Hillend Dabbler

Recently Ive been filling a row in my fly box with these wee fellas! The Blae & Black. Trout flees dont come more traditional than this. A Scottish wet fly pattern of great repute for early season brown trout! Its origins are hard to track down as they appear to have been lost in the midst of time. It is however believed to be centuries old and used extensively not only in Scotland but South of the border and across the Irish sea too. Its famous on the Clyde with the wing in the usual  Clyde style upright position and as the season progresses a lighter shade of blae is preferred. It is a recommended pattern for the top dropper on lochs when midge pupa are hatching! The Old Timers at Hillend swear by it early in the season. However this probably dates back to the time before our club water introduced rainbow trout. A fly worth having where ever wild brown trout exist! It's a very simple dressing that is basically a black pennel with a wing and is the third fly in a trio of patte

On Sunday I popped in and and out of the virtual flytying day  that was organised by Lindsay Simpson  and other fantastic flytyers on you tube. It was a really great event and much food for thought from the fantastic patterns and styles that were on display.  A couple that caught my eye were Davie McPhail's detached Green Peter and Stevie O'Neills Claret Georgeous George! Suitably inspired I had a go at Stevie's pattern this morning. I didnt have a claret grizzle cape for the body hackle so substituted that with a fiery brown grizzle! This pattern will be a welcome addition to my box!

If you're experienced enough, brave enough or daft enough. Fishing in a big wave on a boat on a wild highland loch can be extremely rewarding!  I recall one such night a good number of years ago on Loch Watten with my fishing buddies, Scott the Toonheed Tiddler and Tam the Clarkston Tangler.  Yes the three of us were on a boat each taking turns on the oars.  To be honest we really shouldnt have been out for that last hour that night as the wind was really high and the waves, rather scary at times. But it was the last night of our fishing holiday and we didnt want to leave. Sitting getting rocked back and forth in the boat in the lashing rain, pulling our big bushy flees through the waves was an exhilarating experience  as the trout were leaping through the waves and aggresively taking our flees. It was a fantastic sight to see so many eager trout take our patterns in such wild conditions. I recall we were using big leggy trout patterns that night. Never has that old flyfishing clic

One of the benefits of Lockdown restrictions if such a thing can be said is that I've spent more time at the vice than ever before! It's no exaggeration to say that I've been tying flies every day and as a result I've filled quite a few fly boxes. I also believe that my flytying has improved considerably! Due to having plenty time on my hands these days,  I've also been delving into my sizeable collection of Angling literature and refreshing my mind with the influential sage advice and over looked fly patterns to tie and try contained within my books! In my last blog I focused on a fly pattern from the Excellent "Fisher in the West" by Eddie Young. It really has some great patterns in it which are well worth tying. Today I received another excellent new addition for my bookshelf. Emyrs Evan's " Plu Stiniog." This regional book is a wealth of Information and a great source of inspiration on which to base further work at the vice. It

Heres a pattern that was brought to my attention by Martyn White aka @ Flickingfeathers on his  excellent flytying youtube channel. Martin is a Scottish Flyfisher, Flytyer and Blogger living in Japan. Martin's flytying tutorials are a wealth of information and well worth checking out! The flee is also mentioned in Barron's book! "A Fine Line" He got the pattern from another book called "A Fisher in the West" by Eddie Young! Which was published by the Stornoway Gazette which focuses on Hebridean fishing and flies! Happy to say I've tracked down a copy which has just arrived this very morning! Looking forward to reading it as I just love books on regional flyfishing and flies!  Sorry! I digress. Heres the flee. The Solicitor!!

This weekend I have been quite lazy as I had planned on doing a fair bit of walking to try and reduce the Covid Beef mountain I appear to be accumilating! I did venture out once over the weekend for a cold and icey walk around the Lily Loch. However most of the weekend has been spent sitting at the vice, tying mostly muddlers!  I'd been tying a few Blue Zulu Muddlers which apparently, are great patterns to have in your armoury when fishing out on the Outer Hebrides! Where I hope to going in August Covid Permitting! So after tying a row of these I had a look online for any unusual or obscure muddler style patterns to tie. A pattern which caught my eye was the Voshimid Muddler which to my eye looks like a Teal Blue & Silver Muddler. Apparently this is great taker of sea trout & salmon. I'm sure there is a great video kicking about of Paul Young fishing on Voshimid. I cant remember if he was fishing that muddler though. I'll need to check it out and find out. I'm n