Goats Toe Fly

[Country Joe]

Just watched the Video of David mcphail tying this fly,
As we know this is a very good fly for Broonies, and also takes Salmon.and Seatrout.
My question is, has anyone had any success with this fly for Rainbows,
And if yes, what size fly was best?
I did tye some up years ago, but never got round to using them.
CJ.

[mayflyjunky]

I have had rainbows on the goats toe

I think it works best when they are on the fry and a size 10 seemed to do the trick but I did find a glo bright tail no 11 seemed to do a bit more damage, for me anyway.

Always ment to try it with peacock uv straggle for the body.

Why would it not work

[ACW]

Fishes well for sticklebacks,Havent seen many on the midlands ressers for some years though,I like mine with a red holo rib and the body of that peacock litebrite dubbing!

[Chris Reeves]

I had good results on Rutland and Grafham about 5 years ago with this fly early season, but found it worked best with a very small tag, about 1mm of red floss showing. Peter Thomas first put me onto this fly for ressie rainbows in the early 80's and while I can't say its a must use fly it is certainly a regular first change until July.

Cheers

[troutheaven]

Just spotted this thread and thought I drop in my tuppence worth.

1. The original, which came from Ireland, had a red wool body ribbed with a strand of peacock herl. I came across this pattern in South Uist where it was very popular for sea trout and salmon and seemed to be virtually unknown in the rest of Scotland, and obscure in Ireland.

2. I reckoned it would, with a few fine modifications, work for Orkney browns. I changed the body to p/cock herl ribbed with GloBrite no. 5, which I reckoned to be more robust. I also changed the tag/tail to GB no. 5 also, and to support the p'cock hackle I tied a black cock hackle under it. The Ilen Blue was the original hackle, which was fine for salmon and sea trout, but the bottle-green body feather better for browns.

3. On a day when the Orcadian Benson & Hedges team were having a day off Rutland at Blythfield, it was the only fly which would take rainbows on a very difficult day. A few guys regularly used it on Leven as a late evening fly with great success.

[mayflyjunky]

It does pay to mess around with the tag on this I know the goats toe with a peach tag will generally outfish the red tag on Lough Melvin

But sorry thats getting away from the question.

[Ephemerella]

Peach.??

I like the 'Chatreuse' version. Davie shows that variant at the begining of the video which I've included.

YouTube - Tying the Goats Toe with Davie McPhail

YouTube - Tying the Goats Toe with Davie McPhail

[troutheaven]

Originally Posted by Ephemerella

Peach.??

I like the 'Chatreuse' version. Davie shows that variant at the begining of the video which I've included.

YouTube - Tying the Goats Toe with Davie McPhail

I watched Davie's video. He is without doubt a magnificent fly dresser and I've never met anyone with such mastery of materials as him. But he is, imho, best at the flies from the disciplines he knows best i.e. river trout, grayling, sea trout and salmon. His loch patterns don't quite match up with the others.

His Goat's Toe patterns all have the hackle virtually flat along the body. I always did my level best to stop this happening. That is why I introduced an under-hackle of black cock as a support for the p/cock hackle. The folding of hackles, which Davie demonstrates here, is a river salmon fly technique and not realy suitable for stillwater patterns.

But as I said before, Davie is a brilliant fly tyer, probably the best in Scotland, and my criticism is well-meant. We all have failings in fly tying ability. Davie has less than the rest of us.

[The Bear]

Originally Posted by troutheaven

Just spotted this thread and thought I drop in my tuppence worth.

1. The original, which came from Ireland, had a red wool body ribbed with a strand of peacock herl. I came across this pattern in South Uist where it was very popular for sea trout and salmon and seemed to be virtually unknown in the rest of Scotland, and obscure in Ireland.

2. I reckoned it would, with a few fine modifications, work for Orkney browns. I changed the body to p/cock herl ribbed with GloBrite no. 5, which I reckoned to be more robust. I also changed the tag/tail to GB no. 5 also, and to support the p'cock hackle I tied a black cock hackle under it. The Ilen Blue was the original hackle, which was fine for salmon and sea trout, but the bottle-green body feather better for browns.

3. On a day when the Orcadian Benson & Hedges team were having a day off Rutland at Blythfield, it was the only fly which would take rainbows on a very difficult day. A few guys regularly used it on Leven as a late evening fly with great success.

Stans pattern is the one i generally use the most and the one with the peach tail as described by mayfly junkie occasionally on Melvin and Erne ,i use a pinch of marabou for the tail though

[maharg]

Caught one or two rainbows on it, but the bloody perch seem to love it!!!!!!!!