This fly reminds me of a Mark 2 Ford Escort 1300. A reliable if unexciting run-around which has been tarted up by an enthusiast and is now all bling. The bells and whistles have been grafted on and it is now a much more exciting package all together.
The basis of this new fly is of course that wonderful old campaigner, the Claret Bumble. Originally tied to fool sea trout and brownies, the ever inventive Irish minds went to work on it years ago and it morphed into a very good salmon pattern by tying it on much larger hooks than the normal 12 and 10’s. Other refinements such as a flat gold tag, dying a topping sunburst and using that for a tail and adding knotted pheasant tail legs all made an appearance relatively lately. But the Carrowmore Bumble was born when the DNA of the Claret Bumble and Clan Chief was deliberately mixed. I personally have a hunch this could only be achieved after imbibing a large volume of Guinness but hard facts to support this supposition are scarce. The Clan Chief can be deadly for salmon, so mingling the attributes of the two flies was an excellent idea.
I have seen a couple of variations of this fly in other anglers boxes so I will give you two of these here today. The first one is probably the most common and is available commercially.
Hook: sizes 6 to 10 heavy weight trout hooks
Silk: black or brown 6/0
Tag: fine oval gold tinsel, about 5 turns
Tail: a Golden Pheasant crest feather with a doubled length of Globright no. 4 on top
Rib: oval silver tinsel
Body: medium claret seals fur
Body hackles: a black and a red cock hackle wound together
Head hackle: Guinea Fowl dyed blue
The second variation is the one I prefer.
Hook and silk are the same as above. I like the extra movement provided by the legs but they are optional.
Tag: Opal Mirage tinsel
Rib: oval silver tinsel
Body: medium claret seals fur
Body hackles: a black and a red cock hackle wound together
Legs: 6 cock pheasant tail herls knotted and tied in on each side and slightly raised. Can be natural or dyed claret
Head hackles: a long fibred claret cock hackle wound first followed by a grizzle cock hackle dyed blue.
Did you know there is a Green Peter version of the Clan Chief too? The Clan Peter it is called and while I have yet to use one it looks like it should work. Here is the dressing I was given last year.
Hook: 6 – 12
Tread: Fl. Yellow
Tag – Opal mirage
Tail: Globrite yellow under red
Body: Green seals fur
Rib: Oval gold
Body hackles: A grizzle cock hackle dyed green olive and natural red game cock hackle wound together
Wing: Hen pheasant tail
Head hackle: Red game cock
Head: Formed with the tying thread and coated with clear varnish
All of these flies will produce a salmon on Carrowmore on their day. I don’t class myself as any sort of an expert when it comes to fishing Carrowmore but I know my way around the place so I will write a short post on the fishery soon.
The title photo is Ben Baynes with a nice little salmon off Carrowmore a few seasons ago.
Claretbumbler 