The Most Consistent of 2017The season started fairly slowly for me this year with the consistent flies in March and April, being my Awesome Olive flymph and that ancient fly: the Black Pennell. With the rise in temperature as the season progressed into June and July and along with the Awesome Olive, the Furnace and Olive Pheasant Tail Nymphs began to take fish. I suspect that these two soft hackle wet flies may have proved to be effective from the beginning of the season, if I had I tied and introduced them earlier. The 2017 season will be their first full season and I expect they will do well then. Throughout August and September it was the Awesome Olive and Furnace Pheasant Tail Nymph which vied for top position and as the final months progressed, more and more fish came to the PTN. By the last day of the season both these flies were equally tied in terms of the number of fish they had tempted. So this season we have two top soft hackle wet flies: The Awesome Olive and the Furnace Pheasant Tail Nymph.
The Awesome Olive (left) seemed to do quite well as a point fly while the Fiery Pheasant Tail Nymph (right) worked really well as the dropper fly on a two fly cast. The combination of these two flies as a two fly cast certainly proved to be an effective one. The two flymphs were fished as you would fish a buzzer: by letting the wind and wave action fish the flies round in an arc. Takes to both flymphs were often aggressive especially to the Fiery Pheasant Tail Nymph. You can find the dressings here: The Awesome Olive and here: Firey Pheasant Tail Nymph To view previous seasons top flies go to the Top Flies page here: Top Flies .
The 2016 season certainly was an interesting one. Averaging 3.2 fish per session wasn’t too bad. I had no blanks and found the fishing improved as the season progressed from its slow start. The highlight of the season was my last trip which ended with the capture of two stunning sized trout (for the loch I fished anyway). You can view the post here: Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail Nymphs: an update! At 42cm long and thick-set, one of these two fish was my seasons best and a fantastic way to end the 2016 brown trout season!
SoftHackles 