Morning,

Firstly, I'd like to thank all of you who've put your trust in us over the last few weeks and supported us with our 2026 Annual launch (which have now all been shipped) & Barbless Clothing Launch - both Jack and I really appreciate it - thank you.

Monday & Tuesday this week have been really busy, what with getting all of the Annuals out of the door and organising our clothing orders, it was only last night when I finally had a chance to sit down (with a drop of something nice) and actually think about all of our fly ranges.

The problem with fly fishing marketing, like all marketing, is that it exists to sell you the new thing - we are just as guilty of that as the next fly business (although I like to believe that we do it with a little more style, and humor, than others ).

The CdC-Dubbed-Tungsten-UV-Thingamajig that "mimics the exact refraction pattern of a Baetis nymph's wing case at 11:47am on a Tuesday in March."

Meanwhile, gillies across the UK have been consistently catching trout for 150 years (and more) with a hook, a bit of thread and a hackle.

The Snatcher (a classic wet fly) is magnificent in its simplicity, and adheres to the old principles.

Which is probably why it works so well!

There's a wonderful paradox here: the fish that have seen every laser-sharpened imitation of every known invertebrate will absolutely nail something that looks like ... well, nothing in particular. A bit of food. A drifting thing - until we find a fish that can talk, we'll never know!

It's the wet fly equivalent of serving a perfectly cooked roast chicken instead of deconstructed chicken foam with essence of farmyard.

Sometimes, obvious is better.

TOP TIP: One thing nobody mentions: when you're fishing a team of flies, you need flies that look different from each other. A Snatcher on a dropper doesn't compete with your point fly - it complements it. You're not putting two (or three) nearly-identical olives on and hoping one's the right shade. You're giving the fish actual choices.

Trout, like humans, seem to prefer choosing between distinct options rather than near-identical ones. A valuable lesson from both loch fishing and supermarket shelf layouts.

 

If you want to give them a go and see their fish-catching abilities for yourself, we now have our first Snatcher patterns available - and we've imaginatively called them, The Snatcher Selection -  they're available for you to try now:

NEW FLY BOX ALERT: We've just received some brand new fly boxes - they have a y-slit silicon mat base and a magnetic closure for the lid (very handy when you're changing flies - see above). 

We've just received a few (10) to try out and are making them available as an option with our Snatcher Selection. If you'd like one, there's an option to include one with your Snatcher Selection for only an extra £12.50. If they prove to be as successful as I think they will be - I've just swapped over all my Tacky boxes in favour of these - We will be filling our shelves with them in the coming months.

Our Snatcher Selection contains the following 5 pattern variations (VIva, Loch Ordie, Kate McLaren, Ghost & Firey Brown):

Our Snatcher Selection contains 15 snatchers (5 different patterns, 3 of each, all in size 12) and is available now for only £22.50 - which includes Free Delivery to anywhere in the UK - in our Eco-Friendly packaging.

Please Note: There's also the option to include one of our NEW Slimline Magnetic-Latch Fly Boxes for only £12.50.

Please Also Note: We only have 40 of our Snatcher Selections for sale (and only 10 of them available in our New Slimline boxes). Grab one while you still can!

That's a massive saving over buying the Snatchers individually. If you do like the look of the patterns and want to buy them individually, just click the button below:

Go on, you know you want to!

Invasion of the body fish snatchers

So, you've got your box full of snatchers, what next - here are 6 tips to get you started:

1. Speed is a signal, not a solution - Anglers usually obsess over retrieve speed like it's a binary choice: fast or slow. I believe that's the wrong question. The retrieved pattern(s) matter more. Three quick strips, then a pause tells the fish "escaping prey." Steady monotonous pulling says, "I'm a robot doing what the YouTube video told me." Vary your rhythm. Trout are pattern-recognition machines - give them a pattern worth recognising.

2. The team is smarter than the individual - Fishing three flies isn't about tripling your chances - it's about creating a scene. Your top dropper's creating disturbance, your middle dropper's following like a pursuer, your point fly's fleeing. You're not fishing three flies, you're staging a small aquatic drama. Set up your team accordingly: bushy on top, sparse on point, something interesting in the middle.

3. The lift is where magic happens - Ninety percent of wet fly takes happen in the last two feet of retrieve, when you're lifting the flies toward the surface. Why? Because that's when your flies do something interesting - they rise, they accelerate, they look like something escaping. Don't rush this bit. The "hang" at the end, letting everything dangle in the current for five seconds, accounts for more fish than the previous twenty meters of perfect retrieve.

4. Leaders should be transparent in length, not material - Long leaders (12-15ft) let your flies fish at different depths naturally. The geometry does the work. Your top dropper skates, your point fly dives - without you doing anything clever. Short leaders make everything fish at the same depth, which is like putting all your money on one number.

5. Treat rivers like stillwaters (sometimes) - Fish it exactly like a loch-style wet fly, but in a river. Cast across and down, let it swing in the current with no retrieve at all, just lifting the rod to keep tension - grayling adore this, winter grayling especially - a size 12 Ghost Snatcher on the middle dropper of a three-fly team, dead-drifted through a run, is basically cheating.

6. The first cast to fresh water is worth ten casts to tired water - Move more than you think you should. Wet flies lose effectiveness after the fish have seen them two or three times. It's the novelty that triggers takes, not the pattern. This is why loch-style fishing works - you're constantly showing fresh fish new things. River fishing the same pool for thirty minutes is optimism masquerading as persistence.

 

The wonderful thing about wet fly fishing is that it works best when you're thinking least. Muscle memory, reading water, reacting to takes - all the good stuff happens when your brain shuts up and lets your hands do the fishing.

 

Have fun out there, stay dry, keep warm and snatch some fish!