Overall for last season I caught 76% of my fish on dry flies

I spent a while going through my fishing diary in which I record each trout caught and the successful fly used in its capture. I thought that I knew what I needed to tie to refill my box, but I was wrong! It is amazing how time dulls the brain – though maybe the red wine also helps! But I really thought that I caught loads more on nymphs last year than my diary informs me!In many ways my records are slightly biased by the amount of time that I spent bank fishing on the Barrow Tanks. There I caught every single trout on a dry fly, as I walked round the lakes until I found fish rising. I am sure that if I had “fished the water” I would have caught using nymphs, but on every occasion that I visited the Tanks I found fish moving. Overall for last season I caught 76% of my fish on dry flies. Regular readers would not be too amazed by that fact, as I tend to fish dries even when there is little chance of it being the top method. I am terribly biased towards dries – and quite happy to say so as over the years the method has given me great success in competitions and on pleasure days. I caught my first trout on dries on the second day of the season and had my very last fish on a dry. In between I managed hundreds on a variety of dries, but mostly very simple ones.Over the years I have made my dry flies simpler and simpler. I now use such easy patterns that many people believe I have a secret supply of flies in a hidden pocket that I start using when I get into a boat. Basically though, all a dry fly has to do is sit on the top of the water and it vaguely has to represent a food item, which on our lakes is usually a chironomid or midge. I honestly believe that a poorly tied fly will still catch if it is cast accurately and at the correct timing in front of a moving fish! But a beautifully tied fly will rarely catch that trout if it is badly cast.Of my dry flies, red accounted for 46%, claret 34%, orange 13%, ginger 5% and black 2%. My friends generally rib me that I put on red dries in most conditions, so I would guess that that is why they come out on top.I caught 19% of my trout on nymphs, with the majority of those to Diawl Bachs, and then superglue buzzers next. Lures accounted for the remaining 5%, which again is very little surprise as I rarely fish lures these days. I caught plenty of trout at the end of the season on floating fry and big sparkler tubes, but it was such a short fry season on Chew that these fly patterns didn’t really get a chance to figure more prominently.

So, overall I don’t suppose I ought to be surprised about how things broke down, though I really did expect that I had taken more on nymphs. I certainly tied more nymphs last year than for many years. Maybe I won’t have to tie so many for this season? As to the dries, well I enjoy knocking up a dozen of them, and they take so little time to work on … I think I will start there… red first?