Mallard & Blue

Of all the Mallard trout fly series that are available to the fly fisherman the claret version is the best known and most popular. 

I have to say it's one of my favourite patterns and I always have a few tucked away in my fly box.

One version that is not so well known and is recommended for the sea trout is the Mallard & Blue.

When I first heard of it I tied it up as thought it might look but after a look through my library I tied another interpretation (blue hackled version) of it as described in EJ Malones excellent book "Irish Trout & Salmon Flies." 

I'm certain this fly will do very well on the lochs of the Outer Hebrides  where I hope to get to again this year! 

The Telephone Fly

Many years ago it is reputed that one perfect day in June in the north west of Ireland a very enthusiastic auld fisherman had a wonderfully successful day on Lough Conn with a lough style fly pattern that he had recently tied in preparation for a day on this famous County Mayo Lough!

However after catching numerous troot all day with this very successful lough flee , later in the afternoon he lost this flee to a fiesty troot that broke him and made off with it.

In the evening the auld fella retired to the local pub/hotel and got incredibly drunk celebrating his success.
Late in the evening he phoned his mate to tell him about the outstanding fly pattern that caught him countless troot.
As you can imagine his drunken description of the fly to his mate that night got some what distorted and jumbled in the late night telephone conversation and insisted that his mate tie some up  for him and bring them over to him for the next day.

Next day his mate turned up with a dozen flees tied as described  in the drunken excitement of the late night call.
However the auld fella whilst recovering from a hangover the next morning and feeling  somewhat confused informed his mate that these flees  looked nothing  like the flee he was using and described.

His mate insisted these were tied exactly as described in the conversation on the telephone the night before!

Regardless, the auld fella went out on the Lough that day armed with his mate's flees and had an even more successfu day with his friend's fly pattern than the day before.

And so  the Telephone Fly was born!

The pattern pictured here is my take on the Telephone Fly and in keeping with the brilliant story of its origins probably looks nothing like it's intended to be. 

I just hope it catches me as many troot. Maybe in the future when I tell my mates about it we might come to learn of the Whatssapp Flee or the text flee.

The Gallows Pole

As  many of you may know who read my blog frequently I have a great enthusiasm for collecting

Flytying and flyfishing books.

What you may not know is I also collect old fishing magazines much to the Irritation of my wife as I have umpteen big boxes of them stored under our stairs and various other cupboards. I dont think i'll ever part with them as they are a great source of inspiration and Information.

I was looking through some 20 or so year old trout & salmon magazines the other day and got interested in a fly pattern I'd never heard of before which was curiously named the Gallows Pole! 

Nothing really new or original about it but thought it looked interesting enough and worth tying up a couple for the forthcoming season.

Tummel Style

I've never cast a fly on the river  Tummel in the pursuit of trout.

However I have past this major tributary of the River Tay many times over the years on my journeys up north to other Highland fishing locations and have often stopped close by its bankside usually in the big layby outside Pitlochry to eat my fish & chips on the way home.

I've cast an envious eye over the fast flowing Tummel many a time from a fast moving car on the A9 between Balinluig and Pitlochry and often wondered where access can be gained to the numerous inviting looking locations along this majestic river.

As I have already mentioned I've never fished the Tummel and hope to get around to scratching that itch one day.

As a keen flyfisher and flytyer I have a great interest in the history of the art of flytying especially regional fly patterns such as those associated with the North of England as well the Clyde and Tweed.

However as far as I'm aware the history of the great regional fly patterns of the Tummel are not so well known as their Lowland cousins of the Clyde and Tweed but are very similar in many ways.

Although these styles are alike,  the Tummel style is quite distinct. 

The patterns of the Tummel are rather noticable in terms of their scantiness and length of body. They are aparently dressed and designed that way to sink the fly faster.

If you can imagine such a thing they are even more sparse than the famous Clyde Style flies.

I am aware that there is a very old book available by Ewen M Tod called Wet Fly Fishing  which covers the flies of the Tummel and is one which I must add to my library. 

My knowledge of Tummel style is limited and was only gained by reading an odd article from the usual fishing magazines.

Recently my Interest was highlighted by the acquisition of some old flytyers Guild booklets wherin mention was made of Tod's Tummel flies in a very interesting article by David Westwood.

I was keen to have a go at tying these exceptional understated river patterns and decided that Tod's number 1 would be as good a place to start as any! 

It appears Tod was not very imaginitive in naming his patterns!

I'm rather pleased with the result and will endeavour to tie others in the next few days and weeks and maybe just maybe in a few months time take a drive up the A9 and for once cast a fly on this Perthshire river! 

What Trout Want!

As you may or may not know the title of this post is the name of a book by well respected flyfisher and Flytyer Bob Wyatt.

It's a book that I got just before Christmas and one that I am so late to the party with! So much so that everyone has probably grown up and stopped going to parties.

First published in 2013 it's Wyatt's second book and a follow up to his earlier work Trout Hunting.

Bob is a native of Canada but now resides in Scotland via New Zealand. Bob has a wealth of fishing experience in all three Continents and has shared that experience in the contents of this book. 

In this book Wyatt strips away all the conventional and traditional practices of fishing for trout that people like myself and others apply to our pursuit of trout.

Wyatt takes a no - nonsense approach to Flyfishing and the myths that surround it.  He also simplifies his flytying approach too with flies that are functional, simplistic and attractive to his quarry not the fisherman.

This book will change your views on flyfishing and will challenge your methods, practices and designs in flytying!

To accompany this book there are a couple of dvds available which I have had in my possesion for a good few years which were given to me by old Johnny Weir the one time owner of the sadly missed local handy angling shop here in Airdrie. 

The dvds are every bit as good as the book and displays Wyatt's flytying style obviously in a way that the book cant. 

Pictured here is my take on Wyatt's Deer Hair Emerger.

His writing has certainly given me food for thought towards fishing  and flytying and I Iook forward to applying aspects of his philosophy and principles to my approach in the forthecoming season!

Irish Mayflies

It's been a great Christmas Day here at the Dabbler HQ and I even managed to grab a little bit of time at my tying bench once all the family  presents were exchanged and Chistmas dinner was scoffed! 

As I sit here tonight enjoying a glass or two of wine I thought I would share with you the absolutely fantastic gift I received from my wife and son today.

As you may or may not know I have a great passion for angling and flytying books. 

One book I've been after to add to my library for a long time was Patsy Deery's " Irish Mayflies." I'd almost  given up trying to acquire a copy of it as everywhere I looked for it was sold out. I even contacted Patsy's son as I heard a rumour that he might have few copies of it but alas he got back to me to inform me that they'd all gone but he did take my details and told me he'd get back to me if any turned up.

To cut a long story short the book turned up today beneath our Christmas tree via Coch-y-bondhu books in Wales.

It's an absolute treasure trove of mayfly patterns compiled by Patsy Deery and photographed by Terry Griffiths. I've obviously not had much time to read it yet but did have a good look through it and managed to tie a few flies from it. I might give it a review in the future once I've digested the contents. 

In the meantime here are a few of the patterns from it.

Oh and I even found a new fishing jacket under the tree too which I was badly needing for next season.

Top two flies are Donald McClearn's Green Mayfly No.1.

Bottom two are A Carra May and a Silver Drake.

12 years of Dabbling!

Today my Hillend Dabbler blog is 12 years old.

Its been a real labour of love updating and sharing my observations, fishing reports and flytying over the last dozen years.

Looking through the blog archives  recently at my fishing trips and days out it brought  back so many  great memories. It also made me realise I'm getting on a bit now and that I should seize every opportunity I can to get out there!  and plan many more!

One very pleasing aspect of looking back through my blog is that my flytying skills have Improved and developed over the years.

It's also been very pleasing to note that many people from all over the world have dropped in over the years to have a look at the blog. I hope they found some interest and inspiration in my fishing and  flytying.

So here I will finish and raise a glass in celebration of 12 years of The Hillend Dabbler and heres to many more!

Flytyers Block!

Over the last few weeks I seem to have hit a brick wall flytying wise, as I have been struggling to find inspiration to tie something worthy of a place in my boxes. 

I usually find inspiration in my library of flytying books as well as  all the usual social media outlets.

However nothing has been firing my imagination of late. I seem to have exhausted tying all the fly patterns I will ever need. I'm really struggling and finding it difficult to create something new within my capabilities of flytying.

Is there such a thing as Flytyers Block? If Songwriters, Writers and Artists can suffer from a lack of creativity from time to time, it's quite possible and inevitable that flytyers will do to.

Recently Ive actually sat down at my vice just staring into thin air at times wondering what to do. I've even  gripped a hook in the vice run on some thread and tinsel and stripped it all back off as I just cant be bothered tying the same old styles! 

A couple of years ago the same thing happened to me after a spell of dabbling in watercolour landscapes. I just ran out of ideas and  now I havent lifted a brush or spread some paint for well over a year!

I've got a couple of highly recommended books coming soon over the festive period which I hope will inspire me.

In the meantime today I was looking through the archives of my blog which is almost 12 years old now to see if that would give me any ideas. 

I came across a post about a fly I got published in the Flyfishing & Flytying magazine 11 years ago which I named the Orange Grizzly! 

So I thought I might as well have a go a tying a few of these again.

I wasn't very pleased with the first couple of efforts and wondered why on earth it got selected for inclusion in the magazine at all.

Then I went back to my bench a few hours later and though it didnt look too bad after all. This attractor style did catch me a few trout at Hillend Loch from the boat on a few occasions back then when I first tied it. 

Through time I stopped using it and as all flyfishers and flytyers do I probably just moved onto some other new fly patterns that were all the rage at the time.

Anyway I digress, Im hoping that this wee pattern will get me busy at the vice again because even as I write this blogpost its  actually given me a possible idea on how to improve this pattern and come up with a variation.

Tom Stewart 200 Popular Flies

Away back when I first started flytying in the 90's Tom Stewart's Four Volume set of 50 popular Flies books were recommended to me most ironically by a man called Tommy Stewart (No Relation) who ran the Airdrie & District Angling Club flytying classes. 

Tommy was a fantastic flytyer and tutor and is responsible for teaching many A&DAC flyfishers and flytyers including myself.

It didnt take me too long to find the four volumes though I did get them separately over a period of a few months.

They were a great source of information to me as a novice flytyer though I wasnt familiar  with some of the flytying terms at the time described in the books.

These four volumes were first published between 1962 and 1973 and might now seem old fashioned and out of date to the modern day flytyer.

However I am fascinated by the history and tradition of old fly patterns as I'm sure many others are too and find these to be a great insight into the background and source of long forgotten fly patterns.

Recently I noticed a few omnibus editions of these books for sale on a well known online auction site. I wasnt aware that there was such editions available and was surprised to learn that they had been published in the 80's.

I was pleased to see these and recommended them to a couple of flytying friends who went ahead and got the book for themselves.

I didnt thinking of getting the omnibus edition myself until I noticed a copy of it going for an unbelievably super bargain price of £1. Which I snapped up immediately. I have noticed that there are still copies of this available from time to time. Therefore if you are interested in old style trout and salmon fly patterns? Do yourself a favour and get you hands on this old book. I highly recommend it.

To give you an idea of the patterns you will find within the book here are a couple of Sam Slicks as described in Volume One 

Tom Stewart recommends this fly to be fished deep on difficult days  when the weather is dull and Scoury and  not much fly life about on the Loch! "On such days trout invariably take the artificial fly deep down!"

The Burton!

Last week I was contacted by Jim Boyd who has a very popular angling column in that famous old Scottish weekly newspaper The Sunday Post.
Jim contacted me to enquire about the origins and name of one of my  trout fly patterns that caught his attention, which I often upload to the socials such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Jim informed me that he would like to include this pattern in his next weekly angling column.
The fly which is featured in this week's Sunday Post is my variation of The Burton.
Its an old fly pattern that was once popular on  Loch Lomond for the sea trout.
I came across this old pattern in the much sought after book by Bill McEwan, "Angling on Lomond"
This pattern caught my eye a few years ago as I liked the colour combination and style, and reckoned it would work well for me on the Outer Hebrides, which it well and truly did.
I believe the original has a wing of cinnamon coloured  turkey flank combined with teal. However I didnt have any cinnamon turkey so substituted the wing with bronze mallard instead.
I've never fished Loch Lomond as it just seems so daunting. However  the big loch does have its flyfishing devotees who know the water like the back of their hand! And I've heard that some old boys still fish the Burton for the sea trout despite all the latest modern fly pattern trends!
The variation I tied was based on a photograph from the book.
However I did reach for my "My Go To Book" too, for all Scottish fly patterns: Stan Headley's Trout & Salmon Flies of Scotland.
Stan referenced a different dressing from the one pictured in what I reckon to be the authoritative book on the matter "Angling on Lomond"
Bill and Stan both do mention a cinnamon coloured wing combined with teal,  however Stan makes no mention of the front third of the body being blue he states black!
Stan mentions a dark furnace hen hackle and a pheasent crest tail  but Bill's photo states black hen and tippet tail .
I wouldnt get hung up about which is the true dressing of the Burton as the version I tied did catch me trout on a couple of trips to the Outer Hebrides.
It may be a somewhat old fashioned pattern but it does still catch trout! Lets be realistic here! How on earth could the passage of time and variations of fly patterns ever influence the natural instinct and behaviour of trout?
The version I tied is as follows:

Size 10 hook.
Back Uni thread 8/0
Dyed orange tippet tail.
Body in three parts.
Rear: amber seals fur.
Middle. Red seals fur.
Front. Blues seals fur.
Rib. Silver Wire.
Hackle..Black Hen.
Wing. Bronze Mallard.

Hen Blackie

Ive always been fond of the rich history of Clyde Style flyfishing and flytying.

The unpretentious and simplistic tying of Clydestyle fly patterns really appeals to me in the same way that North Country Spiders and its traditions do too. 

Recently I've been enjoying tying Clydestyle flies and preparing a box for the Upper Clyde next season.

One of my favourites for the Clyde and I'm sure many others is the Hen Blackie.

It's such a simple and pleasing pattern to tie. 

This pattern has not only caught me trout on the Clyde but also at the nearby Camps Reservoir and Glen Franka Reservoir as well as highland lochans such as Loch Ba! 

Whilst looking through my flytying library I came across a variation of the hen Blackie in Stan Headley's excellent book: Trout & Salmon Flies of Scotland, wherein a pattern named the Claret Hen Blackie was referenced. I'd never heard of this pattern before and found it interesting to note that its recommended as an evening fly from June until the end of the season. Tied exactly the same way as the Hen Blackie, only difference is in replacing the yellow silk with claret silk. I look forward to using both  patterns when next on the Clyde.