Fly of the month

The Thurso is a wonderful river located at the far north of the Scottish Highlands, famous among fishermen for its good runs of spring salmon and grilse. In the first part of the season, when the water is cold and the salmon tend to have a rest close the bottom of the deepest pools of the river, successful fishing requires the use of sinking lines and heavy tube flies or Waddington. Artificials have to be presented at a short distance from the fish to induce them to take. There's quite a large selection of “heavy” flies that can be used for such conditions as you can find in the Thurso. For the past few years, the beautiful “Fast Eddie” has become one of the most popular patterns for this kind of fishing. This fly was invented by Stan Headley, a popular British fly tier and author of fishing literature, who elaborated on its dressing following the advice of Eddie McCarthy, the fishing superintendent of the river, with regard to the more effective fly colours for fishing in the Thurso. Eddie suggested to Stan to make an artificial with the wings dyed orange, yellow and green, and with a golden body. With a little of fantasy, Stan gave life to a splendid fly and he decided to dedicate it to his friend Eddie. I tried the Fast Eddie for the first on Loch Beg, situated on beat eleven of the Thurso, and during that day of April, I was able to catch two magnificent spring salmon of eight and fourteen pounds in a few hours of fishing.
THE DRESSING
Step 1: I start to build the Fast Eddie by fixing a treble hook of appropriate size on the Waddington shank and introducing the edge of the shank into a small piece of silicon rubber tubing. Next I push the silicon tubing along all the length of the Waddington shank, stopping it on the treble. I fix the Waddington shank into the vice jaws and tie the red thread.

	Step 2: With the red thread, I realise a sort of bandage around the open part of the Waddington shank and in front of this I tie in a piece of fine oval gold tinsel, which I use to create the tag, wrapping it around a short section of the shank.

Step 3: In front of the tag, I fix a long piece of flat gold tinsel (or mylar) and a piece of medium oval gold tinsel.

	Step 4: I build the Fast Eddie body by winding the flat tinsel around the Waddington shank in tight coils .

Step 5: Then I make the fly ribbing by making wide turns of oval tinsel around the body.

	Step 6: Just behind the shank eye, I tie in some fibres of pearly Crystalhair, placing them so that they extend backwards, reaching the central section of the treble hook.

Step 7: I cut off two tufts of dyed orange and yellow bucktail hairs and fix them just behind the Waddington shank eye. The hairs must be placed all around the fly body, so that their tips extend backwards covering the treble hook.

	Step 8: With a third tuft of bucktail, this time of green colour, I complete the wing structure, applying it over the previous ones. Next I cut off the front surplus of all the bucktail tufts.

Step 9: I realise the head of the fly with some turns of the red thread and then I whip finish it.
	Step 10: Along the central section of the head, I form a ring with some turns of black thread.
Step 11: I whip finish the black thread and complete the Fast Eddie with two coatings of clear varnish, distributed over its head. After the first coating I wait a few hours before I apply the second one. The varnish must be applied to the bandage around the opening part of the Wandington shank as well.

The Fast Eddie is one of the 90 flies described in the new Luca's book entitled
"Mosche - per Trote, Temoli e Salmoni".
To get more information about it click on
http://www.edolimpia.it/lev_1/libri/catalogo/5050501.htm
or send an e-mail to libri@edolimpia.it
Although it's written in Italian, it should be interesting to many fly tiers
due to the many excellent photographs.

Luca Montanari

FLY OF THE MONTH