Tywi flies

[salar76]

With a very recent addition to the family (1 week old today!), my sewin season has been seriously curtailed, as it was last year when #1 came!

I have a 3 day trip to Abercothi in mid July and I need to get tying. As I'm feeling a bit out of date with sewin patterns I'd be keen to hear of suggestions from our resident experts for that time of year.

Thanks in advance!

Lawrence

[Teifi-Terrorist]

Hey Lawrence,

congrats on the birth of your second, fantastic news mate, hope all is well.

By no means a Towy regular or expert, but happy to list what I would carry. Hopefully a few of the regular Towy anglers will chip in with their suggestions too.

I've always found yellow to be a good colour for Towy sewin, yet loathe it for most river, except if there's some peat stain. One of the most successful patterns for the Towy has to be the yellow-peril, which is usually dressed on a longshank single. Indeed, it's what produced the double for my last year on Abercothi, but in a secret weapon version. Mr.Loomis has had nearly all his fish this season on patterns with yellow in them, including his largest fish to date, which was on a yellow shrimp type pattern.

The fish on Sunday night came to a black and silver stinger, with JC cheeks, simple pattern really, but did the trick. Further to that, the ESB pattern has been doing really well fished on the dropper, and has produced a fair few this season - I do like to fish quite a light coloured pattern somewhere on the cast in the early part of the season and/or when there's a lot of fresh fish about.

The jambos/surface lures always seem to produce well on the Towy, with a lot of the water lending itself as classic surface lure water. Again, a yellow wing seems to work well.

Further to that, I think that it's just a case of carrying a handful of patterns but in different sizes and profiles. Indeed, I would prefer to carry one pattern (i.e. black and silver) in a range of sizes and profiles, than a multitude of patterns in one size and style.

Catch up soon mate,

Steff.

[salar76]

Cheers for that Steff!

Are there any pics of this yellow peril or ESB at all?

I found it interesting that some of the regulars I spoke to last year were moving more towards patterns that 'push' water - often fairly chunky stinger type flies tied TD style - as opposed to the more traditional waif like thinly dressed flies that I'm more used to.

[Teifi-Terrorist]

Hey Lawrence,

here's a pic of the ESB:

http://www.sea-trout.co.uk/showthread.php?t=36

Have got a pic of the yellow peril somewhere, will dig it out for you.

As for the flies you mentioned; yes, it's important to have such patterns in the box, adding to the variety, silhouettes, profiles etc. However, it should accompany the rest not be the main bulk I reckon mate. Just goes back to carrying variations on the same theme i.e. a fly dressed with a rotated head hackle would give a totally different profile and silhouette to one dressed with a false hackle.

Steff.

[morphfly]

Tywi Flies

Enlighten me never heard of a singer. Any pictures etc
Morphfly

[Teifi-Terrorist]

Hi Morphfly, a stinger is basically a secret weapon - normally a single hooks with a small treble placed on a piece of nylon trailing behind the main hook. I will take a pic of an example for you asap.

TT.

[salar76]

Cheers for that Steff - tasty looking fly!

[Teifi-Terrorist]

Enlighten me never heard of a stinger. Any pictures etc
Morphfly

Here we go Morphfly, finally had a chance to upload a pic for you:



TT.

[morphfly]

Stinger

Many thanks TT. Much heavier dressed than Hugh Falkus's version.
Morphfly

[Teifi-Terrorist]

Much heavier dressed than Hugh Falkus's version.
Morphfly

All depends what you want to achieve from the dressing Morphfly; if you want a streamlined pattern then you can dress them lightly i.e. such as the sunk-lure, which has a very thin profile when wet. If you want something that's going to push some water, and keep a heavy profile then you dress them heavier and use materials that don't collapse as much when wet. I carry both.

TT.

[morphfly]

Stinger

Thanks TT will tie both versions and let you know
Morphfly

[LuckyLuke]

Morphfly there also some cracking flies including a different tying version of the stinger in this months trout and salmon by steff.

[morphfly]

towy flies

Thanks LL will be picking up a copy today
Morphfly

[LuckyLuke]

No worries - just been into whsmith and T&S have a new issue out so you will need last months but the Fly fishing and fly tying mag is still there with steff's other sea trout articles on jambo etc - worth getting too b4 it gets too late.

tight lines

Luke