Estimated reading time: 21 minutes
One of the best places to start when fishing rivers in the early season is to understand which insects are hatching under the water. I won’t give you a lecture on Latin classifications and the minute differences between individual insects, for this post I will just show you the basics of the 4 main insects that you’ll see on your local river and how to identify them for the next time you’re there.
Once you can identify which insects the fish are feeding on at that time of day, you can use that information to find the perfect imitation from your fly box to catch those elusive early-season fish.
Broadly, every insect that you’ll find hatching in the river will have a lifecycle that can be explained in 3 categories:
- Nymphs
- Emergers; and
- Adults
In the early season, there will be lots of nymph activity under the water all day but only sporadic hatches of dry flies so you will need to choose your fly specifically to target what is happening at that time.
Once the fish have survived the winter having not eaten much, as soon as fly life starts to appear in the river the fish go on a feeding frenzy. So identifying what they are feeding on is the best place to start.
Hydropsyche
What is it?
Hydropsyche Larvae are a group of caddis flies that build webs on the river bed until they swim to the surface to hatch. As they take up to 1 year to grow from an egg to an adult, the nymphs are an available food source for the fish all year round.
How do you spot them?
Hydropsyche can be spotted in the water by looking for a few distinguishing features. You will spot the Hydropsyche anchored to rocks by a silk thread. Hydropsyche Larvae can be distinguished as having all 6 legs positioned under the head.
Where do you find them?
Simply, anywhere along the riverbed. The hydropsyche nymphs live in the riverbed and cling to rocks. Every day at dusk and dawn, the nymphs leave their burrow and float downstream on the underwater current, which is an ideal time to use a nymph to try to imitate them.
What stages to imitate them?
The hydropsyche can be imitated throughout its entire lifecycle. The nymph stage is the best imitation to use during the early season as it will not emerge to an adult until late April – early May.
The best imitations for a hydropsyche nymph is to use something that imitates the legs under the thorax, so any kind of scruffy hare’s ear fly is ideal.
Rhyacophila
Photo: Hallvard Elven, Naturhistorisk museum, Universitetet i Oslo
What is it?
Another group of caddis flies that are similar to the hydropsyche, but with a lot more variations. There are over 100 known species of rhyacophila caddis.
How do you spot them?
Rhyacophila are subtly different from hydropsyche as their legs are spread wider along the front sections of their body. They are mainly different in where they are found, as the rhyacophila do not build webs, they just freely float down the river. They are also quite large, green and ‘well built’.
Where do you find them?
Floating down the river most of the time. They are easy to spot as they float just above the river bed. The most common habitat is fast moving cold water that has underwater obstacles that create eddies in the water. Once they get flung up through the water in the eddies they become easy prey for the fish.
What stages to imitate them?
Similarly to the hydropsyche, the best imitation for them is the nymph stage using a woolly nymph. This imitates the legs, while also getting caught in underwater ripples and moving around the same way that rhyacophila do.
Heptagenid
What is it?
Heptagenids are the nymph stage of some of the most commonly fished imitations all season long. The heptagenid family encompasses march brown flies, all mayflies and stone flies. They spend all of their nymph stage clinging to stones at the bottom of the river then swim up to the surface.
How do you spot it?
Heptagenids are commonly found on rocks around the sides of the river, with a distinct shape. Most heptagenids found in the UK have a flat head and a short wide body. This allows them to be as smooth as possible and allow the water to flow over them.
Where do you find them?
Heptagenids are commonly found all over the UK living at the bottom of river beds. They occasionally get swept along with the current, but to check if there are any in your local river, look underneath the rocks on the river bed.
What stage to imitate them?
The most common stage that the trout take a heptagenid is when it is swimming from the riverbed to the surface. This stage happens for all heptagenid nymphs with the only variable being size and colour. The heptagenids usually hatch from mid-march onwards between 11am – 3pm so be prepared.
Olive Nymph
What is it?
Not a specific insect in itself, olive nymphs are more of a description of a general type of insect that you’ll find hatching in the early season. These all have the suffix Baetis and are more commonly known as the Blue Winged Olive, Dark Olive and Large Dark Olive.
How do you spot it?
Simply put, its quite easy to spot as there are so many different types that all look almost identical when they are at the nymphal stage. The tell-tale markers of an olive nymph are the drab olive colouring to the body, and the long tail that is split into two at the end.
Where do you find them?
You will find olive nymphs in every river in the world. They commonly live in the weed beds at the bottom of the rivers and climb to the surface to hatch between 11am – 3pm in the early season.
What stage to imitate them?
The most popular time to imitate them as a nymph is as they swim between weed beds and get caught in faster flowing water.
Fly Selection
Fly selection can be described as being as much of an art as a science. Some of the flies that you’ll see are certainly pieces of art in their own right and choosing the right fly for the moment is all about looking around the river and matching what is in your fly box to what is in the air around you.
But first, the presentation of the fly is the most important aspect of the whole operation. The presentation of the fly means different things depending on what stage of the life cycle you are aiming to imitate. If you are fishing nymphs or spiders, presentation means that you want to be presenting your fly at the right depth of water where the nymphs are actually swimming. When fishing dry flies, you want to be presenting the fly so that it moves around naturally in the different currents on the surface of the water.
Remember the key is that a similar enough fly will more than likely catch if the presentation is perfect, whereas a perfect fly will probably be ignored if the presentation is less than perfect.
Once you have the presentation to a high enough level, the fly selection is the thing that will take you over the edge. Once you get to the river, that’s when any angler should be looking around to see what is hatching. The most important part of fly selection is to keep watch for a few minutes so that you are aware of what is hatching at that moment. You have to be aware of what’s hatching to be able to imitate it with your fly.
Whether you have followed the entomology section or not, fly selection is a game of matching what is in your fly box to what is happening around you.
There are 3 main points (and a 4th one that’s important in certain circumstances) that you need to use to select the perfect fly. These are:
- Size – The fly that you are selecting needs to be roughly the same size as the natural insect that is hatching.
- Colour – The colour of the fly that you select needs to be as close as possible to the insect, as the fish can see colours as well as humans can.
- Shape – The specific shape of the fly needs to present a silhouette on the surface of the water
- Movement – While dry fishing the movement of your fly is from the drift on the surface of the water so selection shouldn’t rely on movement, but for nymphing and spider fishing movement is a factor.
The selection process does vary slightly if you are fishing with nymphs/wet flies (or spiders) or dries. Nymphs/wet flies are more dependent on the colour of the water and movement rather than other factors. For coloured water, the flies should be brightly coloured and for clear water the flies should be dark and imitate the colours of the nymphs in the water.
An important tip to remember is that you aren’t convincing the fish to take your fly, you are trying to convince the fish to take an insect that your fly looks like.
Nymphs
When fishing in the early season you can fish with one fly under the water or use a team of flies to search the river. When using a searching method, a heavy nymph as the point fly is one of the best flies to weight the team down towards at the bottom of the river.
No matter which type of nymph that you see floating in the current, you can roughly identify it and tie on a decent imitation to match. If you are using the team of flies as a searching method, a traditional nymph as the point fly is the best way to get the weight to the front and keep the flies submerged even when you don’t have tension on the line.
Rhyacophila Larvae
If you can spot rhyacophila in the river then this should be one of the first nymphs you try. This fly is tied with a weighted underbody and 6 legs spread down the upper body to give the same silhouette as a larvae stuck in the current.
To fish this fly use it as the point fly on a team of nymphs or spiders and make sure it is being taken in the faster moving water down stream. As the faster moving water hits obstacles underwater it creates ripples in the current which moves your fly like the natural nymph.
Hares Ear Tungsten Nymph
The Hares Ear Tungsten Nymph is one of the most common patterns you’ll see everyone using on the river. Whether its being used as a searching pattern in a team of 2 or 3 or just as one fly on its own, the hares ear nymph works everywhere.
The way that the body of this nymph is tied allows it to imitate a nymph in multiple stages. This fly works best when tied as shaggy as possible. When it is wet, it traps air and imitates all nymphs as they shed their skins and rise to the surface. This is where the fish are most likely to take this nymph.
Green Bomb Tungsten Nymph
For the perfect point fly in faster moving water, you need something that will catch as well as drag the whole team of flies to the bottom. The Green Bomb is a large heavy fly that imitates most olive nymphs in the water.
The jig hook that this fly is tied on means that this fly fishes upside down compared to traditional flies. This allows you to fish a point fly closer to the bottom without snagging as much. The weight of the Green Bomb Nymph helps keep tension in the rig for the duration of the drift.
Spiders
Spider flies are some of the true old greats of fly fishing. With the earliest representation of spider flies being found in 1807, they have been catching fish for centuries and have hardly changed at all. In the early season specifically they are one of the ideal patterns to use as they imitate the life cycle of the nymph all the way through its ascent up the water column.
They can be found made up of almost any colour of material, but the common theme through all of them is the long soft hackle that extends the length of the body.
Endrick’s Spider
A modern variant of a traditional weighted spider pattern. Using a tungsten bead instead of a copper wire underbody to still give the same weight but make a slimmer profile. The tail and long hackle are the same as the original design though as they wrap around the body when pulled in the water.
The body is tied quite tightly with pheasant tail feathers and ribbed with copper wire to imitate the slim shape of a nymph. While the hackle is tied with partridge feathers to further emphasise the nymph imitation in colour and shape.
Snipe and Purple
Going up the spider rig, the ideal choice for a middle fly is this snipe and purple. The narrow body and soft snipe hackle make it perfect to be fished a middle dropper.
It is quite simply named for the snipe hackle and purple wrapped body. It is tied using similar soft feathers to the Waterhen Bloa. The flexibility of the snipe allow the hackle to wrap around the body of the fly to make it look different in all of the stages of the cast. Flies have been tied using snipe feathers for over 300 years so it is tried and tested.
Waterhen Bloa
One of the best flies to use on the top dropper, the soft mole fur body is tied to allow the fly to fish higher in the water column.
The mole fur body is tied very sparsely to allow the fly to look right in each of the different stages of the cast and drift. The coot wing has lots of mobility in the feathers which allow the wings to move feely in the water. The hackle is tied longer than the length of the hook so when the entire rig is pulled tight after the drift, the extra hackle wraps around the body and imitates a nymph swimming.
Dry Flies
After having spent all winter going out and nymphing for grayling or just staying inside waiting for the trout season to start again, everyone is looking for the same moment. Catching that first fish of the new season on a dry fly.
Dry fly fishing can be hit and miss due to weather and factors beyond your control in the early season. With specific hatches and hungry fish that have been almost starved all winter there are many chances to catch early. All of the flies shown here are designed specifically to imitate the best hatches during the early season to give you the best chance possible.
JT Olive
A fly that was created by John Tyzack, the JT Olive is one of the simplest flies but definitely best dry flies to use in the early season. The simple design of this fly can be broken down into three parts, the CdC wing, the mole fur body and a coq de leon tail.
The CdC wing is designed using natural colours to imitate the colour and shape of the natural insect. The body is tied sparsely with mole fur to imitate the shape and body of the natural insect. The tail is banded and sparsely tied to present a lifelike silouhette when it is on the surface of the water.
CdC Quill Emerger
A generic March Brown and Olive imitation, but imitating a different stage of the lifecycle than the other flies mentioned. As it’s an emerger, it is fished in the meniscus with the hook submerged. This imitates a nymph as it emerges out of the water, one of the regular stages that fish take flies.
This specific fly is tied with a slim brown ribbed body that imitates the body of a nymph after it has shed its casing before it hatches. The CdC post is designed to keep it on the surface while the hook drops down into the water.
Spider Setup
One of the most successful early season fly patterns is the humble spider/soft-hackle pattern. These flies are defined by their very slim bodies (often just a coloured thread wound around the shank of the hook) with a long flexible hackle – usually a partridge hackle:
Fishing with a team of spiders (or Soft Hackle flies) is one of the most successful techniques when trying to crack the early season code. They are very easy to fish and an effective method at the beginning of the trout season! The key to fishing with spider style patterns is to use long leaders and a long medium-flex rod – the combination of long leader and longer rod (10ft or longer) allow you to manipulate the patterns whilst fishing them.
Spiders/Soft Hackle patterns are usually fished in a team of either 2 or 3, and sometimes even 4. They are a great searching technique, especially in the early season when the rivers can be higher than normal and there are no obvious hatches to make your fly selection from. To get all of the flies on your leader fishing at the correct depth, always use a weighted pattern on the point. As fishing with a team of flies can result in numerous tangles, always tie your droppers pretty short (around 6” to 8”) and use a stiff nylon material – this will help keep the dropper from tangling around the main tippet.
Some typical 2 and 3 fly leader setups are shown below:
Fishing techniques:
The most common way to start fishing a team of spiders/soft hackle patterns is to employ the ‘Across and Down’ approach. Here’s a few tips:
- Start at the head of the pool/riffle you want to fish
- Cast at 45 degrees across the flow
- Let the river flow move your flies downstream and then let them swing across the flow
- Keep your rod at 45 degrees to the water so there is a slight sag in the line (allows better take detection and more hook ups)
- At the end of the swing across the current, wait a few seconds and then pull a couple of feet back in. This often induces a take so be ready!
- Step down the river and repeat the above steps
The ‘Across and Down’ method is great for searching water, and is also a great technique to use when learning how to control/manipulate a team of flies.
You can also fish spiders upstream, just as you would a nymph. Picking likely fish holding pocket and casting to them, raising your rod tip as the flies drift back towards you. This is a quick fishing method as your drifts are generally very short.
This is an ideal time to use a Nylon Furled Leader, as the enhanced turnover will allow your flies to enter the water already aligned and giving you the ability to detect takes almost immediately. When fishing the upstream method, it is always better to use a 2 fly setup, as it does not lend itself well to a 3 fly rig due to the short drifts involved.
Dry Fly Setup
During the early season, fishing with dry flies is usually only feasible in the early afternoon hatches (Olives & March Browns). When you do get the chance to tie on a dry, what sort of leader setup should you be using?
The weather conditions will dictate your choices here, usually in the early season (March & April) the weather conditions will not be in your favour, you will almost definitely have to contend with some sort of wind – this is where you will have to adapt your leader configuration to suit.
Usually you will not need to employ the long fine leaders you would use in the summer, as the fish will readily take a well presented dry fly on even the thickest of tippets – it’s usually best to start with a leader in the 9ft to 12ft range and adjust from there depending on weather conditions.
Here are a few examples of different leader configurations for dry fly fishing in the differing early season conditions:
9ft Standard Knotless Tapered Leader:
9ft Heavy Knotted Tapered Leader:
If you are fishing in a smaller river or stream and are targeting fish rising at a short distance away, you will need to employ a setup which allows you to turn over your dry fly quickly and with little fly line outside of the rod tip, this is where the furled style of leader excels.
Furled leaders are a short (3ft to 6ft) tapered extension to your floating fly line, usually braided from tying silk – to which you add in 3ft to 6ft of level tippet. Furled leaders have an aggressive taper and will turn your dry fly over at very close range without compromising presentation.
River Safety
Rivers are obviously a natural environment so they contain some dangers. Especially in the early season when the weather is particularly changeable. There are a few different dangers in rivers that haven’t changed through the years and even the most experienced angler can learn something by reading through some river safety tips.
The primary and arguably largest danger in modern rivers is one that is invisible. Bacteria and other water born diseases are common in all rivers and some of them can be pretty nasty. There is no cause for panic, everything can be prevented using a few logical steps. The first thing is to ensure that you are not going into the river with any open cuts that the water can spill into, just a plaster will do to sort it out. A top tip is to keep a small bottle of hand sanitiser in your bag and to use it every time you enter or leave the water.
Especially in the early season, the changing water levels can be the most perilous part if you are inexperienced on a particular stretch of river. If you are fishing and there is a rain shower, be aware of the river levels as in some places they can rise by 1-2ft in a single hour after moderate rainfall.
If you are inexperienced on a particular stretch and are worried about getting caught out, another top safety tip is to stick a branch in the riverbank at the water level as you get in. If you keep an eye on that branch all day you can get a clear visual indicator of where the water levels are.
One of the most common things that anglers face that cause them to feel unsafe is difficulty wading. With multiple challenges with wading some people are not confident in keeping upright while walking through faster water, while also being unable to see any obstacles under the water.
One of the simplest ways to become more confident with wading is to use a wading staff and to practice as much as you can. The best time to practice is during the summer when the water levels are the lowest where you can see what obstacles are under the water.
The single best advice to keep safe, if you can, is to always go fishing with a friend or have someone you know nearby in case you get into any trouble.
If you are not confident in wading and have a friend nearby and you both need to go to the other side of a fast moving river, an American technique called ‘buddy wading’ is the best way. Stand side by side with your friend and put your arms around each others shoulders, supporting both of your weights. If you walk through the river together like this then you both act as a support for each other and can cross much rougher water safer than you could individually.
