Nick Thomas shares another innovative pattern that he has enjoyed great success with.
The shortest-lived creatures on the Disc were mayflies, which barely make it through twenty-four hours. Two of the oldest zigzagged aimlessly over the waters of a trout stream, discussing history with some younger members of the evening hatching.
"You don’t get the kind of sun now that you used to get," said one of them.
"You’re right there. We had proper sun in the good old hours. It were all yellow. None of this red stuff."
"It were higher, too."
"It was. You’re right."
"And nymphs and larvae showed you a bit of respect."
"They did. They did." said the other mayfly vehemently.
"I reckon, if mayflies these hours behaved a bit better, we’d still be having proper sun."
The younger mayflies listened politely.
"I remember," said one of the oldest mayflies, "when all this was fields, as far as you could see."
The younger mayflies looked around.
"It’s still fields," one of them ventured, after a polite interval.
"I remember when it was better fields," said the old mayfly sharply.
"Yeah," said his colleague. "And there was a cow."
"That’s right! You’re right! I remember that cow! Stood right over there for, oh, forty, fifty minutes. It was brown, as I recall."
"You don’t get cows like that these hours."
"You don’t get cows at all."
"What’s a cow?" said one of the hatchlings.
"See?" said the oldest mayfly triumphantly. "That’s modern Ephemeroptera for you." It paused. "What were we doing before we were talking about the sun?"
"Zigzagging aimlessly over the water," said one of the young flies. This was a fair bet in any case.
"No, before that."
"Er . . . you were telling us about the Great Trout."
"Ah. Yes. Right. The Trout. Well, you see, if you’ve been a good mayfly, zigzagging up and down
properly -"
"- taking heed of your elders and betters -"
"- yes, and taking heed of your elders and betters, then eventually the Great Trout -"
Clop
Clop
"Yes?" said one of the younger mayflies.
There was no reply.
"The Great Trout what?" said another mayfly, nervously.
They looked down at a series of expanding concentric rings on the water.
"The holy sign!" said a mayfly. "I remember being told about that! A Great Circle in the water! Thus shall be the sign of the Great Trout!"
The oldest of the young mayflies watched the water thoughtfully. It was beginning to realise that, as the most senior fly present, it now had the privilege of hovering closest to the surface.
"They say," said the mayfly at the top of the zigzagging crowd, "that when the Great Trout comes for you, you go to a land flowing with . . . flowing with . . ."
Mayflies don’t eat. It was at a loss. "Flowing with water.." it finished lamely.
"I wonder," said the oldest mayfly.
"It must be really good there," said the youngest.
"Oh? Why?"
" ‘Cos no-one ever wants to come back."
Terry Pratchett
Reaper Man 1991
I was tying up some parachute hackle flies and cursing that I couldn't find any decent hackles left in my materials cabinet drawer that were the right size. Then I got to thinking why I was troubling with the angst of trying to find and fit a hackle onto the wing post I'd carefully erected on the hook. After all parachute patterns are fiddly to tie, the hackles are ridiculously expensive and though they catch fish they don't last very long in my experience. So I set to work to come up with an alternative.
In a previous article in ESF (Issue 30) I introduced you to my APT pattern designed to suggest something terrestrial struggling to escape an early bath before becoming fish food. The APT is made from totally synthetic materials (actually all one material apart from the foam head) so it's tough and cheap to make and a very effective fly. The parachute pattern I was tying was also totally synthetic up to the point where I lost the plot rummaging through a drawer of mixed poultry feathers. The body was trimmed organza ribbon (you'll have gathered if you follow these articles that I use a lot of organza) and the waiting wing post made from Aero Dry Wing. I use just those two materials to tie emergers, so I knew the fly would float without a hackle. The drawer above the one in which I keep feathers and herls contains a selection of synthetic materials I've accumulated over the years and a quick shuffle around in there revealed some brown siliconised yarn. I cut off a length and quickly attached it across the shank in front of the wing post. A short walk and test launch of the prototype in the bathroom sink told me I had a promising spinner pattern to develop.
I experimented with different variants of wing and sight post positions until I was happy with the way the new fly looked. Subsequent testing on the water showed it to be pretty good at catching trout. The APS sits nicely in the surface film supported on its spread wings and the prominent sight post lets me see if it's at the end of a long cast on a lake. You can tie it in a range of different colour combinations; my favourite is the one pictured here with a dark brown body, brown wings and an orange tinted sight post. These colours are traditionally used for evening flies, but they work for me all through the day.
Hook: Varivas curved shank 2200bl black
Thread: Veevus 10/0 white (colour with a marker pen to match other materials)
Body: trimmed organza ribbon black, brown or olive
Sight post: Tiemco Aero Dry Wing
Wings: Siliconised polypropylene yarn
- Run on the thread at the eye and take around the bend until opposite the eye. Catch in a length of trimmed and stripped organza ribbon about 1mm wide (that means the short fibres stick out from the woven edge by 1mm).
- Take the thread forward tying down the butt end of the organza about 4/5ths of the way back to the eye. Wind the organza forward in touching turns to form the body, tie off opposite the point and cut off the excess.
- Cut a 2 inch length of siliconised polypropylene yarn and attach on top of the shank with figure of eight thread wraps to form the wings.
- Cut a 2 inch length of Aero Dry Wing, fold in half around the tying thread and tie in on top of the wings to form the sight post. Follow the instructions below for an easy way to form a neat post. If you want a tall sight post take some thread wraps up the post as in the example shown in the photo.
- Whip finish, trim the wings and sight post and varnish the head.
While messing about developing this fly I came up with what is now my favoured method for tying wing posts or sighters on foam beetles and other dry flies. Cut a length of post material 2-3 inches long, fold in half around the tying thread and catch in on top of the shank. Make a couple of tight thread wraps followed by a half hitch so that the post strands stick up in a 'V'. Now apply a (very) small amount of superglue to the thread wraps and the base of the post material inside the 'V', quickly grasp the ends of the post strands between finger and thumb and roll the ends together to twist the strands tightly together by the hook. Hold for a few seconds until the superglue sets and then release; the fibres are now locked together forming a firm base to the wing post or sighter.
This method is also good if you are going to wrap a parachute hackle on the post; tie in and post the hackle after you have twisted and glued the base of the sight post. You'll find that as you post the hackle that it's easy to make the horizontal thread wraps with good tension without the post and hackle wanting to slip sideways and throw off the thread.
The best way of applying the superglue is to buy a bottle with a brush applicator and before you use it cut almost all of the bristles off the brush with an old pair of scissors. Once you've modified a bottle of superglue like this you'll find uses in many fly tying applications from thinly coating buzzers to finishing the heads on small flies by smearing glue on the tying thread by the hook before making your whip finish.
Nick Thomas lives in South Wales. He started fly fishing on Scottish hill lochs many years ago and continues to design, tie and fish flies for trout, carp, bass and anything else that’s going.