Jack Frost
"
The effectiveness of marabou as a winging material was first demonstrated to the angling public by Bob Church's Appetiser. In 1974, he followed up this success with an equally killing lure, Jack Frost. The responsiveness of the marabou to the slightest movement, the translucency of the polythene body over the white fluorescent wool, and the dash of crimson in the hackle & tail make it a wonderful fry imitator in the latter part of the season.
Fished very slowly, it seems to work on most waters. Sometimes flies work for you in ways which are difficult to explain. There are time, at Hanningfield for instance later in the season, when the hatch of midges towards evening produces rises which do not respond to the usual chironomid imitations. Cast quickly into the ring of a rise or the path of a trout, I find a Jack Frost will sometimes be snapped up almost as soon as it lands by previously dour and finicky fish. Whether or not this dramatically disturbs the trout's feeding preoccupation I do not know, but it has rescued me from frustrating despair on more than one occasion when boat fishing."
-Kenneth Robson
Dressed to Kill (1987)
"
I designed this lure for Grafham in the early 1970's, but it has since proved to work everywhere. Rainbows have a great liking for it, and even the giants of the small fisheries take it when it is fished slowly. Use it on floating, sink-tip or sinking fly-lines."
-Bob Church
Bob Church's Guide to Trout Flies (1997)
The dressing I give below is the original one, taken from Bob Church's own book.
Hook: Size 10, 8 or 6 long-shank bronze
Tying Silk: White
Tail: Red wool
Body: Underbody of white fluorescent wool. Overbody of stretched clear polythene strip
Wing: Generous spray of white marabou
Hackle: Two fully-circular turns of scarlet cock; then, close to the eye, three full turns of long-fibred white cock. Tie the hackle in at the roots so that it slopes back
Head: Clear varnish
First prepare the polythene.
You need to cut a strip about 5 or 6mm wide & about 3 inches long. You must use a scalpel, as scissors will create a jagged edge & the polythene will tear when stretched.
Once cut, hold one end of the strip firmly & pull away gently with the other hand. The strip should suddenly stretch as shown below by the point of the blade.
Put the hook in the vice & run neat turns of thread down to the start of the bend. There tie in two thin (or one depending on the thickness) strands of wool on top of the shank. Bind these down tightly & trim the ends off about 4mm behind the eye.
This pattern calls for leaving about 25-50% more room at the head than usual, for reasons we shall see later.
Return to the bend & tie in about 6 inches of white fluorescent wool & trim off & return the silk as previously, to well back from the eye.
Wind a neat body of touching turns with the wool.
Next, tie in the stretched polythene & wind down & back up over the wool in touching turns. Tie in & trim.
Now prepare the marabou wing.
Take several bunches of fibres, pulling away from the stem & trim the roots.
Lay the bunches together so that the trimmed roots are all about even.
Pick the bunch up about half way along the fibres & gently pull away the excess fluff form the root end.
Next, moisten the last few mm of root with saliva (ie stick the ends in yer gob) & then twirl the dampened roots so a sort of shuttlecock is formed.
Trim the end of the roots off square.
Tie the wing in firmly & trim the root ends away at an angle, so as to allow a tapered head to be formed.
Even the end of the wing by pinching & tearing off the fibres. I like quite a long wing on this pattern, at least 50% longer than the shank.
At this stage I also trim the tail wool to the desired length & fluff the twisted fibres with you dubbing needle.
Make sure you have a neat, even bed of thread for the hackle to be wound onto.
Select one red & one white cock hackles, making sure that the fibres are of a similar length on both.
Tear the fluff & any fibres which seem too long away from the hackle stalk & trim the stalk up so that 1 or 2 mm is exposed. Tie this in with 3 or 4 turns of thread.
Wind the red hackle two times fully around the head.
Tie off well & trim. Take the thread over the last turn of hackle, so that the fibres are pushed back out of the way & tie in the white hackle, as before.
Wind the white hackle three full turns as a collar, pulling the fibres back with your fingers between turns so that the stalk can be wound immediately in front of the previous turn.
Again, tie in & trim off the hackle & now encompass all the hackle fibres & pull them back, then again go over the last turn of hackle stalk so that the white portion of the hackle also points well back.
With any luck, this should be roughly what you are left with!
Fluff the hackle forward a little bit with your fingers - it will slowly move forwards over time anyway.
Build up a neat head, whip finish & trim off.
Apply two or three coats of varnish & the dressing is completed.
Jack Frost (pic heavy)
.Used to use them to good affect on bewl for fry feeders,nice SBS though Steve
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