So I set myself a wee challenge the other day. I was getting a bit bored with tying the same old flies- which I have got to admit does make sense as I only fish a few flies (which hardly anyone asks me about anyway) when I came across a fly called a half hog. It was devised by an Orkney angler, Norman Irvine whos original intention was to fish the fly as an emerger to imitate hatching midge.
Stan Headley on his website states
The newest pattern for wild trout and stockies. Versatile beyond belief. Fish it with ginked wing as a semi-immersed emerger, figure-8 as a nymph/midge pupa, or slow pull to represent fast nymphs e.g. Olive nymphs or shrimp.
It’s a funny thing, coming across a guide in Scotland as the expertise have never really taken off over here, I know there are a few but certainly not as common as ghillies.
So I tied up a few olive half hogs, I must say they turned out looking not too bad. No doubt they will sink like a stone when I cast em out but it will be fun trying them on my usual haunts.
The last couple of days I have had Yellow Mays stuck in my head. Alex (a Kelvin fisher) seen a rather large hatch of them down on the Kelvin which made me remember that I have absolutely none in my box. Seeing as how I had absolutely nothing to make a traditional yellow may I decided on a little yellow cdc effort which I think look quite nice. It I simply yellow thread, bleached deer har and then yellow cdc as the wing. I used a size 16 Kamasan B100 hook.
I am not sure how effective it will be without a tail as it does seem quite prominent in the picture. We will see!
On Saturday I stood for a while at one of the tributaries at a place where the burn runs next to a supermarket. Not the trolley park on the right hadn side- is this the source of the trolley infestation?
After a while my eyes became adjusted to looking in the water and I could see a few small trout darting around chasing each other and taking nymphs. The water was crystal clear and would have been at a nice height the place I usually fish on this tributary. See Here…..Here and… Here
But alas, I thought I would wait until Sunday and it has not stopped raining since.
when the yellow mays were hatchinglast year i had great success with a dick walker mayfly nymph. Although duns were about the trout seem to be nymphing ?? !!
I have had some success with a Sparkle Dun when Yellow May Flies are hatching. Yellow beadhead nymphs also work.