June cast of the month comes from Rae Phillips who is in his 73 season of angling in Shetland having started fishing at the age of seven. Rae remembers the time exactly when at the age of seven armed with a piltock wand he was strongly encouraged to spend time outside fishing on a burn in Yell. He returned with two trout much to everyone's amazement in his family and only later did he realise the reason he was sent outside as one of his brothers was being born in the house.
The fly’s Ray has chosen are rooted in his own life story both in the names of the fly’s and the circumstances that led to their creation.
Ray was fortunate enough to have witnessed Shetland sea trout fishing at its prime during the 1940s through to the 1960's. When men were at war he had the fishing to himself and he describes the fishing as phenomenal recalling stories of giant shoals of sea trout moving around with the tides. His wife was from Noss next to the loch of Spiggie and he was one of only four anglers that had a boat on the loch at the time the others being Dr Swan, Old Crawford and captain Stewart. This was the time when sea trout of 5 and 6 pounds entered the loch with huge shoals of smaller fish and one of the patterns here was inspired by Rae's years of fishing on Spiggie. Unfortunately there are no photos of the great catches of sea trout Rae had from this era as portable cameras were not in existence. One of Rae's companions at this time was an angler of legendary repute a Mr Zoo Watt who relied on one main pattern for much of his fishing even in the sea- a black spider(see may cast of the month) catching scores of brown and sea trout on it.
The tackle Rae used was a kingfisher silk line 3 DT that had to be greased at the beginning of every session and by the end of the day sank like a stone, calling for two lines to be carried so a floater was at hand for the evening rise. These lines had to be dried out by wrapping them around the various clothes drying poles in the garden. Rae occasionally still uses the spilt cane rod from these days.
Rae's advice when fishing is to wade extremely carefully and if possible avoid it all together and he catches many fish from the water that many anglers wade right through in order to cast as far as possible, indeed if he sees an angler wading he moves somewhere that the water hasn't been disturbed.
The fly’s Ray has chosen are rooted in his own life story both in the names of the fly’s and the circumstances that led to their creation.
Ray was fortunate enough to have witnessed Shetland sea trout fishing at its prime during the 1940s through to the 1960's. When men were at war he had the fishing to himself and he describes the fishing as phenomenal recalling stories of giant shoals of sea trout moving around with the tides. His wife was from Noss next to the loch of Spiggie and he was one of only four anglers that had a boat on the loch at the time the others being Dr Swan, Old Crawford and captain Stewart. This was the time when sea trout of 5 and 6 pounds entered the loch with huge shoals of smaller fish and one of the patterns here was inspired by Rae's years of fishing on Spiggie. Unfortunately there are no photos of the great catches of sea trout Rae had from this era as portable cameras were not in existence. One of Rae's companions at this time was an angler of legendary repute a Mr Zoo Watt who relied on one main pattern for much of his fishing even in the sea- a black spider(see may cast of the month) catching scores of brown and sea trout on it.
The tackle Rae used was a kingfisher silk line 3 DT that had to be greased at the beginning of every session and by the end of the day sank like a stone, calling for two lines to be carried so a floater was at hand for the evening rise. These lines had to be dried out by wrapping them around the various clothes drying poles in the garden. Rae occasionally still uses the spilt cane rod from these days.
Rae's advice when fishing is to wade extremely carefully and if possible avoid it all together and he catches many fish from the water that many anglers wade right through in order to cast as far as possible, indeed if he sees an angler wading he moves somewhere that the water hasn't been disturbed.
Ogrehunch
Hook B 175 size 10. Body mirage, a few strands of pearl crystal flash, throat, neon pink dubbing, head.
Either black deer hair or white deer hair
Rae tied a version of this fly over 40 years ago when after keeping a few good trout from Spiggie he counted 53 sticklebacks in their stomachs and set out to tie an imitation. This was before the days of big business commercial fly tying materials and anglers were forced to be inventive with whatever materials were at hand to tie flies with. The original body was tied with specially prepared strips of hoe tail which had an effervescent silvery sheen. The hoe tail (spur dog) was prepared by firstly cutting out the muscles fibres in the middle then putting it in a net bag and leaving it in the ebb for about 5 days where nature would strip it bare to this Shiny material that formed the body.
Rae says the White head version is best for light water and the dark head version is best for dark water and the flies must be tied as slim as possible to be successful.
The name 'Ogrehunch' was a memory Rae has when as a mischievous child a relative said your nothing but a naughty ogre hunch. To this day Rae has no idea what the phrase means but after speaking to various people with a good knowledge of Shetland dialect the nearest match semis to be a possible reference to the 'Hunchie clock' a large hard backed Beatle that lives in the peat hills.
The same chastising relative also gave birth to the name of the next of Rae's flies after saying that the naughty young Rae was nothing but a 'Widderbirse'.
Hook B 175 size 10. Body mirage, a few strands of pearl crystal flash, throat, neon pink dubbing, head.
Either black deer hair or white deer hair
Rae tied a version of this fly over 40 years ago when after keeping a few good trout from Spiggie he counted 53 sticklebacks in their stomachs and set out to tie an imitation. This was before the days of big business commercial fly tying materials and anglers were forced to be inventive with whatever materials were at hand to tie flies with. The original body was tied with specially prepared strips of hoe tail which had an effervescent silvery sheen. The hoe tail (spur dog) was prepared by firstly cutting out the muscles fibres in the middle then putting it in a net bag and leaving it in the ebb for about 5 days where nature would strip it bare to this Shiny material that formed the body.
Rae says the White head version is best for light water and the dark head version is best for dark water and the flies must be tied as slim as possible to be successful.
The name 'Ogrehunch' was a memory Rae has when as a mischievous child a relative said your nothing but a naughty ogre hunch. To this day Rae has no idea what the phrase means but after speaking to various people with a good knowledge of Shetland dialect the nearest match semis to be a possible reference to the 'Hunchie clock' a large hard backed Beatle that lives in the peat hills.
The same chastising relative also gave birth to the name of the next of Rae's flies after saying that the naughty young Rae was nothing but a 'Widderbirse'.
Widderbirse
Hook size 10
Body Hackles. Golden olive though to light olive through to medium olive through to dark olive.
Wound Loch Ordie style starting light tone at the tail through to dark tone at the head.
Rae ties many variants on this theme varying the amount of each colour of hackle to get various blends. Occasionally he might tie in two golden olive hackles to give a lighter blend or occasionally he might tie two dark olive hackles at the head to give a darker tone. Note the comments on the last fly regarding dark tones for dark water and light tones for light water. Rae ginks this fly up and describes it as deadly in a hatch of olives.
Hook size 10
Body Hackles. Golden olive though to light olive through to medium olive through to dark olive.
Wound Loch Ordie style starting light tone at the tail through to dark tone at the head.
Rae ties many variants on this theme varying the amount of each colour of hackle to get various blends. Occasionally he might tie in two golden olive hackles to give a lighter blend or occasionally he might tie two dark olive hackles at the head to give a darker tone. Note the comments on the last fly regarding dark tones for dark water and light tones for light water. Rae ginks this fly up and describes it as deadly in a hatch of olives.