8 minute read
Mersey River Autumn — Gavin Hicks
MERSEY RIVER AUTUMN
Gavin Hicks shares some thoughts on his home river and the flies he uses.
Words 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,
orange or red which is then covered with a bit of UV resin to add a bit of longevity to the fly. I am about to start experimenting with some Hot spot coloured UV resins for this application amongst other things, as I reckon it would work a treat, and I am sure it has already been done somewhere. It will definitely add to the strength of the butt section at least. My current favourite hook for the F-Fly is a Hanak H500 BL hook. I usually start out with a size 14 but generally carry in it a range from size 12 to 16 and maybe the odd size 18. Again personal preference but I really like the way the shape of this hook fits the F-Fly and of course it is a barbless hook. I prefer to tie all my freshwater flies on barbless hooks now and if I am using hooks that are barbed for some reason I simply flatten the barb with forceps. If you haven’t tried barbless yourself I really recommend you give them a go. In my opinion you seem to get a better more solid hook up due to ease of penetration. And I don’t think from memory I can say I’ve ever lost a fish due to a hook being barbless.
Mayflies (Merchute and black spinner)
Mayfly time on the river for me at the moment usually means days at work while others are out enjoying the best of things, and you know what good luck to them. Everyone deserves to enjoy those red letter days when they come along as much as I do (yeah not one bit bitter about being stuck at work when I should be fishing!). But if I am able to find a few mayfly feeders I will tie on my Merchute pattern first of all and then go to a black spinner (parachute tie) if and when required. I won’t go into too much detail on the Merchute as I am sure I have detailed it in these pages before except to say that I sometimes vary the tail colour. Instead of using natural golden pheasant tippets I will go to dyed red or green for the tail, but I always start out with golden. My black spinner is about that Pete gifted to me on an NZ trip quite a few years ago now. They hang comfortably in my tying room forever retired, as I like to keep those sorts of flies that I have been lucky enough to be given over the years by other generous fly tiers. Peter has developed this pattern from scratch over the years and it is an absolute cracker, there isn’t anything more I can say about it that hasn’t already been written. Except to say that I will always tie on either a brown/ red or a brown/ orange combination to start with. And if they don’t work you could always try one of the hundreds of other colour combinations that this fly will also work in. I am not sure what the original versions are tied on but I do like to these on
Merchutes and Black Spinners above, Wee Hopper and Bruiser Bug on right.
as basic as you can get and it is the same pattern that I use when I’m fishing any lake. Microfibbet tail, black seals fur body and black hackle with a small dubbed thorax of diamond brite in peacock colour. Both flies are tied parachute style with a post of either float viz or bright wing, mainly in white but sometimes not. Again I usually start out with a size 14 but carry both in mainly a range from size 12 to 16 hooks.
There is also the Caenid Mayfly for which I like to use what I guess you could say is another variation on the F-Fly. It is pretty much just and F-Fly but with and added mayfly style tail and a couple of wraps of grizzly hackle at the front. This is always tied smaller with a size 16 being as big as I go with this pattern.
Hoppers (Bruisers Bug and Creek Hopper)
It is hard to write a fly fishing related story without mentioning this fly as it is so good at so many different applications but the first fly I tie on to catch a hopper feeder is Peter Broomhall’s Bruisers Bug. I am lucky enough to have a few of the early version of this fly
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Fox Squirrel dubbing is hellishly buggy. A deadly double - orange bead and Fox Squirrell dubbing.
a Kamasan B160 hook with a bit wider gape (squashed barbs of course). I also carry some Muzz Wilson style Wee Creek Hoppers. But to be perfectly honest they are only a just in case the ‘Bug’ doesn’t work and I have never as yet had that happen!
Nymphs
I always carry a nymph box with me when I’m on the river, just in case. Current versions of my Mersey nymph are about as basic as you can get. Microfibbet tail, thread body — mainly in various shades of brown, and Wapsi Fox Squirrel for the thorax. If you haven’t used Fox Squirrel dubbing before grab yourself a packet or two from The Essential Flyfisher and give it a go. It is a really nice colour, very buggy looking when tied in and super easy to dub onto your tying thread. Just like a good packet of dubbing should be. My nymphs are mainly tied with a bead head in all the usual colours but sometimes just with a more natural thread head for those bit fussier fish or the ones that can be often be found sitting on the edges in the more shallow water. Again the most used sizes are in the 12 to 16 hook ranges, nothing new there.
What fly will be using
That is a rundown of flies I will be tying on for my river sessions between now and the end of the season. If we happen to run into each other on the Mersey River stop for a chat and maybe exchange a favourite fly or two. That’s if I can drag myself away from the fishing, I have a very itchy casting arm after all these night shifts let me tell you, but I would be more than willing to have a spell. Life is far too short to not stop and take a breath from time to time and share in other people’s successes. As I saw in a campaign from a famous American fishing brand a while back ‘You only get one life — Fish it well’
Actually I think I might email the above mentioned company and get permission to use that in a new Tattoo, I like it.
Gavin Hicks
