I hope you had a great bank holiday weekend - and it wasn't too wet for you!
I had my promised day out on Sunday on a nice and quiet stretch of the Derwent - didn't see a soul and had a few fish, in beautiful surroundings - although there was a mishap (or two).
Firstly, I took a dunking! We'd had a fair bit of rain since Thursday and the river was in perfect condition with a little bit of flow - with some very slippery rocks!
Secondly, I lost a fly box! I've no idea where, it didn't go into the water - I would have heard it - so it must have fallen out of my chest pack, I did retrace my steps (as it was full of my favourite dries) but no luck!
This left me with a single fly box - which was full of our new Autumn/Winter patterns. Not ones I would usually fish with in late August, but I'd wanted to try them out and my earlier misfortune(s) gave me the perfect opportunity, so the last hour of my trip on Sunday was spent going through the box to see how each of them fished - some were tungsten beaded patterns which we far too heavy for the water, but ...
A couple of patterns were a twist on some classic 'wet' fly patterns - and they worked - see the very end of this email for tips on how to get the best from them!
That's what today's missive is all about - just those 2 patterns, but as it turns out they still work really well! And, as it's September (just) they are just about to come into their own.
Also, there's something very 'British' about naming a fishing fly after a cake, that's exactly what happened with the second of these two patterns.
The Red Tag Palmer
Let's start with the elder statesman of the two - the Red Tag.
The story goes it was tied by a chap called Martyn Flynn over in Worcestershire back in the 1850s, originally under the rather less catchy name of the 'Worcestershire Gem'.
A really simple thing: peacock herl body, a red tail, a hackle wound the length of it in the palmered style. It travelled north, and took root in becks of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, and has been quietly working wonders for grayling (and trout) ever since - to the point where nobody remembers to call it anything but the Red Tag.
This fly seems to work really well for both Wild Browns and Grayling, fished just under the surface I could actually see fish moving to take it!
Our version of the classic Red Tag is called the Red Tag Palmer. It has all the hallmarks of the original fly but also has a palmered hackle (i.e. one that runs the full length of the body) running through the peacock herl body. It's also tied on the stunning AHREX FW503 barbless hooks in a size 14 & 16.
We have these available either individually or in packs of 3 or 6 - from only £1.95 - click on any image or button above to grab yours.
If you'd like to cut out the guesswork and just order a mixed set of both the Red Tag & Treacle Parking Palmers (3 each of both in sizes 14 & 16 - a toal of 12 flies) for only £20, then click this button:
The Treacle Parkin Palmer
Somewhere along the way, some unnamed Yorkshire tyer looked at the Red Tag and thought "aye, but what if I made it a bit more ... Yorkshire".
Nobody knows who, which is on brand for this county - we're not usually great at claiming credit, we just get on with it.
What they came up with was the Treacle Parkin: same peacock herl body, same palmered hackle, but the red tail swapped for a yellow/green tag, and named after the sticky, dark cake that gets eaten round these parts come Bonfire Night.
Reg Righyni - who more or less wrote the book on grayling fishing, because he actually did - was adamant the tag needed that little bit of glow to it, reckoned it caught the light differently depending on what was behind the fly, dark bank or bright water. The man thought about this far more than is strictly necessary.
This fly seems to work really well for both Wild Browns and Grayling, fished just under the surface I could actually see fish moving to take it!
Our version of the classic Treacle Parkin has all the hallmarks of the original fly but also has a palmered hackle (i.e. one that runs the full length of the body) running through the peacock herl body. It's also tied on the stunning AHREX FW503 barbless hooks in a size 14 & 16.
We have these available either individually or in packs of 3 or 6 - from only £1.95 - click on any image or button above to grab yours.
If you'd like to cut out the guesswork and just order a mixed set of both the Red Tag & Treacle Parking Palmers (3 each of both in sizes 14 & 16 - a toal of 12 flies) for only £20, then click this button:
Don't Forget Your Daddies
Daddy Long Legs are just about to come into their own ... if you're planning on visiting a stillwater (or river) in the next few weeks, you'll need a few of these in your box ...
The three patterns included in our selection are:
• The Black Foam Daddy - A twist on the classic Daddy Long Legs pattern. This is a streamlined pattern, tied with swept-back wings, a black foam body and signature knotted pheasant tail legs. Our Selection contains 4 each in a size 14.
• The Orange Foam Daddy - A streamlined pattern, tied with swept-back wings, an orange foam body (easy to see in low-light conditions) and signature knotted pheasant tail legs. Our Selection contains 4 each in a size 14.
• The Tan Foam Daddy - With swept-back wings, a tan foam body (virtually identical in colour to the real insect) and signature knotted pheasant tail legs. Our Selection contains 4 each in a size 14.
Our Barbless Artisan Daddy Long Legs Selection, containing 12 flies, is available as a full selection for only £24, including free delivery to anywhere within the UK.
Alternatively, if you like to buy your Daddies individually, they can be found here, for only £2.25 each:
—— Go on, you know you want to! ——
1. Let the fly do the work, not you - Palmered patterns like these are built to look buggy and alive on a fairly natural drift or swing. Resist the urge to twitch it about - a sedate swing across and down, or a gentle upstream dead-drift, both out-fish anything too fussy.
2. Fish it on the point, not just as a dropper afterthought - These two have enough presence to be the main event. Stick one on the point of a leader with a smaller, more imitative pattern above it as a dropper - you get the attraction and the subtlety in one cast.
3. Grease the leader, not the fly - For a "just under the surface" presentation - deadly for grayling in early autumn - dress your leader down to about two or three foot from the fly with floatant, and leave the fly itself untreated so it fishes in the top foot of water.
4. Watch the line, not the water - Wet fly takes are often felt as nothing more than a slight draw or hesitation in the line. If you're staring at the surface waiting for a splashy take, you'll miss nine out of ten. Watch the tip of your line or your leader instead.
5. Work the far bank on the swing - Cast slightly downstream and across, mend if you need to slow it down, and let the current bring the fly round in an arc. Fish sat tight to the far bank rarely say no to something wafting past at their eye level.
6. Downsize before you give up on a spot - If a pool's had a few fish out of it and gone quiet, don't automatically move on - try dropping a size before you do. A smaller Treacle Parkin or Red Tag will often draw one more fish out of water that "should" be finished.
7. Fish them in the coloured water, not despite it - These patterns were built for exactly the murky, peat-stained conditions we get through autumn and winter. Don't wait for the water to clear - a bit of colour is when a Red Tag's flash of red or a Parkin's tag really earns its keep.
7½. Eat the cake, not just the fly's namesake - If you're out on a cold one and you've packed a slice of proper treacle parkin (alongside your pork pie) for the riverbank, you're doing autumn fishing correctly. This one's non-negotiable.
Both of the above patterns share the same DNA: buggy, durable, easy to fish, and absolutely made for exactly the water conditions we can expect over the next few months - coloured becks, low light, fish sat deep and looking up for something with a bit of contrast to it.
Tight lines & enjoy it.
