love it..or not
The Peter Ross is an interesting fly. It does seem to divide opinion with it being a firm favourite with some, while for others, it is their bogey fly.
The Peter Ross wet fly came into existence at the end of the nineteenth century, and was created by one Peter Ross from Killin, Loch Tay, Scotland. It is believed to have been first tied as a variant of the Teal and Red; replacing the rear 2/3 of the body with silver tinsel.
I understand that it is a popular salmon and sea trout pattern, and that is true for its use as a brown trout fly in the lochs too. As a fly, I like it and it looks like a good fly for the trout. But, the thing is, it is an out and out bogey fly for me. Why that should be I don’t know. And that is a pity, as I do like the Peter Ross wet fly! It has the look of something about to hatch, a buzzer perhaps (well a large one..) and if fished a bit faster, I can understand why it may be taken for a small fish. It also has that classic colouration of a successful wild brown trout fly; red, black and silver. Additionally, it uses pheasant tippets for the tail; how many other famous wild brown trout patterns utilise these wonderful fibres as tails? The Black Pennell, along with the Blae and Black spring readily to mind, along with others such as the ‘Bumbles’, Mallard/Grouse and Claret, Teal, Blue and Silver and the rest of the ‘teal clan’ to name just a few.
There are variants of this fly too of course and I have used a variant with an orange dubbed thorax which caught a few trout (and hooked a reasonably sized pike too which is another story..). There is also a palmered version and a variant using pearly tinsel for the body. No doubt there are other variants are out there too.
When it comes to actually fishing the Peter Ross winged wet fly next season, hopefully it is going to prove its worth as a dropper fly during a hatch of buzzers or on the point as a fry imitation and then, have its perhaps unfair label of ‘bogey fly’ removed once and all.
SoftHackles 