Wet Flies for the Lanarkshire Avon.

Jocky Summers Wet Flies.
 

From a hand written list of wet flies for use on the rivers Clyde and Avon,
by Jocky Summers of Stonehouse Lanarkshire.
 

1. yellow body, black hackle, waterhen wing.
2. Gold body, cockie bundie hackle, hen blackie wing.
3. Yellow silk body, cockie bundie hackle, hen blackie wing.
4. Yellow body, scot’s grey hackle, partridge tail feather for wing.
5. Yellow silk body, dark olive hackle, young stukkie wing.
6. Yellow silk body, black hackle, barred teal for wing.
7. Gold body, black hackle, young stukkie wing.
8. Black silk body, black hackle, grey mallard wing.
9. Yellow body, partridge hackle, wren tail wing.
10. Orange silk body, natural dark red hackle, hen blackie wing.
11. Yellow body, black hackle, blue feltie wing.
12. Gold body, cockie bundie hackle, greenwells glory wing.
13. Light dubbed hare body, young stukkie wing.
14. Orange body, red hackle, woodcock wing.
 

A Selection of Wet Flies by an unknown fisher!
 

This list of flies was given to me by an unknown donor,
I hope they will forgive me for this. Yes they still catch fish on the Avon to this day.
 

Wet flies for March and April.
 

1. yellow silk body, brown partridge hackle, with ginger behind it.
2. yellow body ribbed with flat silver tinsel, hackled with green feather from an old starling.
3. silver body, black cock or hen hackle.
4. yellow silk body, ginger hackle winged with young starling wing.
5. yellow silk dubbed hare lug at root of young stukkie wing.
 

These Flies for use in May.
 

6. yellow silk body, gold tinsel rib, grey partridge hackle.
7. yellow silk dubbed with hares lug, wing from female skylark with yellow tip.
8. Sand Fly; purple silk dubbed finely with mole fur, hen pheasant wing, long black hackle on nose.
9. yellow silk body, ginger hackle with a blue feltie wing.
10. yellow silk body dubbed with hare lug body, wing from a hen blackie.
11. yellow silk body dubbed hare lug, black cock or hen hackle, hen blackie wing.
Yellow bodies can be darkened with black cobblers wax. Wet flies with wings have an upright set wing, the hackle being tied behind and wound in front of behind wing, whilst numbers 8 & 11 have flat tied wings with the hackle tied on the nose. Upright wings were to copy the olive family whilst flat wing for small sedges and and midges, fish the flies to suit your fishing style whether upstream or downstream. Some fishers prefer a hen to cock hackle, some tie with tails, whilst others say a tail will knock the fly from the trout’s mouth!

Dry Flies for the Lanarkshire River Avon.

A list of Dry Flies for the River Avon.
Flies taken from many of the fishers who graced the rivers boxes, flies tied to suit the river style!

1. Sannies Scots Grey, body of waxed orange silk, with a hackle of Scots Grey with ginger/ red through it.
2. Leggates Greenwell, yellow silk body ribbed with finest copper wire, hackles furnace and tail of same.
3. Black & Olive, black body with rib of olive silk, dark oilive hackle and tail.
4. Dark Patric, brown waxed silk body, brown partridge hackle with a dark ginger behind.
5. Black & yellow, yellow body ribbed with purple silk, a black cock hackle. August /September fly.
6. Light Partridge, yellow body, grey partridge hackle, light ginger behind.
7. Light Olive Partridge, yellow body, grey partridge with olive hackle behind.
8. Black Light Partridge, yellow body, grey partridge hackle with a long black behind it.
9. Black Spider, brown silk body, black hackle & tail, a silver tag.
10. Iron Blue, red silk with a touch of mole, dark ginger hackle and tail.
11. Dark Olive, yellow silk, dark olive or quill body,  a grey hackle with an olive through it.
12. Greenwell, cockie bundie tail, yellow silk body, rib of fine gold wire, split starling wings, cockie bundie hackle.

13. Badger, use a body of different silks, red for coloured water, yellow for summer waters, and black, purple.
14. Badger and Harelug, yellow silk dubbed with hares ear fur, a badger hackle.

15. Scots Grey, a cream and brown barred feather with a body from various colours to suit water colour.
16. Dirty Olive, brown body with a hackle of pooh colour.
17. Pale Wattery, a light yellow body with a hackle of feather dyed in whin petals.
18. Light Olive, light olive body with a grey hackle an olive through it.
19. Black and Red, yellow silk dubbed hare ear, a red hackle wit black at front.
20. March Brown, dark cock pheasant tail body, ginger tail and hackle with a brown partridge at front.

Most of the flies can be used all year; the bodies were darkened using dark wax or the hackle with a dye. Different plants were used such as whin, onions, alder, and mosses.

A Cock Hackle should always be used for the stiffness of fibre, bend the hackle and the fibres will stand upright from the stalk.
Dry fly fishing is seen by many as the ultimate pursuit of Trout.
Most of the flies represent the adult stage of the fly called The Dun. Hackled spider style flies 

Lanarkshire bird names.
Cockie bundie, cochy bondhu; Hen Blackie, female Blackbird; Stukkie, Starling,
Scot’s Grey, brown black barred cream feather, (grizzle, plymouth rock);
        Hare lug, Hare ear; Mavis, Thrush; Shilfie, Chaffinch; Patric, Partridge