In our office's 'safe storage locker' was a delivery which arrived late on Friday - one we've been eagerly expecting for a while.
It contained lots of our late-season Trout & early-season Grayling goodies.
Within the depths of the parcel were a few boxes of a really popular nymph selection we've not had in a while - one which you've been emailing me about since we sold out (within 1 hour) at this time back in 2024.
Antoni's going to be really chuffed ...
It's our Nested Hot-Spot Jig Selection
This selection is perfect for targeting those late-season Trout and early-season Grayling (for those of you who like to plan ahead, as it's only a few weeks away now).
As I mentioned above, we originally launched these Nested 'Hot-Spot' Jigs back in 2024, and they all sold out within 1 hour!
We've tweaked them a little for 2026 - with a slightly larger orange bead and added some different colour variations - and here they are.
Please Note: Those of you who asked to be notified on their return should have already received emails allowing you to grab yours before their official launch today.
I believe these nymphs are some of the most innovative on the market today - I've never seen any others tied with a similar bead configuration - and they catch fish!
It all started in early 2024 ... when one of our most experienced tyers contacted me to say he'd been playing around with a few ideas and wanted to run something past me ...
We all know that when fishing heavier nymphs you want to get the fly to the river bed quickly, especially true when you are targeting Grayling, but adding more weight generally means you need a bigger hook - when the nymphs we are trying to imitate are quite small, this is difficult.
He had the idea of nesting one bead inside another - you first add a small bead (in our case we've used a 2.0mm Orange one), then you slide on a larger bead backwards (in these nymphs we've used a 3.2mm silver one) - this allows the smaller bead to sit inside the recess of the larger one - clever eh!
I loved this idea and this time last year I tied a few up for myself, with widely differing body colours, and headed out to the water. Now, our part of the Yorkshire Derwent is not really known for its Grayling fishing, so I wasn't expecting great things - but on the 2nd lob (I was Euro Nymphing) I had a small Grayling - result!
I carried on fishing for the next hour, and I had a further 3 fish - all a similar size. For our river, that's a good return of Grayling - especially in October/November!
I also sent a few to a friend who regularly fishes on a stillwater, for him to test out ... he had similar success (with Rainbows) fishing these on the drift under an indicator/bung.
So they work well on both Rivers and Stillwaters - that's a bonus!
With the result fed back to our tyers, we decided for 2026 to go for them in the four most successful different body colours I tried - Hare's Ear, Olive, Peacock & Purple (the Peacock & Purple ones being especially successful with Grayling last year) - these seem to be the colours and styles that take the majority of fish anywhere in the world. All tied on super-sharp Size 14 barbless jig hooks.
Please Note: If you scroll down to the very end of this email, I'll show you how I fish these Nest Hot-Spot Jigs for the last of the trout and the first of the grayling.
We've now got them back in stock again for 2026, but unfortunately we only have 30 selections to go around (and a few available to buy individually) - so you will need to be pretty quick off the mark!
To say that our tyers have done us proud is an understatement - considering they are pretty fiddly to tie these are exceptional.
You can see from the images contained in this email that the bodies are all the correct proportions, and the Hare's Ear one is a little scruffy - just how the fish seem to like them.
Here we present our Nested 'Hot-Spot' Jig Selection, which contains 3 each of four different patterns (all in a size 14):
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Hares Ear
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Olive
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Peacock; and
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Purple
We are making these available to you as a selection. The selection contains 3 (three) of each pattern - in total, there are 12 Nested 'Hot-Spot' Jigs in the selection - all tied on size 14 barbless hooks with 3.2mm and 2.0mm bead heads.
The Nested 'Hot-Spot' Jig Selection is now available again for only £24.00, supplied in our eco-friendly packaging and delivered FREE of charge to anywhere in the UK.
If you'd like your Nested Hot-Spot Jigs supplied in a nice slimline silicone box, we've got you covered (just click on either the image or green button below), they're only an extra £10:
OR
We are also supplying these Nested Hot-Spot Jigs individually:
*** We only have a small number of these available (30 to be exact), so you will need to be quick I've already got mine safely stashed away in my fly box, otherwise, we would have had more!***
Get out there and lob some late-season nymphs around, and have fun!
P.S. Here's how I usually fish them:
The jig hook fishes with the point-up, so you can bounce a nymph along the bottom without snagging (too much). The addition of a nested bead puts 0.25g on a size 14 hook, so you get more of the weight without the bulk. The fly stays small and slim, like the real thing.
For Late-season Trout:
Low, clear water and wary fish. I look for pockets, riffle tails and the seams where fast water meets slow.
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Short line, upstream: Cast up and across at about 45 degrees and let the fly sink. Then lift the rod tip and follow the drift back down, keeping just enough contact to see or feel the take.
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Watch the line or sighter: Any hesitation, twitch or stop that isn't the bottom, lift. A trout will spit a nymph faster than you'd like.
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Colour by water clarity: Hare's Ear or Olive when it's low and clear. Peacock or Purple when there's a bit of colour, or after rain.
For Early-season Grayling:
Grayling usually sit on or near the bottom, in steadier, deeper glides and at the head and tail of pools. They'll rise to a fly, but they won't chase one far, so it has to be down and tumbling along the bottom in front of them.
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Get it down, then keep it there: If you never touch the bottom, you're not deep enough. If you snag every cast, you're too deep or lifting late.
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Expect quiet takes: The sighter slows or tightens rather than darting away. Lift, don't strike.
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Lift at the end of the drift: Let the fly swing round and rise at the end. Grayling love to take it as it comes up (called 'the induced take').
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Stay put: Catch one and there are usually more beside it, so put a few more casts through the same water before you move on.
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Try two flies: A Hare's Ear on the point and a Purple above it, and let the fish tell you which they prefer.
For Both Trout & Grayling:
Use a fine tippet (0.12–0.14mm), and check your beat rules on fly numbers before you use a multi-fly rig. Everything in our selection is barbless, so keep steady pressure on and never let the line go slack. The point-up hook tends to lodge in the top of the jaw, so once you're connected, they usually stay connected.
