Today much of fly fishing is ignored or unknown to the traditional practitioner who fishes "on the drift" imitations of insects, which may be sensible in many regions at special times of the day or evening. However, there is an equally huge discipline of fly-rod fishing that makes use of feathered lures to torment the fish into striking, whether or not they are hungry at that point in time. Forget trying to "match the hatch". It is not essential to do so in the catching of trout.
So broaden your mind and try aggressive fly fishing with a feathered lure. It is like spin-fishing using a fly-rod. You can use a "shooting head" to catch big trout with a lure on big rivers, or a standard level line for small stream fishing. But you need a simple feathered lure to annoy a resting trout. The trout thinks "What the hell is that? This is my resting spot so go away. Buggar off, and here is a nip to see you on your way." And so the trout strikes the lure, even though it may not be hungry.
The commercial "Red Setter" feathered lure from Taupo, New Zealand, is ideal for tormenting trout into striking. They are tied on a #4 hook with an orange body with backward sloping hackles at the front and midway, plus a hair tail. They are easy to tie, but easier still is my expanded version of them which I call my "Terror Lures". These are tied on long shank #4 hooks without using a vice, so naturally they appear rather rough, but attractive to trout, being both annoying to them, or as a yummy minnow.
Basically all you need are the hooks, a tube of glue, thread, orange and/or red wool, and a bag of feathers. I use the spotted guinea feathers which are up to 9 cm long with useable bits to 6 cms. The feathers have a black background covered in spots ca 4 mm size, initially white but also dyed many colors, yellow, red and brown being best. A bag of mixed colors can be purchased on eBay for a few dollars in the millinery and apparel section.
Start by winding say orange, or red wool, around the hook, tying in with thread and glue (I use clear silicone), leaving about 2 cm free at the front and end of the hook. Later the ends can be cut to size and the wool teazed out to trail the fly. Next the feather is fixed and glued in place up-front facing the front, like as if you were tying a dry fly. Next bend it back and twist around the hook so the fine end becomes part of the tail and fix with thread and glue where knotted. Sometimes I add another hackle at the front and wrap in more thread to make a head which I glue and color black with a marking pen. So there you have it. Terror lures are easy and fun to make. Photos coming up but there are a few already on shown on this blog. Tight lines. Allano
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