I've taken a break from learning to tie the classics, and I thought i'd have a play around at the tying bench, and this is the result.
What's in it:
Hook: this is on a kamasan B405 #14
Thread: Pearsall's yellow silk heavily waxed with clear
Body: 4X Tippet over tying silk
Rib: Tying silk
Thorax: Single strand peacock herl
hackle: Grouse neck / back
I should say at the outset that I have never caught a fish with this fly (sorry Otter
). I have never even fished this fly, and I have never fished soft hackles that much as I have never had as much success with them as I have other patterns - but what can I say? this is the year I intend to put this right....However, having said that, I didn't just sit there trying to make a fly that looked 'pretty'. Here is the reasoning:
Recently on this forum (can't remember exactly where) Roy mentioned that he believed a mono rib greatly enhanced the fish catching abilities of certain flies. He cited the way that the rib plays with the light. I think there is a lot in that. Here's why:
Last year some time, i came across Roy's Reverse Parachute Emerger on an internet forum. This, as I am sure you know, is constructed around a length of mono wrapped as a rib and then formed into a loop, through which is twined a hackle and then the loop tightened to form a lovely and 'noisy' parachute that lies nice and flat on the water.
One afternoon last season i was casting to lazily rising fish that were clearly feeding selectively but I have no idea to what. All I know is, that it must have been to something that looked nothing at all like all the flies I put over them because I blanked that afternoon - and it must have been small because i couldn't see anything obvious coming off the water.
That evening I was simmering. I hate blanking, and that had been the first time ever to rising fish. Then i remembered Roy's reverse para, that noisy little flat hackle, and thought I'd have a play with it. In a guileless effort i adapted his mono technique, but simplified it and tied it on a little tiemco #20 dry IIRC, with a grizzle hackle, super fine synthetic dubbing and that mono rib. Actually, think I used 6X tippet.
The next day, at the same spot, it got me a very nice Grayling, thank you very much.
A couple of weeks later (I'd tied up a few that first evening) I gave it another go out on my small stream. I fished the pattern over two days, and it just brought up fish after fish after fish. In the end, I thought to myself: this can't just be down to that mono loop hackle (I fish klinks and variants often enough to good results, but not like this!) it must be that darned mono rib!
So, that is the rather long winded explanation as to why I have a lot of time for Roy's theories on the effect of light playing around the mono rib, and brings me back to Glassjet's Glory!
That is the reasoning behind the fly. I thought I'd go one step further than a rib and try to wind a nicely segmented body with the mono - and the translucency of it would take on the colour of whatever was underneath. The effect of a heavy wax coating onto silk is something new to me and I find the potential here tremendously exciting, different colours of wax and silks giving a myriad of possible effects. Not to mention diameters of tippet / mono. But in the GlassJet's Glory, it is the body that really excites me.
Ah, just re-read that last sentence - did i really write that, in this context?
Shoot me now! So, the fly in a nutshell: body for reasons stated (she's gorgeous
) silk rib just to get the tying thread back to tie off mono without adding bulk to the body, peacock herl to hide bulk of tying off the tippet - it needs firmly binding down if it is to be fished, slippery stuff. But hopefully the herl will add a bit of profile and movement when in the water. And grouse hackle because I think it looks nice, and it seems to be a neglected hackle these days...Very much a work in progress! But can't wait to test it!
Any thoughts?
Andrew.
