Stone Goat (Variant)

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Okay, it's a wet fly and it's wingless. It also fits in with my recent adoration of Irish style flies.

Hook is a Mustad 3906B in size 10, Thread is black Danville's 6/0, rib is fine oval silver tinsel, Tag is one strand of red Berlin wool, tail is a Golden Pheasant topping, body is black seal's fur, body hackle is black and claret hen wrapped together, hackle is Guinea Hen dyed Kingfisher blue. Apparently, my photography skills are lacking when it comes to big, bushy flies.

[letumgo]

I love Irish wet flies, and this wee lass is a beaut. Great name!

Do you have any history of the pattern, or recommendations of book references?

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Honestly, I saw the pattern on a Facebook wet fly page, tied by John Moore. We have since become FB friends and have traded comments back and forth. I have no history of the fly to share, but I do have a reference book. "Tying Flies in the Irish style, Trout and Sea Trout Patterns" by E.J. Malone. The book covers everything about the Irish tying style and a lot of patterns, both dry and wet. I'm really enjoying the Irish style of tying.

[swellcat]

. . . it's a wet fly . . .

With all that hackle, I wondered about that. Probably won't sink right off, will it . . . which can be a feature, not a bug, of course.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

It is a slow sinking wet fly, usually fished on the loughs of Ireland, though can be fished in streams. This version uses all hen hackles. There is a semi wet version that uses dyed Chinese rooster hackles for the palmer hackles. Because the inexpensive hackles have so few barbs, it still sinks but really slow