Micro Spiders

[tie2fish]

Philip - Any chance of us seeing a photo and/or recipe for your "Dotteral" pattern? I tried finding something by using Google, but failed to locate anything useful. Thanking you in advance - Bill

[gravelbed]

Philip

you mention that one of your favourite patterns is the Stewarts Black Spider, would you please include the dressing along with the Dotterel

[DNicolson]

Here is the original recipe for 'Stewarts'
Black Spider.
http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/page9.html

This is an article on the 'Dotterel' series.
http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/page53.html

I have since acquired a plover skin from Cookshill.

[RnF]

Scott,
I also rank the O&P highly and until recently my number one spider pattern. BUT, I have recently been tying the Dotterel using a Jay wing feather as the substitute. The pattern for this calls for Primrose OR Orange thread. Mmmmm, well the Primrose version has now replaced the O&P this season. No wonder our forefathers nearly wiped out the Dotterel, they regarded it as the number one killing fly.

Good info here Philip. I will have to try out a Primrose version sometime, if it's better than the O & P than that says a lot. Guess I need to get a Jay Wing and some Primrose to find out for myself.

Donald, I looked at those articles you posted, how does the Brahma Hen stack up to the Plover? I have Brahma Hen, but no Plover.

[5feathers]

When there is a hatch I often fish a PT Wet fly with black hackle and do pretty well with it as a trailer to the dry. Sometimes I fish it in the film and other times I liked it to break the surface.
Bruce

[bbamboo]

Hi Scott


Those soft Jay under covert fibres really do make a very effective fly
Try one with a pink body when the pale watery is on.
Interestingly the Starling is a better match for the real Dotterel feather.
In fact it is almost identical and it would be very difficult to tell the difference between the two feathers side by side.

If you dont mind me saying the Plover is not a good match to dark.

It is still possible to see these very rare and endangered species if you look in the right places, museums is a good place to find examples also try high quality taxidermists who specialise in restoration work for museums and carry the correct paper work.
Museums for a small fee will sometimes let you view the items close up.
You must also take into account the feathers exposed to sunlight could be partly bleached.
And also all the feathers from the bird were used for tying not just the wings.

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur ... N%26um%3D1

.

[RnF]

Thanks bbamboo, that's what I was looking for.

[DNicolson]

The Plover is not really a substitute but more of an alternative.
I like the plover in its own right and usually call the fly 'Plover and ...'
I use Bramah hen the same way, very useful for experimental .flymphs..

[Davyfly]

No doubt at all that micro spiders/soft hackles can be killer.
Have to say that when l lived in the UK such small flies were not so much a issue, but they certainly are here in the USA.
We have many very small aquatic food forms, midges,baetis,tricos etc. And my local river l guide the White sees at times unreal micro chironomid emergences, and those fish can be real picky, some of which are way above 20 ins.
Such flies can be deadly fished dead drift as they represent emergence, drowned duns, midge and sunk spinners to name a few.
It is my experience that they will at times out fish both dry and nymph imitations, particularly for fish that are only interested to take a food form within a few mm of the meniscus.
Often as not 6 and at times 7x are needed, and couple that with a good soft action rod.

I have a series of such flies that l call Fidgets, which is what they are, they fidget in the surface film. They are simple thread and hackles fly patterns.
In fact last week l nailed a 23 ins Brown on the Madison with a 18 woodcock and HE fidget, which is a deadly fly, in fact almost all the woodcock series are, deadly when we see small caddis emergences.
DW

[Hans Weilenmann]

[B}Proton[/B]
Hook: Mustad 540L #28 (or equivalent)
Thread: Benecchi 12/0, grey
Hackle: Single barb taken from the webby part of a Whiting Coq de Leon cock neck
Body: SLF Mnky dubbing, #22 mayfly yellow

Cheers,
Hans W