Early-Season Essentials

Morning,

Now that the British Fly Fair is a distant (and hazy) memory - it can only mean one thing ... the new trout season is only just around the corner.

It is with this in mind that today's email is one which will, hopefully, inspire you to look forward to the new season with the same anticipation as you once had (and I still have) on Christmas Eve.

As always, we've a few flies for you to consider (it's what keeps us in business!), but also some really helpful tips, and a book, on how to make the most of those early season forays - which, if we're honest, don't usually live up to the expectations we place on them.

Over the next few weeks, we will be bringing you some tried and tested fly selections for both rivers and stillwaters, specifically for early season trout fishing. Helping you to get a flying start by honing your early season techniques - and curating your early season fly boxes!

We thought we would start off with one of the most popular selections we have available: The Early Season Selection

The majority of early-season success will be fishing flies under the water, that's the reason for our selection mainly consists of spider patterns (both weighted and unweighted) - with a really nice olive imitation included for those afternoon hatches which will occur.

We've also included a handy primer on Spider fishing for you to download towards the very end of this email - happy clicking!

Here's a rundown of the flies included in our Early Season Selection:

The JT Olive

A dry fly imitation of a hatching Olive - originally tied by John Tyzack (former IFFA Rivers Champion). Tied with a mole fur body, Coq de Leon tail and a sparse CdC hackle. This fly can be used in all seasons, there's nothing better than this on a warm early season day, on its own with a tapered leader during an Olive hatch, just make sure to use some powder floatant on the CdC and it will float all day. Our selection contains two each, of sizes 14 & 16.

The Endrick's Spider

A version of the Endrick Spider with a tungsten bead. Teamed up with the other spider patterns in this selection will allow you to search all levels of water simultaneously, great when fishing "down and across". Our selection contains two each, of sizes 14 & 16.

Snipe & Purple Spider

A great sparse spider pattern for the early season. Fished on a long leader teamed up with the Waterhen Bloa & Endrick Spider, these can be deadly. Dressed in appropriate sizes and weights, the Snipe & Purple can be fished successfully throughout the season. Our selection contains two each, of sizes 14 & 16.

Waterhen Bloa

Generally thought to imitate the Large Dark Olive, the Waterhen Bloa is tied with yellow silk and natural mole fur and a stiff moorhen hackle. Again, teamed up with the other spiders in this selection it can be deadly. Our selection contains two each, of sizes 14 & 16.

As with most of our emails, we only have a limited number of these Early Season Selections available, so if our previous offerings are anything to go by, you will need to be fairly quick off the mark!

These flies are available as a selection (16 flies in total) for only £20.00 - which includes FREE delivery to anywhere within the UK.

Click any button or image above to view each of these flies and the selection in much more detail.

FLY: Book Series & Almanac Update

The perfect accompaniment to any of your early season outings is our FLY: Series book. It's dedicated to the techniques, tips and flies you will need to consider when stepping out in March & April.

You can grab you copy for only £9.99 by clicking here.

The guys at the printers are hard at work - re-printing both our River and Stillwater Almanacs (along with the 2025 diary inserts) - we should have them available again by the end of next week.

As soon as I receive them I will email to let you know - if you've not already bought one, they make a great addition to any fly anglers library - and easily fit in your pack, pocket or glove box.

I will keep you posted ...

As the majority of early season fishing will be sub-surface, one of the best techniques to cover lots of water quickly is using Spiders.

Click on the image or button below to download your FREE copy of our Spider Fishing Manifesto:

Tight lines.