Viking Lars | Saturday, 27 February 2016
Or rather - brown(ish) salmon fly. Carrying on from last week's FP, I'm still contemplating over my selection of salmon- and sea trout flies. For years, I've had a bit of a crisis when it comes to selecting the right brownish pattern.
And the right browosj pattern can be quite important over summer, when small, inconspicuos flies seem to outfish many others. I've been fish a pattern of my own for a few years, but never with loads and loads of confidence.
If there is one feature I look for in a salmon/ sea trout fly, it's contrast. Either the entire pattern has to be a strong contrast to the surroundings (as in black) or the pattern itself has to have some clear contrast built in.
And even for a small, brown summerfly, that has to be inconspicuos, I like a bit of contrast. And my own own brown pattern hasn't got much contrast, and I think I'll substitue it completely for a modern Thunder and Lightning-version. I mean, the name alone dictates that one must have that fly in the box.
The T&L has some nice inbuilt contrasts. Brown wing, yellow tail, orange hackle and I like to add a chartreuse or orange disck to mine as well, just to introduce a little more contrast. It's quite surprising how mich difference it really makes when you watch the fly in the water. That flourescent chartreuse disc really lights up, and if you fish one with say a golden disc, it's really much more inconspicuos. Same with Jungle Cock eyes really - they are quite visible too - especially of you go for some of the modern, synthetic ones, which I like using.
Check out the ones in the pic - I look forward to tying a few of my Mickey Finn tubefly version with them on :-). They're made by Danish Pro Sportsfisher. They also make a really nice "natural" synthetic one and heaps of other "modern" jungle cocks - all synthetic.
So back to the brown fly - I need to tie some T&L's in different sizes. It's not a heavy-water-pattern for me, so some in say 6, 4 and 2cm will do me for the season.
More on that later - maybe a video?
Have a nice weekend!
Lars