Gosh, where to start.
Wasn't exactly my idea to make a thread on this fly, it was just included inside a Christmas card to Ray & family. There were/are a few others floating around out there in similar cards to others. Ray seemed to like what he saw in the pattern and asked if he could post it up and I said sure.
It was a "development" pattern. Tied to imitate a small mayfly that is quite dark almost black and only really occurs on the Pomahaka river about 40km away from home. I hoped this particular pattern might act as an emerger style and sit just under the film on a leader that was greased to within an inch or two of the fly.
I have not had the real chance to test the fly on the water yet, but I think the design is generic and buggy enough to do the business and might even work on waters where the particular mayfly is not present.
The hooks Lance, you will not find them anywhere else but NZ. They are imported here and marketed by a fellow called Bruce Coker, I guess his middle initial is "G".
I have a pretty good notion they are "seconds" from a major manufacturer as they are dead ringers and suffer from the odd incomplete eye or slight overbend/incorect bend. Maybe they are supposed to be destined to melt down and back through the factory, but maybe it is not worth the hassle and they sell them unlabled. Not sure, but that is the story of them.
The body is just a wee bent I was on with trying different materials to try to get a buggy effect, but slimmer and smaller than some dubbing style bodies. Fibres from quill feathers seemed to give a nice fuzzy/buggy look. I have also been experimenting lately with biot bodies from primary and secondary feathers from many different bird wings, for different looking quill style bodies. Undyed and natural biots from birds other than geese can give some neat results.
The whole fly was also a mixture of some different materials and used differently, sent to someone who I knew would appreciate the fact.
