… and a bit of blue too
In my previous post I mentioned that I had purchased a teal-blue dyed grizzle hen cape. I hoped that it wouldn’t be too light a shade of blue, hoping if anything, it would be a bit darker. Upon arrival, the colour of the cape was exactly what I had hoped it would be: not too pale and light in colour but erring on a ‘heavier’ darker shade of blue. Only one thing to do then: get tying a bumble pattern!
Blue is an interesting colour since it doesn’t feature too heavily in the patterns contained within my fly box. Perhaps it should feature more since it is a nice way to introduce some subtle colour into a palmered hackle wet fly, and also simply because; well, I like it! I decided to tie a copy of that well known bumble pattern, the Golden Olive Bumble, or at least a version of it using the materials I had at hand. Envisaging a slim and sparse pattern, I opted to utilise brown-olive hen fibres for the tail (I was all out of pheasant crest!). The palmered hackle consisted of the same brown-olive hen fibres which were secured with a gold wire rib wound over a yellow SLF dubbed body. A few turns of the blue grizzle hen hackle completed the fly.
Having tied the fly I wondered how it may perform during the forthcoming summer evenings, just as the sun sets. I would imagine that the low angle of sharp light created by the setting sun would cause the yellow body, gold rib and brown-olive hackle and tail to really stand out and glow. Likewise, with the blue collar hackle too. The Invicta is a well known wet fly pattern often used during a sedge hatch, and I see similarities between the Invicta and the Golden Olive Bumble in the colours of the materials that are used. With that in mind then, I will give it a try when the sedge are hatching in addition to when the olives are too. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Golden Olive Bumble – Tail: brown olive hen Body: yellow SLF Palmer Hackle: brown olive hen Rib: gold wire Hackle: grizzle hen (teal blue)
SoftHackles 