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Hi coltranem,
If you are allowed, then for searching it's worth tying on 2 or 3 flies and fishing a team. This is probably best if the river you are fishing is wide enough that you can cast across. With three flies then drifting down you are covering three lines. If you have to cast straight up stream, then all three come down the same line, covering the same fish, which is not as useful.
Anyway, the following are ones I'm happy to prospect with :
the water cricket, in yellow, burnt orange, and olive (I've not used olive yet, but John's done so well with it that I intend to!)
Bailie's Black Spider:
Wax some dark brown thread until it looks black. Make the body out of this thead (ending about the point, like the WC). Tie in the starling hackle by the tip at the body mid point. Palmer the hackle up to the eye, tie it off and whipfinish. This is a great pattern!
Dark Betty:
Body is a Dark blue, hackle starling.
Betty Blue:
Body is a light aqua blue, hackle snipe (grey bit of starling hackle works fine as a substitute)
Pheasant and Orange or Woodcock and Orange or Partridge and Orange:
Body bright orange, hackle is the shoulder feather from a cock golden pheasant. Woodcock and Partridge works just fine for this too.
All of the above in yellow are good too (so your partridge and yellow is a good choice to try)
And it's good to have some with dubbed bodies:
Hare's ear and hen pheasant:
Hen ringneck pheasant wings have great feathers for soft hackles. Dub a body with hare's ear, a few partridge fibres for a tail, rib with fine copper wire, hackle of hen pheasant tied further from the eye than normal, and fill the gap between the hackle and the eye with a few turns of peacock hurl.
Iron Blue Dun:
red thread, leave a few turns visable at the end of the body, then dub the body with grey fur (mole), hackle with snipe or starling, with a red head.
or hurl:
Peacock herl and brown hen hackle
Pheasant tail fibres and partridge,
Hmmm,
Basically, if you get some feathers from partridge, pheasant (male or female), woodcock, snipe, starling, or grouse, any of those, just make a floss body or thread body (in a colour that suits, but yellow, orange, red, black, purple, and blue all are good choices; oh yah, greens, pinks, whites, all are good too :) )and add a collar made by one or two turns of hackle, and you should be fine.
But, to be safe, make some dubbed bodied ones with whatever dubbing you have. These flies are really to give the impression of something that fish eat.
- Jeff
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I like your Water Cricket Jeff, very nice fly.
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Thanks Donald! It's good to see you posting again. Does this mean your eyes have improved? I certainly hope so.
- Jeff
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Hi Jeff.
No they are about the same.
But if I type up a reply on WordPad,
using a large size, bold font.
I can type up a short reply.
Going for tests next week, hoping for good news.
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Good to see you post again, Donald. You had us worried with the long radio silence...
Cheers,
Hans W
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Hi Donald,
Fingers crossed on your tests next week.
- Jeff
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