The road to Lake Oostvoorne

A blue ribbon steelhead fishery... in the Netherlands! Glittering, strong and abundant - that's the steelhead of the Dutch Lake Oostvoorne

Dressings for the flies as follows

The Bunny Fries above and the Dutch Scampi and traditional flies below were the successful patterns for me.

1. Bunny Fry (my own pattern)
Hook: standard shank wet fly 4-12
Tail: Zonker strip the same length as the hook shank
Body: Tufts of rabbit fur tied along the length of the shank. Light coloured fur below, darker above.
Head: Strip of rabbit fur, spun in a dubbing loop, wrapped forward and roughly trimmed to shape.
Eyes: stick on epoxy type
The whole head is then soaked in superglue and when dry trimmed smooth with a craft knife.

2. Dutch Scampi (my own pattern)
Hook: any curved longshank hook 10-12
Feelers: Root beer crystal flash.
Shell back: Clear Scudback or similar material.
Eyes: Melted mono. I use 15lb brown maxima.
Rib: clear mono
Underbody: Piece of ethafoam, tied in front and rear. Body: synthetic dubbing in a pale orange pink colour. Well picked out under the hook shank.

3. Pearl Spider (my variation on the theme)
Hook: heavyweight wet fly 12-14
Body: Stretched pearl mylar tinsel over a base of black thread.
Rib: Silver wire or mono.
Hackle: two turns of black hen hackle.

4: Bristol Hopper (my variation on the theme)
Hook: Drennan emerger 10-16
Body: black seal fur
Rib: Medium pearl mylar tinsel, stretched to half its original width
Legs: 6 cock pheasant tail fibers, knotted once. Tied in a bunch under the hook shank.
Hackle: Black cock hackle. 3 or 4 turns.

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