In the heart of the summer, the more exciting and remunerative hours to fish with the dry flies are those of the sunset. In this season, the aquatic insects use to make their hatching, or to carry out the reproductive functions, just before the darkness, in order to protect their fragile bodies from the violent sun beams of the day, that could dehydrate them. Ephemerals and trichopters, moreover, know, or at least Mother Nature has supplied them of this "knowledge", that, emerging from the river during the diurnal hours, they run the risk to be attacked by many predators that live under and over the water surface; the twilight, instead, offers them a sort of invisibility, which increases their life expectancies.
In effects, if observed in a condition of dimly light while they float on the water, waiting to fly away, such insects can appear really difficult to be noticed; maybe the fish, from their underwater emplacements, has not the same problems to see the preys that birds or dragonflies have. It is true, however, that fisherman often has these difficulties, and not only to see the insects on the surface, but also to follow his imitations that come down with the river current. The fishing just before the night can be so defined intuitive, because the “flier” loses frequently the visual contact with the artificial and consequently he is forced to strike when he glimpses the circles of a fish rise close to the zone where he presumes the fly can be.
Sincerely I am not a great lover of the “blind” fishing, at least because striking in vain, I risk to frighten the trout, or also to project the fly and the leader to the branches of a tree at my shoulders: inconvenience that has as epilogue the conclusion of the fishing session. For this reason, I always try to tie to the tip of my line a fly that appears really visible on the water, selecting one with not compromised imitative qualities: trout that rise at sunset can be very demanding in questions of flies, refusing systematically all those artificials that for shapes and colour wander from their preys.
In order to imitate a small ephemeral at the dun stage, I often prefer a pattern of the Iris series: flies that I consider excellent because they possess an optimal buoyancy, but also because their wings, composed with two feathers of cul de canard folded at loop shape, result well visible at long distance, rendering the fly remarkable for fishing in conditions of poor light. The body of the Iris flies can be assembled with many different materials, although the dubbing of polypropylene, of seal fur, or also of opossum hair, result really indicated for building these imitations. In the case of those models that want to appear similar to the Baetis niger, a dark tiny ephemeral, the pattern I prefer is the Black Iris, which is prepared with black seal fur and natural grey cul de canard. This artificial is useful to face the fast waters in which lives the specifically imitated insect, but can be even used as fly for searching fishing on a placid chalk stream, helping us to temp a trout also when the B. niger are not in activity.
In effects, if observed in a condition of dimly light while they float on the water, waiting to fly away, such insects can appear really difficult to be noticed; maybe the fish, from their underwater emplacements, has not the same problems to see the preys that birds or dragonflies have. It is true, however, that fisherman often has these difficulties, and not only to see the insects on the surface, but also to follow his imitations that come down with the river current. The fishing just before the night can be so defined intuitive, because the “flier” loses frequently the visual contact with the artificial and consequently he is forced to strike when he glimpses the circles of a fish rise close to the zone where he presumes the fly can be.
Sincerely I am not a great lover of the “blind” fishing, at least because striking in vain, I risk to frighten the trout, or also to project the fly and the leader to the branches of a tree at my shoulders: inconvenience that has as epilogue the conclusion of the fishing session. For this reason, I always try to tie to the tip of my line a fly that appears really visible on the water, selecting one with not compromised imitative qualities: trout that rise at sunset can be very demanding in questions of flies, refusing systematically all those artificials that for shapes and colour wander from their preys.
In order to imitate a small ephemeral at the dun stage, I often prefer a pattern of the Iris series: flies that I consider excellent because they possess an optimal buoyancy, but also because their wings, composed with two feathers of cul de canard folded at loop shape, result well visible at long distance, rendering the fly remarkable for fishing in conditions of poor light. The body of the Iris flies can be assembled with many different materials, although the dubbing of polypropylene, of seal fur, or also of opossum hair, result really indicated for building these imitations. In the case of those models that want to appear similar to the Baetis niger, a dark tiny ephemeral, the pattern I prefer is the Black Iris, which is prepared with black seal fur and natural grey cul de canard. This artificial is useful to face the fast waters in which lives the specifically imitated insect, but can be even used as fly for searching fishing on a placid chalk stream, helping us to temp a trout also when the B. niger are not in activity.
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INSTRUCTIONS
I face the first step of the building process of the Black Iris by fixing the hook into the vice jay and tying in on its shank the black thread, which I use for binding, over the bend, a tuft of fibres stripped off from a large black cock hackle. The tails so created must have a length approximately equivalent to the hook shank
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I secure, over the fixing point of tails, the tip of a black cock hackle stem. Next I wax a short stretch of thread and I apply to it a pinch of black seal fur, to make a compact dubbing. The dubbing is then used to form the fly body along the rear two-thirds of the hook shank
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With wide turns of the hackle stem around the body, I realise the ribbing
From a black cock neck, I choose two hackles that have the fibres as long as the hook shank and I tie them in front of the body. Then I fasten in two long, fluffy cul de canard feathers, selecting them in natural grey colour; these feathers must to be put back to back first and then fixed for their tips to the centre of the front third of the hook shank
I turn in circle the cul de canard feathers and I bind in them with the black thread so that they assume the aspect of two loops. At the end of this operation, the two feathers must appear similar to the wings of an ephemeral
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With the appropriate pliers, I wrap one after the other the hackles around the hook section interposed between the body and the eye, passing them behind and in front of the wings in order to form a dense collar
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Cut off the hackles surplus, I realise the fly head with some turns of the black thread, head that is the finished with a whip-finish
A light layer of glue uniformly distributed over the head will prevent to the thread to untie itself, increasing the resistance of the Black Iris
MATERIALS LIST
HOOK: regular shank size 18 to 16
THREAD: black
TAILS: fibres of a black cock hackle
BODY: black seal fur
RIBBING: stem of a black cock hackle
WINGS: two natural grey cul de canard feathers
HACKLE: black
THREAD: black
TAILS: fibres of a black cock hackle
BODY: black seal fur
RIBBING: stem of a black cock hackle
WINGS: two natural grey cul de canard feathers
HACKLE: black
