Peter Ross - is it good for anything?

coolwings

The Peter Ross is a much regarded classic fly pattern that gets a mention in most fly tying books .
Why? I haven't a positive word to say about it.

I remember reading that for seatrout it was better without the tail with jungle cock cheeks. Some variants are used as a Bibio-like duckfly pattern with extra hackle but then its not as Peter Ross designed it.

I have caught a few trouteens fished down and across in a coloured dropping and clearing stream but anything would have caught at the time.
Ive tried it on loughs even easy lakes and I never got a take on a PR as far as I can remember. Why can a fly that looks so good be so ****e??? (for me anyway) .

I also know a few would not be without a Peter Ross and some seem to be of the view it's brilliant. For what types of waters or conditions do you find it at its best?

ironbluedun

for brown trout a small one size 14 or 16 can be good in a ripple when buzzers are hatching....otherwise not a huge fan of the peter ross....there are better patterns around that i would select first before the peter ross........

SeaFields

Found it to be a decent pattern on my local river for seatrout fished size 10 or 12.

It won't get a look in my local brown trout river - disaster.

peter74

After dusk it is my favourite pattern. Most of my seatrout were caught on PR. My seasons best brownes were on it.
I do not use it during the daylight, because l found it too attractive for salmon parr.

J. Ramone

Back in the days when I did a lot of fishing on the Slaney, particularily for sea trout I kept a good diary in which I recorded all relevant details. The flies which outshone all others by miles were kill-devil-spider, peter ross, bibio, connemara black and pearly wickhams roughly in that order. The pearly wickhams had the highest catch rate one year but seemed to catch the smallest sea trout. Sea trout flies which caught salmon for me were kill-devil-spider (quite a few, one hooked and lost on last year) and peter ross.

Secondary sea trout flies ie. ones which could have their day for me were black pennell, teal blue and silver, claret & jay, black ostrich, silver doctor, kate mcclaren, zulu, blue zulu, butcher, bloody butcher, dunkeld, greenwells spider and I could go on.

I have tried the peter ross on lakes without much success and i found it to be below par for brownies on the slaney.

Point is another fly-tier might find that one of my secondary list flies might outfish patterns from my first list because of his tying style. Anyway I like the peter ross tied as follows;

Hook: size 10 B175
Tail: 7 or 8 fine tippet fibres extending about the hook shank length with the second black band showing.
Body: silver mylar & red seals fur well picked out with any excessively long fibres trimmed.
Rib: silver wire (oval can destroy the appearance of the body)
Hackle: 3 or 4 turns of good quality black hen
Wing: teal flank with well defined thick black bars. (don't use wigeon)

The overall appearance is slightly darker than what you expect of a peter ross. Also much more mobile.

The biggest disadvantage of the peter ross to me is the time it takes to tie a good one, you could have three kill devils off the vice in the same time. I'm not happy with half the peter ross flies I tie usually because of the trickyness of the rolled teal wing on a small fly. If I can tie one I'm happy with, I'll put a picture up.

Zzippy

Peter Ross is my second biggest killer for sea trout, after the Teal Blue & Silver. Fished after dark it can be deadly. I've also had some very good Corrib trout on it around August time, when some fish are still feeding on perch fry it seems to do well fished on the point. Wouldn't fish it any other time of the year in the lake, and wouldn't really use it during daylight on the river either.

J. Ramone

Now if I can get to give him a swim!

ironbluedun

J. Ramone wrote: »

Now if I can get to give him a swim!

any particular reason for the 3-4 turns of hackle? do you find the heavy black hackle better than a sparse one?

J. Ramone

ironbluedun wrote: »

any particular reason for the 3-4 turns of hackle? do you find the heavy black hackle better than a sparse one?

With softer hackles I like slightly more. The barbs on hen hackles tend to loose a bit of substance with time in the water. Its a fine line with overdressing where the fibres end up bunched together and lifeless.

coolwings

There is a nymph version of the Peter Ross.
It's called the Ronald, from Tom Stewart's 200 Popular Flies.
This is a variant of the Ronald - a hen soft hackle Peter Ross & Blae spider version.

RONALD
Black silk head
Blae hackle
Black sealfur front 1/3 body
Red sealfur middle 1/3 body
Silver braid rear 1/3 body
Silver rib over sealfur.

It's a tail fly, or single nymph & just a Peter Ross variant.

Move it gently in figure-of-eights or little jerks, or leave to sink slowly under a floater/sink tip. Good for hill lough trout, and one of the flies that works well in stained water, along with the Wickhams, but seems to need a faster jerkier retrieve than ordinary more imitative patterns.


The original had a silk thin body and a grey mallard blae wing. It was of course a Bibio, or Heather Fly imitation.

I can't get a fish on a PR, but do have some Ronalds in my fly box. Good for rainbows, good for sticklebacking rainbows or browns when you don't have an Alexandra the right size to imitate the nesting male stickleback.
On mountain lakes it's a Bibio, or diving beetle with the air bubble flashy tail section.

Being honest, I suspect what I dislike most about the PR is that unmoveable wet fly style teal wing, and the much more active hackle of the Ronald lets me have a lifelike moving wet fly with similar colouration. I did some with a black hen hackle, and they work too.

Based on what the Ronald has done, I plan to tie up some skinny versions using the idea of the original pattern's thin body, but otherwise the spider version. I think the original thin body was better when buzzer pupae are being taken. Might do a palmer version too, like a shiny tail Bibio, and see if they like it tripping across a wave.

SeaFields

There's also a seatrout varient fished on a low water salmon hook. I tied a few earlier in the season but my camera wont upload at the mo so a description will have to suffice....

Hooks: Low water salmon hook 10-12
Wing: Black Squirrel
Body: Half silver tinsel, half red tinsel, bound with silver wire
Hackle: Black hen tied in at throat
Tail (optional): Golden pheasant


Hope that makes sense

ironbluedun

coolwings wrote: »

There is a nymph version of the Peter Ross.
It's called the Ronald, from Tom Stewart's 200 Popular Flies.
This is a variant of the Ronald - a hen soft hackle Peter Ross & Blae spider version.

RONALD
Black silk head
Blae hackle
Black sealfur front 1/3 body
Red sealfur middle 1/3 body
Silver braid rear 1/3 body
Silver rib over sealfur.

It's a tail fly, or single nymph & just a Peter Ross variant.

Move it gently in figure-of-eights or little jerks, or leave to sink slowly under a floater/sink tip. Good for hill lough trout, and one of the flies that works well in stained water, along with the Wickhams, but seems to need a faster jerkier retrieve than ordinary more imitative patterns.


The original had a silk thin body and a grey mallard blae wing. It was of course a Bibio, or Heather Fly imitation.

I can't get a fish on a PR, but do have some Ronalds in my fly box. Good for rainbows, good for sticklebacking rainbows or browns when you don't have an Alexandra the right size to imitate the nesting male stickleback.
On mountain lakes it's a Bibio, or diving beetle with the air bubble flashy tail section.

Being honest, I suspect what I dislike most about the PR is that unmoveable wet fly style teal wing, and the much more active hackle of the Ronald lets me have a lifelike moving wet fly with similar colouration. I did some with a black hen hackle, and they work too.

Based on what the Ronald has done, I plan to tie up some skinny versions using the idea of the original pattern's thin body, but otherwise the spider version. I think the original thin body was better when buzzer pupae are being taken. Might do a palmer version too, like a shiny tail Bibio, and see if they like it tripping across a wave.

i like that fly, simple, often the simple ones are good. have you tried it with brown partridge for the hackle instead of the blae? the brown partridge might give it some more natural 'movement' if you get my drift. or even blue jay in front of the blae might give it a little more 'pulse'.

coolwings

ironbluedun wrote: »

i like that fly, simple, often the simple ones are good. have you tried it with brown partridge for the hackle instead of the blae? the brown partridge might give it some more natural 'movement' if you get my drift. or even blue jay in front of the blae might give it a little more 'pulse'.

I've done them in black hen hackle, snipe hackle, and other mottled brown hackles which I think are grouse.
The blae hackled ones in the photo are not mine, but from an internet post where I was reminded of the pattern, and then I looked it up Tom Stewart which was resting on my bookshelf.
So all of mine are darker brown or black hackle, no opportunity to get photos just now.

Partridge would make it lighter, but darker than the photo above, and is one of my favourite nymph hackle materials.
I has not considered a jay overhackle, since I was more thinking "palmer", but it would be a very pretty "PR Bumble" if done that way.
Now you have mentioned it it's only fair you take that one forward.
I will do up some skinnies, and post.

Those who fly fish but who do not tie their own might be thinking this is off the wall, but it is the advantage of tying your own and a big reason why we tie flies.
You can take a good idea, or a hot feature, or colour mix and tie it in different shapes, silhouettes, winged or not, fat or skinny, even insert it into other successful flies to see what happens. Test them and the fish decide, and their judgment is the one that matters!

ironbluedun

coolwings wrote: »

Now you have mentioned it it's only fair you take that one forward.

i might just do that, tie one with brown partridge and blue jay...see how it looks/works. i also like the seals fur well picked out, particularly the black seals fur.

J. Ramone

coolwings wrote: »

Partridge would make it lighter, but darker than the photo above, and is one of my favourite nymph hackle materials.

Partridge is also a favourite of mine for nymph hackles/legs. Where dou you take the feather from? I usually select a feather from the wing covert near the shoulder. A feather from the same place on a grouse wing is a real fish catcher hackle but you would need to replace the fly after a couple of hours.