Viking Lars | Saturday, 15 July 2017
Red has been gaining some momentum as the main colour in salmonflies in Denmark the last few years. I've been meaning to tie up some of my own for a long time, and I finally got around to it a few days ago. Even though red is relatively new as a "popular" colour, I do remember my old friend, Peter Terndrup,
The Red Sandy is a classic salmon fly, one of the whole feather wings, and as a "real" classic, it's old. Created my Nicol McNicol around 1880 and as usual, there are a few different versions of the pattern (by Nelson, Pryce-Tannat, Hardy and Hale and there may be a few more).
Kelsons pattern goes as follows:
Tag: Silvertwist.
Tail: GP Topping and Indian Crow.
Butt: Scarlett Berlin wool.
Body: Two sections of oval silver tinsel, split by an Indian Crow veiling, followed by a red butt of Berlin wool and a red cock hackle.
Palmerhackle: Red cock over front part of body.
Wing: Four Indian Crow feathers, two long, two shorter tied over two long jungle cock feathers. Two GP toppings over.
Horns: Red Macaw.
Head: Scarlet Berling wool.
When you see this fly tied, it's really not as red as you'd think and certainly less red than my modern version. None the less, Red Sandy was what I had in mind when I converted this old classic to a modern fly. Lots of fluorescent materials and some flash really make this fly very visible in coloured water.
Here's the pattern for my version:
Tube: Pro Sportfisher FlexiTube or NanoTube.
Butt: Fl. red UNI wool yarn.
Tail: Red over yellow Fluorofiber.
Body: Rear half, Veevus gold Flat Braid, fromt part red dubbing.
Weight: Pro RAW weight, xs.
Underwing: Fl. orange (almost red) Craft Fur and pearl and red flash.
Fronthackle 1: Orange teal flank.
Overwing: Bright Red Craft Fur and pearl and red flash.
Front hackle 2: Metz Softhackle, red.
Head: Pro Sonic Disc.
As you can see, I substituted the silver tinsel for gold as I think gold is a little more autumn-like, and I'm quite sure the fy will fare well. I'm going to tie a few closer to the original just for the fun of it.
Have a great weekend!
Lars