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| Tup's Indispensable Variant |
The olives were hard to see through the blizzard of little sedge flies this afternoon and early evening. A fish took my Double Badger but it was a speculative rise and not convincing. The sedge flies were certainly not on the menu, in despite of their presence in their millions. They were airborne and so out of the reckoning. Then the cloud dispersed momentarily and it was possible to see the olives and see some of them being eaten too! The flies were what anglers call "Pale Wateries". There are several species of upwinged flies that can be called a "Pale Watery" it is just about impossible to tell them apart when they are on the water but that is no hardship as long as we can match the hatch with a suitable artificial. One of the very best is an old fashioned fly called "Tup's Indispensable". So named because the original dressing called for the dubbed thorax to be made of the creamy pink wool from a Tup's scrotum (Tup is an old word for a Ram or male sheep). So you can see that for the Tup to be a Tup this part of his anatomy was clearly "Indispensable"...
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| Just look at the candle flame on his dorsal fin! (click to enlarge) |
It was just what was needed and the trout confirmed this by eating it. Some lovely fish coming to the net as a result. It would have been an easy matter to have mistakenly put on a sedge fly in response to their massive presence today, but they were not what was being eaten and as soon as the little Tup's Indispensable was deployed the results came thick and fast.
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| Such distinctive spotting makes it easier to track this brown trout's career |
The summer has been good to the trout round here as you can see from the super condition of these two examples. Old fashioned flies work just as well now as they did over a century ago. In fact they probably work better today thanks to modern floatants and modern leader materials.
Regular Rod
Great observations of a varied and prolific entomological smorgasbord and glorious and fastidious fish. Perhaps the "Indispensable" is the river and those who conserve it, including those who capture the cycle of the seasons for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteLa_jolla1
Tail on the rainbow!?!
ReplyDeleteI think it was Arthur Ransome who wrote that anglers and gardeners generally live longer because they are kept in tune with the seasons by their vocations.
ReplyDeleteThat rainbow tail is a pretty representative example of the Derbyshire Wye's wild breeding rainbow trout. They are generally quite a decent size, sharp edged and strong, which partly explains the astonishing power they show when hooked. It is never a foregone conclusion that the angler will win until the wild rainbow trout is actually in the net.
Regular Rod
Hope I can get a rainbow like that? Wonderful tail, a really wild fish I reckon?
ReplyDeleteBy Flyfishermanrichard. on "Indispensable!" at 19:21
Rod and Line is probably my favourite angling book. Although a coarse angler for over 30 years until giving in to gardening and plants, I always took a great interest in fly fishing, particularly as I used the fly to catch many species of coarse fish from the Derwent, Amber, Dove, Trent and numerous stillwaters. Indispensable blog that I enjoy reading. Link below is to an absolute monster Trout in the Wye at Bakewell taken a couple of days ago. My guess this fish is pushing double figures. Never seen a Trout of this size in any river before.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/62288089@N05/6086572486/
Hey if you have to shave a Rams scrotum to get results like that Rainbow and Brown then show me a ram :) Thanks for another great lesson. I love the Dorsal fin on that Rainbow. Awesome!! Tight Lines.
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