olive and Plover

[GlassJet]

Hi folks,
More Pearsall's, this time olive, more wax, this time on black a Tiemco 103BL and a golden plover hackle.


Andrew.

[Old Hat]

Another beauty Andrew. I love those 103bl's, especially on the smaller flies.

[GlassJet]

Thanks I really like those hooks to fish, not least because they make the 'release' bit of 'catch and release' so easy and stress free - for me and the fish!

[Otter]

Nicely tied Andrew.

Black hooks and pearsalls silks generally I believe do not go hand in hand , at least thats what the experts on such things reckon.

[GlassJet]

Black hooks and pearsalls silks generally I believe do not go hand in hand , at least thats what the experts on such things reckon.

lol! oh well... experts eh? See above!

[redietz]

Black hooks and pearsalls silks generally I believe do not go hand in hand , at least thats what the experts on such things reckon.

lol! oh well... experts eh? See above!

Gotta agree with that! The black really does it for this particular fly.

[Otter]

Thanks I really like those hooks to fish, not least because they make the 'release' bit of 'catch and release' so easy and stress free - for me and the fish!

But ya got to hook em before u release them.

I use the 206's and similar for dries or emergers.




Here's a comment from another Forum for a Woodcock & Hares LUG, tied by a long term spider addict.

" Hook should be of the bronze wire type, which allows the translucency of the silk to be paraded to maximum effect. Please don't be tempted to used black wire hooks as seems to be the current trend - they kill the pattern dead."

This may not apply to your pattern if you do not want maximum translucency

[GlassJet]

But ya got to hook em before u release them.

That is my hook of choice for dry's / damps. I like them so much because I can often release the fish without even handling it, by just slackening the line - a 10 inch trout is a typical size fish on my river.

Edited to say: Actually, who am I trying to kid? A ten inch fish is a good fish here!

Here's a comment from another Forum for a Woodcock & Hares LUG, tied by a long term spider addict.

" Hook should be of the bronze wire type, which allows the translucency of the silk to be paraded to maximum effect. Please don't be tempted to used black wire hooks as seems to be the current trend - they kill the pattern dead."

This may not apply to your pattern if you do not want maximum translucency

I am always amused when people are so definite about things like this. I mean, regarding transluceny, why bronze and not silver? Or gold? I would suggest bronze would not display the silk's translucency to 'maximum effect', just differently. More so than black, I grant you - but are you - or anyone - 100% certain there might be occasions when this is not desirable? Worth a chuck, I'd say.

I am as interested in the 'traditional' tyings of these flies as anyone (whatever they are, the point the patterns are written down etc) but if you become a slave to it, you completely miss the point. The evolution of these patterns is as much about the stories of people as it is about fish. Join the parade, Otter.

After all, to be a slave to tradition is to say: I always travel by boat and not aeroplane because it is traditional to do so. Of course they used to travel by boat because humans had neither the materials nor the ingenuity to yet invent the aeroplane.

This game is about catching fish. If it works it works, if it doesn't then it doesn't. No matter what any 'expert' says. Learn the grammar, trust yourself and have a play.

Andrew.

[Otter]

I am always amused when people are so definite about things like this. I mean, regarding transluceny, why bronze and not silver? Or gold? I would suggest bronze would not display the silk's translucency to 'maximum effect', just differently. More so than black, I grant you - but are you - or anyone - 100% certain there might be occasions when this is not desirable? Worth a chuck, I'd say.

Andrew.

Thats's me kicked straight into touch, ouch....

Off course you are right in your assertions above, don't believe all you are told as quite a lot of it is utter nonsense, question everything and come to your own conclusions. And no doubt a particular pattern on a black hook, or gold hook, or silver hook may well be what the doctor ordered in particular circumstances - the challenge for us to is to match the fly with the circumstance.

When I embarked on this little adventure with spiders and soft hackles, wingless wets whatever you like to call them I was given one little piece of advice which I took on board for it made perfect sense . " If you want to get get the best out of fishing these types of flys then you must know what each represents and learn how best to present them" The value of that piece of advice is that your fly box does not end up stuffed with patterns that have an unknown reason for existing. Each fly is carefully chosen to go on the tippet to cover whats hatching or what should be expected for the time of year or known to work well at that time of year.

Many many anglers spend their whole fishing lives jumping from one favorite fly to another, fishing to-day a pattern that was one of many arbitrarily pulled from the box yesterday and that just so happened caught a few fish. This off course is often inevitable for beginners and relative beginners until they have some experience of the fly life and the ways of the trout on their rver. But it is off course a very unreliable approach as I know only too well having being down that route and wasted a few seasons. All part of the learving curve and the whole experience I suppose.

This line of approach does not include "experimental flies", flies that you are trying out for a specific purpose - you try them and they either work or fail - and if they do work repeatedly in similar conditions then they will find a place in the box and the why and when to use them is mentally absorbed and they are ready for action.

Back to the Black Hooks, whether you or I or anyone else likes them for any human reason is in my view completely irrelevant. if the fly tied on them is consistently taken by the trout as food then its a success. Two seasons ago I had consistent success for some conditions with a dry greenwells variant, last season it did not work any where as well. The only discernible difference was the hook - last season they were all tied on 206bls or grip equivalent - I had been gripped by the black hook syndrome. The body is yellow silk and the change to a black hook changed the look of the body - it would take much testing to prove whether or not this was the deciding factor -suffice it to say that I will be tying some on bronze hooks and making them first choice. Yes, to my eyes they looked much nicer on the black hooks but it wasn't for me to eat them that they were designed.

These are just my thoughts on these matters and are a important part of the completely re-vamped approach I am taking for the coming season. Time will tell if it improves my fishing and my enjoyment. We all travel different roads, have different ideas, different desires but it is great to be able to share them as it improves our knowledge enormously.

[GlassJet]

Wouldn't argue with any of that, Otter, very well said... Especially:

Back to the Black Hooks, whether you or I or anyone else likes them for any human reason is in my view completely irrelevant. if the fly tied on them is consistently taken by the trout as food then its a success.

But it is still nice when they look good too...

Playing around with the translucent quality of well-waxed silk is a bit of a game for me at the moment, tying different colours over different underlying colours. Thought I'd just see what black looked like...

But yes, the intention is, to add these techniques to the armoury, to better suggest the insects on / in the water, once we kick off. We are not lure fishers, after all....

I do look at playing around with these different techniques, as well as learning the 'traditional' patterns, as becoming proficient in a kind of a 'grammar', so that the techniques will be available as tools when it comes to suggesting the insects on the water...

Then I'll tie on a little GRHE 'cos I know I'll catch a fish with it!

It's a great game, isn't it?
Andrew.