Blue-winged opportunities

DAVID CALVERT and STUART CROFTS fish early and late through all the stages of the fly fisher's classic fly - the BWO TODAY"S SPECIALS - Instant recognition patterns for his month's flies

The prop forward of nymphs - short, stout, well made - BWO nymph.

Mini sailboats with sails at least one size too big - BWO dun.

Specks floating high in the sky, getting lower as dusk falls - BWO spinner. July is a change month around which the great events of nature’s year seem to revolve. The longest day has come and gone, and the year is slipping away once again.
For anglers too this is a time of change, water temperatures climb and insect activity moves out of office hours towards peaks around dawn and dusk.

Hors-d’oeuvres
Naturally enough then, our choice of hors-d’oeuvres for this month is the blue winged olive nymph, one of only two moss creeper species on the British list. It has recently been reclassified to a different genus Serratella, (of which it is the only representative on the British list) but has kept its previous species name of Ignita. As ever, none of the comings and goings of classification are of any concern to insect or fish and nor does it have any impact on practical fishing.
From mid May onwards we find good numbers of BWO nymphs in our bug samples. Individual specimens get ever larger as their instars progress towards that vital moment when they make the final break from the moss and strike out towards the surface. So, at this time of year, if we’re on a river that supports a good population of this species and there is no obvious surface activity, then a BWO nymph regularly finds its place on our cast.

Main course
For our main course the BWO dun is our number one choice. This is one of the classic upwinged fly species - all the adult phases of its life cycle are both fish attracting and angler friendly - duns emerge at the water surface and the spinners lay their eggs at the water surface. Time of day for all this may not be quite so angler friendly, but provided it’s in a good cause and so long as we get more or less the right number of hours asleep, does it really matter which hours those are? We reckon not.

Dessert.
Spinners, both egg layers and spent, regularly feature in stomach samples, sometimes in very big numbers so the BWO spinner will always have a place in our fly box. No surprise then that the BWO spinner takes prime spot as dessert this month.
Presentation of the flies.

The BWO Nymph
In the BWO we are dealing with an insect which does the decent thing by us fisher folk; before it emerges it ascends through the water column which provides us with the perfect opportunity to present our lightly weighted Nymph as a single fly in the classic upstream style. Alternatively, when fish are feeding to more than one stage in the BWO life cycle, try a using the BWO Nymph on a New Zealand dropper, as part of a ‘duo rig’ behind a dry fly, and on dour days this little Nymph works as one of your team of well sunk Bugs.

The BWO Dun
Lots of possibilities at this stage - watching what the naturals are doing on the day is our usual starting point. If they are placidly drifting along prior to the occasional disappearing trick, try a dead drift. If the wind is blowing them about or they are skittering about try the odd little twitch (as ever we a talking about very small movements here and not Dog Nobbler yanks.)
If your representation is still being refused amid a flurry of disappearing naturals (and assuming you have cast accurately to actually cover a target fish) your presentation might be at fault. Unwanted drag is the most frequent problem we encounter. This problem can often be remedied by a change of casting position - carefully, of course, so as not to spook your quarry. With really spooky fish try a downstream presentation (provided the fishery rules allow) so that the first thing your quarry sees is the fly. String (sorry, tippet) too thick at the business end may be another cause of problems, but if you’re using some thing around 0.13mm diameter (5/1000inch or 6x) all should be well in that department.

The BWO Spinner
While laying their eggs natural spinners will be seen to drift and to skitter about a bit; make your presentation to mimic the behaviour of the naturals so far as you can. Dead (or spent) ones don’t move about a right lot so you can work that one out for yourselves! Again accurate casting and avoidance of accidental drag are key factors.

This is an excerpt of a full length feature on July's river hatches, from July 2003 issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying, part of the month-by month series conducted by Dave Calver & Stuart Crofts throughout this season. Others topics covered in the July article include:

• Likely BWO habitat
• How to see and strike rises to dry fly at dusk
• Why you should carry a Spinner pattern (most anglers don't)
• Why the hook shank on the BWO Spinner should be cranked
• Ideal conditions for a spinner fall
• Patterns for the authors' BWO Nymph, Dun and Spinner
• Detailed dressing techniques for the authors' BWO Nymph, Dun and Spinner
• Close up photographs of natural blue-winged olive nymph, dun and spinner