Originally a Sea Trout Pattern

The Grey Monkey is known as a seatrout pattern here in the UK and I wondered if I could create a spider version of the fly for loch trout. Here is my take and thoughts on it… I hadn’t come across the Grey Monkey fly before, until that is, it appeared in an online search.

New to me, the Grey Monkey is a seatrout fly and I quite liked the look of it, but I wondered if I could create a spider version of it, rather than simply creating a scaled down copy to fish as a brown trout fly. The original pattern has a wing which I omitted and I added some yellow/orange dubbing to the rear of the fly to contrast with the overall grey appearance of the pattern. I used a de-barbed Kamasan B410 which is a light-wire hook and which is ideal for presenting your soft hackle patterns just sub-surface. I tied in some teal fibres for the tail (amazing how many of these, and other feathers you can find simply by taking a stroll around a duck pond) and some fine gold wire for the rib. Dubbing the body involved mixing some yellow and orange synthetic dubbing together. I was careful to get the right mix, something like 60/40 orange to yellow ratio with just a touch of grey rabbit. This small amount of orange/yellow dubbing gradually gave way to more grey rabbit dubbing which was carried forwards towards the eye of the hook. Once ribbed with the gold wire a badger hen hackle was wound, just a few turns was plenty. Some varnish after the whip-finish completed the fly.

All in all I was quite happy with the Grey Monkey Spider and I am hopeful that it will prove successful. I envisage the pattern being taken by the trout for a hatching chironomid and can see this spider pattern being fished just under, in or on the surface during a hatch of dark coloured insects. I also think it may do well as a general searching pattern within a team of two or three soft hackle wet flies.

 

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