A Fly For A Kelpie ...

Morning,

In today's missive, I'm in the process of working my way around Scotland, and somewhere between booking the ferry tickets and sourcing the Avon 'Skin So Soft' (for the midges) I fell into reading about kelpies.

If you don't know the story, a Kelpie is a water spirit that's supposed to live in rivers and lochs, usually shown as a horse standing quietly at the water's edge:

This stunning image of 'The Kelpies' near Falkirk is courtesy of Discover Britain.

Approach it, climb on, and it drags you under and doesn't let go. Different glens have their own version of the tale, but they all come from the same place: still, dark water that looks calm on top and hides something underneath.

I couldn't stop thinking about it, because that's exactly the type of water all us river anglers will be faced with until the end of August!

Low summer flows do something to a river. The pace drops, the pools clear, and every fish with any sense heads for cover - under the far bank, into the roots, tucked under whatever's overhanging and throwing shade. From the bank it looks like nothing's home. It isn't nothing. It's just gone quiet, and quiet water asks something different of you than fast water does.

This is when you need to go small, and go careful!

Longer leaders, finer tippet, flies that land like they're not even there. Because in low, clear water, the fish can see you as well as you can see the water, maybe better. Spook one and you've told every other fish in the pool the same thing.

Summer's the small fly & aphid season - wind knocks them off the leaves and onto the water all day long, and the fish know it. These patterns cover that window, plus the general small-fly, low-water work that carries you through the warmest, clearest weeks of the season.

We've built our River Whisperer Selection for exactly this (I did think about calling it "The Horse Whisperer Selection" in reference to the Kelpies at Falkirk).

Our River Whisperer Selection contains 18 barbless small flies across 6 different patterns, all tied on a size 18's - small enough, but not too small that you can't thread them to 3lb tippet. The selection contains:

• Pink Para Aphid

• Orange Para Aphid

• Crystal Greenfly

• Needle Fly

• Cul Aphid

• Black Griffith's Gnat

It's only £28 for the full set of 18, or add a Slimline Silicone fly box for an extra £10 to keep them safe and secure:

Please Note: We only have a limited number of River Whisperer Selections available (35 to be exact), and when they're gone - they're gone, until next year.

Please Also Note: I have also reserved some of the flies to be bought individually, if there are any patterns which particularly take your fancy - click here to buy them for only £1.75 each.

Here's some more detailed images of all the patterns contained in our River Whisperer Selection:

When the river's speaking in whispers, this is how you whisper back.

Tight lines.