Fly selection and helping the environment

A big thank you to Richard Fieldhouse of Barbless Flies for a donation of £500 to the Wild Trout Trust — and to all of his customers who chose the ​‘minimum packaging’ option which results in 50p per order going to the WTT. This is a real win for the environment – less plastic, easier catch and release and funds for habitat improvement!

Barbless flies have just launched a new website to help you select the right fly in the right place at the right time. GEO-Intelligent Fly Selection is a new FREE web service: www​.which​-fly​.co​.uk

We’ve all been there — you get to the water’s edge and just tie on the same fly which worked the last time you were out — hoping that the fish will still be interested. Well, how about using a little bit of modern technology to help you decide which fly to use?

With that exact scenario in mind, Barbless Flies have been working on a project for the last 8 months and after extensive user testing, it’s finally ready to release. It’s a website (accessible on any device) which shows you which flies should be hatching on your river (or stillwater) based on your location, date and time of day. It retrieves all of these details automatically from your phone/​tablet/​computer and then references them against a database behind the scenes, to display:

• Insects which should be hatching at that time of day, for that month, in your location (for both rivers and stillwaters)
• For each insect it gives you details of the fly imitation to use, including hook sizes and photos
• You even get the option to have the results emailed to you

The website is being launched with the support of the Wild Trout Trust, as Barbless Flies assist with best practice catch and release. The service covers England, Scotland, Wales, Northern & Southern Ireland, and best of all, it’s free of charge (with no annoying adverts)!

Using your phone, tablet or computer, just access www​.which​-fly​.co​.uk this will take you to the website (if asked to share your location, please accept — don’t worry, no personal or location details are stored and your location is only used to reference which flies will be hatching in your local area).