The spate stream dry fly fisher

THE SPATE STREAM DRY FLY FISHER

Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. Hello and welcome to my dry fly site. My name is Pat Regan and I fish the northern spate streams of Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire with dry fly. Craggy old rivers like the Hodder, Lune, Doe, Twiss, Greta and Wenning that flow rapidly through bleak northern mountainsides. Thistle-strewn wild havens that are home to the curlew, snipe, dipper and kingfisher and where sheep outnumber humans - a hundred to one.

These ancient systems are at times cold, hostile and unforgiving. Forget the gentle and lush chalk streams of southern England, you will not find such grassy luxury herein.

Following rain, northern spate streams can rise alarmingly in a matter of hours and drop just as quickly. Water colour subsequent to flooding can quickly change from a thick brown muddy hue to pale attractive sherry and being there at the right time is frequently paramount to success.

Brown Trout from an original acrylic by Pat Regan.

Click on picture for full sized image

Author, Pat Regan, waiting for that magical moment of the 'Take' on the early season River Lune.

Just beyond that far rock a big brown trout is sipping down hatching olives.

This little video clip above shows how sporty our River Hodder browns can be. Sorry that its got no sound but it was taken a while back with a basic camera. If you like it then please give us a rating on Youtube or with any of the other videos on these links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SDcYBTOyM8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMruHc0Evg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lRKfc10p-w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7SZpBDn8AM

The Magical Dry Fly - our link to the stream's quiet mysteries

I, like many others, also 'once' preferred to utilise the North Country Wet Fly, yet such was my love for the dry method that today I select only the latter.

The dry fly is not a hobby, pastime or even a sport it is a 'religion' (or cult) based on first hand contact with raw nature. Even when one cannot get down to the water's edge one's mental process is intimately projected there and personal thoughts are always on the weather and how it may be affecting the stream. Dry fly is a love affair that improves each and every year. It is an untamed, pagan adoration of our organic link with what many want to realise but sadly never will! Words can never hope to truly explain this addictive mystery, which is born out of an ancient desire to stalk ultra wild quarry in such awesome places.

Why stick with dry and ignore the wet? Well, for me the thrill of seeing a good trout, grayling or sea trout sip down a visible floating dressing off the surface is the ultimate angling experience. Yes, I know that the wet fly or nymph (upstream or indeed down) will certainly on occasion take more fish but the Numbers Game is not in my opinion what it's all about.

Casting a dry imitation of a natural insect to rising fish is pure hunting. For me it holds a persistent and electrifying fascination, which never diminishes. One nice fish on the dry is better than five on the subsurface method. This is heaven, whilst being confronted with huge rise forms on a gentle flowing run and having no dry flies at hand would surely be hell!

Furthermore it may be reasoned that one can be more selective and thus be more eco-friendly with dry as one can usually pick out the larger rise forms of adult fish and thus avoid hooking immature fish. The downstream wet fly cannot claim this virtue as very often that method relies heavily on catching fish that cannot actually be seen.

Check out the short videos towards the bottom of this page which I have just added.

Don't just read - fish!

Click picture for full-sized image

I have written numerous articles on techniques and dressings, which have been printed in magazines like Trout Fisherman and the excellent and informative Fly Fishing & Fly Tying. I have taught fly dressing classes at adult education night schools and angling clubrooms and demonstrated at Game Fairs on numerous occasions. I have won many fly-tying competitions also yet all this is of absolutely no consequence when one is on the water facing a group of hungry rising game fish or that awkward old solitary trout that has seen every conceivable angling offering.

Personal experience gained via total love of the dry fly sport is what matters most. Being on the water at every opportunity and in all types of weather is the way to understanding the myriad moods of one's quarry. Books are okay for grabbing the basic methods yet they have their limitations. Get down to the river and start looking for those rising fish and you will begin to see what I mean.

For every single dry fly fanatic there are a hundred armchair anglers who want to fish yet strangely (and subconsciously) find every trick in the book to keep themselves well away from the stream. It's too far to travel, the day is too hot or cold. the garden needs attention or the family may visit. Excuses are legion yet they do not catch fish! Having said that I must admit that these days I am more choosy in the days I pick to go fishing yet this is based of long experience of when the stream will be at a suitable height. Many seasons ago, when I was first learning the dry fly craft, I rushed up to the river at every opportunity. Even a few hours before dark was attractive and who cared if snow or gales threatened the day. Bundle the gear into the car and whiz off 40 or 50 miles to the nearest river without so much as a second thought. Sometimes I caught fish sometimes I had to struggle yet the many trips were instructional and taught me first hand to know where to find fish and what they would be feeding on at any given time of day.

New: The Hodder in autumn - click on the picture for more

Click on this Youtube link for a peep at the lovely Hodder in summer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMruHc0Evg

One for the Lure - chuckers: Another brace of spate stream salmon - click on the picture to discover more

Wild streams like the Hodder, seen here on a dull May afternoon, hold a mysterious charm for the dry fly angler

Dull days on the Hodder and the ramblings of a dry fly author!

Rods and other essential dry fly gear.

Most important. Leave your ugly old 9' reservoir/lake/sea-trout rod at home.

I use two rods, one is 6' 6" the other is 5' 2". Even a half pound brownie on these rods is brilliant sport. I made them myself and at little cost. The smallest (which is actually constructed out of one and a half sections of a larger rod, chopped down) casts a number 2 DT. F, whilst the larger throws a number 3 DT. F.

I do like green floating lines yet white ones are okay too and angling results seem to be similar. Leaders are important and my usual one is about six feet in length, tapering from 8lb mono to about 3lb (double strength) at the tip. If the river is big or sea trout are about I may go up to 4lb double strength. When the going is tough in high summer with tiny water flows then out comes the 1.5lb double strength line, yet one must be very careful in striking fish with such fine leaders. Fine leaders are also essential when presenting small dressing of say below size 18. Alternatively, stronger tips are needed to properly present larger dressings on bigger hooks.

The Lune holds fantastic wild browns and lusty sea trout which can be caught on dry fly in daylight hours

Click picture to view full size image

Dressing your own flies.

I have never bought a dressing in my life and would rather cast in worms or bread than visit a shop and purchase a sack full of the terrible feathered offerings on sale. Most are absolute monstrosities that would scare rather than attract wild fish. Tying one's own flies is part of the 'Cult' of the Dry fly angler and gives us the chance to actually imitate the insects that we see with our own eyes on our own stretch of water. This is what our sport is supposed to be about!

How can commercial dressings, which are possibly produced as far away as Hong Kong or Taiwan , ever hope to match the hatch on a rough, northern spate stream? Forget those angling aberrations and create you own special patterns that are based on personal experience and solid reality or at least get someone who knows the game well to tie them for you.

Many of my patterns are what might be called General Imitators, tied in various sizes from number 24 up to 14 or possibly 12. These come into play when one is not quite sure about what the fish are actually taking. However, I do also use set imitations that actually look just like the real thing. Naturally, these are to be used when one has discovered just what the fish are feeding on. Call me old fashioned but I always prefer up-eyed hooks, however straight eyes are okay too so long as they are of a nice fine wire. I would also advocate barbless hooks, which hold well, are easy to extract and are better for the fish.

Dry Fly Patterns.

I have included a small selection of personal dry fly patterns that will get most beginners on their way. My flies are of course mainly dressed to match the fly hatches on the Northern spate rivers yet there is no reason why they shouldn't work well on any other water where similar species of natural insects are to be found. Within this unique site I will tell you what is the hard-won truth, which I have gleaned from first hand river-side experience, not accepted 'hearsay' from others.

The mysterious Yellow May Dun

Click on the picture of a Mayfly above for a full-sized image

Male BWO having a well-earned rest on the handle of my fly rod.

Click photo for full-size image

(Photo by Kyle Regan)

Below are five of my earlier articles, the first three in this listing have previously appeared in the excellent and instructive Fly Fishing and Fly tying Magazine. Special thanks to the editor Mr Mark Bowler.

Northern Stream Grayling on a Dry Fly

Dry Fly on the Yorkshire Becks

Wild Silver Ladies and the Blue & Olive Dun

Brown trout fishing on the River Wenning

The Sherry Spinner

Flood Grayling on dry fly

Hodder in February

Dog that walks on water?

Click on the picture above to see what happens next!

The occasional salmon (or confessions of a dry-fly fanatic)

Pike on the fly

The wonderful trout of the River Lune - are they truly valued?

September mixed bag

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Video clips

Here are a few short videos that may help to wet the appetite for the novice and the more experienced dry fly anger.

Click here to see a good grayling taken on dry fly

Click here to see the take of an acrobatic trout and the tussle that ensues later on.

Click here to see the author into a River Hodder brown trout. The video was taken in June by Kyle Regan and you can see that the river was quite low at the time.

Click here to see the creation of a general olive pattern.

Click here to see a short video of brown trout fishing in March.

Click here to see a sea trout taken on dry fly from the River Lune.

Click here to see a River Lune brown trout putting up a fight subsequent to taking a dry fly.

Click here to see a clip of a small Hodder sea trout taken of dry fly reach the net.

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HELP!

New book: New book: New book: New book: New book: New book

Seeking a decent fly fishing publisher with 'insight'.

If you have enjoyed some of my articles and the way that the sometimes hard to fathom cult of the dry fly is described within this website then please stay tuned. I have written an informative book about this subject of over sixty thousand words. The manuscript also gives over fifty original fly patterns by yours truly. When it finds a suitable home via a sincere publisher, who knows, one day it may become a classic.

If you are a 'genuine' publisher who is as eager as me to promote the wonderful magic of dry fly spate stream angling and tying then I want to hear from you now.

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