Viking Lars | Saturday, 19 August 2017
Last week was the Woollen Sock - this week, a new variant of that - one I call The Skjern Sock. I have wirtten before about the Swedish fly, "The Banana", which has become very popular in Southern Scandinavia over the last 5 or so years. Basically it's a dirty yellow fly in the normal, Scandinavian long-and-soft-wing-style.
So I thought that I'd combine the colours of "The Banana" with the dressing style of "The Woollen Sock", and hopefully get the best of both worlds. Why fix it if it ain't broke, the Americans say and I quite like that saying, but at the same time I have great troubles leaving a fly pattern alone (unless it's a North Country Spider - don't mess with those).
I actually woke up 3-4 times the other night thinking about this "amalgamations", so when I got home yesterday afternoon, I sat down and tied the first version. One important aspect in my sea trout and salmon flies is contrast, so I wanted some contrast in the fly, and not just tie it all yellow.
So I went with a yellow tube, red butt, dyed ginger Whiting Coq de Leon hackles, yellow dubbing and garnished with dyed black Golden Pehasant hackles. The black hackles provide some contrast. Dressing details below.
However, I don't really like it - it's a little too black and when I'm done writing this FP, I'll tie one with the natural red Golden Pheasant hackles instead. I have other ideas too - maybe dyed rump hackles from ringneck pheasant. They're softer and comes in many colours (all a little "dirty", which suits the dressing).
I do like the GP-hackles though - they don't collapse in the stream. Since they are a little stiff, the really stand out like an umbrella and the individual fibrers are thick making them very distinct. I'll update on the final result when I'm happy with it.
This weekend I also need to tie some standard Woollen Socks and a Micke Lindström variant of Thunder & Lightning Spey (without wing).
It's strange really, because all that "I stock up all my flies during the winter" never worked for me. I tie lots of flies during the winter, but rarely the ones I need. When I'm tuned in on a particular type of fishhing two things happen. 1. Flies are lost, and new ones need to be tied. 2. I get ideas for new flies and find patterns I want to try. So I tie a lot of flies duing the different seasons. Some standard patterns get stocked up over winter, but most are tied as the season progresses.
Have a grat weekend!
Lars