Grayling Flies

[Clan Ford]

The season is steadily marching on and the grayling are beginning to show more frequently, and with a nymphing session planned on the Earn with Pete, I sat down and tied up a few grayling flees.

First thing was was to make up some of my super secret body material.  Well not so secret really, the ingredients are simple enough:

Some Veniards Glister Dubbing (in pink, green or brown) mixed with some hare mask. 

The secret is balancing out the colours, the more hare the less sparkle, a bit grey or brown under fur and it tones the colour down. 


The Raw materials

Once I've got the dubbing mixed add a few tungsten beads, some lead underbody, a bit shellback and some hackle, not to mention a variety of hook types and you have a selection of nymphs and spiders.


The finished product

Pete and I used them on the Earn today, results and report to follow

Norm

[Fishtales]

The pink ones on the left, try it with a thin marabou tail

[scotfly]

Lovely looking flees and some nice subtle blending of ancient and modern. I can't see them failling. 

[Clan Ford]

Lovely looking flees and some nice subtle blending of ancient and modern. I can't see them failling. 

Subtle, now there's a word I doubt you'd use if you saw them in real life.  Sparkly, now there's a word..... :lol: :lol: :lol:

nice looking flees Norm....wish I had a use for them over here 

Gav, the visual properties of the flees would probably work well on the wee troots in the peaty burns round your way, in fact they would probably work well with some of them silvery troots that appear in the burns about this time of year

Norm

[rabbitangler]

I know of several people who have caught Salmon on pink bugs - fished as per grayling.

[Fishtales]

nice looking flees Norm....wish I had a use for them over here 

I fished Loch Linne once, the one at Crinan, and caught brown trout on a Partridge and Orange size 12. Nothing surprising in that, except their mouths were full of pink Nematode worms which they had been feeding on. I had matched the hatch

[scotfly]

Subtle, now there's a word I doubt you'd use if you saw them in real life.  Sparkly, now there's a word..... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Subtle compared to unblended glister.

[haresear]

Those look nice Norm. As luck would have it, I've just bought and been given various colours of Glister dubbing. I'll be copying some of your patterns for grayling.

I know of several people who have caught Salmon on pink bugs - fished as per grayling.

I remember you saying that on the Don trip Peter. I think I'll tie some largish versions up with that in mind.

Alex

[rabbitangler]

Yeah Alex, there are afew places around rosebank & Maudslie where a few silver tourists could make a mistake during the grayling season :wink:

[Clan Ford]

Nice fleas Norm, I used to be a bit sceptical about the artificial  properties of glister. Well my views have its changed a bit this season . Ive been getting quite a few this season with flies with thoraxes which have peacock glister. I really like the idea of toning them down with harelug though . What % mix would you say is about right? Ive got to get some fly tying done for the grayling , its just around the corner. By the way thought this site might be useful for the heavy bug enthusiast, Not a bad price for the tungsten beads, and they have them in the pink too.
http://www.tungsten-beads.co.uk/
Cheers Col

Col,

I vary the mix of hare lug, especially with the pink.  So sometimes its mostly harelug with a pinch of pink glister right through to pink glister with a pinch of harelug.  If the water is dirty then I go for the flashier fly but if its low and clear then the more muted flies are the ones to go for.  I find that its harder to tone down the green and brown glister and use more harelug in these mixes.  The brown glister has a fair old hint of green in it and a wee copper head, brown glister and brown harelug nymph produced most of Pete's fish for him on Sunday, while most of mine came to the same nymph but with green glister.

Your site for beads looks good value.  I reckon anything about 10p per bead is pretty cheap.

Magic looking flys Norm, when you opened your flybox on the Lyon the other weekend it was quite an eye opener, lots of sparkle and plenty of weight with the tungsten beads, must get busy on the vice. And those woolly buggers you tied up looked brilliant and a lot bigger than i expected them to be, .

Brian,

The body of the wooly buggers is the green glister and harelug mix. 

Them Earn fish seem to really like a bit of sparkle, not so sure it will work everywhere though :?


Norm