Some larger wets

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

I've been tying up a few larger wet flies to use some some size 6 hooks. After tying up a Mallard and Claret, I decided to do a series of the old Mallard flies. So, I've put together half a dozen, including Mallard and Claret, Mallard and Blue, Mllard and yellow, Mallard and Green, Mallard and Red, and Mallard and Orange. These all are tied with golden pheasant tippets, either a silver or gold rib, bronze mallard feather for the wing, and generally the hackle matches the body (all but one is seals fur, the other is wool). For the orange I've used a honey dun rather than orange hackle, and for the red I used a dark furnace. Black hackle could be used on the Claret or Blue.

I've seen a number of large mounted fish (close to 20lbs) in various shops around NZ where the fish was caught on a Mallard and Claret. This is a very good and successful pattern in both rivers and lakes, especially at change of light.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...llardFlies.jpg

After tying those, I also tied up this "Golden Lion". I've never fished this, or even seen it before, but it was listed in Keith Draper's book on NZ flies and it sounded interesting. It has many similarities to a Peter Ross, which I really like. The pattern is :
tail: golden pheasant topping (I used yellow hackle fibres)
body: gold tinsel
shoulder: red seal's fur
rib : gold wire
wing: two black hackles, bound to the shank by the rib (Matuku style)
hackle: guinea fowl
topping: peacock sword

I used a "yellow gold" tinsel for the body, and I think this is a really pretty fly. Have no idea how well it will fish, but I do like the look of it. Glad I tie these rather than have to buy every pretty fly I see! Still, I need more fly boxes.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...GoldenLion.jpg

Finally, as it's now summer here, beetles are a must have pattern. There's a green beetle (a Manuka beetle) which the trout gorge themselves on. Here's my pattern for it:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...nukaBeetle.jpg

My wife gave me a Peacock neck, with all those shiney blue feathers used in a Goat's Toe, and no other pattern that I can think of! So, I used one as a beetle's shell back and it looks pretty good dry, though I don't know what will happen to the shine once it gets wet? An experiment may be required:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...BlueBeetle.jpg

And, since I liked that, I did the same for a pheasant tail nymph as well:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...easantTail.jpg

I know peacock's also have green feathers, which could be used instead of the synthetic on the manuka beetle as long as they don't go black in the water - which would still look beetle like, just not manuka beetle like.

- Jeff