A confession first – this is not one of my own patterns. It was devised by my boat partner and top salmon angler Ben Baynes a few seasons ago. Since then, it has become a firm favourite with anglers on loughs such as Beltra and Carrowmor. As shrimp flies go it is pretty simple to dress and all the materials are readily available.
I use red tying silk and the rest of the original dressing is as follows:
Tag: 5 or 6 turns of fine oval silver tinsel
Tail: Long, slim bunch of bucktail dyed hot orange
Rib (both halves): Fine oval silver tinsel
Rear body: Hot orange seal’s fur
Middle hackle: A cock hackle dyed deep golden olive
Front body: Seals fur dyed black
Head hackle: A badger cock hackle of a black cock hackle (both seem to work equally well)
Eyes (optional): Jungle cock, not too large
Head: red varnish
As you can see, this is a close relative of many other Irish shrimp patterns but the middle hackle seems to be key to the undoubted success of the fly. the shade of golden olive needs to be dark and intense.Think of the colour of olive oil and you are in the right ballpark. Finding capes or hackles this colour can be tricky as most commercially available cock hackles which claim to be golden olive are too light for this fly. I have tried tying the fly with lighter coloured hackles without success.
As always, I have fiddled around with the original pattern a little to see if it could be improved. Firstly, the tail can have a tendency to wrap around the bend of the hook, leading to poor results. I add a few fibres of stiff Polar bear hair under the bucktail to alleviate this. A couple of strands of orange or pearl flash can also be added to the tail. Don’t over do this though!
Finally, I mix some black lite-brite in with the black seals fur to add a bit of zing to the front of the fly.
So how do you fish this fly? It is a great all-rounder that can give you a salmon from the first day of the season to the last and on any position on the cast. It does sterling work when dressed on big irons sizes (4 – 6) on Lough Beltra in March and April and dropping down to an 8 or 10 it will still work later in the season there too. Carrowmore Lake requires small flies, so a size 8 or 10 is plenty big enough when drifting the Black Banks or Bog Bay. The Golden Olive Shrimp also works on running water. I only use this pattern on single hooks, but I guess there is no reason that it wouldn’t work when tied on doubles or trebles.
Claretbumbler 