Another New Zealand style of lure
Hi,
Awhile back I posted a thread on a style of New Zealand lures, the Pukeko flies. Generally, New Zealand lure are often tied quite large, in the size 4 range is common. Since I tend to fish smaller streams, I don't usually fish such large flies. So, I tied the previous Pukeko's down to a size 10, and they look just as deadly.
So, I decided to tie a few smaller versions of another style of lure that is very popular here. And again, these look quite good tied in the smaller size as well. This style of fly is called a "Hackle Fly" by Hughie McDowell (a New Zealand author of fly tying books). Others call them "Fuzzy Wuzzies", because one's tied with black tails and black hackes were called the Fuzzy Wuzzy series. The name is used by some to refer to any fly of this basic construction.
The flies are fairly simple. Tie in a tail of squirrel tail that is about hook shank length. Dub on half a body in a nice ball shape; for the larger sizes the body is cheneil, I've used wool for the size 10 one's shown below. Tie in by the tip a hackle feather, wrap a few turns as if you were building the collar hackle of a wet fly. Tie the fibers back so they slope back at about 45 degrees. Now, dub the front half of the body (usually the same colour as the rear) and then build a 2nd collar hackle at the front, which is also tied in sloping back over the body. The hackle fibres should be longer in the front section then the rear. The heads on these are often large as well.
Perhaps the most popular of this style of lure is the "Red Setter". The tail is grey squirrel tail hair, the body is bright orange, and the hackles are ginger or light brown. I didn't have any orange wool, so I've used red wool (for a Red Red Setter I guess; There's also a version with the rear half orange and the front half green, called an Irish Setter)
To avoid taking up too much band width, I'll just post links to some other examples:
These two are a yellow Fuzzy Wuzzy (the tail here is black possum belly fur)
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/ ... y_sz10.jpg
and a purple Fuzzy Wuzzy:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/ ... y_sz10.jpg
Again, it's the black tails and hackles that make these true "Fuzzy Wuzzy" patterns.
This one is just a light olive hackle fly, or perhaps they should be called a "bi-hackled fly"?
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/ ... e_sz10.jpg
And this is called a "brown bomer" I believe:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/ ... r_sz10.jpg
These flies, tied larger, are very popular lake flies, although they are fished in rivers as well. Apparently, the Red Setter was tied as an immitation of the koura, the Maori name for the freshwater crayfish.
For those teaching fly tying, or for those learning, these are good flies to start with. The patterns include a number of techniques, but they are not too demanding. There are a few proportions to learn, some techniques like dubbing control, and getting the hackles to slope back correctly, but over all not too over the top for someone just learning to tie up some flies.
I've not tried these yet, so I have no idea how they will do when fished as a standard wee wet, but looking at them makes me think these should do as well as any. They seem to me to be somewhere between the idea of a standard collared wet fly and a palmered wet fly.
- Jeff
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