Martyn White | Thursday, 4 September 2025
I've been talking to a few guys back home this week. And one hatch has come up repeatedly: the redlegs or heather fly. It was always one of my favourite hatches/falls back home especially in the late summer.
(POD Sandy Rae - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)
The heather fly (bibio pomonae) is a close relative of the more widely distributed hawthorn fly (bibio marci), but is far more common on upland waters, especially where there is heather around to provide them a good source of nectar. They're bigger and chunkier than a hawthorn according to wikipedia the adult is 10-13mm long with 8-12mm wings. So A pretty big fly, equivalent to a size 10 kamasan B170-which what we always used. The redlegs can show up any time from late April to late September where I'm from, but it's a predominantly late summer hatch really. So while most people to the south are already turning to daddy longlegs, we'd always be tying up and hoping for the redlegs to start falling with the daddies taking something of a backseat until the heather fly were done.
So, they're big, they can be plentiful and trout love them! It's one of those rare flies that will bring fish to the surface and have them feeding recklessly, even on calm, high pressure days with bluebird skies. Just like any other hatch, though if it's sustained for a while and/or there's much fishing pressure the fish can get picky which can make for some excellent, challenging fishing. While I would always pick the dry fly option if possible, even in the days following a hatch, if there's a blow on the water you can get some excellent wetfly fishing with black and orange patterns like, well, the bibio and bibio themed flies like snatchers, wet hoppers or my favourite a blae, black and orange here's a tying video
I would always carry a couple of dry patterns picking something simple and easy to see in the beginning, essentially a bobs bits with a bunch of orange guinea fowl tied on the underside, And a detached body foam job that sits lower, is a bit harder to see, but is also a bit more realistic for when they get fussy. There are of course other patterns that are popular, I know a lot of people like a half hog hopper with orange legs too.
Hook:B170/allpurpose medium size 10
Thread: Black 8/0
Body: Black seal fur
Wing: White yarn
Legs: Orange guinea fowl
Hackle: Black cock
Hook: B160/short shank size 12
Thread: Black 8/0
Body: Black foam & seal fur
Wing:Strip from a polythene bag
Legs: Orange flexi floss
It's a hatch you might miss, but if you live in the northern hemisphere it's definitely worth finding out whether they're in your area.