Here is a wet fly pattern that I have been fishing since 1989 with much success. I feel if you give this pattern a try you will catch some beautiful Trout.
Beautiful fly. I have printed it out and I’m going to tie it.
Although I haven’t seen it before, I just know it will fish well.
Peacock is a lovely material for flies.
When I started tying this was one of the first (that was 20 years ago). A couple of years ago I was on the quiet back bay of an Ontario lake at the end of Sept. when the water boatmen were flying and egg laying (never had seen that before, but they resembled caddis). What did I have in my box of small flies? - on a bass lake! This fly minus the red tail makes a very good/successful imitation of a diving (egg laying) boatman, and probably a caddis and many other things too. Nice tie.
At our local “Bug Club” Saturday, one of the members brought in some beautiful peacock tails. Hadn’t gotten around to doing anything with them, yet.
Then, this morning, I picked up a Whiting Tailing Pack of Medium Pardo Coq-de-leon. Great looking feathers which I knew I would get around to using.
So I just did. Substituted the CDL tailing for your red hackle, wrapped the herl, and added a grizzly hen hackle. Good looking fly.
Which means, since I can’t hardly stand to tie a fly and not use it soon, I’ll have to go fishing tomorrow and give it a try. Actually, I was already planning to go tomorrow, but now I have another good reason !!
Wish me luck - may have a beautiful rainbow to show tomorrow night chomping down on this variation of your Gray Hackle Peacock.
Substitute your Grizzly Hen hackle for a Brown Hen hackle and you have a very old Grayling fly called the Red Tag. There have been various flies derived from this and the soft hackling on them gives them that little better attractiveness to the trout.
I have an uncle that has never picked up a fly rod in his life, but about 4 years ago he had me tie up a couple dozen of those for him. I asked him what for and where he was going to use them. He wouldn’t say where. He did tell me he has been using them for many years and I know he only fishes one lake. Clear bobbers and a spinning rod, and boy could that man catch fish.
I gotta ask , how important do you guys think the tail being red as apposed to brown or black, what I mean is do you guys think the red is that big a factor? If so I have red but I like the looks of brown more, but i have not tried the red. I know you guys already have and was just wondering, cause I’m gonna tye some up and thought I would use you all’s input on this instead of my trial and error…
Thanks in advance…
OK lol, let me add a little to this, I was laying in bed last night trying to go to sleep and I was thinking about this thread, and i realized that I had a fly that worked for me but was more difficult to tye because its a wet wing using turkey feather and the throat and wings took longer than wrapping a hen feather, I use red fox dubbing for the body and brown feather for the tail. but now that I’m up this am and had my coffee, I realize it could be more than the red tail, the peacock, or gold tag, so I guess the fly in itself is what I should try, it is a good looking fly. Guess I"ll just tye some up…
Here’s what I did, I tied the same fly using blood red saddle for the tail, red fox dubbing for the body with a black floss ribbing and used brown partridge for hackle wrap, oh and added a strip of lead wire along the hook shank for a little weight…
I made a similar fly called Red Tag. It has red wool for the tail, and peacock body. I cannot remember now whether it had a hackle collar or not. Regardless…I love your fly. I think it is better looking than the Red Tag. Thanks for posting this.
The fly is a wet fly so (obviously) will sink. Red is the first colour to change hue with less light (deeper), esp. in greenish water. When viewed underwater red quickly begins to appear reddish-brown then grayish-brown, then black with increased depth and/or distance to the fly.
[SIZE=4]“Absorption [/SIZE][FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=2]Light is absorbed as it passes through the water, and much of it is lost in the process. In addition, the spectral components of light, the wavelengths that give rise to our perception of color, are differentially absorbed. Transmission of light through air does not appreciably change its spectral composition, but transmitting light through water, even through the clearest water, does, and this can change the resulting color appearance beyond recognition. In clearest water, long wavelength or red light is lost first, being absorbed at relatively shallow depths.” [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=2]http://library.thinkquest.org/28170/35.html[/SIZE][/FONT]
So in fact, in a lake, red becomes brown becomes black. 60% of the red is gone by 15ft. Hot orange stands a better chance of ‘retaining’ colour. I think this is the value of golden pheasant tippets and the hot orange thread on Usuals (in addition to imitating the undeveloped eggs of the female sulphur dun).
That fly is a local favorite in my neck of the woods. For the life of me I can not catch a fish on it. Trade the Gray hackle for Brown hen hackle and I can catch fish all day.
