A couple for Swannay

[midlander]

A couple of Kate type variants with Swannay in mind. The first a standard muddler, the second a middle or depth top dropper affair with the gold micro fritz head borrowed from some of Jim, Stewarty and Cols patterns. The addition of a bit if micro fritz to a standard Kate hammered fish on some of the midlands ressies last season on anything from a slow inter to Di5.

Kate McClaret Muddler.

Hook: Hayabusa 751, #8.
Thread: UNI-Thread 8/0, black.
Body: Black claret SF.
Rib: Lagartun oval gold, small.
Palmer: Black and dark claret cock.
Head: Dark roe.

Kate McClaret Gold Head.

Hook: Hayabusa 761, #10.
Thread: UNI-Thread 8/0, black.
Body: Black claret SF.
Rib: Lagartun oval gold, small.
Palmer: Black and dark claret cock, stripped down one side.
Shoulder: WOE hen.
Head: Gold micro fritz.

[Wee Jimmy]

Very nice laddie...glad to hear you had some success with our West of Edinburgh pish....

[midlander]

Originally Posted by Wee Jimmy

Very nice laddie...glad to hear you had some success with our West of Edinburgh pish....

Well, I'm a little bit whey.. a little bit whooa. I'll nick anything, me. Credit where it's due Jim, never thought a turn of fritz would have made that much of a difference until I met you lads.

[weight_forward]

I really like the bottom one, I've use litebrite on heads but fritz always ends up too bulky whenever I've tried it - any tips?

[flytyingguy]

Would t be worth dubbing gold lite brite at the heed?

[dabhoy]

Nice tying Alex not too sure about the micro Fritz I think I just seem to have a bit of a thing about certain synthetics and may have to get professional help to rectify it.
Are the 751's the equivalent of a B160 ?

[Wee Jimmy]

Originally Posted by weight_forward

I really like the bottom one, I've use litebrite on heads but fritz always ends up too bulky whenever I've tried it - any tips?

Apart from using a small size fritz Steve (5mm) all you can do is keep the turns down to a minimum(two at the most) and obviously strip it down to the core when tying it in and tying off.I prefer the look of lite-brite,as the fritz seems a bit crude, but for me, results are greatly in favour of the fritz......bit more flash perhaps.

[midlander]

Originally Posted by Wee Jimmy

Apart from using a small size fritz Steve (5mm) all you can do is keep the turns down to a minimum(two at the most) and obviously strip it down to the core when tying it in and tying off.I prefer the look of lite-brite,as the fritz seems a bit crude, but for me, results are greatly in favour of the fritz......bit more flash perhaps.

Yep, what he said.

I'm sure that the fritz gives more flash and that's why it's there as opposed to lite-brite. I see it that the head gives a faceted sort of flash rather than the muted sparkle that lite-brite achieves. More flash in fact than a faceted bead with virtually no weight, which is precisely what I want with a palmer. However, on smaller flies, say a 14 you've got no option but to go with lite-brite, but more likely as a body additive. Having said that, I probably wouldn't be using a 14 on a Di5 in the same way as I would a 10 or 12.

[savage take]

very nice Alex. had good results using jimmy's dunkeld on leven. and using the micro fritz on a olive dabbler on harray this year. it definitely adds that wee bit extra.

going to have a wee play with the silver micro.

[easker1]

Nice flees My Best trout from Swannay ( 4lb) came to an Orange Invicta
good luck with variants, easker1