The dull throbbing buzz of the alarm on my mobile woke me on a morning I was looking forward to. Plans were nailed down for a day of roach fishing on the Shannon. The weather looked to be perfect and reports showed the roach were around in numbers. Unfortunately, the vague dizziness of yesterday had morphed into a full blown vertigo episode overnight and I was now unable to do much beyond stagger around the house like a drunk monkey. It was just too dangerous to drive or be near water in this state, so I wasted the whole morning just keeping warm, drinking fluids and resting. Lunchtime came and went before the fug lifted a little and I was able to see well enough to make a few flies. A poor substitute for a session on the bank, but at least an hour making flies made me feel a bit better. With plenty of major gaps in my fly boxes, I had plenty of patterns to pick from.
Here is a pattern which, I must confess, has not caught me a huge number of fish. That said, it is not a fly I use terribly often and only when conditions demand, so I can’t expect to catch trout on a fly which is rarely out of my flybox. An amalgamation of different patterns and styles, it is one for those late season days when there is a big wave and bright skies. It has worked on Mask for me but so far failed miserably on Conn. This is my Whisky Daddy.
Hook: I started off by using a good old B175 but quickly changed to a curved B110. Size 10 seems to be the best
Tying silk: Fire Orange, 8/0
Rib: I use a piece of 1/0 fire orange tying silk but thin floss will be just as good
Body: flat pearl tinsel. make sure you lay down a good, even base of tying silk before winding the tinsel
Wings: a pair of furnace hackle points tied in a ‘V’ over the back of the fly
Legs: six double knotted fibres of cock pheasant tail which have been dyed orange. Tie three on each side
Hackle: 4 or 5 turns of a cock hackle which has been dyed fluorescent orange
Head: make a prominent head with the tying silk and finish with clear varnish
You look at this pattern and think ‘that is one for the bob position on the leader’, but in fact is seems to do better when fished on the tail. You can varnish the body to give it more strength but I like the way the rib sometimes spreads out a bit in use, creating an almost coppery look to the whole body. I have not tried it so far, but I imagine this would be a good fly for rainbows.
