Biology & Tactics

What fly should I use?

The Head Waterkeeper's own chronological hatch guide — five significant flies from the Hawthorn through to the September sedge, matched to artificial patterns.

A brief history

Adverts, catch records and cuttings from the Fishery's archive, from a pre-1908 letting notice to a 1953 River Dun trout.

Chalk streams

Gin-clear, spring-fed, and utterly unforgiving — reading lies, the weed game, and the Halford–Skues debate.

Reading a hatch

A month-by-month calendar of what is likely emerging, with lifecycle tips and fly matches for each stage.

Mayflies

350 million years old, moults after growing wings, and cannot eat as an adult — the insect that invented the dry fly.

Caddis

Case-builders, silk-spinners, and net-weavers — the evening rise that defines summer fishing on the Kennet.

Grayling

Autumn glory and winter lifeline — Euro nymphing, the induced take, and the dry fly's delayed strike.

Euro nymphing

Czech short-line and French leader — high-precision subsurface methods for trout and grayling on any river.