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 We fly fishers are all guilty of
carrying too many fly boxes, bursting at the seams, with
huge quantities of patterns for every possible situation
when in reality we probably only use a handful on a
regular basis.
The subject of this piece, The
Diawl Bach’ literally translated as ‘Little Devil’
has proven itself a reliable fish taker on all kinds of
waters and should be one of your standbys.
On small still waters, fished as a
single fly, retrieved very slowly on a floating line
with a 12-18ft leader, I am confident you will not be
disappointed. Just remember, this pattern is not an
underwater express but a general food pattern that fish
expect to be able to sip without having to chase it
first. Fish it static, let it dead drift round if you
have a suitable side wind, or retrieve very, very
slowly.
On the large reservoirs it works
well as part of a ‘team’ either fished ‘ Washing Line’
style with a ‘Booby’ on the point, Diawl Bachs on the
droppers, or as part of a general nymph/buzzer cast. On
many outings I have fished three, of various weights and
sizes of hook, allowing me to search the water. Some
days the fish come to the heavy point fly, on others
it’s the top dropper, which produces most takes.
Hooks:
For deep fishing choose:
Tiemco
2457, Scorpion Heavy Grub 31165 or Drennan Traditional
Wet. Sizes 8 - 12
Good allrounders are either:
Kamasan B175 or Scorpion Competition H/Weight 31530.
Sizes 10 - 14
For shallow fishing try:
Kamasan
B170 or Scorpion All Purpose Medium 31550. Sizes 10 – 14
Tying Thread:
claret, black or
brown 8/0
Tail: red/brown cock hackle
fibres
Body: bronze
peacock herl
Rib:
finest copper, gold or
silver wire
Hackle:
red/brown cock hackle
fibres
Standard Dressing:
The first dressing below is
recognised as the standard. There are endless variations
but the original takes some beating. Give it a try!
 •
Select your hook and mount in the
vice. Run tying thread, in touching
turns from behind the eye to a point just past the hook
point.
•
Catch in the tail fibres with a
couple of turns of thread, followed by the rib and a
single peacock herl tied under the hook shank.
•
Continue tying in all materials
along the hook shank stopping the thread just behind the
eye.
•
Apply a thin coat of varnish to
the shank and wrap the peacock herl, in touching turns,
towards the eye, and tie down.
•
Wrap evenly spaced turns of wire,
in an opposite direction to that which you wrapped the
herl and tie off behind the eye.
•
Invert the hook and tie in a small
beard hackle of cock hackle fibres as used for the tail. Make a neat head and varnish.
Variants:
The following are some of the more
popular variations.
 •
As above but with a fluo
red thread head.
•
As above but with a fluo red
thread head and small jungle cock cheeks. Also you could
try with a wing case of orange Mirror Flash.
 •
As above
but tied on a heavyweight hook.
•
As above but substitute the wire
rib with either red, green or gold medium holographic
tinsel.
Flies tied by Ian
McKenzie - photographed by Colin Spicer
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