The 'Hanningfield Lure' and perch....is it available?

Tee-Cee · Nov 2, 2011

This is not aimed specifically at Ron Clay but its possible he, among others, may have some knowledge aroung this subject............Perhaps Bob Horngold?

All my knowledge around this lure I have gleaned from **** Walkers book Still Water Angling which we all know was written many moons ago. Walker, no mean perch fisher himself, states in the book that if he had to choose one method for BIG perch it would be this one, which, apparently, he tied himself........Even he says it is somewhat complex to tie! He rated this Lure over ALL other methods-regardless!

I have no intention of using this method myself until I have given all others a try but I am interested in this lure, more for what it looks like,how its fished, and what it did catch ,apparently, from 'many different waters'...

A picture would be nice, and even better if anyone has ever used one or tied one!

beerweasel · Nov 2, 2011

I just "googled it on Bing and Bonhams have 6 for sale with a letter from DW.

barbelboi · Nov 2, 2011

Was the Hanningfield a trout fly that worked for perch, or was it a purpose built perch fly. I remember a description suggesting it has two hooks which would make sense considering how perch like to nip at their prey to disable it.
Probably one for Ron.
Jerry

bigsean · Nov 2, 2011

found a pic of it but dont know how to put pics on here .... sorry

barbelboi · Nov 2, 2011

I've managed to find this.
Jerry

"The late Richard Walker devised The Hanningfield Lure for trout, but soon discovered that it was deadly for big perch. Tie it as a tandem on L/S nickel or s/s 8s
Bodies: DF white wool, ribbed oval silver
Tail: Hot orange hackle, wound & clipped
Rear Throat Hackle: Hot orange
Front Throat Hackle: Short, bright blue
Wing: White goat hair to rear of second hook, topped with speckled turkey (or mottled peacock wing feather fibre)"

bigsean · Nov 2, 2011

thats the same pic i found barbelboi,

barbelboi · Nov 2, 2011

bigsean said:
thats the same pic i found barbelboi,

Snap........

bigsean · Nov 2, 2011

barbelboi said:
snap........

:d :d :d :d :d

---------- Post added at 12:37 ---------- Previous post was at 12:36 ----------

ignore that last post please .... dunno wot happened there lol

Jeff Woodhouse · Nov 2, 2011

bigsean said:
ignore that last post please .... dunno wot happened there lol

You just created a post with 5

s in it, but if there's no other words, the auto-editor of the forums converts the : D (had to put a space in between) to :d and the big smilies don't then work. Hope this helps explain.

bigsean · Nov 2, 2011

Jeff Woodhouse said:
You just created a post with 5 s in it, but if there's no other words, the auto-editor of the forums converts the : D (had to put a space in between) to :d and the big smilies don't then work. Hope this helps explain.

jeff u are as helpful as ever ... usually its fishing and tackle advice u give .... today its dumb techno phobe sean who ur advising ... cheers mate

gazguildford · Nov 2, 2011

this will sound stupid i have never used or intend to use a fly rod is this the only way it can be fished?

S-Kippy · Nov 2, 2011

For all practical purposes yes. I suppose you could "jig" it but its basically a tandem lure designed to be fished on a fly line...most probably a sinking line from a boat. Its a fry imitation of which there are now many different patterns & I wouldn't have thought it was any more effective than many modern perch lures. This was designed to catch fry feeding trout so it stands to reason that any good fry pattern ought to prove attractive to perch too. That is a particularly good tying...you can see why it should work but trout fishing & fly tying has moved on a hell of a lot since this pattern was first devised. I'm sure it would still catch but "magic" fly it is not. There have been a few patterns over the years claimed to have mythical fish catching properties....a good pattern will always do well but when it comes to fly fishing it is more about how you fish your flies/lures than what flies you use. Some of the deadliest patterns are also the simplest...provided you know when & how to fish them to best effect.

For example...if trout are feeding on or near the top on [say] midge pupae it would be fairly ineffective to drag a "Hanningfield Lure " along the bottom. But if they were smashing into roach fry [as they may well be doing this time of year] then an HL could well work very well. Just like coarse fishing you adapt your "bait" and presentation according to how the fish are feeding/behaving on the day.

That all sounds terribly pompous. It isn't meant to be.

Tee-Cee · Nov 3, 2011

From Walkers book I understand he designed the Lure trying to include as many features as possible 'which large perch are supposed to recognise as small perch'

Apparently all this follows some success at Hanningfield with other lures whilst fishing for trout when fishing large,two hook tandems on high density fast sinking line. The perch however, took a large variety of different lures and on one occasion Walker took 23 perch between 2 and 3lb plus a 4lb trout in an HOUR in twenty feet of water!

The book gives a very decent description of how to tie the lure and in what order (he says about 12mins each).....I don't understand most of it as I don't fly fish but for me IMHO I suggestthis lure may just offer a great alternative to the usual baits/methods.

Additional weight for longer casts can be added via swan shots but probably fine without on small waters....

Anyway, its all very interesting and a great response to my post so thanks for that!

pps I'm still working my way through S-Kippy's post which offers some good basic info for a non fly man........and yes, walker was fishing from a boat opposite a tower by the boat lodge.............................23 good perch-and he was fishing for trout!!

Tee-Cee · Nov 6, 2011

I really thought Ron would be able to add something to this......That, and the fact that I would like to obtain some but I imagine they would have to be specially tied??

dezza · Nov 6, 2011

It's all been pretty well covered as far as I can see.

To tell the truth I have never used the Hanningfield Lure although I have tied a few for other people. The fly I have caught a few perch on is the Red Setter, a New Zealand Pattern. It is tied as follows if I remember rightly.

Hook: 8 to 12 long shank
Silk: Brown
Hackle: Brown Cock
Body: Light brown chennille
Rib: Gold oval tinsel
Tail: Red Hen Hackle fibres.

A couple of white foam "eyes" can be added to make the fly fish "booby" style. A fast sinking line and short leader is required for this.

S-Kippy · Nov 6, 2011

I'm not a fan of "lures" at all...and certainly not tandem ones. I will fish a Minky [another fry imitation] occasionally but I much prefer to fish nymphs from the bank. In all my years of trout fishing I've only ever had two coarse fish... a perch from Rutland Water on a white lure and a roach/bream hybrid from Bewl on a buzzer. That last fish had me going a bit because it was well over 2.5lb and for a moment I thought I'd got a bloody great roach.Unfortunately once I looked closely its snotty ancestry was all too apparent.

The HL is not a difficult pattern to tie...simply two flies joined together but tandem mounts are always a bit fiddly and you have to make sure that the mount is secure or the damn thing will fall apart if you hook a fish. I have tied a few for sea trout...I use thick Amnesia backing,whipped and superglued to form the mount.

Considering the numbers of coarse fish in the big reservoirs I'm surprised more dont get caught by accident or even design. Maybe they do but people dont say. I sometimes wonder if there are a few secret squirrel types out there targetting the coarse fish but in my experience fly fishing doesn't seem a terribly effective way of catching coarse fish on a big trout water. Too many greedy flippin trout for a start.

dezza · Nov 6, 2011

Perch are one of the easiest coarse fishes to catch on the fly rod, especially on trout sized 16 to 12 flies, especially red midge larva (bloodworm) imitations. I've had some very large perch on trhe fly rod but not in this country.

On rivers, dace are well worth persuing with a dry fly. In fact you can often target the big dace in a shoal with the right dry fly or nymph, which you cannot by trotting a float. I mean to try for the big dace of the Trent with the fly rod next summer. An evening spent in search of big Trent dace I am sure will be most entertaining.

barbelboi · Nov 6, 2011

Yep, I’ve had some success with dace on the fly years ago. If I remember rightly they’re fussy bu$$ers and you need to copy your fly pretty closely to whatever the natural insect is they’re preoccupied with .
Jerry

The 'Hanningfield Lure' and perch....is it available?

Tee-Cee

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