Some larger wets

Fly Patterns
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1

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/g142/JeffPHamm/MallardFlies.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/g142/JeffPHamm/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/g142/JeffPHamm/ManukaBeetle.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/g142/JeffPHamm/BlueBeetle.jpg

And, since I liked that, I did the same for a pheasant tail nymph as well:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/JeffPHamm/BlueBacker_PheasantTail.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
2

Wow! Very nice flies. The Golden Lion is a very beautiful fly. I can also see that fly as a nice shadow box display fly.

3

A Fantastic collection Jeff,
The large size Mallard series goes back into the mists of time, particularly for sea-trout and loch-style fishing over here.
There is also a Grouse series with the rest of the patterns the same, except for the wings of course.
The flies Stewart used on Loch Awe in the 1850’s were very similar.
Also, a very nice series of beetles, I like the Peacock neck on them, I think they should do very well.
The Pheasant Tail nymph is an interesting variant on the Flashback PTN.
You should be out there fishing.

4

Thanks TyroneFly!
I thought the pattern for the Golden Lion sounded neat, and so put one together. I was pleased with how it turned out, and I also think it’s a very nice looking pattern. I’m going to put a few together and try fishing them to see what the fish think!

  • Jeff
5

Jeff those are really nice…I like the first set.

6

Thanks Donald,

Yes, the Mallard flies were once the mainstay of many a wet fly fisherman. They work well in the large and smaller sizes. Now, the Mallard and Claret is the only one that people might have, and not many more carry even that anymore. A friend of mine tied some up for one of our clubs fly competitions, and he decided to fish his extras. He never would have tied one otherwise. It’s now one of his go to flies at the change of light! Old successful patterns are still worth tying on and we can learn first hand just why they were so popular!

There were also the Teal flies, of which the Teal, Blue, and Silver is probably the best known sea trout fly, that were also very popular. I’ve tied up the TB&s and it’s a great looking minnow pattern. I’ll probably do a grouse series as well. There’s a Woodcock series as well, again, similar idea just using woodcock primaries as the wing and these didn’t tend to have ribs from what I gather. I’ve tied a few of these in smaller sizes (12-16s) and they fish well here. Here’s a woodcock and yellow:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/JeffPHamm/Woodcock_Yellow.jpg

I really like the peacock as the shellbacks. I’m hoping the sheen survives the feather being wet. Will hopefully get a chance to test these soon.

  • Jeff
7

Thanks Cholcomb13,

They are a very straight forward tie. If you don’t have seal’s fur you can use wool, or goat hair, etc. They can be tied large or small, very versatile.

  • Jeff
8

Jeff,

Very nice. Like Cholcomb13, I really like the first set of flies. Wouldn’t mind having a few of each in my box.

REE

9

a pleasure to view. Thank you. THey are nicely proportioned.

10

Thanks REE and Gardenfish. I’m looking forward to giving these a go next time I’m in the Rotorua Lakes district. I’ll probably tie some smaller mallards for some local streams.

  • Jeff
11

NICE TIES!!! wet flies are some of the most over looked fly patterns around

12

Jeff, I like your fly porn almost as much as fish porn. Very nice ties, all. I really like the Golden Lion,nifty looking.

Rodgerole