Essential Skills with Oliver Edwards Vol. 3

1. Fishing Dry Fly on a Chalk Stream - Oliver’s mainstay dun imitating dry flies are the Paradun and his Footprint Dun. They are both prototypical patterns, readily matching any of the Olives or Spurwings, right down to size 22. The Paradun is very easy to tie and floats like a cork, furthermore it lands correctly on every cast. The Footprint Dun is for those occasions when you encounter really picky, difficult fish. It takes a little more tying skill, but this is a pattern that can often save the day.

2. Mayfly Time on a Chalk Stream - Ephemera danica, the Greendrake, is famed for hatching in vast numbers ? ‘The Duffers Fortnight’. However, on rivers where the hatch just trickles off, the trout can be almost as cautious as when taking small Olives. This is when Essential Skills come into play. Your artificial will have to be a good imitative copy and it will have to be presented accurately and delicately if you wish to score.