Wednesday 10 November 2010

Dark Olives

The 'Baetis Rhodani'  or the Dark Olive as commonly termed, probably constitutes the first Dun river fishers observe sailing down the river when the season begins. Witnessing this annual event in these first few days always (without fail) starts my pulse racing - as I struggle tying the fly on, nervous and excited. Sounds familar, yes? As such, when tying for the following season, I always graivitate towards matching the dark olive hatch before anything else. Here are a few of the various styles I recently tied for the river dry fly box:

Dark olive poly dun:
Hook: Varivas Standard Dry IWI S-2000 #14
Thread: olive
Tail: Dub Fibbets
Body: olive-brown superfine dubbing
Wing: blue dun poly
Hackle: Blue dun cock hackle



F-Fly Variant
Hook: Varivas IWI S-2000, #14
Thread: olive
Body: Olive silk
Wing: Two natural CDC feathers
Thorax: olive hare's ear


Para-dun dark olive (looped)
Hook: Partridge SLD #14
Body: olive superfine dubbing
Wing: White poly
Hackle: Dun cock hackle
Para-dun olive
Hook: Partridge SLD #14
Thread: olive


Olive para-dun
Hook: Partridge SLD #14
Tail: Microfibbets
Body: Olive Dun flyrite
Hackle: Blue dun
Wing post: Med blue poly