Fish4Flies Fishing Fly review

I tie my own flies and generally fish them almost to the exclusion of all else. That isn’t to say I don’t buy the odd fly here and there, and when I do it is usually for a special purpose where I won’t use them in volume, ( i.e. I bought some Salmon and Tropical sea fishing flies last year) or a pattern I really can’t be bothered with the faff factor of tying them. Daddy Long legs patterns are in this latter camp for me!

I was contacted by David Radley of online fly retailer, Fish4flies and asked if I would like a sample of flies to try out, they might interest my readers. Most of the flies he sent, fall into the Daddy Longlegs bracket. Plus one new Lure pattern that is “slaying” them by all accounts, called The Apache.

The Apache

It comes in a number of colour options, the ones I have here are white ones. White for me tends to be a winter colour first and foremost, and I do ocassionally give the Fireman a swim, which is a white marabou pattern with its roots in Poland. The Apache while having some similarities has a white fur body/hackle with a Peach accent at the back that will act as a nice hotspot to the fish. The tail is thick Marabou with a little flash in there, and there is a goldbead which I think is brass, upfront.

Being a fur bodied fly, and quite generously dressed, it does need to be well soaked to sink; the brass bead, won’t do the job alone, especially on a floating line. In my view for best results, it is probably best to fish this off anything from a slow intermediate line, down. I think were I to be tying these myself I would tend to use tungsten upfront, as I feel if I want a fly to sink at all it might as well do it with minimum effort. But many anglers prefer to control depth more with the line. Horses for courses!

Once it is wet and fishing it has a wonderful pulsating motion that you would imagine would be irresistible to Rainbows. I will confess I never had a pull on it myself on my first outing fishing this, but I wouldn’t ordinarily have chosen white as a go to colour this particular day- I think a black might have been more suitable. Maybe I will need to get one or two and try them!

Daddy Long legs variants

Pearly Daddies

Wet daddies will be useful on the browns in particular at the lochs I fish, I have had success with these type patterns in the past. I will say these Pearly Daddies are far better tied than my own efforts so I would use these as a preference I think. These have a gold brass bead and being a slim-profiled fly sink instantly so are great on any sort of line. They have a green butt hotspot for extra fish attracting power. It is a bit early for the Daddy to be a killer just yet though you never know with rainbows. While I never enticed a fish to take one they held together just fine and seem to be well tied. Like All Fish4Flies patterns they are tied on top quality Japanese hooks.

Detached Daddy

The detached daddy (a fly I rate highly but have to be frank and say one I personally can’t be bothered tying – those bodies are a right faff to prepare. so I would buy as a preference) will work when fish are clearly looking up. This is a very popular pattern with members at Pendreich, I know that. Any surface action and some of the guys tie a Daddy on as their go to pattern! I have a couple of shop bought detached daddies in my box and they are identical to the ones from Fish4Flies. I understand one of David’s main suppliers is the very same as one of the popular fly brand’s around these parts so this would explain the similarity. They will last a lot of use in that case.

The Drunken Daddy

The one other is a Drunken Daddy. A bit of a cross between a Daddy/Hopper/Hawthorn pattern. With its slightly oversize foam body I can imagine conditions when this will create just the right amount of surface disturbance to get the attention of disinterested Brown’s. There is a period usually around May time when anything tweaked on the surface causing a bit of a wake get’s the trout aroused, but it is a little too early just yet. More on some of these as the season progresses.

Want to try them yourself?

Follow these simple instructions to win one of each of the flies here in this review.

1. First, make sure you Like TheUnfamousFly Page on Facebook.
2. Now Like the Fish4Flies Page on Facebook.
3. Finally, go to TheUnfamousFly Page on facebook, locate the post containing the link to this review and share it!

I will check all the shares at the end of next week, (the 12th April) and ONE reader will get one of each fly mentioned in this article. Make sure you have Liked and shared otherwise I might not be able to get in touch with you! D

And for the Club Anglers!

I do though have a number of sample Wet Daddies to pass around. It would be too expensive to post and pack them but if you see me at my club waters Cocksburn Reservoir or Loch Coulter in the next wee while, mention this article, and ideally Like TheUnfamousFly AND Fish4Flies on Facebook. I should be able to let you have a wet daddy to try for size and hopefully it gets you a fish or more.

Fish4Flies do a discount/revenue share deal with angling clubs nationwide and I have mentioned this to the committee of both SCAC and LASAC as a possible facility for members.

Transparency: Note, Fish4Flies provided a selection of flies for the purpose of review by The Unfamous Fly Website. No contractual relationship exists between this site and Fish4Flies, and the review undertaken is my personal opinion of the items supplied. TheUnfamousFly was not contracted to give any particular view on the items concerned. Adverts carried on this site for Fish4Flies (like all adverts from any source) may result in a commission payment to TheUnfamousFly.