The fly box · No. 33 of 36
Snipe & Purple
The iron blue dun, drowned or struggling to hatch on a cold, blustery day.
- Kind
- Wet
- Hook sizes
- 14–18
- Season
- Spring, autumn, winter
- For
- Trout and grayling
- At the vice
- A moderate tie
The dressing
| Hook | Light-wire wet fly hook, barbless, sizes 14–18 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Purple silk, waxed; it serves as both thread and body |
| Tail | None |
| Body | The purple tying silk in touching turns, short and slim, stopping above the hook point |
| Rib | None |
| Hackle | Small dark feather from the outer covert of a snipe’s wing, one and a half to two turns; a dark starling or jackdaw feather is the usual substitute |
| Wing | None |
Tying it
- Wax the silk and start it behind the eye, leaving a little bare shank for the head.
- Choose a covert feather whose fibres are about as long as the hook, strip the base and tie it in by the stalk.
- Wind the silk to a point above the hook point and return in touching turns.
- Wind the hackle back for no more than two turns, stroking the fibres rearward as you go.
- Trap the tip, bring the silk forward through the hackle and form a small, neat head.
- Whip finish and add the smallest drop of varnish.
Fishing it
Tie it on when the wind is cold, the sky is low and small dark duns are being blown across the surface. Fish it upstream or up and across on a short line, just under the film, in the quicker water at the heads of pools and along the creases. A 6X (0.13 mm) tippet suits the small hook. It works alone or as the middle fly of a team of three. Grayling take it readily in autumn. Lift the rod steadily to any wink of light or stop in the leader.
Where it comes from
Another of the Yorkshire Dales spiders, known in the old lists as the Dark Snipe. Purple silk goes almost black when wet, with a dull wine-coloured glow in good light, and the small dark feather from a snipe’s wing gives a thin, smoky halo around it. Iron blues hatch in poor weather, and this is the fly that North Country anglers trust then.