The adult crane fly has a slender body and long thin gangly legs that are deciduous, easily coming off the body. The wingspan is about 1 to 6.5 centimetres. The antennae have up to 39 individual segments.

The Daddy Long legs is actually a large type of crane fly, of which there are 94 species in the UK. Familiar to all of us in its adult form as the gangly insect that flits around our homes in summer, the larvae of the Daddy Long legs are grey grubs (also known as 'leather jackets') which live. The adults are on the wing during the late summer and are common in gardens and fields, often coming indoors. They rarely feed at this time, concentrating on mating and laying their eggs amongst the grass.

The adult Daddy Long legs is a brown, long-bodied insect, with translucent wings and very long legs, which easily fall off if handled. As a group, crane flies are unmistakable

For the fly angler you can fish imitations of these as either a wet fly or a dry fly ,when fishing the dry fly pattern I either leave them to drift in the wind or give them a slow figure eight retrieve with occasional pauses in  between.

As a wet fly these are sometimes called vibrating daddy’s ,Gold head daddy’s and are best fished on an intermediate line with a figure eight retrieve.

However you fish them takes can be either gentle or fast, and my personal preference is to fish these in autumn on a dry line.

 

 

tight lines