Spinner
Reverse
By Luca Montanari
A
selective trout, which repeatedly refuses
our flies, is often one of
the most fascinating adversaries and is
worthy of being challenged
by us. Such a fish keeps us busy: we have
to put into practice a whole series of
devices, which is the fruit of our experience,
in order to entice it to take. The most
common devices include offering the trout
a selection of flies, which normally differ
in colour, size or type of feathers being
used. We practically
pay all our attention to detailed shades
of colour, all of which involve the same
kind of assembly, and so we neglect what
really compromises the imitation's resemblance
with the insect: the hook.
- Just observing an artificial fly on the surface
from the point of view of the fish, we can easily
see how often some parts of the hook are visible.
In particular, the strange bent outgrowth at the
abdomen's extremity, ending with the hook point,
is a kind of danger signal to the trout. It brings
back memories of shock and surprise from the last
time it met with such an "insect", and
therefore our fly is sending all the signals for
refusal. The search for a solution to such a problem
has triggered the creation of lifelike artificial
imitations by innumerable fly dressers: the result
has been obsessive research for tying techniques
and an ability to show off the imitative qualities
of their flies to the maximum. Such research is aimed
at hiding the hook to make it less visible. This
brought about the birth of several "impressionistic
flies", or at least, more complex ones.
These minute objects are sometimes more suitable
for adorning walls in our homes, or as framed items
at an exhibition, rather that being effectively useful
for the solution of difficult situations on the river
banks. By this I do mean that any fly structured
in an elaborate way is destined solely to have a
unique place inside a fly box merely to be shown
to friends for the purpose of arousing their admiration
or curiosity. More than once, I have in fact realised
that a smart imitation can be decisively appetising
for a trout. Their suspicion appeased, they will
come to attack such unusual silhouettes, provided
that the elements that could be danger signals for
the fish are concealed.
I also realised that some artificial patterns, despite
their extremely intricate and complex appearance,
only require a modest effort and short dressing time.
Amongst these I was surprised by the case of the
upside-down tying technique. The resultant flies
offered the great advantage of placing the hook on
the surface upside down, with the point towards the
sky. To the eyes of the fish, the abdomen hid all
of the bent part. In this way, the fly can hide the
part that frequently alarms the fish, causing them
not to rise. Trout were persuaded to take the fly,
even if they had already shown reluctance of accepting
a very likely imitation made along traditional lines.
.
The
Dressing
The fly, which I propose to dress
in the photo sequence, presents a small up-wing fly
in the spinner phase, such as an Ephemerelia ignita
or a Baetis. These are insects that are common in European
waters, prevalently hatching in the period from the
beginning of spring throughout summer.
|
|
Materials List: |
Hooks: |
|
Thread: |
Red |
Tail: |
Coq
de Leon |
Abdomen: |
Pearlescent
tinsel |
Wing: |
Light
brown Cul de canard |
Thorax: |
Dubbing
of light brown arctic fox fur |
Hackle: |
Natural
red |
|
Step
1:
We
start the dressing of such an imitation by inserting
the hook onto the vice jaw, so that a good part of
the bend stays free. We then wind the red thread
on to the shank in order to secure four or five "Coq
the Leon" hackle fibres just after the point where
the bend starts. Such a high number of fibres for
the tail may seem too much if we aim at creating
an exact imitation, but if we want the tail part
of our fly to have good floating capabilities we
must not make this too sparse. |
Photos
and fly by Luca Montanari
|
FLY
OF THE MONTH 
