[Sieger Devries]

Since my Bloa flew I post it again.... 

Discovered fishing with Spider (North Country Flies) in Ireland this year and they keep catching fish for me... Ireland, Germany, Austria when I used them they caught really good fish and wauw with what power are those little unsightly flies taken....

Simply love them....



Used materials:

Hook:      TMC 3769 size 12
Thread:    Pearsalls Gossamer Silk Color: Primrose
Dubbing:  Mole
Hackle:    Waterhen

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sieger

I'm very sorry that we lost your first thread on this topic!

Best wishes
Mike

[Sieger Devries]

No worries Mike... We had the same thing last year in our Dutch forum... In the end we descided to use a new software and start over again.... From scratch...

Luckily we could keep the old one as a library kind of thing...

But we learned to update every other day now....

[Loxiafan]

Just to provoke thought, one from the 'darkside' in antithesis to Siegers perfect 1 -1.5 hackle turned (?) 'traditional' NC style Waterhen Bloa.  Traditional N.C exponents look away now:



Although I do like the sparse hackles, I like using denser hackled spiders like this for fishing in faster, streamier water, and often letting them go round 'on the swing'. My theory being that the hackles activate more and 'close up' under water tension as the fly rises up thus resembling a nymph. I got myself a new A-hole torn by a NC spider expert for suggesting this on a UK fly fishing forum as, according to his extensive research, this doesn't happen. I am not so sure about this. Coulda been worse -  I might have shown him this flee ! Anyway have taken a lot of fish using this method when there is no rises and you usually lose a few barbs per fish so the fly does get 'lighter' in the hackle.

This one only has two and a half turns (of Coot) but I didn't strip one side. Pearsall's No.4 (waxed) for body, sparse mole dubbing and Mustad R50 hook size 14 (barb crimped).

My best spider last season. A Black Pennell hackled this way, for me, has been deadly for trout and Sea Trout.

Lindsay

[Mike Barrio]

Nice, very nice!

Cheers
Mike

[Sandy Nelson]

Cool

I have them tied all different ways for different jobs.
To add to the mix , in Ff&FT this month mr Huffer suggests that they should only be fished
Really slow on still water. He misses that a waterhen bloa fished fast and erratic is a perfect corixea nymph imitation
As it kicks every time it moves. And corixea are Fast!!

Sandy

[Sieger Devries]

Not provoked and I'm not a purist at all...   In fact I mostly ty 2 variants of the NC-flies... The thinner ones for upstream or "stiller" water... The thicker ones for downstream fishing... They both do the job...

Actually in Austria on really white water the thicker (black and silver) spider were the hit when I was there last june.... And contrary to the FF&FT article they were taken like crazy...

So what ever works, I will use (and ty) to fish...  

It's just that I like to tie some of my flies as close to the book as I can... This is one off them (think it's 1 1/2 turn with one side removed..)...  

Oh and yes I like yours   ....

[Loxiafan]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the comments re my "hippy" Waterhen Bloa. No, the 'purists' were on that other UK fly Forum !

I prefer to fish it upstream or up and across to rising fish if I can and for these I'd use 1.5 to 2 turns of hackles. It is interesting that Ollie Edwards also gives his NC spiders "a bit more" and he is old school Yorkshire style.

The rising nymph (flymph) theory is of course not mine, but rather that practised by Jim Leisenring and Vernon Hidy.

Re the Waterhen Bloa there is a very interesting contrast of advice in "Jim Wynn's Recommended Flies For The River Wharfe" Book ( by Martin Cross), in the words of Wynn:

"Some tiers of flies recommend mole dubbing. This is altogether wrong as the body of the natural is of ivory shade".

The recipe is then given as "light yellow silk dubbed with almost white fur from the belly of a hare or from blue fox rabbit underbelly"

I think this is a really interesting book but it too was somewhat trashed on UK Fly ! Wynn was a river keeper on the Wharfe during the 20th Century.

Cheers,

Lindsay

[Sandy Nelson]

Here's my one

http://www.fishingthefly.co.uk/forum/gallery/2_13_02_08_12_56_27.jpg

Not so different, only change i make is i wind my thread through the hackle to give it more strength and make the fibres stick up more (ala stewart style ) another good trick missed by mr Huffer.

I think in my original post before they disappeared i mentioned that Spiders are a working mans flies, as such they are open to as much variation as one feels necessary if it gives you confidence then you will catch more fish with it

I love talking about my favourite fly whatever variation it is

Sandy

[Sieger Devries]

The NC's became my favorite to this year... Especially in running water... They were by far the most successful for me...

Since we don't have (real) running water, nor salmonide fish here I learned that they will do well for our white fish here to... Rudd, Roach, Ide they go mad on it... I made some varieties on my own and they do very well in our canals ...

(Can't show it now because I'm on holiday and don't have them here..)

[Loxiafan]

Cracking spider Sandy   Interesting tip about winding thread through hackle as well, will have to try that. Agree about the spiders being working man's flies. Eds and Lee and the rich folks that bought their book were probably 'middle class' and fortunate enough to afford the finest Pearsall's silks and obtain game hackles of their choice. The 'real' local boys will have made do with what they had to hand, embroidery thread, jackdaw instead of coot, grouse instead of partridge etc.

Maybe I'm not a slave to abject authenticity after all !  

Lindsay

[Ben Dixon]

Re the Waterhen Bloa there is a very interesting contrast of advice in "Jim Wynn's Recommended Flies For The River Wharfe" Book ( by Martin Cross), in the words of Wynn:

"Some tiers of flies recommend mole dubbing. This is altogether wrong as the body of the natural is of ivory shade".

The recipe is then given as "light yellow silk dubbed with almost white fur from the belly of a hare or from blue fox rabbit underbelly"

Not sure what natural this is referring to, I always thought, maybe incorrectly, that the WHB was first and foremost a LDO imitation?

North Country describes a wide area, there are or were almost regional differences so trying to pin down "the" original could be very hard work.

Cheers

Ben

[Loxiafan]

Not sure what natural this is referring to, I always thought, maybe incorrectly, that the WHB was first and foremost a LDO imitation?

North Country describes a wide area, there are or were almost regional differences so trying to pin down "the" original could be very hard work.

Hi Ben,

Martin Cross does concede that Wynns WB is "unconventional" but states that it shows Wynn " Was concerned with trying to match his artificial to the insects he found on the River Wharfe". FWIW the example shown is not dis-similar to those above in body shade - though all the flies were tied by Mike Reed of Island Flies (from examples in Wynns hand written books I presume).

It does say that WB was used to imitate LDO, Med Olive and Blue Dun.

Cheers,

Lindsay