The Sawyer Pheasant Tail is a fly I use an awful lot, particularly in sizes 16 and 18. This season it has been my 'go to' fly and it rarely fails to produce some sort of interest.
I like to tie the flies in the traditional manner, however I do have a problem obtaining tail feathers with fibres of the right length, however I have developed a two part method of tying the fly to make use of the smaller feathers.
I have often wondered if Frank Sawyer would have used the same materials if he had designed the fly today, with the vast amount that are available. Pictured are two variations, the first using a small bead for the thorax and the second creating a body from EP-Trigger Point International Fibres (colour-March Brown).
This Daddy Long Legs pattern is taken from Malcolm Greenhalgh book, The Floating Fly. The fly sits beautifully on the water and can be deadly at this time of the year. The takes are often very savage and spectacular, however for one reason or another there seems to have been very few around this year.
I have used ginger rabbit dubbing for the body on this fly, using a little squirrel belly to enhance the colouring. The grey poly-yarn wing has been tied in as two small wings and the hackle wound front to back between the wings and tied off at the end of the body to give the effect I was looking for.
Malcolm’s book is well worth reading, describing the most recent develops in dry fly design. The book contains a chapter on the flies that Malcolm uses, however tying instructions are not included. The book is written in a very engaging manner and is very readable, giving the tyer plenty of food for thought.
I tied these after a friend told me about some large Perch in a lake that he fancied tackling with a fly.The flies are not my normal type of thing but I thought they might do the trick with the Perch. The left fly is grey frosty fish fibre and black calf tail and the right fly is white antron, green streamer hair and a hint of black calf tail. We fished one evening and caught plenty of Perch but only small ones, it will be interesting to have another go, but it will need to wait until the end of the trout season.
