Diawl Flashbach

[scotfly]

This is the Diawl Flashbach, a long shank variation of the Diawl Bach and one which for me has been more successful than the standard dressing.

Instructions assume right-handed tyers

HOOK ? Kamasan B200 #12
THREAD ? Brown 8/0 Bennechi
TAIL ? Brown hen hackle fibres
BODY ? Peacock Herl
RIB ? Copper wire
BEARD ? Brown hen hackle fibres
THORAX ? Peacock Herl
CHEEKS ? Medium flat pearl tinsel.

STEP 1
              Mount the hook in the vice, attach the thread and wrap towards the bend. Catch in the rib under the shank as you go.




STEP 2
            Take a bunch or brown hackle fibres and mount on top of the shank.



STEP 3
            Catch in 3 Peacock herls and wrap the thread to the shoulder.



STEP 4
             Apply a cote of varnish to the body, then after twisting the Peacock Herl into a rope wrap it over the wet varnish.



STEP 5
              Wrap the rib and tie off. Then invert the hook in the vice and attach a bunch of brown fibres for the beard hackle.



STEP 6
             Turn the hook the right way and tie in one strand of pearl Mylar on each side of the hook.



STEP 7
            Tie in a further three strands of Peacock Herl for the thorax and wrap towards the eye, then trim off the waste.



STEP 8
            Pull the two strands of pearl Mylar towards the eye, parallel with the hook shank and tie off. Form a neat head whipfinish and varnish for the completed fly.



As with the standard Diawl Bach the variations are endless.
You can weight this fly if you want, but I find the added weight of the long shank hook sufficient.
I have used medium Mylar because I prefer a subtle flash, if you wish you can use wide Mylar or use Red Holographic or Red Glo-Brite (or anything else that takes your fancy)

[Ian_M]

I'm with Bandy on this one, the Diawl Bach doesn't catch for me.

I think the main reason is that it's one of those flies that I tend to try it when I'm struggling.  It's a great looking fly though with a good reputation as a catcher.

Must give it a better try this season.

Another great step by step Scotfly.

[Traditionalist]

Some years ago now, I was fishing a large lake in Sweden,and I already had a couple of very good trout, and some nice perch around the two pound mark, and my wife also had a few.

A gentleman watched us both casting for a while, and catching the occasional fish, and then approached my wife, and asked her what she was using, in very bad Swedish.

My wife told him we were using Alexandras.

He immediately replied that he had never caught a fish on one.

It turned out he was English, on holiday in Sweden, and the main reason he had never caught a fish on an Alexandra was that he had never actually used one!

Some of these things can be a bit of a bugger! 

TL
MC

[greenwell]

Can't say it's a fly I've had a great deal of success with, but I have found it useful in a flat calm, fished on the tail and with either a red or green holographic rib, or red/green copper wire. Having said that, many years ago one of my biggest Harperrig broonies fell to a standard D.B. inched back amongst boulders on an intermediate line. The fly was a size 8 and the troot was 2lb 13 ozs. Three on a cast, red-rib on the tail, green-rib in the middle and silver-rib on top, drifted round on the wind just sub-surface can be quite deadly if there are good hatches of buzzers going on.

                    Greenwell

[zeolite]

I have had wild broonie success on this but in a strange way.

I was fishing a private stocked pond in Deeside which was full of 'bows. me and my mate were out in the boat and he had lures on and I had an intermediate with nymphs and a diawl bach. In the next hour he caught 3 bows and I caught 5 little broonies (which we didn't even know were in there). Diawl bach success I reckon