The fly box · No. 18 of 36
Daddy Long Legs
Adult crane flies blown from damp meadows onto the water.
- Kind
- Terrestrial
- Hook sizes
- 10–12
- Season
- Summer, autumn
- For
- Trout
- At the vice
- A moderate tie
The dressing
| Hook | Long-shank dry fly, barbless or barb flattened, sizes 10–12 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Brown, 6/0 (140 denier) |
| Tail | None |
| Body | Natural raffia or cock pheasant tail fibres, wound slim along the full shank |
| Rib | None; a rib of the tying thread may be added over raffia |
| Hackle | Ginger or natural red cock, long in the fibre, three or four turns |
| Wing | Two cree or badger cock hackle tips, tied spent or slightly swept back |
| Also | Legs: six to eight cock pheasant tail fibres, each knotted once or twice, trailing back and to the sides |
Tying it
- Knot the pheasant-tail fibres in advance, one or two overhand knots in each.
- Run the thread to the bend and tie in the body material.
- Wind a slim body forward over three quarters of the shank and tie off.
- Tie in the legs, three or four each side, trailing back beyond the bend.
- Tie in the two hackle-tip wings and set them out to the sides with figure-of-eight turns.
- Wind the long-fibred hackle in front of the wings.
- Whip finish and varnish.
Fishing it
Late August to October, on breezy days when the naturals blunder out of wet pasture. Choose the windward bank, where insects are being blown onto the water, and fish the fly on 4X (0.18 mm). Let it sit in the surface, legs sprawled; a slow draw of a few centimetres now and then is all the movement it needs. Give the fish time. Trout frequently swirl to drown a daddy first and return to eat it.
Where it comes from
Crane flies have been copied by British and Irish anglers for generations, and before artificial versions existed the live insect was dapped on the Irish loughs. Dressings vary widely. What they hold in common is a long, thin body and a sprawl of knotted pheasant-tail legs, because that helpless tangle of limbs is what a trout recognises from below.