I've added a picture of the most successful "pattern" that I've tried. This is more like a bass or pollock lure and I would never have dreamed of throwing this to a brownie. The thing is, they love it!
I have quite a selection of this type of lure I purchased off an internet auction site with the intention of using them for shore rock fishing. I know nothing of the material used but this particular colour has accounted for over sixty fish in the last week, all wild brownies from a lough and two wee rivers. Other colours have produced little or nothing.
All three waters contain minnows, which are spawning at the moment and quite active. I can only imagine the trout are quite happily guzzling the minnows and, this lure, somehow, matches the "hatch".
The takes are explosive and I took a good few fish on days which I may well have blanked. It has also accounted for two of the best trout I have ever caught on my local stream.
The lure has been embarrassingly effective but great fun. I've fished it down and across and upstream with a fast strip. The takes are heart stopping, with a few fish leaping clear of the water as they strike. The lure is very light, with no additional weight, and fishes high in the water. It still fished well when the eyes fell off, at which point it resembled a hank of baler twine impaled on a hook!
I wont abandon the dry fly just yet but I will keep a couple of these handy!
