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Dry Flies
Olives
and Midges
Iron Blues
Sedges
Heron and Yellow
 A good dry fly for reservoirs developed by Arthur Dew in
the late 1960’s.
This has particular significance for
me as it was developed for use at Shustoke Reservoir
(near Coleshill, North Warwickshire) and then rapidly
transferred to Draycote Reservoir near Rugby, both of
which are my old stamping grounds when I was a fledgling
fly fisher back in the 80’s.
Cast to a cruising trout
or danced through a ripple ‘loch-style’ this fly can be
devastating! Almost certainly devised to imitate a
recently hatched large ginger midge.
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Hook: |
Size 12 Light weight and wide gap (e.g. Partridge
Flashpoint TDH The Dry) |
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Thread: |
Brown (Sheer 14/0 Cinnamon) |
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Body: |
Heron herl with a narrow band of yellow in
the middle; the body is divided into 2 equal parts by
the narrow ring of dyed yellow swan’s herl
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(use dyed
Goose instead – as this keeps HM The Queen off your back
for messing about with a Royal bird and we’re not
talking Zara Phillips!). |
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Hackle: |
Best Quality (genetic saddle if possible) Coch-a-Bon-Ddu Cock Hackle. Correctly dressed it should
be a C-a-B-D hackl but these are |
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really hard to find
these days – therefore you can substitute a Furnace
hackle and dance an indelible black marker over the
hackle points |
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to create a passable ‘Moch Coch’!.
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Kite’s Imperial
 A real corker of a dry fly. Invented by Oliver Kite
back in 1962 as a Baetis rhodani (Large Dark
Olive) dun imitation.
Kite states that pattern was a
straightforward imitation of a specimen taken from the
River Teifi near Port Llanio in March 1962.
Kite used
this fly pretty much exclusively as his only dry fly
towards the end of his life which is hardly surprising
as it is an excellent imitator of any of the Olives,
Iron Blues and Blue winged Olives and even at times Pale Wateries and this comes from the effect of the wet
purple thread interplaying with the heron herl.
The
name was coined by F.W. Holiday of Pembroke based on the
purple and gold which were ‘imperial’ colours.
Interestingly the Welsh and Irish fish this pattern wet
by substituting cock hackles for hen hackles and it is a
renowned taker of sea trout when fished like this.
The
pattern was original an early season pattern but by
stepping down from a 14 to a 16 after Mid-May and
slightly modifying the colours of the tail it continues
to be effective whenever upwings are on the hatch
throughout the season. Also Kite noted that true Honey
Dun Hackles were difficult to come by and he regularly
substituted Ginger Hackles in their place which didn’t
(and doesn’t) affect their success.
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Hook:
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Size 14 (spring); Size 16 (later) Dry fly hook
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Thread:
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Purple
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Tail:
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Greyish brown Cock Hackle Fibres (spring); Honey Dun
Cock Hackle Fibres (later)
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Body:
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Heron herl (4 fibres) which are used to create the wing
cases on the thorax
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Rib: |
Fine gold wire |
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Hackle: |
Honey Dun |
CDC
Imperial
 A modern development of the Imperial using the current
in vogue materials!
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Hook: |
Size 14 (spring); Size 16 (later) Dry fly
hook |
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Thread: |
Purple |
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Tail: |
Coq de León (in this case Pardo Flor de
Escoba) |
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Body: |
Heron herl |
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Rib:
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Fine gold wire
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Hackle: |
CdC (in this case Marc Petitjean Olive CdC)
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Rough
Olive
 A dry fly from that god-like
figure of Frederick Halford (actually it is dressing
number one from his 1896 book ‘Floating
flies and how to dress them’)
and was designed to imitate the large dark olive dun (Baetis
rhodani).
By slightly tweaking the dressing many
other variants have appeared and these can imitate
nearly all of the smaller upwings at the dun stage but
to list them all would need a book on it’s own, however
it would be biased to put in a Halford fly without
putting in a Skues version – and his slightly more damp
version is also below.
Halford’s Rough Olive
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Hook: |
Size 14 Up-Eye Dry Fly Hook (e.g. Kamasan B440)
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Thread: |
Olive (e.g. Sheer 14/0 olive green)
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Tail: |
Iron blue dun cock hackle fibres |
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Body: |
Thread underbody wrapped with Heron herl
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that has been dyed olive green. |
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Rib: |
Fine gold wire |
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Hackle: |
Iron blue dun cock hackle |
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Wing: |
Optional – paired quill wings from a dark
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coloured starling wing feather
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Skues’ Rough Olive
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Hook: |
Size 14 Light Wire Down-Eye Hook |
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(e.g.
Drennan Wet Fly Sproat)
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Thread: |
Olive (e.g. Sheer 14/0 olive green)
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Body: |
Heron herl from wing covert that has
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been dyed
brown-olive.
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Rib: |
Fine gold wire |
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Hackle: |
Dirty brown-olive hen hackle with dark centre
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and
yellowish-brown points
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Pluen
Biws
 A Welsh pattern (pronounced pl-oo-en bew-ce) whose
literal English translation is Puce Feather but actually
is more like ‘Puce Fly’ in meaning.
This fly was either
developed or popularised around the turn of the 20th
century by an enigmatic itinerant Welshman from
Cwmystwyth area of mid-Wales called Twm Twm (Tom Tom in
English).
Twm Twm travelled all over the country
fishing lakes and rivers and selling flies that he had
tied as he went.
Interesting to compare this fly with the Kites Imperial
and see how similar they are – there being only very
slight differences.
Twm Twm had enjoyed
regular fishing on the Teifi pools which is where Kite
developed the Imperial in 1962 – Kite’s earlier
prototypes having green thread before settling on purple
– therefore I wonder whether local Teifi anglers’ Pluen
Biws flies influenced Kite on the final form of the
Imperial?
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Hook:
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Size 12 Light weight and wide gap (e.g.
Partridge Flashpoint TDH The Dry)
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Thread:
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Purple (Uni-Thread 8/0) – Blackberry purple
is traditional and the juice of blackberries was used to
dye the silk.
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Body:
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Thread underbody wrapped with Heron herl.
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Rib:
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Purple Thread – tight double or treble
turns to make rib look wider
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Hackle:
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Furnace or Tri-colour Cock Saddle Hackle
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F Fly
 Probably the most widely used fly
incorporating CdC (Cul de Canard)- the duck ‘bum’
feathers with natural floatability.
The F Fly (or Fratnikova puhovka to give it its proper name which
approximately means Fratnik’s Simple Fly) was created by
Marjan Fratnik of Milan (but formally of Most Na Soči
in Slovenia).
He designed the fly as a more robust
general purpose dry than Jules Rindlisbacher’s
Entenbürzelfliegen (Duck’s Parson-Nose fly).
What makes the F Fly so good is that it imitates many
insects that are encountered throughout the fly fishing
year, including many of the olive species and midges.
A
great fly when the trout are on small 'stuff' and you
don't know what exactly. It is a good general small dry
fly that you can use anytime.
In practical terms, it is
a simple dressing but on the water it’s a killer and a
global traveller. This recognised variant uses heron as
a body instead of the original thread body.
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Hook:
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Any Dry Fly Hook from size 10 – 22 (this one
is tied on a size 18 Kamasan B440 Dry Fly Hook)
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Thread:
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Grey or dark olive (e.g. This one is Uni-Thread
8/0 Grey)
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Body:
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Heron herl
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Wing:
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Cul de canard (any colour – this one is Marc
Petitjean Blue Dun CdC)
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Tail:
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A bunch of pale coloured ‘Microfibbetts’
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Body:
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Heron herl.
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Hackle:
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Matching grizzle and natural red cock.
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