Martyn White | Thursday, 5 December 2024
Just a quick one from me this week, I thought I'd look at a weird fly that I used to have a strong aversion to and was a bit of a bogey for me but no longer is. "What is it?" you cry!
The Loch Ordie! If you don't know it, it's a weirdo, just a block of cheap hackles. I believe it originated as a dapping fly, but has since become a popular wet in the North of Scotland. I used to find it an impossible pattern to tie on my leader, I hated it. I could appreciate it as a water pusher, but I was addicted to sparcity. I still am to an extent, but I've got over my Ordie aversion. I also found it quite lacking on the looks front, a shank filled with brown hackles then finished with a turn or two of white at the front, just didn't do it for me. Not the colours themselves, just the way the were lumped together with little else to catch the eye. This matters because it's hard to fish something you think looks shite.
My rehabilitation of the ordie came via the anorexic Ordies that came out of the Orkney isles, mush sparser, often with a tag or legs attached to add a bit of attraction to the pattern. They're not really Loch Ordies I suppose but the gave me a bit of a bridge. It still took me a while, and it wasn't till I was fishing with a mate from the Shetlands, who was giving me a drubbing fishing 2 different Ordie variants on his cast and they were accounting for 2 or 3 fish to my 1 that I really started to change my mind on the fly. It wasn't that I was having a bad day's fishing, but in comparison it felt poor. It got better after I made a cross boat incursion to raid his fly box. Days like this are perfect for converting bad flies to good ones, it's always better to do it on days where the fish are being cooperative and are likely to eat. It helps if you know they're already eating the specific fly. In fact, I'd say this is the only time to realistically try a fly that hasn't been working out for you. I'm sure I'm not alone in being more prone to digging out this type of pattern on rubbish days where nothing seems to work, which is more likely to cement the pattern's position as a bogey fly. Anyway I'm now a convert and I always have a few jazzed up Loch Ordie variants in my wetfly box. Requiring so few materials it's an easy fly to adjust and most variants are simply different coloured hackles to suit different light and water conditions, it's also a doddle to stick on a tail or tag some other bling because there's nothing in the way. The POD is a blue variant I like, with added flash that can easily be trimmed out on the water if needed without compromising the rest of the fly. Ideal.
The original dressing
Wet fly hook size 8-12
Thread: black
Body: Brown hackle wound densely, as many as you need to fill the shank
Shoulder: White hackle.
That's it. There are tonnes of variants and many effective ones can be found on theĀ Shetland Fly Box page.
So there you go, a fly that came good. Maybe one day, I'll manage that with the soldier palmer. I doubt it, but maybe.