Just fyi. I have created some interest in this fly in another thread. So just for grins I just did an internet search. About the first six links are all about the Arizona Peacock Lady.
I do not use the version in the first link.
One of the OTHER links shows hackle palmered all the way on the body. I don’t think I would consider this an Arizona Peacock Lady…but guess it can be considered as such. I know the fly as a fore and aft. This is the first time I have seen it fully palmered with hackle.
One of the other links…think it’s the 6th one…or last the one, before the links go off on other subjects than the fly…shows it as a dry fly version. I never heard of this before either. It is always fished up here as a wet fly.
The version I like is not ribbed. Has brown hackle at the eye, grizzly hackle at the tail, a peacock herl body with no ribbing and a red fiber or feather type tail.
I was going to mention the knotted midge, but I see it’s listed on the link provided by Normand. It is mentioned in books written in the 1800s, though I first came across it in a book titled “The art of fly dressing” (the author’s name escapes me right now; it’s on the tip of my tounge, which does me no good since I’m typing with the tips of my fingers!). It represents a mating pair of midges (two for the price of one). I’ve taken some fiesty little rainbows with in on the Waihou back in NZ.
The renegade reminds me of a “Brown Hackle”, which is the same thing tied with just the front hackle. Of course the “Brown Hackle” is just what you tie when you’ve run out of furnace hackle for a Coch-y-bondue. I suspect a lot of good patterns can be adapted to the double hackle style.
I just looked at the Renegade. You are right John. It is very very similar to the Peacock Lady which is tied with and without BH. Also with and without ribbing. So the only difference is the tail…which originally was golden pheasant tail…I think. You know…that long brown feather with a black strip across the end. Some tie it with red tail. And then the colors of the fore and aft hackle is the only difference I can see. Which came first? I dunno. I know Lon tied it a very very long time ago. And he does not have a computer. Doesn’t mean he has never seen a Renegade though.
Please excuse me hijacking the discussion for a moment. But a friend from Mesa call me earlier from the Walmart parking lot at Showlow. He is head for one of the lakes in the area; he will probably stop in the fly shop at HonDah but I thought I would check to see if you could pass along a little good advice for the area.
I talked with him late, for me, last night. The guy at HonDah told him to go to Camaro, or something that sounded like that, turn left down a dirt road instead of turning right to Sunrise.
Getting back to the original thread, the first Apache Trout I ever caught was on a Peacock Lady in Earl Park and I believe I palmered the hackle the length of the hook following instruction from a website somewhere.
I love that part of the world, when I get to be a brazillianaire I’m building me a summer home out there.
Why in the world do you live in Dacula, GA? I really don’t know where it is <grin>. I lived in Marietta for 5 years and moved here. I liked GA and did not hunt or fish at all there. Should have. I was on call 24/7 and knew no one there so had no friends. I just concentrated on my job. The lake is Carnero.
Will see what my friends know.
Back to you soon I hope. Oh Earl Park is a beautiful lake huh?
This was back around 2002 I am guess, this was a good day on Earl Park.
Dacula isn’t a bad place to live, I have access to several lakes with bass and bream, and an infrequent grass carp or catfish, 6 - 7 lb. of either on a 3 wt. can be fun for several minutes. I have a 3/4 mile stretch of the Hooche I can hike up and float back, 7 or 8 trout last week on this stretch I have as many as 18 on my best day.
Hopefully when I build me a client base and have a little better income flow I can visit back out your way again. Maybe we could share a fishing hole, if you promise not to laugh when I have to untangle my line every 3rd cast it seems.
I will send you a report when I talk with my friend. He was having cellphone trouble last night and I know there are some dead zones up there, one side of Sunrise dead as a door nail the other 5 bars.
I moved here in 2003. Missed ya. Actually I envy you. I caught bluegill as a kid 50+ years ago. No one fly fished where I lived. A fly rod combo was sitting in the corner at the hardward store gathering dust. I collected Coca Cola Bottles and turned them in for deposit at 2 cents apiece till I got to $6.75 and bought it. The lake I went to people had casting rods, boats and expensive lures of which I did not. The proverbial Norman Rockwell barefoot kid with no teeth. I like to think I would “boldly go where no man had gone before”. I would have mom drop me off at the lake at early morning and pick me up at dusk. I would fight my way through the woods and brush around the shore line where I KNOW nobody ever fished. Had a ball. My life took me away from fishing. I now catch only trout. I actually am dying to catch some panfish and bass on a flyrod. Maybe I come fish with YOU. If you come this way you are welcome to stay at my place. You can fly into Phoenix and I pick you up and we come back up here. I am ten miles from town on 3 fenced acres with 3bdrm 2 bath and live alone. Five minutes from my favorite trout stream.
That’s a generous offer, my wife freaks out on having company her health is bad, RA probably going to need another new joint soon. But, if you are in the Atlanta area on the weekend I have a couple of extra float tubes and leaky waders and can expose you to some good bream, with the possibility of all the other warm water species thrown in.
I have mentioned it before but just for the size of the fish, Callaway Gardens outside of Columbus, GA will rent you a jon boat for 1/2 day or a day for a reasonable fee (<$100). The average bluegill I have caught there is about a pound. A guest caught a 15 lb. largemouth on a fly rod, out of one of their more expensive ponds a couple of years back. I got freight trained by something down there could have been anything because I never slowed it down.
I’m just getting interested in the carp on a fly rod thing. I know of a lake that has carp that none of our fly fishing guys even ever ever talk about. Luna Lake. I plan to rig up and go out there and give it a try. Don’t know what flies or how to fish for carp but going to look into it.
Don’t be surprised if I show up in Atlanta some day wanting to go fishing. When we lived in Marietta…which should now say when I lived in Marietta Southwest would not fly into Atlanta. So we would get cheap tickets in and out of Birmingham. Iffen I did that though then I have to rent a car to get to Atlanta.
Not a bad dream though.
Thanks for offering up. Ohiotuber offered to show me some premium bream fishing but my plans got fouled up. Maybe another year. If I pulled along my living quarters…32 foot toy hauler with all the necessary stuff, air cond, gen, microwave, 3 burner top, oven, fridge, furnace, stereo, full bath with a bathtub and shower. Not braggin…just explaining I could have a wonderful trip. Mountain Home Are, Atlanta, Ohio, Kansas…visiting all the FAOL’ers. wow
Delta still owns the Atlanta airport; we have AirTran which keeps Delta competitive on most routes, but no SW Airlines.
I got out for all more than 2 hours late yesterday afternoon and got 5 or 6 trout on the Hooch. Very sporadic rises but got 3 on a timberline emerger pattern below a dry.
A friend showed me on the computer a stretch of the Hooch off Cobb Parkway where I can park and hike upstream and float back to my pickup. That’s 35 miles away so one Sunday afternoon I may have to take Mama to see our baby girl in Smyrna and give it a try.