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Six
for the Highlands
The only flies you need for fishing in the Highlands, they make a deadly combination.
There is no where more steeped in tradition than the Highlands of Scotland so it is most fitting that the only flies you will ever need to fish successfully there all come from the tried and tested school of tradition.
The first tradition to fishing up North is the three fly cast. I use a 10 foot rod so my casts are about 9 feet long with the first dropper, the bob fly, tied in at about 4 feet giving a little extra distance between the fly and the oh so obvious fly line. This means that all three flies are fitted onto the remaining 5 feet of cast. I believe that grouping the flies closely is essential because the effect of the combination of flies is all important. The fish need to be able to see the group of flies at work.
The second tradition you need for this cast are these old, tried and tested wet flies: three natural fly imitations for the bob, Greenwells Glory, Black Pennell and March Brown; one natural / attractor for the second dropper, Peter Ross; two attractors for the tail, Bloody Butcher and Silver Butcher.
The first three represent natural flies. The Greenwell works when there are olives hatching but also works when there are any other dark green / brownish flies about. The March Brown covers for all of the darker brown flies, sedges and moths, for this reason I want a gold ribbed hares fur body on the March Brown. The Black Pennel works for the black flies and bugs, especially the black buzzers.
There is only one fly for the second dropper and that is the Peter Ross, no other fly works in this postion and without it the combination does not work nor does the fly work so well without its tail. Lose the tail to a toothy fish, change the fly. What does the Peter Ross represent? There are a number of possibilities; trout fry or stickle back fry is one possibility the colour combination of teal wing with black, red and silver fits that theory; the red and black might suggest a buzzer to the trout; the red is I believe a trigger and I find that a strong red is essential in the dressing.
Finally the Bloody and Silver Butcher are both pure attractors and
take trout through their aggressive response. I believe that the red
and silver are the key to this fly, the hackle in particular should
be a bright red on the Bloody Butcher. Why do I say this? One of my
most memorable flies was a war torn Bloody Butcher that had lost all
but a fragment of the wing. It was essentially a spider with a
flaming red hackle and a silver body, trout just could not get
enough of if.
This combination is tried and tested to the nth degree and it works. It is good for rivers and lochs and there is little doubt in my mind that the colouration of the water in the Highlands is a factor. Peat stain in the water is common throughout the Highlands and the darker the water the more effective the this fly combination is. Peat stain gives an amber hue to silver and silver, red and black are very visible in peaty water.Fly size is important too in the Highlands, fish bigger than you would in southern climes. I mostly use 10s but go to 8s on occasion in big lochs.
This combination of flies must also be worked. Use a figure of eight retrieve while gently flexing the rod. This makes the retrieved flies pulse as they are drawn in lifting and lowering the cast of flies in the water column.
So what is the reasoning behind this choice? I would love to be able to ask the trout why these flies work so well in combination, but they are saying nowt, so I have to conjecture, a fairly common pastime for an angler.
I said that I believe the group of three should be tied on the cast so that all three flies would be apparent to feeding fish. Maybe the fish sees a trout fry in pursuit of an olive buzzer and fancies the fry, the Peter Ross on occasion takes the lions share of the fish. They may even want to beat the fry to the buzzer, food is scarce. Maybe the fish are keyed to red on a certain day because blood worms are available, although this conjecture becomes irrelevant in the case of fast flowing rivers.
Certainly the bob flies work well when you chose one of the three to match the predominant hatch. In small lochs or in bays on large lochs I often fish into the wind looking for fish feeding on flies that have been washed into the windward shore which are often terrestrial flies blown off the heather and sedge. Cast at an angle across the waves as they come towards you, it makes casting easier and presents the fly to the fish more effectively.Look for inflowing rivulets and streams, fish always loiter there. Reedy areas, submerged ridges of rock and gravel or boulders are good holding spots. Always cover a rising fish in the Highlands, food can be scarce and you will be surprised how quickly fish will take when you cover them. I have used this combination of flies on rivers and lochs throughout the Highlands and on nearly every occasion it has rewarded me with fish.
Without trying to complicate matters, there are a few other flies you might want to add, the Black Bibio with a red tag works well on the dropper as does the traditional Black Spider. On the tail you might want to try an Alexandria or Dunkeld. Whatever you do, keep the Peter Ross at number two, for some reason the combination just does not work without it. This might sound silly I know, but 40 years of fishing with this combination has proved to me the importance of having the Peter Ross at number two.
One final reason I love and recommend this combination is my sheer confidence it its effectiveness. I have no sense of doubt fishing this combination. My mind is not lost on debating the merits of trying an other fly, or chopping and changing flies every ten minutes. Because of its effectiveness I know that fish will come along, I will catch fish, consequently I am totally relaxed and focused on the task. There is little doubt that in fishing you will be more effective if you are at one with what you are doing and using. Maybe the sense of confidence and relaxation you get from using this cast is the secret of this magical combination of traditional flies, fished in the gentle ways of old in the solitude and quiet of the mountains.
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