Time for the Black stuff, River Fishing in Ireland

During late April and the month of May we see the the emergence of the May Bush and its wonderful aroma along with this yellow flower the Hawthorn bush is also in full bloom and with this notable change from the cool spring to the beginning of summer we can spot the small Black Gnats and the Hawthorn flies on our rivers. 

This has to be the most productive time on the rivers there is Olives, Iron Blues, and all sorts of hatches happening. Also as the trouts day time feeding is reaching its peak so too can you catches with some productive dries. The soft breezes are blowing plenty of insects onto the water for the hungry trout to feed upon, along with a good level of water that is warming up day time fishing can be seriously good sport.

Here is two of my most successful black dries that will catch through out the month of May and into the summer.

The Black Gnat

A simple little fly but very effective. Its tied on a size 18 hook with black thread, the body is a black CDC feather tied in by the tip at the but of the fly, you then spin the feather and wind up the body at the same time. The body is ribbed with 8x Mono to give it strength and create a slight segmented look to the body. Add in two natural CDC feathers for the wing and finish off the fly with two turns of soft black cock. 




The Hawthorn Fly 

 This little beauty has a bit more tying in it but is so worth it. Again on a size 18, create the body with some black foam and with your thread tie some double knots to get the segmented look and attach it to the hook, leaving a long section that will be pulled up the body to the head as you build the fly. 

Use some black CDC dubbing for the first part of the body and pull the foam up three quarters of the hook shank. Then add the daddy legs black, two either side and one feather of natural CDC on either side of the body. Take a small soft Black cock hackle and give it three or four turns just shy of the eye.  Finally pull the foam over the wings, legs, hackle and tie off.  
This fly is worth tying in several sizes 18's and 16's for the rivers but I also have had super fishing on this fly in a size 14 on the lakes when the hatches of duck fly are about and the Hawthorn itself.

I hope you enjoy tying these very good patterns and enjoy fishing them even more as I have had. If you would like any of these flies or any other patterns of you choice you can find my contact details on the right side of the blog. Thank you for reading and tight lines.