I’ve had a couple of seasons fishing the Avon, Whyle and Nadder on the Salisbury & District Angling Association beats. I’m still a massive novice and learning all the time but I have found some flies which have worked for me. I’ve put some notes and tying videos of the flies below and I’ll update as and when I find more successful flies.
Mayfly
It might be called ‘duffer’s fortnight’ but I’ve found mayfly time to be tricky; you’re either waiting for them to start taking or, when they do, there are so many naturals that its difficult for your fly to stand out. After a couple of fishless attempts when the trout just didn’t seem to be interested in my offering, I tied up a Grey Wulff and a Mayfly Emerger by Alex Jardine which worked a treat. Although Mayfly’s are big and often tied on size 10 hooks, I found both of these more successful on size 12.
Tying a Grey Wulff with Barry Ord Clarke – YouTube
Tying The Jardine Mayfly Emerger – YouTube
Olives
I realise that ‘olives’ is a very generic term for a lot of different flies but I’ve found a few patterns which seem to work pretty much all year with a couple of subtle tweaks. So I tie these patterns bigger and with a darker olive, for the Large Dark Olive, and also in smaller sizes with a lighter olive for the other variants which seem to hatch in the middle of the year. I also tie an olive version of the Jardine Mayfly Emerger as the foam makes it a useful prospecting fly – you can cast a lot without it sinking.
Fordy’s Flies – The Holo Emerger HD 1080p – YouTube
Fordy’s Flies – The Olive Upright – YouTube
Fordy’s Flies – The Little Olive – YouTube
Some of the emerging olives can be more grey/brown in colour than green, so the Parachute Adams tends to pick up a lot of fish, particularly in June/July:
Tying a Parachute Adams with Barry Ord Clarke – YouTube
Sedge
Just like the mayfly, it took me ages to find something that the trout on the Avon would take for sedge. I also found that tying them smaller helps, so I will tie most of these on size 14 hooks. Also, the sedge around the Avon seem darker so I will use a darker body dubbing, almost grey.
Tying a CDC Elk hair with Barry Ord Clarke – YouTube
Nymphs
I’m still learning how to nymph fish successfully on chalk streams. On my club waters, its dry fly only until the end of June and then a single nymph only. This can make it tricky on some beats as the weed is often high by then. Whilst the Avon is a chalk stream, not all beats are clear so sight-fishing for nymphs is not easy. I’ve found a simple foam indicator about 3 foot above the nymph helps see the takes. In terms of flies, the traditional stuff seems to work well. I have variations of the pheasant tail and hares ear with beads and leaded but I find the original Sawyer approach for the pheasant tail (using the copper wire to weight the fly) works well, as the fly tends to stay mid-stream and avoid the weeds. I tie these relatively small – in sizes 14, 16 and 18 mostly.
Tying a Gold Ribbed Olive Hare’s Ear Nymph with Davie McPhail – YouTube
Tying Frank Sawyer’s Pheasant Tail Nymph – YouTube
Midges and daddy longlegs ….