Myself, I DID get my first Rainbow on the Whisky Fly, many moons ago, my Dad took me to Grafham Water, up until this memorable day, most of my Trout fishing had been done on our local rivers, a 1lb Brownie was a prized catch if you were lucky, Rainbows had not appeared locally at that time, but, Grafham was one place to meet them.
So, off we went, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine what we would experience that day.
Remember, I was only used to small Brownies, our first drift was into Savages Creek, these two flies were on the leader, I hooked the first fish, a Rainbow of 3lbs, not big by todays' standards I know, but in those days, the fish were stocked at quite small sizes, the growth rates were astronomical, so even though my 3 pounder had been stocked, it had grown on to 3lbs, it was as close to wild as you would ever see in those days, our drift was into the shoreline, when the fish took, it was mayhem, in one run it went under the boat, and just carried on going, my backing was soon heading out, and lots of it too, eventually it tired and reached the net, bar of silver is not even close, it was immaculate, we went on to boat more fish during the day, Whisky did the business with Sweeney a close second, these were two must have patterns in their day.
Somehow they fell out of favour, why? I don't know.
But the important question is, do they still work? only one way to find out, you might be surprised.
Sweeney Todd.
Thread, Nano Silk, black.
Hook, Longshank.Partridge Streamer.
rib, silver wire.
wing, black squirrel or bucktail.
throat hackle, crimson cock/hen tied false.
Whisky Fly,
Thread, Nano Silk, Orange.
hook, Longshank.Partridge Streamer.
body, flat silver.
rib, hot orange floss.
wing, orange squirrel/bucktail.
Hackle, orange hen/cock.
Trevor, yes they do still work. I tie both in competition sizes too and they are great on their day
ReplyDelete