I discovered this pattern just recently in an excellent video by Davie McPhail.
You tube video by Davie McPhail
I liked it instantly. It ticks a lot of boxes for me. It is light and springy. It could be one of several things: A cranefly, a small hopper, a half hatched cripple, a hatching midge, and just about anything else your imagination can muster. Exactly what you want in a searching pattern.
The one in the video is on a #12. That is rather big for me, unless it is the hopper you have chosen from the list above, so I tied my first ones on a #16. To start with I made a beginner’s mistake by trying to put on similar quantities of material to that evident in the video. The result was an overdressed fly:
Notice how it looks bulky, and lacks that sparse, buggy, springy feel that one should be after?
The smaller one is better off with a single CDC feather , and just a sprinkling of deer hair fibres. I think I could even trim the dressing more than I have done in the picture at the top of this page. Take a look at McPhail’s one again:
The colour combinations that you could try are endless. I put a spotter post of yarn on one, and left the wing off another.
I contemplated converting it to a parachute pattern. But just as you can’t have bacon on everything, I realised I was bastardising the pattern beyond what was reasonable, and I reverted to something closer to the original.
This one is tied on a klinkhamer style hook, and with longer more gangly legs, so that it is somewhat more of a cranefly:
If you have a look at “Sedgehog” patterns, and the “Duckfly” (an Irish midge pattern), you will see where this pattern came from. To Davie McPhail: hats off to you! I think you have a winner here.
I read somewhere that creativity is the art of putting existing ideas together, that no one has ever thought to put together before. This pattern is a truly creative one. I look forward to putting it over some fish.
6 Responses
That really is a “Buggy” looking pattern, Davie McPhail certainly puts out some of the best fly tying video clips around and has some wonderfully innovative techniques. I really like this one though, and can see it has application in a variety of sizes, colours and even locations from stillwaters to rivers. Well done, interesting and informative post.
Thank you Tim, and agreed, Davie McPhail’s videos are inspirational.
Unbelievable patterns and great post showing some fantastic flies that should be killers ——thanks for sharing
Thanks. I am sure they will produce the goods.
Nice one there Andrew. For our conditions I prefer the brownish colours and touch of red – more hike the small local hoppers found on our waters in summer. I think I might trim the hackle below to get it down where hoppers tend to float on the surface, may even leave it off altogether or make just one or two turns – but that is just me. Davie McPhail is good, love his stuff.
Indeed Peter. I think that in the bigger sizes, with the hackle trimmed it becomes a hopper. And for those I like the lanky klinkhamer hook. These ones pictured are #16 and #18, where they become more of “cripple midge”. I am already filling a small box with various colour combinations! Agreed: Good old wiry red seals fur (like on the first picture) is making a comeback for me on this one.