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| Post Number: 11
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keystone 
Group: Members
Posts: 421
Joined: Aug. 2007
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Posted on: Sep. 15 2012,19:05 |
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Hi,
Black and peacock for me too. Size 10 shuttle cock buzzer as well.
Dave.
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| Post Number: 12
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Al Greig
Group: Members
Posts: 1005
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Sep. 15 2012,23:01 |
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Hi Lars,
I'd say Black and Peacock too - except that the only genuine snail-filled fish I ever caught took a Whickham's Fancy.
 Maybe it was bored.
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Fook, wot spawt!
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| Post Number: 13
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Viking Lars
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 3453
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Sep. 16 2012,07:40 |
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Thanks for all the suggestions - it looks like I'll be tying some Black & Peacock today :-).
So here's another question - how the H... does one identify that fish are feeding on snails, without catching one one Bugger and opening it?
Lars
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Great flycasters don't think straight - they track straight.....
If it moves - and shouldn't, use duct tape...
If it's stuck - and should move, use WD40...
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| Post Number: 14
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blackwater
Group: Members
Posts: 471
Joined: Jun. 2007
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Posted on: Sep. 16 2012,09:51 |
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Most often when i have caught snail feeding fish they are feeding on snails that are floating. The snails hang from the meniscus and just drift along with the wind.
The rises are very much like a fish that is either midging or taking emergers under the surface. It is very subtle and sometimes just a swirl or hump in the waters surface.
Also have a good look for the snails floating along in the water. They can be very hard to spot because they don't really move, don't break the water surface and are mostly fairly small. Sometimes you wouldn't notice them floating along in all the rest of the garbage in a wind lane.
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| Post Number: 15
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flyfishwithme
Group: Members
Posts: 12
Joined: Aug. 2009
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Posted on: Sep. 17 2012,10:38 |
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Lars
There a couple of times a year when snails start moving (migrating if you like) in stillwaters.
When this happens, the fish do lock onto them as they are an important part of their diet.
They protrude their foot, to which a small bubble is attached. How they do this I do not know.
This causes them to slowly lift to the surface and then float, foot upwards and shell down, to the whim of the current (not wind) that is evident in all stillwaters.
A Peacock and Black has worked but the trouble is that the peacock loses its bulk once wet.
I have used the following:
Wide gape hook to match size of snail. A 12 is big. I used a size 16.
Body was dark dubbing (I recall I used dark hares ear) built up in the shape of a conical snail shell (they are different to a land snail) with thickest part towards the eye of the hook and then lacquered with varnish.
I then had a foot at the head of the fly made out of white foam cut like a small cigar)tied at right angles (really it looked like the hook had pierced it. I guess you could use an adhesive and attach it before the body was formed). This I shaded dark brown on the side that was close to the body.
Wish I had a picture to post but alas I don't.
To fish it, I watch for bulging trout and cast it about 5 feet ahead of the fish and left it static (where I fished there were rainbows and they moved fairly fast at the surface).
If you can visualise the pattern I am sure you could work out a way of tying of it.
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| Post Number: 16
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| Post Number: 17
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flyfishwithme
Group: Members
Posts: 12
Joined: Aug. 2009
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Posted on: Sep. 17 2012,15:24 |
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Good observation Alex.
It should be known as the 'Black & Peacock' in the tradition of old soft hackled flies that drew no name other the the materials. In this instance black hackle and peacock body.
A forerunner was the 'Smoke Fly' and old North Country pattern which had a fine silver ribbing and a Grouse poult under-wing covert feather as a hackle. Over 100 years old that pattern.
Tom Ivens was the originator of the 'Black and Peacock' over 40 years ago.
It was said to represent either a small snail (as discussed here), beetles or caddis flies or even small stone flies.
The point is that the pattern can be classed as a good generalist to have in your fly box.
You know what they say when asked what colour is the best. "Just choose any colour as long as it is black"
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| Post Number: 18
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flyfishwithme
Group: Members
Posts: 12
Joined: Aug. 2009
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Posted on: Sep. 17 2012,15:37 |
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Mind you he did originate it for use on still waters.
The late Arthur Cove used this effect as a team of droppers fishing them (among other spider patterns) VVVVEEEERRRRRYYYYY slow on a retrieve and caught numerous fish with the pattern.
I have an old friend in Australia that has fished nothing but this fly on streams and he has caught thousands of fish. He calls it his 'damp fly'.
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| Post Number: 19
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alex vulev
BBBB No2
Group: Members
Posts: 1207
Joined: Jun. 2007
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Posted on: Sep. 18 2012,09:08 |
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i can find the Smoke Fly under No56 in Pritt, 1886. He was well aware of the fancy flies. Pritt, Stewart and Skues were all aware of the fancy flies. Only the hard headed Halford believed that a imitation should be a close copy fished upstream cast to a rising fish. What a boring approach!  Id rather take fly casting rather than purism 
No doubt in my mind that Halford would be outfished by any of the above three
In the words of the great Skues: "The imitation may be Impressionist,Cubist,Futurist,Post-Impressionist,Pre-Raphaelite, or caricature.The commonest is caricature.It therefore catches most fish." The great Gary LaFontain will talk about the caricature flies later. Nemes was doing of fly called Syls Midge, inspired from the Black and Peackock. The difference is the smaller size - from 16 and smaller ,and the hackle is of partridge. After reading the book I tied some of these on 16 and hooked fish on the very first day out. Such flies - soft hackles or traditional wets could be taken for whatever your imagination is up for - all food to fish - beetles, hatching mayflies, spinners, cripples, snails, egg laying caddis. Its fascinating using them from time to time here and there in my fishing, so old a stuff and still catching fush 
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Wise indeed was George Selwyn Marryat when he said: "its not the fly; its the driver"
page 193,
GEM Skues,The Way Of A Trout With A Fly
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| Post Number: 20
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