Hi Guys

Nowt as queers as trout !

I was out tubing on a wild brown trout water, almost gale force winds and big wave (whcih i love whilst tubing) from start to finish 4 hours wild brownies mostly 10"-12" were hurling themsleves into the air there little tails could be seen going hell for leather in mid air !

I saw a couple of damsel fly, the odd bumble bee................. the high wind was simply blowing every thing away. I did'nt see any flys in the water and no sigh of empty shucks ?? Yet they continued to hurl themselves into the sky ? I fished just about every thing in my boxes ........

Finally tried a size 12 sparse Butcher (point) black hopper (dropper) slow fig 8....................nailed two fish on the Butcher Goes to show some times the old ones can prevent a blank

I still could'nt figure out what they were feeding on ?? I got some piece of mind from Stan Headly book were he states he was fond of a size 14 Butcher fished slow during midge hatches ? Although he doesnt explain why ? Always thought a Butcher was a fry imatation ?

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Englander

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In smaller sizes the colouration & flash of the butcher in a size 14 can be said to hint at the Colouration of the Chironomids, especially the black & red ones.
I'd say this can really only be applied if
a) the butcher is fished at an appropriately slow or static manner
and
b) the fly needs to be tied very slim & sparse, arguably with a slim wing sloping back low over the body.

The Butcher fished in a standard way is far more likely to be taken purely out of curiosity or less likely a fry IMO.

butcher is an oldie but a goodie, fantastic sewin fly on small rivers. not sure what your brownies would have been taking it for.

For many years i have seen the slim wing of the butcher as being an imitation of the body of an "insect" rather than as a "wing". As a fry imitation, which may have been the original intention, it says nothing to me.

Ok, i'm talking impressions now: The combination of blackish, slim wing as body of a midge pupa. The hook bend as a detached continuation of the body giving another trigger point. The black hackle as possibly the legs and movement suggesting the fuzzy haze of emergence. The silver body as either suggesting the shuck, or just perhaps, under water this may act as a mere mirror of the surroundings, rendering it almost invisible under certain light conditions. The bright red tail, well i can't give a reasonable explanation to that, other than mentioning haemoglobin and an attractive or irrelevant colour addition to the black profile! The original tail was i believe scarlet ibis, not the same colour as the crimson subsitute sold nowadays.

Some opinions are that it is a representation of the Corixa (water
boatman), with the silver "body" suggesting the air bubble that the beetle collects at the surface and carries down with it.

So the trout may have been leaping to hatching midges, or corixa launching themselves from the water as they do.

Or the fish could have been feeding on something totally different, but very specific such as happens in a Caenis fall. A situation where no matter how good your imitation is, it don't work! Then something different is the answer, and the butcher fits that category in that situation.

All that said, the butcher is a more than justified classic!

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"Angling may be said to be so like mathematics in that it can never be fully understood" - Izaak Walton

Maybe they were on pin fry in which case the silver body of the butcher would have been a apt fly for the job.
Just a thought and Im glad you had some sport.
mike

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I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,9 bean rows will I have there and a hive for the honey bee.