Down River Dry Fly on the San Poland

I haven't been blogging for a while with a lot of flies to be tied, work commitments and my girlfriend moving in it has been a crazy few months. However thankfully things getting back to normal now and I can share with you all the experiences good and bad, along with  tricks I have picked up over this time, it has been an eventful few months with plenty ups and downs.

To begin somewhere, I was in Poland recently on a four day trip with some angling buddies fishing the beautiful River San in the Lesko region. 
To get here you can fly from Dublin to Rzeszow  Wednesdays and Sundays then you would have a two hour drive to a town called Lesko which the river San flows past. Permits are reasonable enough at around 15 euro per day and accommodation is for around 30 euro with dinner and breakfast included. The whole trip would cost in the region of 500 euros including flights, car hire, hotel ect. This is not a bad price for three and a half good days fishing on one of the top rivers in Europe in my book.

You do however arrive at the hotel quite late on the Wednesday night, around 11 or 12, so after a quick beer we hit the hay to be fresh for the fishing in the morning. After breakfast we took a quick pit stop in a nearby town at a tackle shop called "TopFly", well worth checking out if you are near by for their fly collections. At the first glance of the river it was very obvious that the levels were similar  to our home waters and extremely low; however we didn't find this to much of a problem as this meant we could wade to any location of the river and also the big plus was that the fish were freely rising through out the entire day.

After setting up two rods one on the dries and the other on nymphs I headed down stream and found a nice section of running water and began to nymph the pockets, with poor enough results. The river is heavily fished and when you look up or down the river you will see a lot of anglers wading the vast river, this can be a bit off putting at the start but it dose not take you long to get used to it and see it wont inflict on your catches if you are doing the right thing. I didn't pick up to many of the renowned sizable Graylings through-out the morning catching mostly brown trout, some nice ones at that. Over the rest of the day we did manage to find the Ladies and it was productive enough but we knew we were missing something and the fish were not coming freely as the normally are.
Day two started with a bit of a sore head from a few beers the night before and we were a bit slower getting tackled up but we were still fishing by 10am. Approaching the river differently this morning payed off right from the start, instead of walking down stream to fish up the river we started at the car and fished down stream with small slight dries on fine tippet, 7x. 


Using a 12 foot 5x or 6x tapered leader with 6 foot of 7x or 8x tippet we stood facing down stream and casting at two or ten o clock allowing the dry to float down stream ahead of the tippet and leader. The fly is the first thing the fish sees and if they are spooky Grayling then this method will catch them. With the gentlest of takes it dose take some concentration to keep your eyes on the small dries and the subtle rises in order to connect with the fish as you do have to be fast enough. It was very enjoyable fishing especially when you lift into the fish and it tears off down stream.

Day three went much the same as the day before and there was cracking fishing to be had. One other aspect that was important to catching these fish was there is no need to move or wade at any pace, once you find a fishy glide or pocket. The Grayling just keep coming and if you move down river to fast you would pass by dozens and dozens of quality fish, this can take some reminding as you see rising fish further down stream. This was another enjoyable trip and finished up with a few beers in the hotel with a good laugh reliving the fishing from the last three days. This is a method that I will be working on next spring and summer in our Irish waters for sure and I know these fine dries do work very well here at home.

These fishing breaks can be easily put together and are a must for the developing angler or a fisher-person that just loves the sport of catching fish in stunning surroundings. If you would like anymore information on this kind of fishing trip please feel free to contact me and ill do my best to point you in the right direction. 

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and can take something from it to enhance your angling. If you have any questions on the blog or any of the posts you can contact me here or on my details to the right. If you would like any of the flies on this blog tied or your own dressings do not hesitate to give me a shout and ill tie them for you promptly. Thanks for reading.

What are the Trout feeding on?

With the temperatures soaring into the thirties and the water levels low, fishing the evenings can be a break from the heat of the day for the angler but also the variety of fly life on the river offers the feeding trout a large and varied menu from Sedges, Olives, Knats and Caenis. Now on most trips out the sedge patterns will take a few fish close to dark but you couldn't be guaranteed a large catch of fish. However there is another treat on the menu for the fish and one that gets over looked quite a bit on our rivers. Flying Ants can be seen all over the country at the moment and the trout love them. I began fishing these flies several years ago in Norway and they have had a permanent place in my dry fly-box for this time of the year. I tie them in several colours mostly black, red and my favorite pink. Here is a simple dressing to match the hatch and its well wort having them in several colours. 

Begin by placing a size 14 fine wire hook in the vice and using black twist thread for the black ant, red for the red one and so on for different colours.

Take a strip of black foam around 3mm in with and point the tail end of the body. Trap down the foam a third of the way down the hook.

Here add in several strands of Krystal flash for the wings and bring forward the thread up to the second third of the hook.

Trap down the second segment of foam and tie in a small cock black hackle to act as the legs.

Wind on two turns of the black hackle and secure with a few turns of thread. Pull the last piece of foam to the front of the hook and finish off the fly.


This is a really simple and quick tie, its a little fly that will catch those fussy fish during these hot days, while it floats great, the fly sits lovely in the surface film just where the fish want them. Don't forget to try the pink ones closer to the fall of the dark.  

I hope you enjoy reading this post and if you have any comments or questions just drop me a line below, also you can sign in and follow us. Thanks for reading and enjoy the fishing.

Balloon Caddis

We are seeing an all time low in our river water levels and with this comes some changes in the trouts behaviors which can make them an easier target for their predators.  Now grouping together in the deeper sections of the river the shoals of fish can be easily targeted and spotted. Some anglers would have the approach of be extra careful when fishing for these pods of fish and though I would agree with that most of the time. However lately I have been having more success in being a bit more aggressive with my presentation of my dry fly and my wading.

I would not be afraid to wade through the river and push the majority of fish into the head of the pool or run, by doing this you will also heighten there aggression and in turn they will be more likely to attack something put into the same space; for example your fly.

I use a aggressive dry fly leader, that I make up myself and with a large dry fly I just keep smashing it into the run, leaving it on the water only for a foot or so and recasting constantly; giving the fish a short window to make up their mind to attack or not. Its fast fishing and I like to keep the fly as close to me as possible so when I get the hook up I can lift the fish out of the water as quickly to my net with out putting to many of the other trout off that are in the pod.

Here is a good pattern that has worked for me using this approach.

Begin by placing a B100 hook into the vise and using olive thread tie in two strands of krystal flash as a tail. 

Tie in some flat pearl tinsel as the rib and dub on some natural hares ear, three quarters up the body. Rib the dubbing and brush out the dubbing well once tied off. 

Take a pinch of fine deer hair and tie in a wing, leaving enough space at the front of the hook for the head. 

Take some foam and tie it in at the front of the hook, I like to use pink but you can use your preferred  colour.

Add in your thorax dubbing. Here I use a mixture of dubbing including natural hare, white UV, purple UV and some gold, all mixed well. Once you have dubbed the thorax pull over the foam and tie off at he back of the thorax.

Brush out the thorax well to get the mix of colours coming out and this will give the fish a good target point on the fly. I do like the bushy look to this fly and it can help it stay afloat in turbulent water. 

I hope you enjoy reading this post and if you have any comments or questions just drop me a line below, also you can sign in and follow us. Thanks for reading and enjoy the fishing.

FLYFISHING IN KILKENNY

I spent two days this week on the Nore and some of its tributaries with some good friends chasing brown trout and discussing many aspects of trout fishing. The weather was slightly overcast and breezy which made for good enough fishing conditions but the low levels of water did prove to be challenging at times.

Trout fishing around Kilkenny can often be passed over for fishing on the River Suir which is not to far away, or salmon fishing on the local rivers throughout this area. I generally find the brown trout fishing in this region fairly good and mostly forgotten leaving it untouched in places and its mostly for a very reasonable price. The one thing I enjoy mostly about fishing these waters is you rarely bump into another angler and you can enjoy the elegant surroundings at peace.

With the Nore making its way through miles of lush banks and is fairly accessible from the towns of Durrow down to Inistioge there is an abundance of fishing to be had on its runs, riffles and super glides for your dries. The range of fish vary here also with a solid stock of fish from 10 to 12 inches, there is also many good quality trout running into several pound in weight  to be had. There are clubs on the rivers however and permits can be obtained at good prices for the day or for a full season.

There are also many great tributaries to the Nore which include the Kings River in Kells, Dinan in Castlecomer and the Erkina in Durrow among others; these rivers also hold great stocks of fish and are good options if the main river is fishing slow or in heavy water. The majority of this fishing is only a 20 minute drive or less from the town so changing location or river on any day won't take too long from your fishing.

We spent Wednesday on the Nore just outside Kilkenny on the Bennettsbridge side of town where the river begins to widen out and the water type is good for dries with some productive nymphing runs breaking up the long glides. With the fish lying low during the day the most productive method was the dry dropper, fishing a simple system of a tapered leader down to 0.12 tippet; the dry fly was tied on a smaller dropper than normal and below this was two nymphs, one around two and a half foot away on another dropper and the point fly was in the region of five foot from the dry.

Fished up stream the two nymphs working at different levels  didn't have to travel long before they were picked up by a fish. Also using a dry that the fish see as a meal we picked up some rising trout in the margins on the dry fly, it was simply a size 12 Hears ear klinkhammer with an orange post and grizzle hackle,  I find this dry very successful for this set up as it is very visible even in broken water and will suspend two 2.5 mm beaded nymphs, plus it is quite attractive to the fish. I also like to coat the fly in water shed before I fish it so it stays up longer.

On Thursday we tested out some of the tributaries around the area and found the fishing tough enough as the water levels were extremely low but we still managed some good fish beading the small light fast water. Using very light tippet and going down to a single stripped quill nymph  with a 2mm bead was a productive approach for this water condition . Changing to a sedge pattern on a short cast and quickly casting into the streams we picked up a couple of nice fish, but we didn't allow the fly to sit too long on the water before you recast it again into the stream giving the fish only a brief moment to make their mind up on the take. You can cover a lot of pockets and streams quite quickly this way picking up the fish that are looking up.

After a few hours break we headed out for the evening rise on the Nore just on the edge of town. This section of water has some stunning weirs and turbulent water leveling out into really good glides where a lot of fish tend to hold this time of year. The temperatures dropped a bit in the evening and even though we managed some really good fishing the explosion of rising fish didn't really happen that we had hoped for; by eleven it had passed and time to retire from the river.

With a huge variety of fishing to be had around the town of Kilkenny its well worth a visit for a day or two; you might be surprised with the results and would be impressed with the scenery along with the cost. If you would like any information on permits, location or whats working where, you can contact me on my email and i'll be glad to point you in the right direction. I hope you have enjoyed this post and if you have any comments or questions please feel free to post them below. Thanks for reading and thank you to my friend Danny Lahart for the pictures.

Hunting Fish With Flies

Recently I was asked to be part of project that plans to make a DVD on fly-fishing in Ireland and show off our beautiful environment. All the proceeds that come from the project will be donated to the disabled anglers of Ireland which is a great organisation.  As part of the project I was asked to write a short description on how I see fly-fishing today and what it means to me. 

We would love to hear what this wonderful sport means to you and if you have any ideas of what content you would like to see in the DVD as regards systems, setups, and methods in all aspects of fly-fishing and fly-tying, we would appreciate your input.

Here is my description on what fly-fishing means to me ;
Hunting fish with flies is more than just fly-fishing on rivers, lakes or the sea for whatever swims in the waters. It is an internalized obsession, a passion and a way of life for a person who seeks to understand the greater meaning of living and being alive. Spending countless hours on waters with a fly and rod a fly-fisher becomes emerged in a world of thought, aspiration, anticipation and self worthiness. The skill of performing the art of fly-fishing comes mostly from within, while it can be taught; it is the person who also looks to their inner drive and soul that really comes closest to mastering the catch of a fish with a fly.

The evolution fly-fishing has been enhanced by the modern developments in fishing tackle, fly tying and the ability to share information worldwide. However it is still the core essential approaches that underline the majority of our methodologies that have been around for centuries. It is these simplistic approaches to our modern systems and processes that we will be focusing on throughout this DVD, we hope to share with you our passion, our desire to learn and understand the art of hunting for fish with flies.....

You can follow our journey on our Facebook page and as I asked before if you have any ideas for the content on what you would like to see in the DVD just drop us a line and we would be delighted to involve as many people as possible. 

Thanks for reading 

Summer Beading For Trout

As it is in the months of June and July every summer the rivers levels reach a yearly low and the majority of anglers leave there fishing till the hours of dusk, when the fish are rising freely for sedge's and summer olives. 
This is also the time when I get out during the hotter days and go beading for trout that are sitting in the pockets behind stones and among the weed beds. Preparing for the All Ireland river finals over the last number of weeks this approach was producing some good catches and was my preferred method on the day. The location was the River Function in Glanworth and while the dry dropper method took its fair share of fish in the flat sections the small beads were devastating in the parts where the light streams tumbled through the rocks and weed beads.

This approach to catching fish is quite simple but you mush have the confidence and faith that when you punch in your nymphs that fish will be lying in the pockets and they will take. Beat management is a very important factor here also as you don't want to wade through any pocket that may hold fish; so start at the end of your section and slowly make your way through the water presenting your beads in every possible holding spot where a fish might be. More than likely there will only be one or two fish in the majority of lies and once you have cast effectively into the area don't dwell to long there as you have a long section to go and search out for more possible fish. You will be very surprised  where the fish will sit this time of year and I would check every square inch of the river with my beads no matter how low it looks or even if I cant see any fish in the shallow water.
Using a 2 or 3 weight nymphing rod I generally set up a 4.40 meter leader from point fly to my Rio Nymphing line; I prefer to use a leader I make myself as I can make it as aggressive as I need to punch the light nymphs into pockets and if I encounter a breeze I have no problems being accurate with my casts. The diameter of this leader ranges from .45 down to .20 which is also my indicator, I boil the leader before use also to give it extra spring which allows me to fish tippet as low as .080 with confidence. Using either one or two nymphs I generally have 1.5 to 1.7 meters of tippet attached to 2.90 meter made up tapered leader.  

From here I use size 18 and smaller nymphs with 2mm or 2.5mm tungsten beads with a turn or two of lead behind the bead to help the nymph reach the fish lying on the bottom. The patterns are not greatly important once they are slim and dark, the most important factor to fishing this way is contact, if you are not in contact with your nymphs they will not produce fish. With the made up leader suiting my style of fishing I am in contact with the nymphs before they even hit the water. Once the nymphs are submerged I will drag them back through the pockets slightly faster than the current so I remain in total contact and if any thing touches the nymphs I know automatically and strike. 
With my landing net in one hand and the rod in the other I make my way through the beat effectively fishing all the water. Netting the fish in this type of water must be quick and make as little noise as possible, so you don't spoke any other fish that might be lying in the pocket or you could lose the fish in the weed beds. As soon as you strike into your fish you should lift the fish straight out of the pocket into your waiting landing yet in a split second. This form of netting means also you will lose less fish when fishing barb-less hooks or catching fish that are lightly hook and generally pop of during the netting process. 

Here is two simple and effective nymph patterns that have been working for me on several rivers during the month of June.

Hook: Hends Jig hook size 18

Bead: Size 2.5-2mm Tungsten black or sliver 

Under body: Fine flat lead 

Thread: Black Twist tying thread 

Tail: Coq De Leon

Body: Cock phesant tail dyed black
Rib: Hends red wire 

Collar: Hends UV blend dubbing black

Hook: Hends Jig hook size 18

Bead: Size 2.5-2mm Tungsten copper or sliver 

Under body: Fine flat lead 

Thread: Black Twist tying thread 

Tail: Coq De Leon

Tag: Glo Brite no 5

Body: Black thread 
Rib: Fine copper wire 

Collar: Hends spectra dubbing no.46

These simple nymphs will produce catches during the low water months of the summer for you, but remember being in contact with your nymphs is everything and once you hook up get those fish out of the water fast as possible regardless of size. I hope you enjoy reading this post and if you have any comments or questions just drop me a line below, also you can sign in and follow us. Thanks for reading.
  

QUESTIONS WE ASK OURSELVES WHEN FISHING

The questions we ask ourselves about our ability and our decisions when we're on the water fishing is often a negative and unproductive process that feeds doubt, unravels our self belief and confidence in the systems and methods we are using to catch fish.

This is something I have been thinking on over recent seasons because I am the worst person to self criticize and constantly ask questions in my head, like should I be doing this or that, the what ifs and wondering who is catching what or am I catching enough. I beat myself up all the time when I am not fishing effectively; staying in contact properly or snagging in trees, knots in boats, losing a crucial fish.  I become very agitated with myself and my processes have gone out the window. I am no longer fishing with confidence and doubt is now setting in.

Having all the right work done before hand is one thing but what happens when you start using the one word that can undo all your good work.......should?

Should I be catching, should I change, should I do this, should I move, should I, should I, should I, should I.....and the only thing you are doing is clouding your mind and not concentrating on what you should doing. This happens to us all and it takes a bit of effort and work to remove this from your fishing mind-set; but when you do it will push you further towards a more enjoyable experience and very effective fly-fishing.

A lot of sports people at the top of their game have said that the match is often won before you even step into the ring, pitch, court, track or field. Their meaning of this is not just that you have your fellow competitors beaten before the event but you have the mental preparation complete and in your mind there is clarity on the event ahead. You don't have to question yourself and all you got to do is follow what your plan is and keep focused. This is something I have though about a lot every day before I compete in fly-fishing and i am trying to not wreak my head with questions.  

It is at this time that you have to focus more on your processes and have some mechanisms that will aid you to keep your mind in the game and not question your self or what you are or should be doing.

When your thoughts on the job start to wander then its worth trying some simple pre-thought out mechanisms that work for you. This could be simple things like taking a drink of water but when you do, take your time and think about all your actions putting the bottle to your lips the taste of the water and the feeling of it going down. This can break your current trail of thought and bring back clarity and efficiency to your thinking, this is popular with golfers when they need to refocus on their game. Others can be organizing your gear for a moment, eat some sugars, as hunger can destroy any soul, just sit and take some time to gather your thoughts and refocus your plans.

For some, taking this time out can come across as wasting time when you could be catching, but being in the water dropping fish while getting all flustered is a bigger waste of time, getting in knots and stuck in trees will waste more time, while sometimes taking 2-3 minutes can be the winning of the competition. Also by just reminding yourself of your psychological state will help keep you heading in the right direction and fishing effectively. I have won and lost many competitions over the years, some for different reasons as bad draws etc, but the majority of my wins I can safely say that I had my head right throughout the day and did not lose focus but I had to remind myself along the way. 

We all have to make decisions during any event and I try to make them for a reason and stick by them, once I have made it I don't think about the what ifs or dwell on the decision for any length of time I just do it or I don't. I do feel that the developments in sports psychology can be very beneficial to anglers that compete and I regularly research the topic to see what we can use to help us fish effectively. If you find yourself asking the same kind of questions and allowing doubt creep into your mind while fishing then I would recommend that you try some simple things that will help you focus on what you are doing and not on what every one else is doing or any negative aspects of your day. 
For a similar article you can check out the link below.
http://peterdriver.blogspot.ie/2014/02/understand-your-process-to-fish.html

I hope you enjoy reading this post and if you have any comments or questions just drop me a line below, also you can sign in and follow us. Thanks for reading.

Blue Winged Olives

Its that time of year when the evenings are stretched out and the rise of fish on the rivers during the late summer days entice most anglers to try their luck at catching the trout while in their feeding frenzy's close to dark. During the month of June we will see the emergence of some good sedge hatches and I will post some good tying's for these in the days to come; but this is also the time of year we see the blue winged olives in full force. Getting the tones of olives and the presentation right you could be in for a very successful evenings rise. Here are two of my favorite BWOs that have proven themselves to be called upon time and time again during this time of year. 

Hook: Size 16 Hends 404 
Thread: Olive twist thread 
Tail: Coq de Leon 
Body: Pale olive CDC tied in at the tips and wound up the body, spinning the feather at the same time.
Wing: Pale blue Hends CDC, plucked from the stem.
Hackle: Olive Picric cock hackle.

Hook: Size 18 Hends 404 
Thread: Olive twist thread 
Tail: Coq de Leon 
Body: Hends Olive body quill 
Wing: Pale blue Hends CDC, Tie in the tips and loop back over to create the wing.

I have found that the bottom of the two fly's sits deeper in the water just in the surface film and fishing for tricky fish or in the flats this fly will fool fish for sure as they see the fly at its most vulnerable stage. The top fly is a brighter olive and one that I use in the faster water on the rivers as fish now are feeding in the currents more, I like to attract their attention with either something bright or large; also the CDC body here will help to keep the fly on the surface as it makes its way down the faster water.

You should try out these simple but effective dries over the coming nights when the rise begings or just before it and they should produce lots of rises and takes for you. I hope you enjoy reading this post and if you have any comments or questions on any of the patterns just drop me a line below, also you can sign in and follow us. Thanks for reading.

Fly fishing in the Czech Republic

I am just home from a short five day fishing trip to South Bohemia, Czech Republic on the river Vltava. I went to this part of the World to practice for a Championship that will take place here in four to five weeks time. I have traveled to various places through out Europe similar to this trip and I find the short stay can be very productive in gaining experience and knowledge of fishing rivers, nymphing techniques, streamer and good dry fly fishing. The trips if well planned can be cost effective and you can access some cracking fishing and meet up with some really experienced anglers with out costing a packet. I will put up a post shortly on traveling to some of these destinations and tips I have found useful on how to get there, organizing your trip and value for money.

This trip was like most others I began in Dublin and landed in Prague, then a two and half hour drive through the countryside lead me to Pension Florian, Frymburk my accommodation for the trip. The cost of pensions in this region are very reasonable and good quality too.

A prearranged meeting on the Wednesday  morning for half five came quickly and once I grabbed a coffee I followed Milan Hladik to the lake venue for our first session. It was the first day of the trout season in this region and the lake was packed by the time we got there, but we squeezed into a spot and had some nice action pulling lures catching some rainbows and charr. For the afternoon I moved to a river section on the Vltava called the Devil stones, this section of the river runs through

woodlands  and the water is channeled through a gorge of boulders that offer great pocket nymphing for dark wild brook trout. There was a nice hatch of olives on this section and the fish were picking them off as they tumbled down the rapids, catching these opportunistic trout was good sport as I lost myself for a couple of hours jumping around the rocks to see what the next pool held in store.

Day two I focused on the middle sector of the competition water and after a spell of investigation of the beats I fished a section just outside Vyssi Brod. This area of the river is catch and release so it holds a nice stock of trout, some rainbows and grayling. The trout were freely rising to the hatch of morning sedge's in the sunshine and offering them something in the right size and colour they would oblige you with some sport. In the faster water the nymphs produced some good fishing also.

On the Friday I moved further down the river to the larger waters around Rozmberk. I have fished this sector before and know that some searching might have to be done to find some quality fishing as this section is heavily fished by anglers spinning and fly-fishing. But setting up a nymphing rod and a streamer rod while covering a section of water you will come across some good sized rainbows, browns, grayling and charr. The water here is heavier than other sectors and you must be comfortable with deep wading to achieve good results.

The smaller river sector you have to shorten up your leaders to be able to pin point where you want your nymphs to land and be able to maneuver them through the rapids while on the larger sectors a longer leader system will produce better results as the river opens up you can fish the nymphs much further away from you effectively.

The trip over all was well worth it for me and now I can take the information and prepare myself better for the coming championships. This location is worth a visit for all anglers and here you can have the opportunity to meet good anglers through nymphing schools and fish some different European waters. The average costing for the trip to this location was in the region of 550 euro including all costs with some beers thrown in there two. You would be advised to make contact with the local angling bodies to arrange you permits for the region before you travel and make yourself aware of the local laws to fishing.

With some key tournaments around the corner, Irish training days and the prep for the World finals entering the closing stages make sure to keep an eye out on the blog.

I hope you enjoy reading this post and if you have any comments or questions just drop me a line below, also you can sign in and follow us. Thanks for reading.

Quaility streets

Getting ready for a trip to Slovenia the year before last I was trying to match some shrimp nymphs that I had seen which were supposed to be working quite well out there for the Grayling. I spent some time trying to match the back on the nymphs that I had seen with no luck using the back materials I already had. Until one day eating a sweet I discovered the perfect back material for my shrimps it was the wrapping to a quality street.

This plastic coating was perfect for what I was looking for and it was in lots of interesting colours also. After stocking up on wrappers I hit the vice and sense then I have used this backing for many of my nymphs with great success. Here is a step by step of the tying of a quality street shrimp.

Firstly using a grub hook to your size a b100 or a partridge YK4A tie on some flat lead on its edge in two sections to form the shape of the nymph.

Then take some fine flat lead and wrap the body in the same, tie off the thread as normal and coat the under body in superglue and allow to set fully. 

Using a bull clip take your sweet wrapper and pinch the required width for your back and cut off by sliding a sharp blade along the bull clip. The wrapper can be any colour you wish to match the body.

Tie in some orange partridge as a tail and trap down your backing and some brown mono to act as the rib. Then create a dubbing brush with your thread and spin some dubbing I use three shades of orange spetra dubbing here.
Wind up the dubbing brush and tie of at the head, then brush down all the dubbing using a tooth brush with the bristles cut short.

Pull the wrapper over the back of the fly and secure it in, follow this by ribbing the nymph tightly with even spaces to create the segmented look on the shrimp. only once you have ribbed the fly should you cut away the waste wrapping.

Before you finish the fly add in some more fibers of orange partridge to the head and tie off the fly. Once your head cement has set then brush down all the dubbing again and trim off to the required length under the nymph and last using a black marker gently put some molting on the back of the nymph to help create the natural look the the fly. 

It is very important to keep the tying of this fly slim in the profile which allows it to penetrate fast into the deep water and pockets, using the shuffling approach while wading this fly will catch a lot of fish for you and try it in many other colours too and sizes. 
I regularly use materials that I have found that is not sold as tying and they can range from crisp bags, onion bags wrappers for cheese what ever it is once it gives me desired look and dose not break down in the water is good enough for me and the fish I catch, so don't be afraid to keep your eyes open and find some good stuff in strange places and enjoy the sweets. 
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