Ol'Nog 0 Report post Posted November 16, 2022 I've tied a lot of Lady Caroline's recently; simply because I like tying this fly, the way this Spey fly looks and I've read a little of its history. Somewhere I read that it was tied as a Shrimp fly. I can see that, the sleek Bronze Mallard Shoulder wing, the long soft Heron Hackle, a touch of red/orange In the tail and head hackle. However I felt somehow something representing eyes was missing at the tail. Shrimp and Prawns have prominent eyes. No way would I think I could improve on such a successful Salmon and Steelhead fly, I just wanted something a little different. So I have used three materials in the tail: the usual Golden Pheasant Red breast feather (I used dyed orange) on top of which G.P. Topping, on top of which a small G.P Tippet feather. The Tippet gives the impression of eyes, the Topping adds contrast. A Blue Eared Pheasant feather is used for the body hackle The head hackle consists of 2 G.P Red hackles from near the tail of the skin, dyed orange. I used 2 as my feathers were quite sparse. The body is dubbed green/brown Wool with the usual 3 ribs; flat gold, oval gold with oval silver locking down the B.E.P. hackle wound counter-wise to the gold ribs See photos for clarification. Apologies for poor photo resolution, I have no camera so used my iPhone with available light. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cphubert 0 Report post Posted November 16, 2022 Very nice variant, I like the addition of GP tippet. One of the few speys tied with a tail and yours is top shelf. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SalarMan 0 Report post Posted November 16, 2022 Well done indeed!! Your bronze mallard work is superb. That bad boy will catch fish too. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
niveker 0 Report post Posted November 16, 2022 That's a great job, nice fly. I like making little changes or substitutions to an established pattern, for your average fly tyer back in the day, I would say that was par for the course. Almost never do I sit and tie more than 2 or three patterns at one session, but if I'm tying a number of the same pattern over a few nights, very often I will change one or two things here and there on each fly. Of course, mine never look as nice as yours. I would say that fly there is also a very passable crawdad pattern. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites