The grey duster

[Tony Stevens]

I have always had a soft spot for the older fly patterns especially spiders and one dry fly in particular the Grey Duster. A very simple fly to tie but for some reason this time I tried a vairiation by tying it as a shuttle cock emerger with calf tail as the hackle.
We were fishing two lakes in Canterbury New Zealand plus a small river. The first lake holds rainbows and in the early morning was dead calm, not a ripple for the 3/4 mile length. A standard Grey duster went on as fish were rising and second cast a fish rose, was hooked, jumped 3 times and was off. The reason a commercially tied fly hook had straightened out -*!#*##! On went my own tied Grey Duster Emerger tied on a #12 Black Magic A12. Ten minutes later another hook-up, a nice 3 1/2 lb rainbow. Until midday I consistantly rose fish after fish and ended up with 4 landed to 11 rises.
The river was fished for only an hour and 5 were risen and one hooked and landed.
The next lake is renowned for it's large fish but the wind had got up and the waves were a good 2 ft crashing onto the lee shore which made for difficult fishing. However the Grey Duster floated high and dry and was easily seen until it disappeared in a slow head and tail rise. Fifteen minutes later I had a PB in the net a cracking 9lb male brown. Tea was called for and my mate and I repaired to the hut for a brew and to pack for the 2 1/2 hr drive home.
This day bought home to us both the value of the Grey duster, it accounted for all fish caught. Wooly Buggers, Damsel Nymphs, a variety of sedges etc were refused and were seen to be refused too.
So here's to the Grey Duster and A Courtney Williams whose tying I first used.

Tying as Follows:
Silk; Brown.
Body: Dubbed Blue/grey rabbit under fur.
Hackle: Grizzled Cock.
Hook: #12 to 14

[Ron The Hat Clay]

It is as you say a simple yet very effective dry, something like a fly I have caught hundreds of fish on, both browns and rainbows.

I call it the "Brown Thing".

Hook: Sproat, anything from 8 up to 16 down eyed
Silk: 8/0 brown
Tail: 5 or 6 fibres of cock pheasant centre tail
Body: Cock pheasant centre tail fibres twisted and wound as a rope over wet varnish.
Rib: White cock hackle stalk wound in opposite direction to body fibres.
Hackle: Red game cock, about 4 turns

I have caught with this fly as far away as South Africa.

Another fly you must try in NZ is the "F" fly. You tie it by tying in a few plumes of CDC over a simple body of wound tying silk. There are plenty of instructions on the web for tying it. Google F Fly.

I assume you can get fly tying materials in NZ. If you can't, there is a business opening for someone.

[Colin North the one and only]

You only wrote all that to make the rest of us jealous. Sounds like a brilliant days fishing.

My favourite dry fly for rivers is the Leckford Professor. The way it is dressed allows you to cast it into grass on the far bank, without too much risk of it catching up.

[Ron The Hat Clay]

So how do you dress it Colin?

Hopefully, I will be in NZ later this year.

[Colin North the one and only]

Leckford Professor


The fly is dressed in reverse order to normal

Up to size 12 dry fly hook

Layer of fine thread down to opposite point of hook, and tie in fine silver wire.

On bend of hook, opposite point, tie a brown cock hackle, wind two turns, tie off and cut waste. It is relatively important that the hackle is just long enough for the tips to just cover the point. Directly behind and abutting the brown hackle, tie in a white cock hackle and repeat. Then lightly wind the wire through to lock both. Bring your silk back to the butt of the hackles and gently try to slope them slightly away from the eye. The body, dubbed grey underfur of rabbit or mole, or similar is then tied towards the eye, tapering gently off. Wind the wire down through the body, tie off and lightly varnish.

Sometimes, I make a slight variation by tying in the white hackle first, and then the brown.

It is the hackle just covering the point of the hook that lets you cast it into grass, etc. The hook is light enough not to squash the hackle down and hook you up, but is soft enough not to interfere with a hook up if a fishes mouth.

That's the way I dress them. I'm pretty sure that other people do it differently, but it works for me.

Both work very well on the Test and the Hampshire Avon

[Tony Stevens]

Many flies are tied in reverse and I first found out about them and tried a variety of patterns after reading about the Japanese style of fishing known as "Tenkara". From these it is but a shortstep to actually reversing the whole tying process, but why? As stated a fly can be made to bounce off bankside vegitation, it can also be used in very weedy conditions and for nymphs legs first going down stream is so logical. In some instances dries are actually easier to present if tied in this manner.

RON,
If you are contemplating coming to NZ don't worry about gear as we are very well catered for. At present ridiculously low prices, a medium fast action set will set you back $250 to 350$NZ, entry level $75 to $150 . As for fly tying supplies no problem at all. I would suggest a basic 2 rods; 4pc 8.5/9ft 6wt & a 9/10ft 8wt. DT line for the 6wt and WF for the 8WT. Warnings: Do use tried and trusted hooks for your flies with known brands, South Island has Didimo and it is required that moving between waters all rods, lines, nets and gear must be cleaned to prevent it's spread, in this light felt soles are banned totally.
If you are coming to Canterbury give me an email we just love to show what is on offer.

[Ron The Hat Clay]

I am covered pretty well with that sort of gear Tony. My son lives in Cronulla near Sydney, NSW and he will be coming over with me. We have not made our minds up which part of NZ to go first, but Sean, my son, spent some time near Wellington recently and told me that the trout fishing potential was sensational.

Yes Didimo is terrible and ruins gravelly streams. I am told it started off in Europe somewhere.

Will be in touch.

Ron