Irish Mayfly

[willhamo 0]

Golden Ginger Mayfly

 

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[Moshup 0]

Beautiful tie willhamo !

[whatfly 0]

Mayfly?

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

Great picture of a fly.

 

BCT

[Crackaig 0]

Mayfly?

Indeed it is Whatfly. In Ireland, on the limestone loughs there is a tradition of fishing wet flies, like this superb example, when the Mayfly are hatching. They really do work. Usually they are fished high in the water, just wet. Anglers in Ireland can get very picky over the colours of materials used in these flies. I've tied up orders of them, having struggled to get the right material and had them returned as there is a variation in colour between dye lots.

 

Cheers,

C.

[vicente 0]

Great looking fly.

[vicrider 0]

I'm thinking this would be a good fly to swing and pull as it looks like it'd move a lot of water and is very purdy.

[Cold 0]

.

[Al Beatty 0]

That is a beautiful, well-tied fly. Wow! Take care & ...

[whatfly 0]

 

Mayfly?

Indeed it is Whatfly. In Ireland, on the limestone loughs there is a tradition of fishing wet flies, like this superb example, when the Mayfly are hatching. They really do work. Usually they are fished high in the water, just wet. Anglers in Ireland can get very picky over the colours of materials used in these flies. I've tied up orders of them, having struggled to get the right material and had them returned as there is a variation in colour between dye lots.

 

Cheers,

C.

 

 

And why should one assume that if you fish this during a mayfly hatch, that the fish (planters?) are actually taking it as a mayfly? I do not wish to restart the endless debate between imitative and impressionistic patterns, nor do I wish to discuss the relative merits of traditional wet fly patterns. Just had to comment that, this pattern is one very odd looking mayfly.

[willhamo 0]

Crackaig has laid the ground work as to how we fish these flies over in Ireland. The limestone loughs are big waters and with a wind the wave can really get up. We usually fish traditional lough style which involves drifting the boat broadside with the wind and a cast of three or so flies throw out in short casts. The flies are usually retrieved quite quickly (speed of retrieve will vary with the wind) and the flies are dibbled/bobbed/left hang in the surface for a few seconds as the rod is lifted for the next cast.

 

Here is a mayfly from Lough Corrib.

 

 

Surface disturbance often prompts exciting takes and muddlers are used in a big wave.

 

 

These ones are for whatfly! Even magenta has been known to work.

 

 

Yellows and olives shades are usually effective.

 

 

 

Very often the fish will ignore yellows and olives and go crazy for the clarets. Various theories propounded including haemoglobin rush to the wing area as they break free from the nymphal shuck.

 

 

Cold - in answer to your query - there is a great book called "Irish Mayflies - A Fly-Fishers Guide" by Patsy Deery. A beautiful book I would highly recommend.

[rstaight 0]

Those are fantastic. I bet they would do well on the spring creeks that I fish.

Could you post a recipe?

[Flat Rock native 0]

willhamo, thanks for posting more exemplary flies for our enjoyment

[whatfly 0]

Crackaig has laid the ground work as to how we fish these flies over in Ireland. The limestone loughs are big waters and with a wind the wave can really get up. We usually fish traditional lough style which involves drifting the boat broadside with the wind and a cast of three or so flies throw out in short casts. The flies are usually retrieved quite quickly (speed of retrieve will vary with the wind) and the flies are dibbled/bobbed/left hang in the surface for a few seconds as the rod is lifted for the next cast.

 

Here is a mayfly from Lough Corrib.

 

Surface disturbance often prompts exciting takes and muddlers are used in a big wave.

 

These ones are for whatfly! Even magenta has been known to work.

 

Yellows and olives shades are usually effective.

 

Very often the fish will ignore yellows and olives and go crazy for the clarets. Various theories propounded including haemoglobin rush to the wing area as they break free from the nymphal shuck.

 

Cold - in answer to your query - there is a great book called "Irish Mayflies - A Fly-Fishers Guide" by Patsy Deery. A beautiful book I would highly recommend.

 

An VERY impressive and informative tour, willhamo. Still seems odd, but the logic is there (have to start looking for a claret mayfly hatch over here). Ordered a copy of Deery, and look forward to seeing what other abominations...err I mean creative patterns...are popular over there.

[Crackaig 0]

Well I would have replied but I couldn't do half as good a job as Willhamo did. The Irish loughs are huge sheets of water, much larger than the lochs I fish. On my annual trip over to the Irish Fly Fair in Galway I am always amazed by the display of a lough fishing boat, it is about three times the size of the boats we use here; they need to be to cope with the serious wave that can blow up on the loughs.

Yes the Irish Mayfly imitations are "different". They come from many years of traditional fishing, finding out what works and what doesn't. The idea of fishing them on spring creeks we can't address. They would not be permitted on such rivers over here, with their strict upstream dry fly to sighted fish only rule. You are breaking new ground there, I, for one, would like to know how you get on.

Something to note, by Mayfly we mean flies of the genus Ephemerella, not the generic use of the term mayfly for any up winged fly.

The only other thing I can add is that here is a link to the boon by Patsy Deery

Cheers,

C.