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Trout and Salmon magazine

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Trout & Salmon December 2022 Issue

12 George Barron fishes the coch-y-bonddu fall on a remote Welsh mountain lake

28 One of Rutland Water’s most successful bank anglers reveals his winter big-fish tactics

40 Richard Wilson remembers the fly-rods that have shaped his fishing journey

42 In Perthshire, a little-known River Isla tributary sets Paul Procter a real challenge

54 Jim Coates meets the man behind the transformation of the River Carron in the Scottish Highlands

68 Rob Denson ties with ordinary household odds and sods

75 Simon Sinclair on stillwaters in winter

78 Looking for Christmas gift ideas? Browse our pick of fine game-fishing tackle, clothing, books and accessories

117 Reader offer: Scierra waders and Daiwa wading boots

12 Two seasoned North Esk anglers share experiences past and present with Finlay Wilson

28 Don Stazicker meets members of an old established club with a friendly modern outlook

44 Cardiff fly-fisher Nick Thomas reveals his treasured angling possessions

54 Andrew Flitcroft meets the bright future of fly-fishing on Derbyshire’s River Dove

64 Irish wet-fly supremo Frank Reilly discloses the tactics that have brought him great success

72 Jim Coates chats with Simon Gawesworth, one of the world’s leading angling instructors

86 Tyer Rob Denson gets creative with household bits and bobs

88 Steve Cullen targets big reservoir trout with floating fry patterns

38 Inside Irish instructor Andrew Ryan’s fly-box

50 Swedish fly-tyer Stefan Biehl showcases six successful patterns

94 Take a look at a new batch of tackle for autumn

99 Our pick of the best fly-tying materials

Trout & Salmon November 2022 Issue

12 Discover why Grogarry loch is a favourite Hebridean retreat for trout-fisher Finlay Wilson

28 Andrew Flitcroft is given a spinning masterclass on a gorgeous Welsh stream

44 Author Mark Wormald shares his treasured angling items

46 Jon Beer explores remote trout lochs in Shetland

56 Jim Coates talks to Mark Paterson about salmon behaviour, hatcheries and mentors

63 How to make the most of your next boat- or bank -fishing trip to Draycote Water in the English Midlands

74 Trout- and salmon-fishing wisdom from our team of experts

80 Tips for catching grayling on dry- fly this autumn, with Paul Procter

90 Reviewed: a Euro-nymph outfit, fly-fishing waistcoat and six-piece salmon rods

92 Don Stazicker tests the latest batch of cassette reels

Trout & Salmon October 2022 Issue

12 Solitude and rising trout await George Barron in Snowdonia National Park

26 David Profumo celebrates the centenary of Miss Ballantine’s record salmon

44 Cumbrian guide Eric Hope shares his treasured fishing items

46 Paul Procter encounters trout and presidents on the Derbyshire Wye

58 Planning a short break? We pick 16 fishing hotels, inns and lodges that will make your stay special

70 Jim Coates is in conversation with Scandinavian salmon expert Lars Terkildsen

76 Waterside words of wisdom from our team of experts

82 How to catch stillwater trout as temperatures soar

92 This month’s pick of new tackle including rods, lines, luggage and clothing

96 Fly-tying: goat hair, barbless hooks and a Multiloop tool are reviewed

118 Junior and Youth Troutmasters Finals, plus latest badge winners

Trout & Salmon Autumn 2022 Issue

Dangler is a new online marketplace that offers anglers the ability to buy and sell used fished tackle, but also buy brand-new fishing tackle. It has more than 16,000 products for sale via its sellers and the stock is growing daily. The team behind Dangler understands that fishing is not cheap, and so they wanted to provide a platform where anglers could find used versions of the tackle they are after for cheaper prices, or by selling their old tackle to help buy new tackle.

There are thousands of sellers on Dangler, as well as retailers and brands. You can purchase tackle from multiple sellers and retailers in a single transaction, making your shopping super-efficient. One of the great benefits is multi-seller products, which means you have an immediate price comparison between retailers and can purchase straight through Dangler.

**Photograph the tackle you're selling with your phone and upload to Dangler. Easy!**

Dangler offers a great range of fly-fishing tackle, with fly-tying tools and materials alongside fly rods and reels that span the full spectrum of any angler’s budget. There are always great items for sale, so it pays to check the site regularly. Dangler features top brands such as Hardy, Rio, Vision, Sage and many many more. It showcases tackle for each angling discipline, with top brands and products across fly, sea, match and coarse, carp and predator angling, so you really can find everything you need.

Selling on Dangler is super easy, too. Simply type in the title of what you want to sell, add a few extra details and the listing is live. Recycling your tackle to pay for new tackle is a great incentive. The team at Dangler told us that they have even sold vintage sea-fishing magazines on the platform.

Dangler is founded on security and trust. Using one of the safest payment providers available, for buying and selling, all payments are secure, which gives you peace of mind when making a transaction. Not only this, but they offer a moneyback guarantee, so you can be sure that you are totally taken care of when you place an order.

So, if you’re looking at buying or selling new or used fishing tackle, head to Dangler to get started!

**[www.dangler.co.uk](http://www.dangler.co.uk){:target=_blank :rel=noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow}**

The easy way to buy and sell fishing tackle

12 The beguiling pools of one of the River Tay’s finest salmon beats are explored by Rob Hardy

20 Chris McCully discovers the delights of Coniston Hall lake in the Yorkshire Dales

30 The Guash Fishing Club — small but perfectly formed

41 The skills required to be a modern gillie

54 Don Stazicker catches wild trout from a Welsh river once ravaged by pollution

72 The Arundell’s head instructor David Pilkington in conversation with Jim Coates

80 Expert advice on fishing tactics and fly-tying techniques

92 Stuart Foxall showcases a Brown Pulling Sedge

62 Take a peek inside the fly-box of Tweed boatman Craig Duncan

68 Six flies from young Americans John and Katie Demuth

96 Tempting new tackle, clothing and flies on the market

Trout & Salmon September 2022 Issue

Mikael Frodin’s variant of the world-famous Willie Gunn is a proven fish-catcher both in Norway, where it was devised, and the UK. The highly mobile wing moves seductively in the water.

## Material list for the Willie Gunn Samurai {#h-material-list-for-the-willie-gunn-samurai}

Tube: Medium black FITS and fluorescent orange X-small FITS tubing

Body: Rear, bare tube, followed by Mirage tinsel, Alta Gold Holo SSS braid, Magma Yellow, Hot Orange in Flames and Octopussy Red SSS Glitz dubbing. In smaller sizes use SSS dubbing behind the wing and Glitz in front

Wing: White hair underwing, black overwing. Wing should be tied with long, straight soft fibres, such as goat hair, to get the slim profile only on the top of the fly.

Hackle: Two turns of soft black hackle or mini marabou

Step 1. Cut a length of black FITS tube (cut to a point at front) and slide on to your mount. Cut the ends of orange FITS tube to a point and push one a third of the way inside the black tube.

Step 2. Apply thread turns where the tubes overlap, then carry the thread down the main tube, leaving a short section bare.

Step 3. Wind on Mirage then overlapping turns of SSS braid.

Step 4. Secure the loose end of the braid then dub on a generous pinch of Magma Yellow SSS dubbing. This material is positioned under the wing, providing a degree of support.

Step 5. Tease out the Magma Yellow dubbing to create a halo. Next, catch in a pinch of fine white hair, adding a black overwing at least three times the length of the tube.

Step 6. Lock the wing in place with tight thread wraps, then add long cheeks of jungle cock. Apply a pinch of Hot Orange in Flames SSS Glitz dubbing immediately in front of the wing.

Step 7. Take a large pinch of Octopussy Red SSS Glitz and dub it on to the thread. Wind it forward to create a substantial ball, adding the last turn directly onto the thin orange tube.

Step 8. Using a piece of velcro, begin to tease out the fibres of the two front body sections. Keep working, stroking the dubbing fibres back over the wing and body to create a dense “hackle”.

Step 9. Trim any long curly dubbing fibres, then catch in a small black marabou feather by its tip. Wind on two turns of the hackle, close to the front of the body, secure and trim waste.

Step 10. Slide the cone on to the orange tube. Add a drop of Superglue in front of the hackle, push the cone firmly, and slide into position. Trim the tube and burr the end with a lighter.

How to tie the Willie Gunn Samurai

Needle tubes offer an alternative to fatter tubes in low water or if you want to scale down on weight and dressing. Fish this sea-trout tube near the surface on a full floating or midge-tip line depending on current speed. Needle tubes are available from Grays of Kilsyth (graysofkilsyth.com).

## Material list for the Stoat’s Tail Needle Tube {#h-material-list-for-the-stoat-s-tail-needle-tube}

Tube: 1.8mm (diameter) stainless steel needle tube

Stoat’s Tail Needle Tube

This is just the ticket for back-end olive hatches, when a size 14-16 hook with an olive-dubbed abdomen imitates that of the large dark olive. One tied on a size 18 hook with Orvis Superfine No.12 (Pale Morning Dun) is a good imitation of late-season pale wateries.

## Material list for the Olive CDC {#h-material-list-for-the-olive-cdc}

Abdomen: Wapsi Superfine dubbing No.14, olive

Olive CDC

Stan Headley tied this deadly trout fly, which fishes best on the top dropper and does well when mayfly or sedges are hatching.

## Material list for the Summer Duck Dabbler {#h-material-list-for-the-summer-duck-dabbler}

Hook: Size 10 Fulling Mill All-Purpose Medium

Summer Duck Dabbler

Many claim the addition of a fluorescent red tag improves the classic Green Peter and makes it an even better fly for lough salmon, trout and sea-trout.

## Material list for the Red-tag Peter {#h-material-list-for-the-red-tag-peter}

Tag: Fluorescent red floss or seal’s fur

Red-tag Peter

This beautiful, slender and simple fly by Rob Denson captures the essence of a natural buzzer.

## Material list for the Spanthrax Buzzer {#h-material-list-for-the-spanthrax-buzzer}

Body: Spanflex ribbed in open turns – colour of choice

Thorax: Spanflex (as body) with teardrop of Hard As Nails varnish infused with red ink

Step 1. Take a 6in-8in length of olive Spanflex, stretch it to its limit and catch it in – as you would if adding thread to a hook – with a locking turn.

Step 2. With the initial turn locked tight, wind the Spanflex in open turns to a point at which the thorax and wing buds will start.

Step 3. Keeping tension on the working end, trim the waste end while stretching it. Don’t trim too close (1mm is ideal) or it will “retreat” under the locking turn and unravel.

Step 4. Fold 2in of orange Spanflex around the olive Spanflex and slide it tight to the hook.

Step 5. Figure-of-eight the olive around the orange, to lock it. Wind the olive to the eye in touching turns.

Step 6. Pull the two ends of the orange Spanflex forward to form the wing buds. Lock them in place with one tight turn of the olive Spanflex.

Step 7. Make a one-turn whip finish (by hand) with the olive Spanflex, keeping it under maximum tension. Move wing buds into correct position.

Step 8. Pull waste ends of orange Spanflex away from eye, stretching them double. Trim 1mm from the eye. Repeat with waste olive Spanflex.

Step 9. Turn the hook upside down in the vice and add a spot of permanent red marker pen to the rear of the wing buds.

Step 10. Add thick Hard As Nails to the underside of the thorax and agitate the ink with a dubbing needle so it bleeds into the varnish. Return the hook to an upright position and dry for 12 hours.

Step 11. Brush on another two or three coats of varnish (at six-hourly intervals), covering the thorax and body. Allow three days to cure before fishing.

How to tie the Spanthrax Buzzer

A remarkably successful lure that is all about colour and movement – the marabou tail giving it “flutter”, the weighted eyes providing a sinuous path through the water, and the pale hackle over the silver/gold body providing a translucent look.

## Material list for the Humungous {#h-material-list-for-the-humungous}

Tail: Black marabou, with some strands of UV Angel Hair (or similar)

Humungous

The invention of Raymond Dingwall, gillie on the River Ewe in Wester Ross, this fly works best when there are fresh fish in the river. Fish it on a floating line or floating line and intermediate polyleader.

## Material list for the Ewe Blue {#h-material-list-for-the-ewe-blue}

Hook: Size 6-14 Partridge Salar, black or silver

Tail: Blue bucktail with two strands of Veniard’s smoke-blue Krystal Hair

Body: Silver holographic tinsel (optional varnish)

Beard hackle: Blue Russian squirrel tail with black Russian squirrel tail over

Wing: Blue Russian squirrel tail with two strands of Veniard’s smoke-blue Krystal Hair and black Russian squirrel tail over

Step 1. Wind the thread down the shank until it is opposite the hook points. Catch in the silver wire and apply three or four turns to form a tag. Secure the end of the wire, remove excess.

Step 2. Catch in the bucktail and the Krystal Hair, folding the latter so that there are four strands over the top of the tail. Wind the thread up the shank to form an even base.

Step 3. Catch in a length of silver holographic tinsel and wind it in touching turns to the tail.

Step 4. Once the holographic tinsel has reached the base of the tail, wind it back over itself to form a double layer. This helps to create a smooth body.

Step 5. Secure the loose end of the tinsel and trim off the excess. Next, take a slim bunch of blue hair and catch it in to form a throat hackle.

Step 6. Prepare a similar-sized bunch of black hair and apply it over the blue hair. Inverting the hook in the vice can help achieve this.

Step 7. Secure the throat in position with more tight thread-turns. Prepare and catch in a wing of blue hair approximately twice the length of the hook.

Step 8. Add two strands of blue Krystal Hair on top of the blue wing, folding it over to form four. Then add a black hair wing, of the same length, over the top.

Step 9. Secure the wing firmly in place by adding further tight thread turns. Select two jungle cock feathers and catch them in to form the cheeks.

Step 10. Fold back the stems of the jungle cock feathers and secure with thread. Build a neat head and cast off with a whip finish.

How to tie the Ewe Blue

Keep hair bunches perpendicular over hook shank with as little drift and flare as possible. Achieve this by stroking the dubbing up and over the wing roots. Don’t dub the thread while it lies on top of the hair roots. Take thread forward on to hook shank and dub backwards on to the wing roots.

## Material list for the Claret Sedgehog {#h-material-list-for-the-claret-sedgehog}

Hook: Size 10-12 Fulling Mill All-Purpose Medium

Wing: Four or five sparse bunches of deer hair

Claret Sedgehog

Originating on Loch Leven, unlike most Snatchers, this popular pattern  isn’t imitative. Whether pulled or twiddled back it will catch you fish  from the far north of Scotland to the southernmost reservoir.

## Material list for the Doobry Snatcher {#h-material-list-for-the-doobry-snatcher}

Body hackle: Black cock (or genetic hen), leading edge stripped of fibres

Step 1. Catch in the orange thread at a point directly above the barb and, winding in a backwards direction, apply the first layer of the butt.

Step 2. To prevent the butt from unravelling, bring the waste thread forward, over the partially completed butt, and add a second layer.

Step 3. Introduce the tying thread, leaving a gap at the eye for hackles and cheeks. Take the thread to the butt and tie in the rib.

Step 4. Return the thread to the throat, covering the waste end of the rib. Tie in the flat tinsel.

Step 5. Wind the flat tinsel to the butt in touching turns. Return the tinsel to the throat, making two layers. Secure the loose end of tinsel and trim off the waste. Strip the fibres from one side of the stem of a black hen hackle. Tie it in at the eye.

Step 6. Grasp the hackle-tip with hackle pliers, and begin to wind the hackle back over the tinsel body in open, evenly spaced turns.

Step 7. Once the body hackle has reached the butt, over-rib it with the oval gold ribbing material. Tie off the rib and trim away the waste.

Step 8. Tie in the split jungle-cock cheeks so that they lie in line with the hook.

Step 9. Trim off the waste jungle-cock stems then catch in the hot-orange hen hackle.

Step 10. Grasp the hackle-tip with hackle pliers. Apply two turns to create the collar. Secure and trim off the waste. Cast off with a whip finish.