I was asked about an Irish fly called the “Goat’s Toe” , which is very popular in Scotland, on another BB.
It may also be of interest here as a Salmon/Steelhead pattern.
The original version had a red floss body ribbed with peacock herl but John Kennedy of the South Uist Estates in the Western Isles (Hebrides) improved and strengthened it by ribbing a herl body with red wool. Stan Headley included a fluo floss ribbing and a bottle green peacock hackle as opposed to the metallic blue of the original. It has been very successful on the large English reservoirs and the big Highland and Orkney lochs in a loch-style team. This is taken from John Roberts ‘Dictionary of Trout Flies’.
Here is the recipe given:-
Hook:- 10 - 12, or long shank 12 for salmon and sea-trout.
Thread:- Black.
Butt:- One turn medium flat gold.
Tag:- Fluorescent Red Wool.
Body:- Two strands of Bronze Peacock herl, one wound up theshank and one wound down.
ribbed with four strands of GloBrite #5 (Fire Orange) twisted.
Hackle:- Bottle Green Peacock neck feather (one and a half times the body length).
A bolstering black hen hackle may be added to support the peacock hackle.
This I believe is the Stan Headley version which has been very successful
Larger versions on low-water salmon hooks are also used as single flies.
You will note I used a metallic blue hackle, it’s what I had, and a #8 hook.
Hi Gandolf,
They were originally used as trout flies in lough/loch style fishing on a cast of two/three or more flies, usually in #12-10 standard wet fly hooks. The hook size is not carved in stone and larger flies dressed on low water salmon hooks are used for salmon/sea trout, fished singly.
They are still mostly fished #12-10 for trout, loch style.
Hi Jeff,
I missed your FOTW in 2009, my eyes were at their worst then and I had problems useing my laptop. I had a cataract op after this in 2010 and never caught up on anything I had missed.
This picture is of a fly I tied for a Winter Steel-head Swap in Dec 2004. I dug it out of the archives when I put together a posting on another BB, recently. I dressed about 15 or 16 of these for the swap. No problems with my eyes then. Never mind, they are good enough at the moment.
Some of the important points about this version are the wrapping of one peacock herl up the body and then counter-wrapping with another down the body. This seems to prevent the rib, which was changed to flat floss strands, twisted to make a thinner rib, from burying its self in the herl body. I am glad I kept that picture, it came out very nicely.
