Kate MacLaren (variation)

[scotfly]

Still on the Kate Maclaren theme, this is a variation, or as it has a green tail it might more accurately be called a variation of a variation.
I first saw this style in a magazine a few years ago, it was meant as a simplified muddler style fly. If memory serves me right the style was called ?the easy muddler? Whatever the name though it is an effective style. You can of course adapt it to suit any pattern. i.e. Zulu with a gold flash bright head or a Soldier Palmer with a red flash bright head, etc.
I like to ?Gink? the head hackle and head when I fish this fly. The heavy hooks helps anchor it in the surface film and the Gink helps stop it drowning, you want it to bulge the surface.
Most people use Glo-Brite #11 for the tail, I prefer Danville?s DRM Green. I doubt if the trout will care either way. I just prefer the Danville?s shade.
I have tied the hackle in differently to the standard Kate sbs, no real reason for it, it just depends on the mood I?m in which method I use.

Instructions assume right-handed tyers

HOOK ? Kamasan B175 #10
THREAD ? Black UTC 70
HEAD HACKLE ? Red Game Cock
PALMER HACKLE ? Black Cock
RIB ? Silver Oval
TAIL ? Danville?s DRM Green
BODY ? Black Seals Fur
HEAD ? Copper Flash Bright.


STEP 1
Attach the thread at approximately the 1/3 point on the hook shank and tie in the head hackle.



STEP 2
Take 4 thread wraps and tie in the palmer hackle.



STEP 3
Continue wrapping to the bend and catch in the rib under the shank.



STEP 4
Then the tail on top of the shank.



When tying a dubbed body with a fluorescent tail I normally like to cover the tail butts with thread before adding the dubbing.



STEP 5
Apply a pinch of dubbing and wrap to form the body. The last turn of thread should finish in front (to the right) of the head hackle. This is where you will tie the rib off.



STEP 6
Wrap the palmer hackle down the body in open, even turns.



STEP 7
Trap the hackle tip with the rib and continue the ribbing to the shoulder. Tie off and trim the waste rib and the hackle tip.



STEP 8
Wrap 3 or 4 turns of head hackle, tie off and take the thread through the hackle to the head.



STEP 9
Apply a generous pinch of flash bright to the thread.



Then wrap to form the ?muddled? style head. Whipfinish and detach the thread.



STEP 10
Finally, rough up the head a little with a Velcro brush and varnish the thread wraps for the completed fly.

[just_steven]

Does that mean you have an 'Allan MacLaren' or a 'Liddle Kate' about to make an appearance that features a wee white hackle with a shaved chin?  :lol:

Try swaping the dubbing on this pattern for some micro uv straggle fritz! I call it the 'Steve McClaren'
Not very popular in England, but loved by all in Scotland!  :lol: :lol: :lol:

Steve

[greenwell]

when does it cease to become a Kate MacLaren, or anything close to it?

Allan.

I've never been happy with this popular idea of calling flies "variant" when a dressing is deviated from. As far as I am concerned if a tyer deviates from the original dressing then it is a different pattern. If not, then we should be calling just about every pattern a variant.
       Call me an old stick in the mud but to my mind a Kate MacLaren which has been tinkered with is not a Kate MacLaren. It's a pattern which closely resembles it, but it's not it.
    Is a Cinnamon and Gold a Wickham's variant? No. Is a Bloody Butcher a Butcher variant? No. If tyers are going to tinker about with patterns then at least give the result the decency of it's own name :crap

                           Greenwell

[just_steven]

I certainly agree with you there Greenwell!

The problem I find is that coming up with a new name for the "new"  super fly can be too much of a pain in the arse. Or if you do come up with a new name and you show it to someone. They tend to say "Thats just a Kate MacLaren  (or whatever) variant with a straggle fritz body"! When I call a fly a variant it's either because I don't have a name for it or its the easiest way to describe it.

As far as the use of the uv straggle fritz goes, its worked very well for me. I have quite a few standard patterns (zulu, dabbler, bibio, soldier palmer, Kate Maclaren, hedgehogs) where I've swapped the dubbing for a few turns of the uv micro straggle, more often than not to good effect.

Is that Steve MacLaren thing well recieved in Wales? :lol: :lol: :makefun

Allan.

The Welsh love it too!  :lol:

You should try some fritz on your dries!
I can see an article coming out of this...  :lol: :lol:

Steve

[greenwell]

[quote author=Allan Liddle  Even if it just goes down the lines of a slight change like Green Tailed Kate, Sunburst Kate, Bibio Emerger  :roll:, Wingless Wickhams.  That way you're still offering a feedback to the orig idea and pattern

Allan.
[/quote]

   Agree with that, we do after all have whole series' of flies such as Teal and-/, Blae and -?, Mallard and-?. You get my meaning. The style of pattern remains the same, the changed body colour ( as in the examples above ) becomes part of the pattern's name without unnecessary lengthy descriptive names. So a Teal and Green is a Teal and Green, not a " green - bodied- red- game- hackled-Teal- and- Black -variant ". :roll:

                                        Greenwell.