Step Back In Time

Found a box of lures in the loft last night...took me back years.
They included:

Leprechaun
Sweeney Todd
Black Chenille (yep..with hackles for a wing)
Viva
Jack Frost
Dog Nobblers (various colours)
Black Ghost
Mickey Finn
Whiskey Fly (nice small ones too!!)
Mrs Simpson
Pink Baby Doll!!!!!! 
Now a few of these are going to move into the sea trout box, a couple in the wild stillwater box (can you guess which ones?) and the others.....well I think I'm going to prove to myself that they still work.
Who needs fritz, flash and all that jive to catch a few stockies eh?

Wicked ,
Dog and baby doll work even now as I still use them when I remember

Topcat wrote:Wicked ,
Dog and baby doll work even now as I still use them when I remember

Pink Baby Doll used to be a real early season killer for me- and bizarrely the lumo green one had a habit of pulling out nice overwintered fish during dusk sedge hatches!

Fish them flies with confidence and they will all catch fish.
We carry far too many flies in my experiance.
At home they all look fishcatchers. Then you get on the bank and the number gets less.
I sacked a lot of mine in 2002 and when sea-trout fishing i am confident to fish with the Bibio and the Peter -Ross.
Before i spent too much time changeing the flies and thinking about where that killing fly caught the fish.

Fished some of them for years in one form or other.
Couldn't just fish two patterns though- unless I had them in lots of weights, sizes and variants (doubles, tubes etc)>

Sweeney Todd is a brilliant sea trout fly though.
Whiskey Fly in size 12 short shank is a great catcher on Cow Green..try one on the point.
Black Ghost caught browns and sea trout for many decades before it went out of fashion- it ticks a lot of boxes.
And Mrs Simpson- pull one of those through a fast pool at dusk or dawn on a sinker. The better browns love it.
All caught me many fish back in the day- and I know they will again now that they are out of retirement.

I used to do well fishing the Whiskey fly when it was warm like today.
Size 8-10 longshank lures were what i used and with a Wickhams Fancy or a Pearly Wickhams on the Bob fly . Leighton reservoir was a place i did well with orange flies. Dog days:D 

There was also a 'Flue Brush' in there.
A dry lure of sorts I suppose- especially on a longshank 8!!!
Now thats a fly I should never have forgotten about.
Used to catch loads on it at Lockwood, Leighton and Scaling.

I am old enough to have started useing Marabou lures on size 8 longshanks. Geoff Sage used to call them mackeral feathers. Pink,orange,black they all worked and of course are still working.
I made loads of them fancy buzzers most of them ended up in a tin in the wardrobe.
I seem to be stuck in a time warp and its not helping when i am not going fishing.

caught a few nice sea-trout on a Sweeney todd size 10

I bought Sweeny Todds and never caught a fish. I then made them and never caught a fish on them.
The Alexandra fly is another fly i cant catch a fish on.

My Peter Ross flies are tied on 6-12 wet fly hooks .I like them tied on silver salar hooks. And i like the size 8 long shank hooks that i used for reservoir lures.

The Black and Peacock fly has to be one of my Favs. With a siver wire tag or a gold tinsel tag i used to catch one or two fish.

ive never caught on a Alexandria or teal blue either, but know others who have

Alexandra is a cracking sea trout fly- especially in tubes.
Some anglers used to do very well with it on Lockwood Beck too.
Teal Blue and Silver does nothing for me in the North East but when I go sea trouting in Wales its in the top three.

Going back to the topic of lures from the 70's/80's- Its amazing how many fish were caught on lures with wing materials that you would never see used now on stillwaters- calf tail, saddle hackles, squirrel tail etc.
I also believe that era of stillwater anglers had a great grasp on using traditional wets as imitations. Invicta for your sedge pupa, Mallard And Claret for claret buzzers, Black Pennel for buzzers, Greenwells for olives...the list goes on.

Me being 56 years old and started fly tying in the late 70s ive tied flies asnd caught fish on all types of material.
I am busy makeing some flies that hopefully will catch toaitch a fish or two.
Ive got him three Bibios and the materials are seals fur,black cock hackles,and some deer hair for the muddler bibio.
My peter-ross is created with seals fur subs,and ive just bought a black squirell tail for the wing.
Teal blue and silver has caught me trout and sea-trout on the Wear.
Their is a few in my box but as ive said before ive ended up with the Peter-Ross on diffrent hooks and sizes as my confidence flies.
Ive made harry some blobs in yellow but he got a bit of a surprise when he saw marabou tails on them.
I didnt know what a modern blob lure looked like so i looked on You Tube.
I suppose their will be a dry blob and a wet blob to match the hatch.
I miss all these modern flies because i dont buy the Troutfisherman mag.
I got a shock when i was offered Powerbait at Grassholme while buying a day ticket.
One of the rangers called me a proper fisherman who only uses fly.
I had to say i only knew worm and fly fishing as legal methods to catch fish on northumbrian waters.
Wonder what would happen if they went back to worm and only flies?.

I once went to Killin and fished the Peter Ross on the loch it was created for (Loch Tay).
Couldn't touch a thing on it and the locals all relied on a dry Greenwells variant with dark slightly angled wings.