June saw us with far fewer days on the river than May. Tom had some days off in the first two weeks, then we had a spate. After that we spent quite a bit of time focusing more on Sea Trout and Salmon (still nothing landed, but quite a few sightings). See our June Fishing Report for the details of the month.
The fly of the month title definitely has to go to The Stimulator. Not because it out-performed all other flies, but because it could consistently entice a rise, even when there was very little showing. The Stimulator accounted for more fish for me than for Tom, but since it wasn’t on my list they can go on the board but not on my score! Conversely Tom started the month catching mainly on my Brown-Olive Klinkhammer. Seriously, both of our scores would have been higher if we’d swapped fly selections.
The deep slow waters of Church Beat gave up some big fish this month
The majority of Tom’s scoring fish ended up being on his Black Gold Head Pheasant Tail Nymph, fished klink & dink style, followed by his Stimulator and Olive Klinkhammer. A couple on his Deer Hair Emerger and Elk Hair Caddis pattern, but June still wasn’t a great month for our sedge patterns, despite the number of Caddisflies on the water.
For Matt, most scoring fish were caught on his Brown-Olive Klinkhammer. The GRHE did well in the early weeks and the Red-Brown Klinkhammer did very well on the few occasions when it was a good match for the evening hatch. Didn’t catch a thing on pale Klinkhammer or the Retirer, despite giving them both a good go.
By the end of the month we had a total of 254 fish on the catch returns, but in a reversal of last month’s results, Tom got 57 in total with 31 counting towards his score, and Matt picked up 109 but only 70 on his June flies.
Heading into July it’s a close thing with Tom now on 215 and Matt just squeaking ahead with 219.
Tom fishing church on a lovely evening
Matt trying out Bridge Reeve post spate
Fly Selection for June
So of course we’re slightly late again with our monthly selection, but on 2 July we took a trip up to Church Beat, ostensibly in search of a couple of sea trout we’d seen from the bridge. Tom was fishing, while Matt was doing some bank maintenance (no, not where he was fishing, although that would have been an idea). We were talking about how poorly the sedge patterns had been doing this year, so Tom decided he would catch some fish on a small sedge.
Annoyingly he got 8 in about 45 minutes. The next day I tied up a copy of the fly, left the loppers at the hotel and got 5, not including the two big fish I lost. One was about 14-15” lost at the net. The other was by far the biggest brown trout I’ve hooked into on our beats. A very exciting 5 minutes of a very bent 4-weight, followed by a jump and a slack line. Needless to say, there’s going to be a small sedge in the July selection! (Oh, and Tom just caught a sea trout on one, so there’s that too)
For the July selection, we’ll be fishing an identical collection of flies. Each of us chooses 5 flies as per usual, but then we do a kind three round draft selection. We each choose a fly from the opponent’s selection, one from our own, and then another from the opponent. The resulting six flies will be fished by both of us for July. Not quite sure why I’ve agreed to go head to head like this, as Tom is clearly the better angler. But then I predict he may be stuck doing a lot more double shifts in July!
Tom’s Brown Trout Flies for July
July is or can be a much harder month for fishing, or so I have found in previous years. With the water levels being unpredictable and the temperatures rising the fishing itself can be increasingly harder.
I am hoping that we do get a bit of rain which will hopefully move a few of the seatrout around a bit as last year I got very frustrated with every seatrout I hooked it followed a few seconds later by what we call in the fishing world, a long distance release!
As Matt has mentioned, the fly size is going to be a major factor in this month’s choices so it has to be taken into account when choosing the flies.
Kaufmann Stimulator (12)
This fly is only going to be used in the toughest of fishing days when there’s nothing taking off the surface this will be the one to pull them up from the depths!
Parachute Mahogany Dun (16)
Never have never used this fly, I’ve been doing some research and reading up regarding summer flies and apparently this is a good one to go for so I am willing to at least give it a whirl. With a large white parachute post this allows the fly to sit up high in the water ensuring its visibility even in fast flowing runs, up or across will be the go to allowing the fly to drift naturally.
Lightning Bug (14)
Another first for me, something with a bit of a flash in it to initiate a strike from a fish even when they aren’t actively feeding. Imitating a variety of aquatic insects such as a mayfly nymph.
Green Drake Wulff (12)
I’m going for a slightly larger fly in this pattern as I’m hoping it may attract a rising seatrout which I am still waiting to catch on a dry fly [edit – he caught one yesterday on a bloody sedge while I looking photographing Mayfly nymphs in a Petri dish 😒], the Wulff pattern sits nicely in the water much like the Stimulator and fish seem to hit them pretty hard.
Beaded Black Hares Ear (16)
This fly I use every year early, mid and late season and it never fails to produce fish, recently we (Matt especially) have been looking closer at the entomology of the river and have found a lot of nymphs showing this sort of pattern. We will see if this makes a difference but I’m confident!!
Matt’s Brown Trout Flies for July
So there’s a few factors at play here when choosing my flies this month. Firstly, I don’t know what Tom has selected, and I think he chose his flies before his little magic trick with the little sedge, so I want to make sure we get that fly in the mix.
Secondly all the invertebrates we’re seeing are getting markedly smaller. It’s pretty typical to downsize during the summer months and when you’re fishing from a whole fly box, you can carry a range, but when you’re only going to have six flies, do you go for the 14, the 16, 18, 20?
Finally, the black nymph has finally started to produce fish. I definitely want at least one subsurface fly, but I’ve been burnt twice with the black nymph and the old GRHE has been pretty reliable and consistent. Decisions, decisions.
Brown-Olive Klinkhammer (14)
The size 12 of this fly from last month accounted for about one third of my fish, but I’m downsizing it a to a 14 for July.
I’m also trying out Micro Zelon for the post instead of EP fibres after getting Peter Hayes’ new book. He gave a great talk at Fly Culture Magazine’s Gathering, here at the hotel last month. It’s not a pattern from the book, but Micro Zelon is used in a lot in the patterns in the book. I’ve bought a ton of different wing/post materials this month and will be trying them out to see which works best for me.
Elk Hair Caddis (16)
This is a copy of the small sedge pattern Tom started catching on at the start of July. The wing is only about 10-12mm, which may have been the problem with slightly larger Retirer and other sedge patterns we’d been fishing in June. Forgot the old “if you’re not catching, go smaller” maxim, but it seems to have done the trick.
And just coz I’ve got it, I’ve added a bit of Micro Zelon underwing, which does seem to help keep the fly on the surface.
Bead Head Black Nymph (14)
I tend to favour much simpler skinny nymphs in the summer. A lot of my flies are just black cotton with a mini silver wire rib and scruffy dubbing or black herl thorax.
This one is actually bait for Tom as he seems to like a wrap of hackle and a bit more substance to his nymphs. I’m trying to get him to pick this so I can use my one pick of my own flies to make sure I get my Brown-Olive.
Red-Brown Klinkhammer (16)
I don’t think this fly will make the final six, and to be fair it’s a very situational fly that works particularly well in the hour before dark. I’m pretty sure the two species we have in this colour are the Blue Winged Olive and Late March Brown, but whatever they are, having a mayfly imitation in this colour is well worth it when you notice them starting to float by.
There’s a nice looking red Casualty BWO pattern in the Peter Hayes book that I’ll try one evening and see how that compares.
Stimulator (12)
I’m guessing that Tom will have this in his selection, so hopefully we can pick it from his pile, but I didn’t want o risk not having it in the mix, as it’s such a good fly to have when there’s not much rising.
I’ve tied this with a few different body colours but the orangy colour seems to work best. This one’s been fished a bit and the tail has spread around the hook shank, but it’s still catching fish.
Other flies I’ll have in the box for July, even though I can’t fit them in the competition list, are some olive nymphs, Gold Ribbed Hares Ears, Pheasant Tail Nymphs, some Green Drake imitations (still haven’t cracked this, but we’re had some decent hatches and no fly that consistently produced takes), a selection of mays and caddis, some emerger patterns and one or two terrestrials.
The Final Six
Looks like we might both have spent too much time trying to second guess each other and ended up with a slightly odd and overlapping selection. Anyway, based on taking it in turns to chose a fly from the competitor, one of our own and another from our competitor, we ended up with the following flies for July:
- Green Drake Wulff (12)
- Brown-Olive Klinkhammer (14)
- Elk Hair Caddis (16)
- Kaufmann Stimulator (12
- Beaded Black Hare’s Ear (16)
- Red-Brown Klinkhammer (14)
We’ll let you know how the selection worked out in next month’s article, together with our Devon rivers fly selection for August!
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