The Shwimp imitates a parasitised Gammarus shrimp, which is easy food for stream trout
Gammarus freshwater shrimps are an intermediate host for a parasitic worm which alters their behaviour causing them to stop hiding among detritus and swim in open water, where being more visible on account of the bright orange parasite, they get eaten by fish.
The Shwimp imitates a parasitised shrimp using a small orange tungsten bead within the body held in place on a length of copper wire and covered with a shell of narrow organza ribbon. The weight flips the fly to fish with the hook point and its legs pointing up, which is how the real ones swim. If you are wondering about the name, W is the atomic symbol for tungsten giving the shrimp its name as if spoken by Sean Connery.
It’s a good little pattern for trout and grayling sinking quickly down to where the real shrimps hang out among the gravel and stones. For grayling on big rivers in the winter I fish it on a dropper above a 3.5 or 4mm tungsten point fly. Once the trout season starts and I’m fishing t smaller rivers and streams I’ll use it on it’s own for dropping into plunge pools below waterfalls where trout wait for food to be washed down to them from upstream.
Nick Thomas
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