Wet Flies and the Swing

There is very little to a spider. A body of tying silk, sometimes touched with a wisp of fur, and one and a half turns of a soft feather from a partridge, a snipe or a moorhen. No tail, no wing, no weight. Dry, it looks unfinished. Wet, the hackle fibres fold back along the hook and breathe with every change in the current, and the whole thing becomes a fair impression of an insect in trouble just under the surface. The pattern is a tradition of the Yorkshire Dales and the rivers of the north of England, where brisk, stony water gave trout little time to inspect anything.

Three flies and what they suggest

The spider box need not be large. These three, in sizes 14 and 16, will carry you from March into early summer. Dress them sparse. A spider with too much hackle swims like a shaving brush.

Fly	Dressing	Suggests
Partridge & Orange	Orange silk, brown speckled partridge back feather	Early stoneflies and, as the silk darkens to a mahogany, drowned spinners and olive nymphs. The all-purpose point fly.
Snipe & Purple	Purple silk, dark feather from a snipe’s wing	The iron blue, a small dark upwinged fly that hatches on cold, raw days. Fish it on the top dropper in size 16.
Waterhen Bloa	Yellow silk dubbed thinly with mole fur, moorhen wing covert	The large dark olive, Baetis rhodani, struggling to hatch. The fly for a March midday.

The team

Where the rules of the water allow, spiders are traditionally fished as a team of two or three. Many waters permit a single fly only, in which case fish the Partridge & Orange alone and lose very little. For a team, start with a nine-foot tapered leader to 4X (0.18 mm) and add level 5X (0.15 mm) sections joined with three-turn water knots, leaving the downward tag of each knot 10 cm long as a dropper. Space the flies about 90 cm apart. In a wind or among trees, drop to two flies. A rod of 9–10 ft with a soft tip and a double-taper or long-bellied 3 or 4 weight line makes mending easy and cushions the take.

Across and down

Stand at the head of a riffle or a steady, knee-deep run. Cast across and downstream at about 45 degrees with no more than 8–10 metres of line. The current takes hold, the line draws tight and the flies travel round in a curve until they hang straight below you. Then take two paces downstream and cast again. In this way you cover a whole run in overlapping arcs, fan after fan.

The fault to avoid is speed. A line left alone bellies downstream, and the flies whip across the river far faster than any nymph can swim. As soon as the line lands, lift the rod and flick the belly upstream: one mend, sometimes two. Then follow the line round with the rod tip held high, at about 45 degrees. The flies should drift almost freely for the first few metres and then swing slowly, just under the surface, at something like the pace of a slow walk.

Slow the swing until you think nothing can be happening. That is usually when the line tightens.

The dangle

When the flies come to rest directly downstream, do not lift at once. Let them hang for a count of five. Trout often follow a swinging fly and take as it stops and rises in the current. Then retrieve half a metre in slow draws before recasting. Takes on the swing and the dangle are felt: a pluck, a slow draw or a sudden solid pull. Do not strike. The fish is already tight to the line and directly below you, so a sharp lift either breaks the tippet or pulls the hook from the front of its mouth. Hold a small loop of slack under your rod finger, let it go as the fish takes, and simply raise the rod.

Upstream, on a short line

The older and more exacting way is to turn round and fish the spiders upstream. Wade carefully to the tail of a riffle and flick a short line, 4–6 metres, up and slightly across into each seam and pocket. Raise the rod as the flies come back towards you so the line stays almost off the water. Each drift lasts only three or four seconds.

Here the takes are seen, not felt. Watch the point where the leader enters the water, and watch the water around the flies: a small bulge, a wink of gold under the surface, the leader stopping or drawing aside. Tighten at once with a quick lift of the wrist. It demands concentration, covers the water slowly and hooks fish firmly in the corner of the jaw, which makes them easy to release.

• Downstream swing. Covers a lot of water, suits wide runs and cold days in March and April when fish are spread out. Takes felt.
• Upstream short line. Suits clear water, pocket water and wary fish from May onwards. Takes seen, and a more natural drift.

Carry both in your head and choose by the water in front of you. On a spring day with olives coming off at noon and a cold wind putting dry flies down, three spiders fished slowly through the riffles remain as good an answer as anyone has found.

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