Читать книгу Fishing Flies - Smalley - Страница 41

Though they are not soft-hackled flies, Bustards have the same origin. It is almost 200 years since Bustards first appeared in print (in G. C. Bainbridge, The Fly Fisher’s Guide, 1816). They were devised for only a few trout rivers in north-west England, and yet they are great catchers of trout, anywhere in the trout world. They should be fished, in rivers, in high summer when the river is low and the weather hot, through the dead of night (provided the law permits night fishing). Then, large trout that have been hiding away by day emerge and seek food. Fish a strong leader. Cast the fly under the far bank and tweak the fly back. Takes are often explosive!

WHITE BUSTARD

Hook: Wet fly, sizes 10–12.

Thread: White.

Body: White wool or chenille.

Hackle: White hen.

Wing: Palest barn owl wing (white goose as substitute).

RED BUSTARD

Hook: Wet fly, sizes 10–12.

Thread: Black.

Body: Red wool or chenille.

Hackle: Red hen.

Wing: Dyed red barn owl wing (white goose dyed red as substitute).

BROWN BUSTARD

Hook: Wet fly, sizes 10–12.

Thread: Brown.

Body: Brown wool or chenille.

Hackle: Brown hen.

Wing: Darkest tawny (brown) owl wing (white goose dyed brown as substitute).

The following is a fairly modern fly, having been invented (or perhaps, more accurately, publicised) by T. C. Ivens in Still Water Fly-Fishing (1952). ‘This fly’, stated Ivens, ‘is the best all-rounder in my box.’ It will catch trout, and other lake fish, that are eating floating snails (they crawl along the underside of the surface film, sucking down trapped microscopic algae), black caddis pupae (on the surface at the point of hatch), and a wide range of land-bred insects from larger black gnats to black beetles (on some lakes over 90 per cent of surface foods are land-bred insects). The BLACK & PEACOCK SPIDER seems to have gone out of fashion in recent years (why?), but in the 1970s it was so well known that two flyfishers, seeing trout feeding like pigs on a huge fall of black heather flies, reported that: ‘There was a massive fall of Black and Peacock Spiders!’

BLACK & PEACOCK SPIDER

Hook: Wet fly, sizes 10–14.

Thread: Black.

Body: Peacock herl.

Rib: Fine or medium oval silver tinsel (optional).

Hackle: Black good-quality hen or henny-cock.