Time For Tying

All plans of getting out on the river today were again scuppered by a day of heavy rain late in the week causing the rivers & streams in the welsh marches to rise beyond a realistic fishing level.

I could have travelled that extra distance to the spate rivers of Mid-Wales were the extra water would have passed through quickly but with the temperature well below zero and the roads looking very icy I decided instead to have a good session at the tying bench and after watching Andy Murray endure the wrath of Federer in the Australian Open final I set to work tying a few patterns.

Concentrating mainly on Klinkhamers I soon got into a rhythm and tied a selection of sizes from #14's to #20's. This was the first time I had tied any Klinks since my very early attempts as a beginner 12 months ago - and found it so much less frustrating this time...once you get a feel for the breaking strain of various threads and also having better materials & tools than I did back then the whole process becomes that much easier.

I also found a little time to experiment with a 'detached body' Mayfly pattern, something I'd not tried before but I will surely be setting aside some time in the future to try and master the technique (hopefully before the start of the big hatch in May).

Variation of one of my favourite Grayling Bugs.