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For the purpose of fly fishing, terrestrials are land bred insects that find their way on to water. Unfortunately, they are often overlooked by fly anglers who tend to get more excited about aquatic flies such as the mayfly.

Research on the stomach contents of trout & grayling show that (especially on still waters) terrestrial insects can feature highly on the trouts diet. Ants, beetles, bluebottles, bees and wasps are all found in the stomachs of fish as well as many other types of terrestrial flies.

In his seminal book “Fly Fishing For Grayling” John Roberts, commentating on a river dee fish survey says ” Significantly for the dry fly angler, ariel terrestrials were more than twice as important as ariel aquatic flies. The total of duns, spinners, adult stoneflies, midges and adult sedges came to less than 10% in number”

So you can see, for this stretch of the river Dee, how important terrestrial imitations would be for the fly angler.

Here’s a video I took on my phone at the end of last summer of heather flies hatching on the moor, Imagine what would happen if this was next to the water with the wind blowing!
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Here’s some of my favourites fly patterns:

Black Beetle – Buy Online >>

Black Ant – Buy Online >>

Hawthorne Fly – Buy Online >>

Daddy Long Legs – Buy Online >>

Free Video River Fly Fishing Course

20+ instructional videos, shot in 4k. Free to all new and existing newsletter subscribers – Click Here!