Flicking feathers

  The minkie is a fantastic subsurface fry pattern and is ideal for the back end of the season. It's best to carry a two or three different sizes so you can best match the size of the fry that the trout are feeding on. To support my channel, get access to the monthly tying classes and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and sign up or donate at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers Material list Hook: Heavy wire long shank e.g. TMC 5263 size 2-6 or Kamasan B175 size 4-8 for smaller sizes Thread: White 8/0 Body: White fritz Rib: Silver wire Wing: Mink zonker Hackle: Grey mallard flank Cheeks: Jungle Cock Head: Globrite no.3 floss

  This simple little fly from Glyn Hopper is a good choice for trout feeding on small fry. Although it works all year, it generally comes into its own a few weeks after the tiny pin-fry start showing up, but before they get up to finger size near the end of the season. It's well worth its place in the loch style fisher's box whether for fishing wild hill lochs, lowland lakes or reservoirs. It has even reportedly taken seatrout in the salt. Materials list Hook: Kamasan B175 size 10 Thread: Red Uni 8/0 Tail: Natural rabbit fur Rib: Silver wire Body: Silver holographic tinsel Wing: White rabbit fur topped with olive rabbit fur Cheek: Silver holographic To support my channel, join the online tying classes and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and sign up or donate at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers

Another old one from www.sexyloops.com   I lost an enormous carp last week. Enormous. It would easily have been my PB had I landed it, but I didn't. It's hard not to feel bad when things like that happen, but the questions that come of it can be useful or the answers can be at least. I had been a pretty slow day, I started fishing some bouldery pockets below a dam looking for bass but only picked up one little guy and saw nothing else but carp for hours. Eventually I decided to switch over and start targeting the carp. I should have done it earlier than I did, but sometimes I can be too stubborn for my own good. Anyway it didn't take too long to get an eat which even though the fish wasn't very big, was a bit of a day saver. Then I came round a bend where the riffle between the pools dumps into a deep pocket with a concrete diversion and tetrapods turning the river and creating a big slack backwater behind the eddy. There were about 12 fish, all big, and the biggest, we

  The Peter Ross is a great fly for lochs and rivers. Tied in various sizes it can be a deadly midge imitation, a small baitfish imitation or an attractor for salmon and seatrout. Materials list Hook: Kamasan B175 size 6-14 Thread: Black Uni 8/0 Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Rib: Silver wire Body: Silver tinsel & red seal fur Wing: Teal Hackle: Black hen To support the channel, join the online tying classes and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and sign up or donate at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers

  Peter Dobbs's floating snail pattern is a quick, easy tie that works wonders when fish are switched on to floating snails. When you encounter one of those days, the fish feel like they are full of marbles it's time to tie on a Bigfoot snail which will almost certainly outperform more complicated imitations. Either fished singly or washing line style with a black and peacock spider on the dropper with no retrieve, expect takes to be long definite draws much like fishing a static buzzer. This pattern appears in Bob Church's Guide to New Fly Patterns which is available here https://amzn.to/3k1BE8h Materials list Hook: Kamasan B170 size 10 or 12 Thread: Uni 8/0 in black Body: Peacock herl Foot: Yellow ethafoam To support the channel, get access to the monthly online tying classes and enter the giveaways, head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and sign up or donate at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers

  The teal blue and silver is an absolute classic wet fly. Although it's probably most popular as a seatrout fly, it is a good choice for brown and rainbow trout as well as salmon. Fish it big in the salt or in rivers for salmon and seatrout, or slightly smaller for loch style brown trout fishing. Material list Hook: Kamasan B175 size 6-12 Thread: Black Uni 8/0 Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Rib: Silver wire Body: Flat silver tinsel Wing: Teal flank Hackle: Kingfisher blue or teal blue hen To support the channel, join the monthly online tying classes and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers or https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers and sign up

 Another oldie from www.sexyloops.com I've been tying a big batch of boobies for a friend who fishes a lot of competitions recently. I don't tie many of them any more as I don't have much use for them in my fishing so it was a nice change from the usual warm water flies and traditional wet flies. Well, the first dozen anyway. I like boobies. I know not everyone does and they've been tarnished a bit by the way they used to be most commonly fished- static on a fast sinking line and short leader, essentially like ledgering a bait.  It often results in very deeply hooked fish making release impossible and has led to the fly being banned on certain waters, it's also super boring. But there's no need to fish the booby this way, and I'm a bit surprised the method still persists. They're incredibly versatile, especially when fished in a team of flies.  point or top dropper on any line from floater to the fastest sinker they can be ripped stripped, popped and cra