Insects & hatches
Mayflies, caddis, midges and the rest of the menu.
Mayflies: The Oldest Flies on Earth
350 million years old, cannot eat, moult after growing wings — the insect that invented dry fly fishing and still runs every river.
LDO from 5°C. March Brown from 8°C. BWO evening spinner. Green Drake: Duffer's Fortnight.
Caddis: The Architects of the River
They build houses out of silk, stones, and sticks — then abandon them to rise through the water column in a bubble of gas. The insect that makes the evening rise worth waiting for.
Grannom Apr–May 8–12°C. Evening sedges Jun–Sep. Ascending pupa: the key moment.
Buzzers, Midges & Diptera
The insect nobody romanticises and every stillwater trout eats — 40–60% of a reservoir trout's diet, year-round, plus the crane flies and hawthorn flies that start a riot when the wind blows.
Black sz 16 from 4°C. Olive sz 12 from 8°C. Daddy longlegs Aug–Oct. Change depth, not fly.
Dragons & Damsels
Jet propulsion, sperm wars, and the most useful nymph in the box — everything an angler should know about dragonflies and damselflies.
Damsel nymph: May–Sep, margins, slow strip. Dragonfly: crawls, doesn't swim.
The Hatch on Big Water
Buzzers, daphnia clouds, damsel migrations — what the trout are actually eating on reservoirs, and why changing depth matters more than changing fly.
Buzzers: 60% of diet. Change depth before fly.