Like most fly fishermen, when it rains, I get bored. Especially over the last couple of weeks anglers have been forced indoors and away from the rivers or lakes.

For me, this is a time where I can sort out my tackle, replenish fly boxes and just wait for the rivers to drop to get back at em!

Lately, especially the last two years, I’ve been playing around with different Fritz’s, such as the Crystal Hackle & UV Crystal Hackle. This material is fine, and adds a lot of movement to your flies. I prefer just one turn at the head, behind the eyes, to give it that sort of tear drop shape when puller through the water and obviously some colour. It surprises me how much that subtle change of colour at the head can really make a difference.

The flies above are tied with mirage bodies, over black and white thread. Different under bodies make mirage turn different shades, it’s something to play around with when tying patterns such as the Candy floss or anything with a mirage body.

Crystal hackle, with and without UV is a great material to add to many flies. The black and olive are my favourite for throwing into dabblers, but with an additional head hackle to just give it some bulk, just behind the mallard cloak.

The material is braided so the filaments fall to the one side making it very easy to tie in and wrap up the hook.

Playing around with materials can be fun! Your box soon fills up!