not one to squirrel away
With some rain forecast, I wanted to tie a sea trout fly pattern with higher water conditions in mind, one which may work if the water has a bit of colour to it. Having had its first outing, I am pleased to say the Yellow Squirrel & Gold did attract the attention of a few fish. Whether the plucks and tugs were grilse, sea trout or brown trout I’m not sure, however one take in particular did make me wonder (if indeed it was a take that is). As the fly swung round the line tightened as if there was a tiny bit of weed attached to the fly, then drew steadily tighter for a second or two until the rod tip started to register the tightening line, before going slack again. Despite this short lapse of time seeming to take an age, I found myself strangely unable to act, like I was transfixed – and merely stood there on the bank like some kind of shop mannequin with a fly rod in its hand!
Previously while back at the vice thinking about tying a sea trout pattern for higher, slightly coloured water, I thought something based around yellow may be a good place to start. I opted for a light olive thread and to get started some pheasant crest for the tail. Next would be a body of flat gold tinsel with a gold wire rib. At this point I wanted to include a small thorax and went with some fine apple green dubbing for about 1/3 of the body length. A black hen hackle was added and then the yellow squirrel hair wing tied in over that. The hair wings are getting easier to tie in and work with, practice making perfect and all that!
With the resulting seat trout fly, I was happy with the tail and wing proportions and the overall neatness of the pattern. I thought the colour combinations worked well and produced a visually pleasing sea trout pattern. It fished well in the flow and current and the yellow wing and gold body showed up well in the water, which had a slight brown stain to it. In the end it did result in a couple of smaller trout, which being honest, I was quite happy with given the water level and the lack of trout activity generally. It does make me wonder if some of these smaller ‘trout’ are sea trout or perhaps salmon parr – one or two have had a slight golden sheen to their flanks along with the barred finger marks. The fly certainly did get its fair share of plucks, tugs and knocks on the day. Either way, it is nice to create a bright seat trout fly with a specific function in mind (in this case higher, slightly coloured water), to then go out and fish it and to find you are able to catch a few fish using it.
Note to self: maybe next time, leave the mannequin impersonations to the mannequins and tighten the line..when appropriate!
SoftHackles 