Mallard and claret – Chatto’s soft hackle version

 

One of the first loch flies I was introduced was a mallard and claret tied in a traditional way with a pair of feather slip wings. I thought it was the bees knees as a bob fly and used it any time when mayflies were around. Over time I modified the tie until I reached the variation below. For me this is a vastly superior fly and as well as being a great substitute for a traditionally tied mallard and claret also works well on mayfly feeders taking pre emergers.

Materials

Hook Thread Tail Body Rib Front hackle Wing
8 to 14 Tiemco 3769 Claret Golden pheasant tail tips Claret seals fur Fine copper wire Claret died badger hackle Cock pheasant feather slip

Process

A
  1. Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook.
  2. Tie in a length of fine copper wire.
  3. Tie in a tail of 6-8 Golden Pheasant tippets that is as long of the hook shank.

B
  1. Dub on a cigar shaped body over the rear 3/4 of the hook shank.

C
  1. Wind the wire forward forming 4 or 5 equal segments.
  2. Using a piece of Velcro tease out the seals fur fibres to represent legs.

D
  1. Directly in front of the body tie in hackle with the shiny side forward.

E
  1. Take 3 of four turns of the hackle directly in front of the body.
  2. Wind the thread through the hackle locking it into place leaving the thread in front of the hackle.
  3. Trim the excess hackle.

F
  1. Take bunch of hackle fibres and work out exactly where you want them to sit.

G
  1. Swap your grip on the feather slip over to the other hand and tie them in at the 95% position.
  2. The finished wing should be about the same length as the hook and extending over the top of the fly at an angle of around thirty degrees.
  3. Build up a neat head, lock off and trim the thread and finally varnish the head.



Last Updated: December 24, 2011
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Categories: Flies, Loch flies, My 'trout' lake wet fly box, Streamers & pulling flies
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