This month Nick Thomas has come up with a really interesting fly that he puts to good use in both moving and stillwater situations.
"Anglers reckon that a good dry fly should cunningly mimic the real thing. There are the right flies for morning. There are different flies for the evening rise. And so on. But the thing between Death's triumphant fingers was a fly from the dawn of time. It was the fly in the primordial soup. It had bred on mammoth turds. It wasn't a fly that bangs on window panes. It was a fly that drills through walls. It was an insect that would crawl out from between the slats of the heaviest swat dripping venom, and seeking revenge. Strange wings and dangling bits stuck out all over it. It seemed to have a lot of teeth...Death gave the thing a final admiring glance and stuck it into the hood of his robe."
Terry Pratchett, Mort 1987
This is a suggestive pattern rather than an imitative fly; it's meant to be whatever a fish wants it to be. It can be tied in different sizes from a size 10 to a size 16, in different colours from black to brown through tan to cream and fished static on the surface, skated or pulled under. Depending on the size, colour, season and fishing style the APT can imitate a hawthorn fly, an alder fly, a daddy-long legs, a moth, a grasshopper, a dung fly or..., well who cares what the fish think it is if they eat it? It's not just a trout fly either - carp, chub and other coarse fish also recognise that something gangly, tangly and helpless is an easy snack and will snaffle the APT as enthusiastically as any posh fish with spots. It's also easy to tie and uses only two materials, so tying up a varied selection to fill a row in your fly box will be quick and cheap. It's not a fly you'll use every trip, but from May to October if fish are taking terrestrials you'll regret not having some with you.
Now I'd be the first to admit this is not an elegant fly; it might not give the same satisfaction to tie as a delicate quill bodied Adams, it's not as pretty as a Mohican mayfly but it's meant to represent food. Nouvelle cuisine is elegant, Michelin starred restaurant food is elegant, a big burger and fries is not elegant, but it's instantly recognised as food by anyone, anywhere. The APT is a burger and fries with bacon, cheese, onion rings and a big dill pickle on top; messy to look at and to eat, but if you're hungry there's not a lot of critical thinking taking place - you just eat it. The APT has a bristly detached body, gangly trailing legs, a bushy spiky body and a big buoyant head to give out all the key signals that something big and juicy is struggling in a place it shouldn't be; a bit like a burger and fries in a swanky 3 star Michelin establishment in fact.
Hook: Tiemco TMC2499SP-BL size 10 to 16
Thread: Veevus 10/0 black (or white thread tinted with permanent marker to match the fly colour if you're fussy)
Body: Organza ribbon
Legs: Organza ribbon
Head: Foam cylinder
- Run on the thread at the hook eye and take back to the bend in touching turns.
- Cut a 10cm length of organza ribbon and trim off a strip 4-5mm wide from one edge and strip out the long fibres. Cut away the short fibres at one end and tie in this end at the bend with the strip hanging behind the bend with the short fibres pointing down. Bind down the tag end along the shank and then return the thread to the bend
- Trim off a strip 2-3mm wide from the other edge of the cut length of ribbon and strip out the long fibres. Seal both ends in a flame.
- Grasp both ends between finger and thumb and roll the organza to twist it. Keep the twisted strand taught and place it over the hook shank in the middle of the strand. Now bring your hands together under the hook bringing the ends of the strand together and relaxing the tension to furl the body.
- Lift the loop off the hook and tie in the extended body at the bend, bind down along the hook shank and trim away the excess.
- Cut two further lengths of ribbon and cut thin tapered strips from either side, leave the long strands in place and seal both ends with a flame. Tie an overhand knot close to the thin end of each strip to form joints in each of the four legs. You can use six legs on bigger sizes if you like, but I've never come across a fish that refused a fly because it was partially deficient in limbs.
- Tie in two legs either side of the shank at the midpoint, bind down along the shank to the eye and trim away the excess.
- Cut a length of foam cylinder, catch in behind the eye and bind down one end with the other end of the foam projecting over the eye. Lift up the foam and take a couple of thread turns behind the eye.
- Grasp the length of organza hanging behind the bend, lift the extended body and take two turns of the organza around the hook shank. Drop the body and take further turns of organza up the shank while holding the legs out of the way until you reach the base of the legs.
- Continue wrapping the organza in touching turns over the butt ends of the legs up to the base of the foam head. Lift the head and tie in the organza behind the eye, trim off the excess, whip finish and seal with a dab of varnish.
The APT can be tied using a single colour of organza, like the all black version shown above, which I'd recommend as a must have version, or you can mix and match different colours of ribbon. Using two colours twisted together in the extended body gives a segmented effect, which can be carried forward into the main body using two strands of organza wound in parallel up the shank. Alternatively, since organza can be coloured well with permanent marker pens, build the fly using a pale colour of ribbon and then selectively colour different parts to suggest the terrestrial you want.
When fishing the APT remember that it's representing an insect that's not supposed to be in the water - it's not waving but drowning. Give the whole thing a light coat of Gink so that when it hits the water the spiky organza fibres sticking out from the furled body and legs repel water and dimple the surface like a natural fly that's loosing the battle with surface tension. Fish the APT on a degreased fluorocarbon tippet of diameter appropriate to the fly size and experiment with different presentations. On stillwaters fish it static, twitch it to suggest a struggle to escape the surface film or give it a good pull to create a wake. On streams and rivers pitch it into glides under trees, sling it into riffles around rocks or chuck it into back eddies; anywhere a struggling terrestrial might end up. You're supposed to be ringing the dinner bell so there's no need to be particularly subtle about it...do you want fries with that?
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.