Blue winged olive

The Blue winged olive is one of those patterns that has frustrated many a fisherman and fly tyer over the years.

It is one of those flies that  can be so hard to imitate  at the tying vice, and many a fly tier has tried to come up with a successful pattern that will work.

There are so many good patterns out there to imitate the Blue winged olive all of which that will work at some time or another .

But it is such a frustrating  fly to copy as one pattern might work on a given night and go back the next evening and the same pattern might not get looked at .

It is also a fly that if you are not in the right place at the right time you will miss the rise as it is so short 

So a little local knowledge is a good thing as the fly does not hatch on the entire length of the river only in certain areas and if you can get to know these stretches of the river some fantastic sport can be had .

The blue winged olives really come into there own during the summer months of June July and august. 

And there are hatches of this insect  right through to the end of the season.

I have come up with a pattern for the Blue winged olive Emerger that has been very useful for me during a hatch of blue winged olives, it really works well at the start of the rise when the emergers are floating down the trout tend to take this fly before the hatch really starts up and I have caught some really good trout with this pattern .

 The body colour varies on this fly and can be an olive shade or brown colour as the season goes on I have had more success with the brown shade, but this could vary from river to river .

Emerging sedge

I have been tying flies for many years and during my time as a fly tier I have come up with a few patterns that have given me some fantastic River and Lough fishing.
Some of these patterns are quite straight forward to tie and some have had  a bit more work in them .
I like to tie my river flies as near to realistic as I can and I think I have got this pattern  just right  it is one of my favourite patterns when the sedges come on .
I like experimenting with different styles and  materials there is so much material on the market at the moment that we are spoilt for choice.
One of the materials required for  the fly is flexi body  this is quite easy to use you just cut at an angle to create a tying in point, and wind up the hook shank in overlapping turns this gives a really nice segmented body , The flexi body material is  almost the  same as an elastic band only not as thick , it comes in a huge variety of different colours  and widths , You can create some nice realistic nymphs with it .

This is how the fly sits under the surface of the water the cdc loop wing holds it perfectly in the surface 

Hares ear

 The Gold ribbed hares ear is more than likely a pattern that has been used by most fly fishermen  at one time or another it is a pattern that I would imagine is known worldwide .
It definitely is a pattern that I always carry in my fly box I think that it was one of the first flies that I used when I started fly fishing and one that I have fond memories of as it has given me some good days when the conditions were right . The hares ear is a pattern that I have copied  and used frequently when fly fishing .
There are a lot of variations of this pattern These are two different versions of the hares ear  that I use. It is a pattern that I always carry in my fly box in a variety of different styles and sizes The wet , and the nymph.

Blue Quill

One of my favourite wet flies for my local river is the blue quill this pattern has worked well for me over the years  tied in both wet and dry versions .

it is a fly pattern that gave me a lot of good sport many years ago  on my local river Nore and is a fly that I always carry in the fly box it is one of those patterns that has worked for me when everything else has  failed , I have even caught sea trout on this pattern to my surprise  when I was fishing up in Dundalk  some time ago for brown trout .

Red Sedge

The Red sedge or Brown sedge are quite common on my local rivers and this is a pattern that I often use when  they are about  it floats very well and you can give it a  slight twitch with the tip of the rod to give it some movement when covering a fish  it floats very well and sits nicely on top of the water .

This is probably my favourite time of year when the sedges  come in to there own , there is nothing better in my mind than a moonlit night on a river or Lough when the sedges are hatching and the trout  go into there feeding mode and you can sometimes fish into the early hours .

There are so many different patterns to choose from But once you have the right shape and colour to match the natural insect you should be OK as I find the fish not to be that fussy when they are feeding on sedges as they really attack the fly.

Golden olive mayfly

This is a pattern that was given to me to copy for lough Corrib I think It is a very nice looking mayfly pattern But I don't know the name  or if it has one if anyone has seen this pattern before or knows the name of it please let me know , it is definitely a pattern that I will hopefully get a chance to by step guide in next months edition of  Irish angler magazine.

Spent Gnat CDC loopwing

May flies are tied in an enormous number of styles from detached body’s to fan winged  patterns some Gnat patterns tied with just a wider Hackle with no wings all of  which  will work well on there day.
This fly  is a very simple tying but again very effective when mayflies  are on the water . It is a great floating fly and really looks the part when tied in the fashion which I like to tie the fly.

You can also dap this fly  because there is CDC in the wing and a hackle in front it floats very well and is very visible.
The fly is tied with the hackle done half moon that means that there is no hackle underneath ,  This allows the fly to sit in the surface just like the natural fly, and this gives the fly more buoyancy as you do not cut the hackle fibres underneath ,but stroke them upwards this way  you are using all of the hackle.
 I have come up with a couple of patterns that  have become very popular on both river and Lough , the mayfly have started a bit of a comeback on some of my local rivers over the last few  years and hopefully it will get better as it is a  fantastic time when the fish really  do come and attack the fly .

The Olive CDC loop wing is a fly that I tie an enormous amount of for Lough  Corrib, and   has become popular on Lough Derg  with people that I have tied it for and I had good reports over the last couple of years one person that I tied it for caught a six pound trout on Lough Corrib.
The Gnat style is a pattern that I have used on the rivers and is  a super fly that just looks like the real thing as it floats along the trout really attack it .
 I have had trout come clean out of the water when they take it . I like to rough up the body of the fly by plucking out the seals fur fibres with a dubbing needle.
I have Just put one very light  olive CDC feather through the middle of two white ones as it gives the wing a very nice tinge of olive .