Flies for Lough Conn, part 3

I hope you are enjoying this series of posts about the flies I recommend for Lough Conn. Today I will take a look at patterns which fish well from May onwards, an exciting period for us fishers in Western Ireland. The Lake Olives will still be hatching and the Mayfly will start to appear any time from the first week of the month depending on the weather.

My Light Golden Olive Bumble.

I finally arrived at this pattern after years of tinkering with the standard GOB. My reasoning is that during May/June the trout must see scores, if not hundreds, of standard GOB’s as most anglers give the pattern a try when the Mayfly is on the water. I wanted something just a little bit different and numerous small (and not so small) variations have been created and then rejected. This fly however has eared its corn and delivered some excellent catches for me on all the local lakes, so I can heartily recommend it to you.

Materials:

Tail: a GP topping

Rib: Fine oval gold tinsel

Butt:light claret seal’s fur or synthetic dubbing

Body: pale golden olive seal’s fur or synthetic dubbing

Body hackles: a pale golden olive cock and ginger cock hackle wound together

Head hackle: A guinea fowl body feather dyed pale yellow

Tying silk: olive

The method of tying is exactly the same as a normal bumble pattern, just watch out for not leaving enough space at the eye for winding the hackles. I use size 10 and 12 hooks for this one. Fish this one as a bob fly and keep it moving though the waves.

Claret Murrough

A really popular fly on the Conn, this will catch you a trout or two any time from may to the end of the season. I think the colour of the hackles is important, they should ‘glow’ with a red tinge in my opinion.

Tag: bright orange seal’s fur

Body: medium claret seal’s fur

Rib: fine oval gold tinsel or yellow fl. thread

Body hackle: rich chocolate brown cock hackle, palmered

Wing: a slim bunch of red squirrel tail hair under paired woodcock slips

Head hackle: same as the body hackle but longer in fibre

Horns (optional): 2 strands of cock or hen pheasant tail tied forward.

Silk: brown

 

Chocolate CDC Sedge

Finally for today here is a dry fly pattern which has seen good days on Lough Conn. Funnily enough I can’t recall using it on any other lake, so there is room for experiment on Mask and Carra. My Chocolate CDC Sedge is a grand floater thanks to the CDC wings and is very east to tie. You could use the same method to tie sedges in a range of different colours but I like this dark brown version as it matches those smallish dark  caddis which hatch steadily during May and June.

Hook: size 12 dry fly hook

Tying Silk: Brown or black

Body: dark chocolate brown synthetic dubbing

Wings: 4 dark grey CDC plumes tied down close to the back

Hackle: A small grizzle cock hackle wound in front of the wings

In use I carefully apply a small amount of Gink to the body and hackle only, NOT the wings. Fish it singly or in tandem with a dry mayfly. You may be surprised how many trout take the sedge even though they are mopping hatching Mays from the surface!

Chocolate CDC Sedge

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