Has anyone seen a pattern with blue mallard feathers as wings. I am trying to devise a pattern for the high mountain lakes which is natural looking but high visibility for days when the water is coloured by run off. My idea was to use a peacock herl body with a red tail (dyed feather) and the highly reflective blue mallard as a wing possibly with a black hen hackle. A mix of traditional welsh patterns. Am I barking up the wrong tree?

Hi Ian

This a plan for wet flies?

You have elements there of the Red Tag and Heckum-Peckum (also spelled Heckam-Peckam - good old Scottish pattern)- you might also look at Zulus and Butchers. Like a lot of old wets Heckum and Butchers are more families of flies with alternative bodies, tails, hackles and wings.

I’m not sure how reflective Mallard Blues are. Heckums use the white tips with the darker part of the feather so it has contrast - to my mind contast is an attention grabber in coloured water. Bit of a bugger tying those wings in numbers since there are so few suitable feathers on a wing and so little of the feather has the right strip of white.

Personally, I rely more on silhouette than colour for wet flies. Also a personal thing but while the materials you have there are natural I find it a bit hard to say a traditional style wet or dry is ” natural looking”. I reserve that for artificial flies which look like insects.

Thanks Magnus,
Sorry, wet flies of course and I’m talking about the mountain lakes of Snowdonia.
You are right, it’s basically a red tag with a wing. Butchers and Zulus have not worked very well for me, in fact they seem to get less attention the higher the lake. No idea why. Bibio is a good all rounder as is Blae & Black (or black pennel).
I see your point about natural looks, I should have said traditional wet style.
Your points about silhouette and contrast are very helpful. I’ll tie a few a per your recommendation & see which works best.
Many thanks.

Hi Ian. If Butchers don’t work for you with a blue mallard feather substitute teal flank for the wing. I tied both Butcher and Bloody Butchers up this way as an experiment and found that my results with the teal flank winged flies were much better than with the original pattern.

The flies were used on Scottish hill lochs so they should work on similar waters in Wales.

Ruby Pennel.

Hi Ian. The pattern you described has been tied before. I remember seeing it in a book I have in my collection. The problem is I cant locate the book at the moment but as soon as I do I’ll get back to you with the details.

From memory the pattern is of African origin (I think!) and varients had a Furnace or Greenwells throat hackle.

As Magnus has said many “families” of patterns have similar components. For example a varient of the Rectors Fancy has a Peacock herl body and red floss tail instead of tinsel and tippet but retains the Mallard wing (which, like the Heckum Peckum, calls for the white tipped darker fibers to be used). The Mallard & (colour)series would be another example.

With that said I think the pattern you describe will undoubtedly take fish in coloured water particularly if there is fry present but also if there are beetles being blown onto the water.

Thanks Bob, that’s very interesting. I’m intrigued about the African link. I know a South African fisherman, I’ll try & get in touch with him. My wife & I had a son 8 months ago so I’ve not had much time at the bench but I will definitely tie a few up in 14, 16 & 18 and give them a try up high.
Thanks again
IanB