Home     Search    Get a Reminder   Links    Feedback Forum   Click Here For The All New Fish Wild!   
 
Autumn 2008
Contents

News
Autumn 2008

Features
"We cool?” Stewart Lochrie is most definitely hooked

A Braw Day On The Braan Brian Tulloch enjoys a fine day on a lovely highland stream

A Female Angle Yvonne Cowie proves that salmon fishing is not just for the boys

A perfectly good boat of my own Bruce Sandison on the Isle of Barra

Highland Hill Lochs Big-Country Style Ian Cramman seeks ‘loch’ trout in wild Wyoming

Nymph Mania Encounters with river nymphs by Alex Laurie

The Origins of the Corrie Killer Allan Liddle describes his new fly for the deadly tactic of dry fly on lochs

Wendy’s Big Trout Joe Whoriskey visits Glen Affric

Get Lost!
Weather to go? John Cargill gets blown away in Skye

Short Lines
Failing Miserably John Cargill does what he does best

Getting Articulated A play on words with Bob Graham

Back Casts
A Learning Curve How Vince Smith became hooked for life

The Tweed at Melrose – 1952. Bob Graham recalls a red-letter day

Fly Tying
Step by Step with Dennis Shaw The Snatcher

Virtual Fly Box
The Butcher Family Alan Goodwin takes a look at some famous flies

Tackle Reviews
Pitsford Pirate Floating Fly Lines Reviewed by Fred Carrie

Book Reviews
Skues On Trout Reviewed by Peter McCallum

Northern Climes
Fish Farming Shetland-Style First Published September, 2007

Fishing Fiction
Adventures of Vushwelt and Kachsum’or A Tale By Sandy Birrell


Celtic fly tying Traditions
Lesley Crawford
(click any thumbnail image for a larger version)

Towards the end of this season I acquired a neat selection of flies tied by Irish wizard Frankie McPhillips of Enniskillen. They ranged from Dabblers to Mayflies and from variations of the Bibio to the Octopus. Though we in Scotland make some wonderful trout flies there is something extra special about these Irish patterns. The tyings are bold and bushy yet extremely subtle all at the same time and they invariably have a fish attractive outline with a light trapping shimmer to them, something our Scots flies occasionally lack. Certainly the loch trout of Caithness & Sutherland found these Irish patterns completely irresistible and I even managed a couple of trout from the prestigious River Tweed on them, testimony indeed to their versatility.

Taking all this into account, friend and boat partner Dave tried his hand at putting some of the magical Irish qualities into one or two flies of his own design. He has infinitely more patience than me in fly tying, making his flies with a `little bit of this and a little bit of that’, picking up ideas from a wide variety of sources and then adding a touch of his own magic to them. He is well aware that outright cannibalising of traditional patterns does not work, Soldier Palmers puffed up like dancehall glitter balls being an example, but in this case Dave simply worked around the Irish concepts of light, shape and shade. He does not claim his patterns are originals, after all everything in fishing has been done before, but they follow the important rules of fly construction, are not over dressed and more importantly, trout love them.

First up is a fly we called `The Minstrel’ after its black and white colouration. Not very politically correct I suppose but this pattern has extracted numerous trout all over the UK from Blagdon Lake to Donegal and from Loch Watten to the Scourie waters, often when other tried and trusted favourites have failed. It has a peacock herl body, silver tag and a white/cream head hackle tied sparse and long. It is probably taken as a shrimp or a pulsing nymph but whatever the reason it’s a deadly general imitation of a piece of underwater food which the trout find irresistible. Though Dave actually made this fly a number of years ago before discovering the Irish patterns it is perhaps of no coincidence that the Minstrel bears a slight resemblance to the trout catching McPhillips White Hackled Bibio. Dave believes as I do that the peacock herl body of the Minstrel gives a shimmer of flashy light through the soft mobile white head hackle and these qualities act as a supreme trout attractor very much in line with Irish fly tying ethos.

Next up is a fly christened the Black & Orange but it probably has a defined name somewhere down the line. This has a sparse palmered black hackle, thin silver rib and an orange head made of fine tying silk. The addition of the orange converts the black palmer to something much more trout attractive. Caithness browns consume many bloodworms (midge larvae) whenever they find them. These bloodworm are red or orange and it could be construed they take this fly for a chironomid larva. The other possibility is freshwater shrimp as shrimps often have a blob of orange oil within their semi transparent bodies. The incorporation of orange in this fly transforms it into something special and again if you look at the best Irish Dabblers, these flies too use orange in the make up of their body. I sometimes think we don’t make enough use of this bright colour in the construction of our flies, lots of brown, black and red but not too much orange.

Inspired by the exotic Irish versions of mayfly – Irish fly tyers are world masters at producing mayfly imitations whether in hatched, spent or nymph emerger form - Dave also produced a fly rather like that old fly the `Yellow May’. It’s interesting that there are very few natural insects in the far north of Scotland with a bright yellow body and wings. The rather ugly cow dung fly can have a bright orange/yellow hue but that’s about it. In fact the best hatch of luminescent yellow insects I have seen in Caithness was on the lower beat of the River Thurso. Anglers in the south of Scotland call these brightly coloured natural flies Yellow Sallies and though they are common there, the waters of the far north seem not to have much stock of them. Perhaps because of this natural scarcity there are equally few bright yellow artificial flies made. Nevertheless with its 3 tails, brown ribbed yellow floss body and fine yellow hackle Dave’s version of the Yellow May makes a great trout attracting olive or mayfly imitation. Its principal use is of course for mayfly time on our lochs (June to early August) but river trout also grab these with gusto at most times of the year.

The nice thing about the aforementioned patterns is their easiness to tie. They follow the important traditional concepts of light, shape and shade so ably demonstrated by the Irish while avoiding the pitfalls of some of the modern `glitter balls’. In fact they ably illustrate that the Celtic connection in fly tying is alive and kicking and in the dark winter should provide plenty of food for thought...........
Profile
Lesley Crawford has over 40 years wild fishing experience. With 8 books on trout fishing and numerous articles to her credit, her in depth knowledge of wild trout in particular is well known and respected through out the angling world. She lives in Caithness and when not out working as a Fishing Guide for visiting anglers she can be found on the shores of some of Scotland’s best trout lochs and rivers. You can read more about Lesley’s many books and guided trout fishing holidays on www.wildtroutfisher.co.uk

Click here to write an article for Fish Wild!
Write an article for Fish Wild!
 
Return To Top Of The Page
© All the contents of this site are copyright. Nothing must be used or reproduced without written permission