Green Highlander for Lough Beltra

I always have some Green Highlanders in my box but it is a fly I rarely use. The feather winged ones are fun to tie and look good but the hair winged versions have more movement in the water and are more likely to attract salar. Deeply conservative (like most salmon anglers), I tend to reach for the same old patterns or at least close variations of them. Cascades, Willie Gunn’s, black and gold shrimps are my staples. After that I am venturing into new territory! So the poor old Green Highlanders spends each season languish in a corner of the box beside other equally unloved patterns. Colours fade, hooks grow rusty and before you know it the old flies are jettisoned in favour of newer tyings. Some of my flies never see the water, they just hang around for a few season before they depart for the waste bin. It has happened to Green highlanders many times. In an effort to give the venerable old fella a new lease of life I have tied up some with a muddler head.

My thinking is that a muddler headed Green Highlander might just do the trick on Lough Beltra. That extra bit of movement and disturbance in the water, combined with the somewhat unusual colours may get the attention of a springer. I am always looking for a pattern for those ‘intermediate’ days when it is neither light nor dark. My normal mantra of bright day – bright fly, dull day – dull fly has served me well over the years but what do you do when it is somewhere in middle? If in doubt I put one bright fly and one dark one on my cast, but maybe switching to a green coloured fly could pay dividends.

Here is how I put this variant together:

I started with some green 6/0 tying silk on a size 6 single iron. At the start of the bend I tied in and wound a tag of fine oval silver tinsel. I confess that I simplified the rear end of the fly and omitted the yellow floss, ostrich herl butt and reduced the tail to just a single Golden Pheasant topping.

Next. a length of fine oval silver is tied in and then the yellow floss silk which will form the rear quarter of the body.

I used green floss silk instead of fur to make the rest of the body. tie in and wind a nice, even body then remove the waste end. Catch in a prepared cock hackle , dyed green highlander shade.

Now wind the hackle in open turns over the green part of the body only. This is secured by open reverse turns of the silver tinsel which has been previously tied in at the tail. Time now to tie in a wind 3 or 4 turns of a long fibred, softish cock hackle dyed yellow

The wing is formed out of three skinny bunches of dyed bucktail. In order from the bottom, I used yellow, orange and green highlander.

Now for the fun part – spinning two colours of deer hair to make the head. I used a small bunch of green first and followed that up with some yellow deer hair. Don’t go overboard with the deer hair, I was aiming for a small head, just enough to create a bit of disturbance.

Take your time trimming the head so it is neat and tidy. Make a whip finish and then varnish the exposed silk a couple of times.

There we go, not too difficult to tie and a nice pattern to have in the box for the new season.