 FLY
OF THE MONTH
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MOSCONE
By Luca Montanari
Numerous
insects that spend their lives in the fields
or in the forests often have the opportunity
to move close to banks of water courses, sometimes
with the intention of drinking or collecting
nectar from flowers that grow along rivers. However,
their approach to the water may have an unlucky
outcome: an unexpected breath of wind, a hazardous
aerial manoeuvre, or an urgent desire to drink
can induce them to land abruptly on the surface
of the river, becoming in this way the vulnerable
target of fish attacks. Trout as well as grayling
and dace learn to recognise them as tasty prey.
- Many
fly tiers have developed numerous types of
dressing to reproduce the shape of diptera,
lepidoptera, and coleoptera, etc, on a hook.
Many of these artificials have contributed
to the development of particular strategies
for alluring the fish - we can just think of
the Daddy-long-legs for "dapping" fishing
on the lakes, or to palmers, like the Bivisible,
for "beating" fishing on the rivers
populated by daces.
- Generally
terrestrials can be used with luck as an alternative
to the traditional dry flies, especially when
we suppose that our finned adversaries are
accustomed to most common imitations of up-wings
and sedges, but they are unable to identify
the trick present in flies with strange or
unusual shapes. Our preference can therefore
fall on a Moscone, which can stimulate the
curiosity of a trout or a dace with its combination
of colours, but also with its similar appearance
to a Musca domestica: a popular diptera that
lives everywhere and that sometimes ends in
the stomachs of the fish. In fact, in the beauty
season, it is easy to observe these insects
flying in proximity of the water courses, looking
for sugar and nectar on the fresh plants that
grow along the river banks, with the result
that some of them fall into the river and then
are attacked from the fish. To claim that trout
or dace can specialise themselves in a selective
diet prevalently composed of houseflies is
absurd; anyway these bugs are very attractive
to the fish, maybe because they are rather
appetising.
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Materials List: |
Hooks: |
Mustad
Signature R30, size 14 to 12 |
Thread: |
Black |
Body: |
Dubbing
of anthracite grey
polypropylene |
Wings: |
The
points of two blue dun
cock neck hackles |
Thorax: |
Dubbing
of natural dark
grey-cul-de canard fibres
mixed with blue dun cock hackle fibres |
Thorax cover: |
Orange
black barred
golden pheasant tippet feather |
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Tying
instructions: |
Step
1:
The
elemental structure of Moscone is an evident indication
of how easy it is to build the fly. In fact, no step
of its tying is particularly difficult, so everybody
can manage to tie it.
I start to prepare my imitation by fixing the hook on the vice jay and tying
on the black thread. Next, I wax a short stretch of thread and apply a pinch
of anthracite grey polypropylene to it, to make a compact dubbing. The dubbing
is then used to form the fly body along the rear two-thirds of the hook shank. |
Photos
and fly by Luca Montanari
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Step
2:
Cut
off a small orange black-barred feather from a
golden pheasant tippet. I tie it in by its tip,
fixing it in front of the abdomen at "twelve
o'clock" of the hook shank, ensuring its bright
side faces the body. |
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Step
3:
I
clamp a small bulldog clip onto the fibres of two natural
dark grey cul-de-canard feathers and of a long blue dun
cock neck hackle (the three feathers should be arranged
one on the top of the other). With a pair of very sharp
scissors, I trim away the feather fibres caught by the
bulldog clip close to the point where they are attached
to their stalks.
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Step
4:
I
form a dubbing loop with the black thread and insert in
it the blades of the bulldog clip holding the cul de canard
and the cock hackle fibres. I make a few turns of the dubbing
spinner to increase the tension of the thread, then I slowly
open up the bulldog clip whilst removing it from the thread
loop. The thread will spin itself around the freed fibres
to form a mixed rope of CDC and hackle. |
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Step
5:
With
the compacted dubbing, I form a gauzy thorax to the fly
by winding it around the front third of the hook shank.
Next, with the scissors, I reduce the length of all those
cul-de-canard fibres that appear too long. I now take two
long, broad hackles from a blue dun cock neck and I tie
them in so they project in a "V", flat on each
side of the body to represent the wings of the imitation.
For reasons of stability on the water, the wings must extend
backwards for a length equivalent to one and half times
that of the hook shank. |
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Step
6:
I
take the golden pheasant tippet feather, I bring it over
the thorax and I bind it closely behind the hook eye: this
creates the fly's thorax cover. |
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Step
7:
Using
a few turns of thread, I make the artificial's head which
is then finished with a whip-finish and with a small drop
of clear varnish. |
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Luca
Montanari
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