Killer Bugs - From Over The Pond

by Richard Fieldhouse
Now that we have a little more water in the rivers, it's the ideal time to target those early-season Grayling. So we thought it's about time you had a bit of tungsten in your life with a fly you may not have heard of before - The Sow Bug - the perfect nymph to tempt Grayling.
"Crustaceans are easy to capture and high in protein and fat. Wherever they are found in great numbers, you will find lots of corpulent trout.”
Tom Rosenbauer (midcurrent.com)
 

The inspiration for these Tungsten Sow Bug's came from the USA, where these crustaceans are abundant in most watercourses and used prolifically by competition fly anglers (when they want to catch every fish in the water!), we thought the style of nymph and design would translate equally as well to nymphs over here in the UK. These patterns work exceptionally well using the Euro Nymphing style - try putting a size 14 Sow Bug on the dropper with a size 18 on the point - that way you can fish both Sow Bugs close to the riverbed.

Towards the end of this email you will also find lots of information on helping you get more from your Grayling fishing - we've even setup a separate area of our site to give you even more hints & tips - check out the River Master - Grayling series below.

 

Our Tungsten Sow Bug Selection is a selection of 4 of the most popular styles of tungsten weighted Sow Bugs, all tied on jig hooks, we supply two of each Sow Bug in two sizes, in total there are 16 flies supplied in our environmentally friendly packaging. All of these nymphs are tied using strong barbless jig hooks.

Our Selection contains two each of sizes 14 and 18 of each of the below Sow Bugs:

  • Dark Olive Sow Bug
  • Pink Sow Bug
  • Tan Sow Bug
  • Aphid Green Sow Bug

Our Sow Bug selection contains 16 tungsten Sow Bugs in total. We are offering this selection today for only £24.

*** We only have very limited numbers of these - 25 to be exact - so you will need to be quick! ***

 

Go on, you know you want to!

🇪🇸 Competition Inspired

Grayling Nymph 🇪🇸

We'd like to introdce you to a fly, taken direct from the Spanish competition scene - The Purple Knight Perdigon.

Perdigon means 'shot' or 'pellet' in Spanish, this is a very apt nake for this fly as it's all about weight. This style of fly falls through the water column extremely quickly and has minimal resistance to the water, due to the thin body completely covered in UV resin.

Perdigon style flies sink much quicker than their tungsten equivalents, this makes them ideal nymphs when fishing any 'tight line' method, as you do not have to cast the fly as far upstream for it to present near to the riverbed. This means your nymph is in the 'zone' much longer than normal.

The Purple Knight Perdigon is a Spanish-style competition fly with a holographic purple body and black tungsten bead, tied on a strong jig hook. A classic grayling tungsten nymph pattern which is very successful in faster/deeper water.

This fly is available in sizes 14, 16 & 18.

  • This nymph in size 14 weighs 0.20g
  • This nymph in size 16 weighs 0.15g
  • This nymph in size 18 weighs 0.10g

These are very high-quality flies tied on high-quality barbless jig hooks. These perdigons are only available individually in sizes 14, 16 & 18 for only £1.75 each - they are virtually indestructible - so you won't need loads of them!

Go on, you know you want to!

Top Tips When Fishing Small Nymphs

Here are a few tips to help you when fishing for Grayling with smaller nymphs, which we hope you find useful:

  1. Small nymphs work best in slower water - expending energy for such a small nymph in faster water is not worth the fish's effort.
  2. In lower flows and slow water, where possible, fish from the bank, it's important not to disturb the water at all. Even really slow wading can send ripples upstream and spook fish.
  3. Try tying the nymph on with a loop knot to give it more movement - try using the Non-Slip Loop Knot.
  4. Keeping in contact with small nymphs can be a problem, most anglers use some sort of indicator, the best I have found is the 'putty' style indicator, but keep the putty used as small as possible - just enough to suspend your nymph. If you've never seen this type of indicator before, you can find them here. If your river allows it, try using a dry fly as an indicator aka The Duo.

If you are still not sure about fishing smaller nymphs, try starting with a 2-nymph rig, with a size 18 Sow Bug on the point and a larger nymph on a dropper above it. Having the heavy nymph on the dropper allows you to fish both nymphs at a similar depth (the heavy nymph will take the small nymph deep - and keep it there).

If you want to get even more out of your Grayling fishing this Autumn, why not check out our River Master Series of blog posts, dedicated to the Grayling:

 

Tight lines & have fun.

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