MERSEY RIVER AUTUMN Gavin Hicks shares some thoughts on his home river and the flies he uses.
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ords cannot describe how happy I am to be sitting down to write this story, as it means the long work swing is over. Let me explain in a bit more detail. So far my 2020 year has consisted of three weeks straight of 12 hour nightshifts and absolutely zero time fishing, and it’s fair to say by the end of the three weeks I was pretty much over it. Working all night and sleeping all day whilst my two boys are in the middle of summer holidays is not a great deal of fun. So now it’s time to get out and fish again and a fair bit of that time will be spent on the Mersey River. And while I am out there these are the flies that I will be using first and foremost to hopefully trick a fish or two.
I am not much into the technical names for trout food so if a fish is eating a mayfly then that’s what I will call it. Likewise for a caddis or a hopper and even a twig if the fish is that way inclined. So with all that out of the way let’s have a look at what I like to tie on at this time of year.
Caddis (F-Fly) Is there anything better than standing in the middle of the Mersey on a still summers evening when the caddis are swarming above your head as thick as thieves? I love standing in the middle of a nice run and letting the fish come to you. Sooner or later they will start rising within range and when they do I like
to show them an F-Fly. It is such an easy fly to tie with only a couple of basic materials in its original form, but as fly tiers we all like to tweak things a bit to suit our own eye don’t we? My variation includes a small head of Hares Ear dubbing in front of the wing as I think it neatens things up a bit (purely personal preference). And I also like to carry a few with a hot spot on the butt section made out of holographic tinsel in green,
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