I spend a good amount of time retrieving flies from trees. Most of them are mine but today whilst conducting such a rescue, I spotted another fly dangling from a different branch. It took me a good 20 minutes to get it down. Why bother I hear you ask? The answer is that they are lethal bat and bird traps. In fact, anything that lives in trees or eats flies is at risk of becoming fatally snagged. The fly above was attached to nylon tippet of around 8lb!

 

It’s always worth the effort to retrieve your fly. Not only are you helping to safeguard the wildlife but you often find bonus tree bounty! Flies left by other, less conscientious anglers.

 

After getting one of my favourite flies stuck in a tree for the third time, I decided on a change as I was down to my last one.

You may recall that a visit to the ‘never used’ section of my fly box payed dividends recently, so I decided to return once more. In amongst the filler was some tree bounty, a bead head recovered from a tree on the river Wye that looked suitable.

 

I tied it on and swam it through the beery water by the far bank. It was instantly eaten by a Grayling of about 10 inches.

 

 

Another swim produced a cracking Grayling of around 2 lb. Such joy and all from a fly found in a tree!

 

 

Whilst carrying out my customary apres fish fly check I noticed that the hook had straightened significantly under the weight of the last fish. As I bent it back into shape, it snapped at the bend. I hadn’t noticed that it had rusted.

 

 

I was lucky to land that fish and even luckier that the fish didn’t escape with a piece of rusting metal stuck in its mouth. I thanked the fishing gods for sparing me that angst and regrouped.

Delving back into the fly box, I found a fly not dissimilar to the one I’d just broken.

 

 

Another few minutes and I was into another great Grayling.

 

 

The trout seemed pretty impressed with the pattern too but the best of the day leapt out of my net before I could capture it on my camera.

 

All in all, it was another eventful and educational day on the river. I made another space in my fly box and gave an abandoned, ageing fly a glorious send off.