3rd October

A fortnight ago I was in Norhern Ireland, taking part in the Loughs Agency's first junior fishing festival. 75 youngsters took part and I will be describing the event in a forthcoming issue of Fly-Fishing & Fly-Tying. I did manage to get in a couple of fishing sessions. The first was on a lovely salmon river that flows to the Foyle, the Owenkillew. That river was too high! The next day, because of the rain that had fallen, my pal Toddy took me to the Whitewater River, that flows into Carlingford Lough. That is a spate stream with a run of big sea trout. Guess what? They had had no rain, the river was on its bones, and I fished dry fly for diminutive brownies.

Back at home, the River Ribble and its major tributary the Hodder have been kept high by the amount of rain that has fallen (in 2004 we in north-west England have already had our annual quota and there are almost three months of the year to go). The consequence has been good runs of salmon and, if you got everything right - a falling river after at least a day with no rain (very rare!) - the fishing has been excellent. A clue as to how good? My son Pete nipped out for a couple of hours on the Ribble, caught two salmon in four casts (one 8-10lb and the other about half as big again) and got home early for breakfast. He had forgotten his fly box, but had a few flies in his hat. Fish number one took a tiny Stoat's Tail, number two a Kingfisher Butcher. "Had I had my fly-box, with one foot two inches on the gauge I would have fished bigger flies", he said.

Both Hodder and Ribble are stuffed with grayling and I have had some great afternoons, when the fish have been rising to pale wateries and a few blue-winged olives, with my favourite grayling dry fly Sturdy's Fancy. I commend it to you. If you don't know the tying, it is as follows:

Hook: Sizes 14-18 dry fly.
Thraed: Purple.
Tag: Red wool.
Body: Bronze peacock herl.
Hackle: Off-white cock (I use genetic cream).

Notes: Dead easy...bog standard...very effective.

The winter approaches....fast!
Starting in two weeks time will be a series of tyings here on the web page to keep you happy through the winter months. I have selected a range of flies, covering all aspects from dry fly to saltwater and predator flies.

However, my contribution to this web site is for you. If you have any tying or fly-fishing queries, email them to the magazine and I will try to help.

Malcolm Greenhalgh