Pat Dorsey's Hot Fly-November 2011 - Tungsten Flashback Black Beauty
Posted by Pat Dorsey on Wed, Nov 02, 2011 @ 10:31 PM
One of my favorite patterns for winter fishing has always been the Mercury Black Beauty or the Mercury Flashback Black Beauty!!! It has a dark body like most of the midges in the water this time of year with plenty of contrast for those super selective fish. The only issue I have is the necessity to use split shot with tungsten putty to get the flies down into the "zone". On those really cold days, it is a real pain to deal with the small shot and tungsten putty so I developed the Tungsten Flashback Black Beauty to combat these issues.
The tungsten bead adds the necessary weight to get the fly down when fishing a two-fly indicator rig as well as fishing a midge dry, like a Griffith Gnat with the Tungsten Flashback Black Beauty dropped below it which is very effective for shallow water applications. Fish will pull up into the shallows on warmer days to take advantage of the warmer water and increased bug activity and the midge/dropper set-up is extremely effective during this time!!!
The best time to fish this fly is now through spring when the midges are the most active but do not shy away from fishing this all summer to selective trout as its smaller profile will fool the best of them!!
Recipie:
Hook - Tiemco 2488 - #18 - 24
Thread - UNI 8/0 - black
Bead - Black Tungsten sized accordingly - (2.0mm for #18-20 and 1.5mm for #22-24)
Flashback - UTC Small Pearl tinsel