Would it work?

J. Ramone

What's your opinion? I decided to tie a more imative shrimp fly for salmon. Realistic shrimps incorporating epoxy or bug bond are common for salt water flies. Why not for salmon in freshwater?

Dressing is;

Thread: Orange 8/0
Hook: 8 single
Feelers: couple of turns of orange cock hackle, shortish orange bucktail and long orange polar bear.
Eyes: melted orange fly line backing tips dipped in black celire and coated with hard as nails
Rib: gold wire
Body: white synthetic cushion stuffing
Body hackle: orange cock clipped on top
Back: Hends shell back with loon uv knot sense over finished with hard as nails.

The back when seen from above has a bright pearly sparkle.

You could substitute orange goat hair or other stiff hair for the polar bear or pig bristles.

SeaFields

Yes it would!

I tied practically an identical pattern for a friend of my father who is a regular salmon fly angler (i'm not) and wanted something that looked a lot more like a shrimp than 'shrimp patterns'. The one I tied was closer to red than orange, tied with hot orange thread and some flash in the tail.

He got a few fish with it on the Lee in Cork and the Blackwater.


Jaysus, thats a bit freaky. Its like you took it straight from my fly box it's so similar to the one i tied :eek:

J. Ramone

Thats encouraging.

Funnily enough I thought about putting some sparkle (crystal hair) in the tail but thought there would be enough sparkle in the shell back.

I'm not sure if an allys or cascade wouldn't do a better job but there might be a confidence factor in using a fly that looks similar to the real thing to the human eye.

I presume your version was used in slowish water on the lee where the fish would have had plenty of time for inspection.

Octopus

http://globalflyfisher.com/tiebetter/shrimp-anatomy/pic.php?id=8816

SeaFields

J. Ramone wrote: »

I presume your version was used in slowish water on the lee where the fish would have had plenty of time for inspection.

I'm not to sure on that one but he was saying that he knew that something that looked closer to a shrimp would work far better that traditional shrimp patterns and would make an ideal substitute when the shrimping was stopped on the rivers in sept.

I also tried to use red dubbing to get a clutch (?) of eggs under the shrimps body but could never get it to sit a way i was happy with. Apparently this would have made it better again. I used 20lb mono melted under a candle for the eyes. The bigger the eyes the better. I bought some rainbow trout lure eyes for it but they were a disaster.

As an aside I tied a completely white traditional shrimp pattern for seatrout and got some lovely fish on it fished slowly in pools at my local river.

J. Ramone

SeaFields wrote: »

I also tried to use red dubbing to get a clutch (?) of eggs under the shrimps body but could never get it to sit a way i was happy with.

I might give that a try on a red version. My current version might be a bit too flashy for low water. The egg clutch idea might work well with the shell back coming well down the body. I have just substituted stripped hackle stalks similar to the red francis instead of the the polar bear hair. It looks a lot more symetrical and life like I think.

The stalks could be a bit longer on this one but you'll get the idea. Sorry about the bad pic, the fly is not as heavily dressed as it looks here.

SeaFields

That's a lovely looking fly too.

Its great to be at them. Even tho I never actually fished any of the ones I tied I must have tied dozens of them trying to get it just right. There wasn't a lad in my club that didn't end up with one or two in his fly box.

Another slant I was asked to tie for a friend was a very simple fly but this guy was adamant it was great for fresh grilse.

Red body, a short red squirrel/bucktail tail and a double red hackle spun the length of the body and tied off. Simple, takes 60 seconds to tie but he said it was great.

J. Ramone

Just back from the river tonight. Had a chance to test it. I saw a head and tail as it was getting dark at the tail of a pool. I played it safe and put up a dark fly for good visability against the darkening sky, a size 10 Jeannie instead of a sea trout fly I had just changed to. 10 yards up from where I saw the head and tail, I had a boil, then another two casts later and then connected a good few casts later a small bit upstream. It was a small grilse less than 3 pounds without much fight so running hard.

I had tried the shrimp earlier but up to then there were no fish showing and the water although clearing was over two foot above summer level. I was sorry I hadn't given the new fly a try but glad I connected with the little grilse. It will get a good trial in Mayo in a few weeks time. I think it would look and fish a lot better in a silver salar double.