Nymphing Classes

Irishflytying.com is offering a course in nymphing for all anglers. The methods of Czech nymphing, French nymphing and Polish bugging among more disciplines will be covered throughout the course.

Peter Driver, a very experienced angler in these methods will be your tutor; he is an international competitive angler and has gained many achievements from his ability to fish these styles. The course can be held over one day for an individual or a weekend for a club or group of anglers. The location can be provided or we will travel to your location depending on numbers of participants.

Weekend Course Details can include:

· To begin: fly-tying, theory of methods, assessing and approaching a river, and best equipment needed including leader set ups.

· Second half of day one: On the river; a discussion on presentation and technique of fishing methods, practice of fishing styles.

· Fly tying can be revisited for the night of day one if needed or requested.

· Day two: Practice on Rivers, and discussions throughout, personal coaching if necessary, assessment of individual or group to close.

Included in the cost will be the guiding of the group or the individual, some nymphs and leader material to begin nymphing. The anglers may provide their own waders and rods but some competition rods will be available to be tried out over the course. If the anglers come to our location we will include the permits for fishing in the cost, also if requested lunch can be included and accommodation.

Contact us at avonmore1@gmail.com or on face book to discuss the course outline and details to suit you and your group; including costing. We will tailor the event to ensure you receive the maximum experience that in whatever aspects of nymphing you wish.

We look forward to hearing from you and sharing our experiences with you.

Barred Zonker Streamers

Between the last three months of the river season last year and all through the stockie still water fishing I have done this winter these streamers have produced fish through out. I have tied them in several forms, like the one above it is a very attractive fly for the wild brown trout on our rivers in Ireland and it also took some good fish in the World Finals in Slovenia late last year.   The streamer below also attracted a lot of fish over the end of the season last year. They are tied on a Hends streamer hook size 8-6 and I tend to vary the bodies and the heads to see what works best for different rivers and environments.

For the still water fishing this year I found that a slightly different variation of the streamers were taking a lot of fish. I havenT up on till recent seasons been a bank still water angler my love for wild trout always over ruled the desire to catch stocked fish. But this winter I decided to give the competitions a go and Managed to win i the Leinster Banks in Lough Ashling, I was quite surprised. 

Tying in some booby eyes and  Hends Ice Chenille on the body created a great rainbow streamer and they loved it. The long barred zonkers strips created great movement in the water and attracted lots of fish. I tied and tested many different colours and they all caught some fish. 

Try out these streamers and see how the fish love them you can get all the materieals you need and a good selection of Zonker strips barred and in many colours at:
http://www.irishflytying.com/

Fly Tying Classes

Fly Tying Classes 

Irish Fly Tying & Irish Fly Craft will be hosting fly tying classes in Kilkenny City this February. 

They will commence on the 7th of February and will run for several weeks depending on the number of participants. The classes will be held from 7.30pm till 9.30pm and will be open to all fly tiers young, old, experienced and novices.

Peter Driver and Jimmy Tyrrell with be the tutors and both have years of experience in the craft. They will cover many different styles of fly tying such as wet flies, nymphs, dry flies, streamers and all aspects of fly tying during the course. Also through out the classes Peter and Jimmy will be discussing the methods of fishing the flies and the correct approaches to catching fish with them.

The cost of attending this course is 15 euro per night or 60 euro for the complete four weeks. It is up to the person attending to provide their own tools for the class or this can be arranged if prior notice is given to the instructors.

For more information or to book your place please contact Peter or Jimmy through this email address (pdriver1410@gmail.com) if you are interested or contact Peter on Facebook @ irishflytying.com's page.

If you have a group or club that wishes to host one of these courses over a weekend or several weeks please feel free to contact Peter to discuss this at the above email address. 

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Peter 

Long Hair Chenille Fry

Trying to source this product by Hends some years ago after been shown it in Norway on a fishing trip is what lead us into the fly-tying market, i don't know to thank it or hate it for that, but it dose create some wonderful fry patterns. There are several ways and materials that can be used to tie these fly's and this is just one of them that I use. Here is a step by step of how to create them:

Two of the most important materials in the fly is Hends Long Chenille and Epoxy eyes, these eyes come in several colours and sizes so you can chose the preferred ones to suit your fly.

Firstly choose a strong wire hook the desired length depends on the size of fry you wish to tie. Using white Grall thread tie in one end of the chenille strip.

Wind the strip up the hook till you are almost at the eye and keep brushing back the hair as you wind up so it dose not become trapped  Leave a small gap at the eye of the hook and I tend to add in some white spectra dubbing here to give the fly that extra sparkle. I then brush the hair with a tooth brush with the bristles cut short, to get rid of any hair or dubbing that is loose. 

Then using some varnish of what ever you chose, get some on your fingers and shape back the hair to form the fry profile. This will go a bit hard when dry, but when fished and trout take, it will become more broken up looking, that is ok and will fish better if nothing else so don't be concerned about this happening.

Once your fry is dry, then I use markers to colour it in to my desired colour. You can buy a full set of these markers and they are waterproof and great to have at the vise, I use them all the time in fly tying. 

Once you have finished the colouring then add you chosen eye and it would be my advice to stick the eye on with some superglue or I tend to find that after a few fish the eye is gone.

Here are some other fry patterns that have worked for me over the years. I tie them all sizes and colours, I also add in booby eye and blades or popper heads to give the fly a different swimming action. I really enjoy tying these flies and I hope you do too.

For all the materials and markers needed to tie these flies log onto www.irishflytying.com or click on the link back up to the right. 

May Fly Tube Bodies

I have tied and seen many May flies in my few years of fishing and some of them have been fantastic and other not so good. They have been made out of deer hair, foam and lots of other materials to try and match that of the natural fly. I then found Jan Simans Tube Bodies and they were really good looking, they also turned out to be really easy to work with and come in several sizes and colours. Now all my May flies and any fly that I chose to tie with a detached body has this Jan Siman product on them.

Several days ago I put up a small dry light olive and it got such a good response I decided to show you some other patterns that are tied with the principal product in each of the flies. The fly above is one that I have been using for years even though some of the tying style has changed the general ingredients of a tube body and split CDC wings remain the same. The hook is a size 14 grub hook and the tube body is tied in just a bit down the bend, a small pinch of CDC dubbing is wrapped where it meets the hook. The wings are Light Olive Hends CDC split with a strip of cream foam and some more CDC dubbing underneath to finish the fly on the underside.  

This material is so simple to work with and you can create such great looking flies with it that also catch a lot of fish. the little blue dun to the right is such an example. This little fly has caught me so many fish, its Tube body is tied in close to the eye and a small space is left for a small amount of white CDC then it is to just spin on some Hends light blue CDC as a hackle and your fly is finished. It is often the most simple of fly's that will work the best in catching trout.

This little Pale Olive is another example of simplicity after you tie in the body just split two hackle points as wings and wrap your fine cock hackle from the Tube body up to the eye. The fly below is my May fly version this is a fly that I always have in my box either on the rivers or lake during May and June in several colours. It is one of them all round flies that will always pick up feeding fish if there is natural may fly around. Once the body is attached to the hook add in the wing which is a mix of light brown, natural and white CDC then using the light brown CDC spin it around the wing and up to the eye. These May Fly Tube bodies by Jan Siman are well worth having and tying with you will produce great looking flies that do catch fish. To find the range of colours and sizes just log onto www.irishflytying.com and enjoy tying with this simple product.

Oliver Ewards Caddis Legs

I was recently asked to show a friend of mine some different ways to use Jan Siman, Oliver Edwards Caddis Legs. Here are some of the flies we tied and I must admit I enjoyed the results and how the material can be worked. The fly above is a sedge with the caddis legs wrapped up the hook and brushed back, the wing is a tape wing that I make myself ill show in a later post. The hackle is a light ginger cock with some pheasant tail horns to finish the fly. The body looks really good and because the construction of the caddis legs includes deer hair it will be a cracking floating fly on fast water or in a wave.

In the pack the lengths of spun legs can seem quite stiff and a tyer can imagine that it will be tricky enough to put on small flies or small amounts on larger flies. It is quite the opposite and I found it to be really easy to manipulate and tie in small places. 
This sedge pupa on the right is a small wet fly pattern that is very attractive with the caddis legs tied in just behind the bead and brushed back. I can imagine that this fly swinging through a run and the deer hair creating quite and attraction will produce quite a few takes. The legs comes in several colours to suit your needs and the body of this fly is a white wool coloured in to match the legs.

This black nymph was another attractive fly that will get a swim in the spring. its tied on a Jig hook with a lead under-body and black spectra dubbing body ribbed with Hends Mylar ribbing. The tail is natural Partridge with a yellow Glo-Brite tag. These Caddis legs by Jan Siman are well worth playing around with and you will discover there ability to enhance some of your favorite flies. Click on the link to the right to find a range of colours.