a bit more sparkle
Continuing with the sparkle theme, this palmered hackle wet fly pattern uses mirage tinsel for the rear half of the body. The front half of the body consists of fiery brown SLF which I teased out over the mirage tinsel and secured using the gold wire rib.
A sparkly pattern, it should appeal to the rainbow trout in addition to the brown trout. I can envisage the pattern being employed during a hatch of chironomids or perhaps olives and it may make a useful searching pattern during a brighter day. Time will tell about that!
To tie the pattern, catch in some ginger hackle fibres for the tail (I used ginger cockerel) and wind the mirage tinsel rear/front under-body of the fly. Next, I added the fiery brown SLF dubbing to form the front half of the body, teasing out some of the fibres over the mirage tinsel. The palmer hackle used was a medium olive hen hackle (for movement) and it was secured using the fine gold wire rib. The collar hackle used is badger hen and it sits quietly with the olive hen palmer hackle.
A little sparkly palmered hackle wet fly for Christmas. At least I can always use it next year as a festive decoration if it fails to impress next season on the lochs!
Sparkle Palmer – Tail: ginger cockerel Body (rear): Mirage tinsel Body (front): fiery brown SLF Palmer Hackle: medium-olive hen Rib: gold wire Hackle: badger hen
SoftHackles 