I’ve been tying a few Grayling Bugs to replenish my stock, must’ve left about £20 of tungsten headed flies on the bottom of the Dee last week.
So I have tied a replacement set of Green bodied, Red Tags, some pink thoraxed nymphs and a few Red Butted bugs tied with some snazzy new Spectra Dubbing(#45 and #46) I picked up from John at Uniqueflies.co.uk .
Grayling Jig hook Bugs
Most are tied on Hanak Jig Hooks ( 10’s and 14’s) which I like for the Czech Nymphing as you tend to get less problems with snags ( ahem- lets not talk about last weekend here!. The green bodied bug with the red tag was the top fly on the Dee last week, and while I have heard some anglers comment that it only works there, it was also the fly that caught me the two and a half pound Grayling on the Tweed last season, so decide for yourself, I have alot of confidence in it and I sometimes think this is 50% of the battle in fishing, having faith in your set up.
Pink bead red butt bug
Most of my flies are tied using 3.5 or 3.0mm Tungsten beads from Tungsten Beads Plus but I also have some rather cool Hanak pink metallic slotted tungsten beads from Uniqueflies which I rather like the look of for pressured waters.
The Orange beaded flies are actually pastic hot heads but I have weighted the bugs with a lead underbody, not as heavy as the tungsten headed flies but will get down when paired up as a dropper on a three fly cast.
Some great Grayling pattens there! Wouldn’t mind any of them sitting in my box.
I particular like the red tag jigs. I tie them with Glo Brite No 5 for the tail and tie a large cdc feather in at the butt, wind to make a body and then the longer ‘fluffier’bits of the cdc at the end will act like a hackle as you’ve tied yours.
Pretty cool way of tying them, quick and strong, although even if they do break some of the strands on the body it still looks buggy and catches fish!
Nice post – Fishtec.
Hi Kieron
Yep- I use the Glo Brite no5 too though I also have them with no4 and No1 too which are a bit more pink. The No5 does seem to work best. I use Dark Olive Sparkle dubbing for the body with Red wire. I have heard it said thes eonly work on the Dee but I have caught on the Tweed and the Clyde with this fly so have a lot of confidence in it. I think half the battle is making sure the fly is on the bottom if you are not getting down to them you won’t be successful. So I use Tungsten beads, I even have a few with two beads and some with lead underbodies too!