The fly box · No. 26 of 36
Sawyer’s Killer Bug
Freshwater shrimp tumbling along the gravel.
- Kind
- Nymph
- Hook sizes
- 12–16
- Season
- Autumn, winter
- For
- Grayling and trout
- At the vice
- An easy tie
The dressing
| Hook | Heavy-wire wet fly or grub hook, barbless, sizes 12–16 |
|---|---|
| Thread | None in the original; fine copper or red wire is used in place of thread |
| Tail | None |
| Body | Pinkish-beige darning wool, a Chadwick’s 477 substitute, wound over the wire in three layers to a cigar shape |
| Rib | None |
| Hackle | None |
| Wing | None |
| Also | Underbody of fine copper or red wire wound in a tapered double layer; the wool is tied off with the wire at the tail end |
Tying it
- Wind fine wire from the eye to the bend and back to form a cigar-shaped underbody, heavier in the middle.
- Leave the wire hanging at the bend and trap the end of a length of wool with it.
- Wind the wool to the eye, back to the bend and forward again if the shape needs it, finishing at the bend.
- Secure the wool with three or four tight turns of wire.
- Trim the wool close and break the wire off.
- Add a small drop of varnish to the wire turns.
Fishing it
A deep fly for grayling shoals in autumn and winter. Cast well upstream of fish you can see, or of a likely depression in the gravel, and let it sink on a slack 5X (0.15 mm) tippet until it is trundling along the bottom. Either leave it to drift dead or, as it nears the fish, lift it a few inches. Grayling take it firmly on the lift. Where the fish cannot be seen, watch the tip of a greased leader and tighten when it stops, dips or draws aside.
Where it comes from
Frank Sawyer tied this for the grayling of the Wiltshire Avon, using nothing but wire and a particular darning wool, Chadwick’s shade 477, a beige with a faint pink cast. The wool is long out of production and tiers now use close substitutes. Wet, it darkens and turns translucent over the wire, and looks very like a shrimp curled in the current.