The Essential Fly Old Joan Northern Spider Heritage Range Fishing Fly

Old Joan - Northern Spider - Heritage Range

Old Joan

The Old Joan is one of the classic English North Country spider style flies used all over the world in fly fishing. Another great fly from Mike Harding's book on spider flies. This is the first fly in Ronald's Fly Fishers Entomology and one of the first flies of the season. The dubbing is red and claret squirrel fur. Old Joan is the old Lancashire name, in North Derbyshire it is known as the Red Flt and dressed with a body or dark red squirrel and mohair in equal parts.

Use The Snipe Bloa To Catch:

	The Snipe Bloa can be used to catch Rainbow Trout
	The Snipe Bloa can be used to catch Brown Trout
	The Snipe Bloa Spider can be used to catch Grayling

Mike Harding - Heritage Range of Flies

Our Mike Harding Range of Northern Fly patterns are tied to the traditional patterns. The flies are all designed from Mike's excellent book on Northern Spider patterns. Check it out, it is really good!

Tied as part of our Heritage Range these flies are tied with real silk and the best quality materials - just as these flies should be . We love these flies, they look great and most importantly these flies catch fish!

Trout Wet Fly - Old Joan

wet flies like Old Joan are are range of flies that imitate larva, pupa, drowned adults and Lures

The trout finds most of its food beneath the surface of the water, sometimes by grubbing around the weed-beds, at other times by rising in water to take nymphs and pupae on their way to the surface

The wet flies which include Old Joan fall into various categories: larval and pupal forms of various aquatic insects; drowned adults or even swamped stillborn flies; and drowned terrestrials such as beetles. Many do not represent anything in nature, but are classed as attractor flies or lures, designed to tempt the fish to take out of curiosity. A number of the silver-bodied flies can emulate small fry or minnows. Most of the dry flies have a wet-fly equivalents. The use of heavier hooks, softer hen hackles instead of Cock Feather , and in the case of winged flies a backward-sloping wing, changes the dry fly into a wet one which sinks below the sufrace of the water. Cock Feather hackles are used for these patterns but they are taken from the very young bird where the individual fibres are very soft.

There are two main areas of wet-fly fishing. Firstly, there are the wild rain-fed rivers and streams where it is difficult to see a fish rise let alone see a minute dry fly on the surface. On such waters, wet flies are used almost exclusively upstream and down, as necessity or terrain dictates. The second main area of wet-fly fishing is on atill waters like lakes, lochs and reservoirs, where the angler uses a team of wet flies just below the surface.

On wild streams while searching for the natural Brownie, soft-hackled wet flies like the Partridge and Orange, the Snipe and Purple, the Black Spider, a wet Coch-y-Bonddu, and many others are used.

'When do you fish a wet fly, and when a dry?'

Always fish a dry-fly pattern when you see a trout rising during a hatch of natural insects. However, when the trout refuses to rise to a dry fly, fishing just below the surface with a wet fly can often work. When no activity is obvious, it is a case for the wet fly, pure and simple.

The soft, game-bird hackles of many wet flies have the necessary mobility in the water. They create attractive, natural movement and 'kick' in the current, attracting the fish by their very movement. They look alive and edible; the two key properties for a successful fly.

Wet Fly Old Joan fishing techniques

A technique that has stood the test of time, where the fly (e.g. the Snipe Bloa) is fished sub-surface and is retrieved slowly using a 'Figure-of-Eight' manipulation of the line in the hand. A floating or intermediate line can be used to retrieve the Old Joan

Old Joan - Fly Tying Dressing

For the fly tyers you we have provided tying specifications for the Old Joan. Remember at The Essential Fly we sell the Old Joan at incredible prices with a top quality fly and service to back it up. It is certainly worth tying the Old Joan yourself to understand the pleasure of catching a fish with your own tied fly, however at the price we sell flies it is only worth tying one or two Old Joan as your can spend more time fishing instead of tying flies - buy volume online with us.

Hook Sizes	14 to 16
Silk Thread	Orange
Hackle	Claret Hen
Body	Squirrel fur, red
Wing	Pea hen slips

 

The Essential Fly Old Joan Northern Spider Heritage Range Fishing Fly was last modified on 29/12/2023 07:20