Gray Ghost Streamer Fly

Streamer flies will be more familiar to North American fly fishermen, who use them to devastating effect in the large rivers throughout the continent, though they are increasingly becoming popular fished in a wide variety of locations, for a variety of salmonoid quarry, not least because the movement and flashes with such flies, fished at speed in a current, trigger the predatroy instinct in these fish well.

I do not profess to have much knowledge about Streamers, such as this “Gray Ghost” which is tied with excellent clarity by Sctosman Davie McPhail, but I know one thing: if a fly must first attract an angler, then this one will surely catch many an eye!

Here we have Davie McPhail’s instructional tutorial for fly-tyers wishing to learn how to tie this streamer fly – The Gray Ghost:

Blood Worm

The Blood Worm is a great little pattern for reservoirs or stillwaters, as it mimics midge pupae which is often found in such places, and is a staple foodstuff for the brown and rainbow trout.

This little tutorial video below will show you how to tie the blood worm.

You’ll need a hook with a curved shank for this pattern, which should be tied on a fairly small hook (think size 14-16) to best reflect the size of these beasties in the water.

This is a good pattern in the early season when there isn’t much surface activity – the video below is from Canada, so the blood worm pattern here is a little different from some you will see tied in the UK. It still proves effective. As ever, modify this pattern to suit your local water!

GRHE - Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear

Another day, another fly-tying tutorial video from the excellent David Cammiss – today we have the Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear (often abbreviated to GRHE for obvious reasons!) which is another ‘wet’ fly designed to be fished below the surface.

The gold ribbing adds ballast to the fly, making it a good top-dropper fly for you upstream nymphers in fast flowing water (don’t panic, there will be a tutorial on this soon!) due to the fact that this fly will sink fairly quickly. For the same reason, it can also be used as the point fly in a long-leader team of buzzers in a stillwater or reservoir for trout. This one also features a gold bead head, making it sink super quick for those deep days.

This versatile fly can also be inched along the bottom of the water, or dangled on its own on a slow figure of eight.

All techniques above, and more, will catch trout – making this a must have fly for your fly-box. Making the fly is almost easier than fishing it – and the tutorial fly-tying video below explains all you need to know about that!

The Diawl Bach

The Diawl Bach, or Little Devil, is an important all-round fly for fishermen of small stillwaters and reservoirs -  it will even prove a successful pattern on many rivers – for trout fishermen.

The Diawl Bach is not an imitative fly, rather it is a general “attractor” pattern which mimics key features of the intended creature – in this instance, the nymph – without actually looking like any particular species. The intention of the Diawl Bach fly is to trigger the killer instinct in the salmonoid fish: which is does very effectively, fished in a variety of ways below the surface.

Throw one of these out when all else fails and it will often prove effective.

In the below video, David Cammiss – fast becoming one of our favourite video tutorial providers – shows us how to tie this killer pattern.

Black Buzzer

This is a great little lesson for the total novice fly-tyer as Buzzers make a great start due to the lack of complexity in many designs: most successful buzzer patterns owe much to the sparseness of their design, making them great little confidence builders!

A ‘buzzer’ is the pupal stage of aquatic insects – most often midge pupae – which trout feed on often during most of the season. A small team of buzzers fished on the dead drift is probably my most effective technique on many reservoirs in Northern England when all around me are throwing out lures. If there is no surface activity, letting a couple of buzzers sink down while you slowly figure of eight a floating line with a giant leader will so often pay dividends – I’ll get a tutorial up about this method for those of you who are interested in finding out how I fish it!

Follow the tutorial lesson below from start to finish and, in 15 minutes or so, you should be able to have something resembling a buzzer by the end of it. Remember that your hook is the most important part of a buzzer, however, so make sure you have the right one before you start!

This tutorial is really for almost absolute beginners, so any advanced tyers may want to skip the first section and get onto the fly itself.

Thanks must go out to Dave Cammiss who made this excellent instructional video lesson – you can find more like it on his website.

Buzzer / Emerger Hooks online

You’ll need a hook with a curved bend to tie a buzzer pattern – you can order the following online:

• Orvis ‘Caddis Emerger’ hooks £3.75 for 25
• TackleShop “grub” hooks for £3.25 for 25