Trout Fisherman

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RUSSELL’S YELLOW OWL SET-UP
To a floating line
Grease up the
leader so that it
floats but degrease
the dropper and 12-
18in of leader before
the point fly, which
must sink
9ft tapered
leader
This rainbow fell to
the original Yellow
Owl pattern.
Top tying tips
■ The key to this fly is the quality of CdC that
you use. It is well worth paying a bit more to
obtain the best feather that you can.
■ To make a good wing that will keep the fly
floating, use three feathers. If the quality is
not so good you might have to use one or two
more feathers.
■ Make a parting in the feathers before
you tie them in. This way you know you are
catching all the stalks and tying them down
in the same place.
■ After tying in the wings, make them stand
upright by applying several turns of thread
around the base of the feathers. Then
carefully snip out the stalks with your best
sharp scissors to give the best shape to the
CdC that you can.
■ The CdC left on the stalks is often thrown
away. Using the ‘waste not, want not’
principle, trim the strands from the stalks
and mix them with a little fine dubbing to
bind them together. I use muskrat because
it is a buoyant fur and can be obtained in
various dyed colours. I try and match the
colour to that of the feather.
■ After you have made the dubbing wad by
mixing the CdC and muskrat together, take
a pinch of the dubbing and wrap it around
the thread to form a dubbing rope. If you feel
the need to use a dubbing loop, do not wind
the loop too tight. The strands that stick out
simulate the insect’s legs and adds to the
confusion of the hatching insect’s outline.
■ I know the original tying uses hare’s ear
for the dubbing... but like all things in fishing
‘variety is the spice of life’!
Yellow Owl
4-5ft of 4 or 5lb
monofilament
Yellow Owl
Get your set-up right
and you’ll be in for some
cracking dry fly sport.
So, what to do? Your leader is half the reason for
success in dry fly fishing, the other half is the fly
itself and its presentation. This is what I do and it
works for me.
Let’s say you are fishing a small stillwater, like
Tavistock, which is my local fishery. You arrive at the
water’s edge before the sun gets over the corner of
the moor and you find fish sipping fly from the top.
That little switch goes off in your head: “I am going
to spend an hour or two on the dry fly before the sun
comes over the top and drives them deep. If I get one
or two on the dry, I really don’t care what happens
during the rest of the day!”
www.troutcatchers.co.uk
If I know this is likely to happen I will have my 9ft
5wt outfit in the back of the car. At this time of year
that 5wt line will have been cleaned and slicked so
that it will fly through the rings and float high in the
water. The nine-foot leader will be stretched and lie
straight as an arrow.
I put five feet of 4lb or 5lb breaking strain
monofilament on the front of the leader with a
dropper coming off the join. I grease the leader up
with Mucilin so that it will float and then (this is the
STEP-BY-STEP TYING SEQUENCE
key part, often missed by so many), degrease the
dropper and the 12 to 18 inches of line leading to
the point fly. You want this bit of the leader to sink,
so that there is no line showing above the surface
leading to the fly. On days when there is an almost
‘dusty’ appearance to the water, you might need to
degrease those bits of line every other cast if you
want it to sink. Nobody said this was easy fishing!
But that’s it – you are ready to fish the Yellow Owl
dry fly.
SEPTEMBER 13 - OCTOBER 10 | TROUT FISHERMAN 69