies you will need for the whole summer in our limited run "Match The Hatch" Selection of Gnats & Midges:

During the summer months it is essential that you start to fish with smaller and more representative flies.

Our NEW Match The Hatch Selection is a set of 12 flies (both nymphs and dry flies) which represent all the smaller insects you will find on, and in, the water during the summer - including access to our 'Match The Hatch' hidden webpage showing you how to get the best from your selection of flies, all this for only £20.00. See the very end of this email for a 'Today Only' Special Offer with this selection of flies.

*** We only have a limited supply of this Match The Hatch Selection - with no more arriving this year! If you would like a set, you will need to be pretty quick off the mark ***

Light Tippet

Because the hooks on smaller flies are really small - with small eyes, your standard tippet might not thread through the eye - you will need something that is around 0.10mm in diameter. But don't worry, we have you covered. Both of our RIO Powerflex & Suppleflex tippets are available in 7X (0.102mm):

RIO Powerflex Tippet

only £5.99

RIO Suppleflex Tippet

only £5.99

The difference between Powerflex & Suppleflex tippet materials are in their uses, if you mainly fish with dry flies, choose Suppleflex - it, as it's name suggests, is more supple and presents a dry fly beautifully. If you want something a little stiffer, opt for the Powerflex variant.

TOP TIP: When trying to thread your tippet to a small fly, try cutting the tippet at a 45-degree angle, it makes it much easier to get the tippet into the eye of the hook.

Longer Leaders

If you've already downloaded your copy of the Small Fly Manifesto (which we emailed out last year), then you will have already seen the leader recipes for various long & light setups to tie yourself.

Here's the best one for fishing really small flies:

To the 6X at the end of the above, just add in a couple of feet of the 7X tippet and you're good to go.

However you decide to create your leader, the one thing above anything else which will increase your catch rate is the length! When fishing small flies, on low rivers you need to make your leader as long as you can possibly get away with. It is not uncommon for hardly any fly line to be outside of the rod tip and just the leader is cast.

Softer Actioned Rods

When fishing with light tippet, you need a rod which has a much softer action than your regular carbon rod, this is how you can land much bigger fish on really light tippet. You need to ensure that your whole system - fly, tippet, line & rod - work in harmony. Just try landing a small fish on a medium-fast carbon rod with a thin tippet (anything smaller than 6X) and you will appreciate the finesse of a softer actioned rod.  

You need a rod which will cushion every movement of the fish and protect your light tippet. This is where glass rods come into their own, especially on the small to medium-sized rivers where you are not casting to the horizon. I believe the best in the business is the Orvis Superfine Glass - especially when in a 2wt or 3wt:

Fishing with small flies generally happens at close range, choose a rod you are comfortable with using for very short casts – sometimes a softer rod is much more accurate and sensitive on short casts. Softer rods are also much better for playing fish on lighter tippets – something which most rod manufacturers don’t explain, they are more than willing to tell you how far you can cast with one, but not how well it plays a fish! If you’ve never tried a glass rod, they have an ideal action for fishing smaller flies.

Small Streams & Small Flies

- Special Offer For Today Only

This is a book we published last year - it takes an in-depth look at fishing smaller rivers, with smaller flies. In this book, you will discover the techniques, flies, watercraft and how to approach fishing in smaller streams and rivers.

Our book also discusses the type of conditions you can expect to face on small streams and the various tips, tricks and techniques used the fish them. We've also included leader configurations specifically designed for use on small streams with smaller flies.

FOR TODAY ONLY - Add a copy of our "Small Streams & Small Flies" book to an order containing our NEW Gnat & Midge Match The Hatch Selection and receive your book for half price - only £5 (usually £9.99).

*** Go on, you know you want to ***

Now You've Got The Flies ...

You're Going To Need A Box!

We've just taken delivery of these specialist 'small fly' boxes from those masters of the fly box at Tacky (Fishpond) over in the USA:

While we’d all love to have a full complement of flies at our disposal at all times, carrying every pattern in the arsenal doesn’t always make sense. For those quick trips to the river after work or just a prospecting mission at your local stillwater, this Small Pescador MagPad fly box from Tacky offers the perfect place to store all your smaller flies:

Organize all your flies by hatch, river, or season in one small package with the Tacky Day Pack - available as either single-sided (perfect for dry flies) or double-sided (ideal for storing all of your nymphs):

Tacky Daypack Fly Box

£19.99

Tacky Double Sided Daypack Fly

£24.99

All three of the above fly boxes have been specifically designed to hold all of your smaller flies (down to a size 30). They hold just enough for your day on the water and easily fit in you pocket, vest or pack.

What are you waiting for - get out there and have some fun with small flies.

P.S. We were really happy to receive the below review on one of our Blue-Winged Olive Match The Hatch Selections - it's great to know they are being used to teach children: