Anyway, so i was sitting on my sofa on Thursay night minding my own business watching a bit of telly when my mobile telephone rang – “Alberto Laidlaw” it said on the screen. Alberto is about the closest I get to angling legends apart from Paul Young and Kenny Sichi. Here he is wearing a pink shirt whilst fishing –
The photo is from the Game Angling Scotland Page.
Alberto is the creator of the Gryffe Olive – a fly which I always have in my box.
- Tail – Micro Fibetts
- Body – Hairs EarWing Post – Deer Hair
- Hackle – Alberto reckons a nice Blue Dun is the best. The one in the picture is tied with a golden badger.
- Thread – Yellow
The one pictured is a a fly I tied around 15 years ago and looking at it now I can see that the proprtions are all wromg – tail too long, deer hair post too tall etc – still, it caught me plenty trout and is a great representation of an early season olive.
Anyway, he was phoning me to ask about Kelvin permits for the year – he was in a zoom chat with a half dozen guys from the Milngavie Fly Dressers and someone had asked about them – he then phoned me up to ask. I advised that they are not for sale yet and he passed this on.
It turns out that they had several fly tying demos over zoom which just seems fantastic. I am glad Alberto is still teaching fly tying and passing on his wisdom – he says I may even get an invite!
Tie up some Gryffe Olives – they are great in rough water and are straightforward to tie!