The wind it doth blow

The storms of last week continued to batter us here in the west over the weekend and my plans to go fishing had to be abandoned. Getting wet/cold at this time of the year in blustery showers is expected and if you can’t face those discomforts then spring fishing here is not for you, but gale force winds and continuous downpours remove any enjoyment from angling and can even place yourself in danger so there was no fishing for me. The forecast for the week ahead suggests there will be no immediate let up in the weather either. Nothing else for it, I went back to the vice and made up a few more flies.

I have never used the Ballcock despite it sitting in my box for many seasons. Someone took a fancy to them last year when we were out in the boat and so they are now in someone else’s flybox. I made a couple up as replacements today. I find these to be tricky little things to make simply because pairing the small jungle cock feathers to make the tail is fiddly work. A black fur body with a fine silver rib, a red game cock hackle under a peacock neck feather and two more small jungle cock as cheeks completes this fly. A size 12 looks to be about the right size.

Sooty Olive Bumbles are a great fly early doors so I made some more up and then tied a variant with flat tinsel bodies in both silver and gold. They look nice but who knows what the trout in the Mask or Conn will make of them?

A solitary size 8 Peter Ross was all that remained in the box from last season so I tied up a couple of the standard dressings with either the black or orange hackles, then made a couple of Blue Peters. Just the usual dressing but use blue fur and a blue hackle. Worth a try for sea trout.

Of course I am still topping up on mayflies so a few CDC French Partridge variants went in the box too. This time I added a couple of turns of a cock hackle dyed sunburst under the partridge hackle. As you can see from the photo above there is a nice glow to the fly when held up to the light.

I’ll take a break from trout flies this week I think and make some salmon flies instead. I don’t really need any more but I suspect I’ll be giving a few away soon so I’ll make a few of the usual suspects.