Connemara variant

 

Well this fly is really interesting. I have had this recipe in my fly archive since around 2000. I have certainly seen it in a fly fishing magazine in the last few years and of course I have looked for that and have searched the web but can't find any reference to this fly any where. I have the spelling the same as the iconic Irish fly fishing town of Connemara and that may be where I have gone wrong so I have searched similar names also to no avail. In any case it is a useful fly and consequently I have included it in my list of loch style fly recipes. If you know more a bout the fly described perhaps you could let me know.

My notes show the materials as set out below but my expectation is that the original would have a Blue Jay hackle beard.

Materials

Hook Thread Tail Body Rib Beard Wing
8 to 14 long shank Black Yellow cock hackle fibres Orange wool butt and black dubbing body Fine silver wire Blue swamp hen hackle fibres Ring neck pheasant feather fibres or bronze mallard

Process

A
  1. Wind the thread in touching turns from the 95% position to the bend of the hook.
  2. Tie in a tail of hen hackle fibres that have been died yellow. The finished tail should be equal in length to around 2/3 the length of the hook.

B
  1. Strip two strands out of a length of 6 or 8 ply wool and tie in a butt of orange wool.
  2. Tie in a length of silver wire in front of the butt.

C
  1. Using the single strand dubbing technique build up a cigar shaped body between the wool butt and up to the 80% position.
  2. Wind the wire forward forming 4 or 5 body segments on the fly.

D
  1. Rotate the hook 180 degrees and tie in a bead of fibres taken from a swamp hen feather. The tips of the beard should partially obscure the point of the hook.
  2. Rotate the hook back to its original position.

E
  1. Tie in a the wing with the tips finishing about half way along and above the tail.
  2. Build up a neat thread head.
  3. Whip finish the head, trim the thread and varnish the head.