I did take the opportunity though to tally my diary

I tally all of the flies that have been successful, so that I can be sure that I will have a good supply for the coming season. A pattern certainly builds up over the years, and in many ways this almost negates the need to keep going on the diary. However, it is a habit that I now have ingrained, and I will endeavour to carry on with it.My fishing mate, Geoff Lambert and I were to start our fly tying in earnest last week, but he had a recurrence of the dreaded Ďflu, so I decided against going around to his house. I did take the opportunity though to tally my diary. Very few surprises came up. Being an out and out dry fly addict, I am sure that you will not be too surprised to learn that 84% of my trout last season were caught on simple “Bobís Bits”. That figure in itself can be misleading, as I probably fished dries for about 80% of my fishing time!Patterns are not a major concern of mine. If I am using dries, I like a simple sealís fur bodied pattern Ė I donít worry about ribs or wings, and colours too I think arenít too important. Most of fish that I caught were on red sealís fur, with orange next, and then black. No prizes for guessing which colour fly gets most use on my cast!Early season doesnít generally allow for dry fly fishing though, and a check in the diary showed me that last year I managed very well on three patterns for the first few weeks. Most successful was a jungle-cock viva Ė I donít favour the larger sizes Ė my best ones are on size 12 Kamasan B175, though later in the year I like a sparse 12 or even a size 14. The old favourite Diawl Bach was the next best fly early season Ė and my best nymph for the whole of the year. It can be fished in a number of guises; the most often used variant being the red-headed version. Next was a black buzzer. Over the seasons, these three flies will have caught huge numbers of fish for a great many anglers, not just on my home waters of Chew and Blagdon, but also further afield.The season progressed and the trout moved up in the water. If they were near the top, then dries did their business. Quite often though, the trout were reluctant to stick their heads out of the water. This lead to plenty of nymph fishing. In vogue for the last three seasons at least, has been the use of a very slow sinking line in conjunction with practically static nymphs. This sort of fishing can be most rewarding Ė but it can also be most frustrating. I remember a day with Tony Baldwin last year. He had a real purple patch mid way through the day and “bagged-up” on diawl bachs and buzzers. I struggled Ė I didnít have a Cortland “Blue” that seems to suit this fishing so well. The floater produced the odd fish for me, but somehow it must have been giving the nymphs too much movement.Once Tony had finished fishing, I asked him to take me to a totally different part of the lake, where I suspected that the fish might have been on the top. I quickly caught four fish at that spot, and ended up with a respectable catch.Superglue buzzers were very successful last year. I caught a lot of fish on black, and quite a few on claret and red. I think that I shall start my tying this week by topping up my selection of these, though they take a fair time to tie properly. I will let you know next week how it is all going.I hope you get your vices out and get stocked up for the coming season.Tight lines,

Martin Cottis