White Body - tube fly

[The Dog]

Hi guys - like the forum by the way Steff. Reading the thread on Lazer lights / luminous paint etc, and I was wondering what people thought about a white body on a tube fly? Whilst thinking it in work, I quickly stuck a 1 inch aluminium tube in the vice (always set up at the desk), painted it with tipp-ex, then allowed it to set, and covered it in varnish. So, I have a white tube ready to be tied on. I'm just about to stick some wing etc in and will give it a go. Dropper fly probably, but never really dabbled with anything similar previously.

I am a firm believer that the shape / profile / silhouette is the main thing to get right in a tube fly for night fishing, but just wonder what people think of the bright white body approach?

Just be interested to hear?

Cheers.

[cloudwalker]

Hi Dog. Try using lumi White mylar tubing for your tube. White and glows in the dark. Regards.Cloudwalker

[watermole]

I am a firm believer that the shape / profile / silhouette is the main thing to get right in a tube fly for night fishing, but just wonder what people think of the bright white body approach?

Just be interested to hear?

Cheers.[/QUOTE]

A good point there, Dog; For some reason, have personally, never done much good with white flies, (haven't done much better with any other colour, come to that!) Must be a jinx colour for me, but there was a thread on the old forum somewhere, about an all-white snake fly, and quite a few people elsewhere have spoken highly of it.
There is also an Irish salmon fly of the past, called the 'White Tip', which was a renowned taker of fish...and the 'Baby Doll' used to be an indispensible standard item in the Stockie bashers' armoury, a few years ago..

...As regards sea-trout flies & lures, there was once a well-known West-Country sea-trout fisher down in this part of the World,who used to make a tube-fly, which he named the 'Nellie Gwynn'; being the orange Golden pheasant tippet feathers tied with the black bars overlapping, in the manner of skirts, onto the pure-white plastic tube from electric bell wire, from which the copper had been removed.
It was almost a cross between a snake and a tube, long before the former had even been dreamed of, and was incredibly successful,-though, whether this was down to the bright, white body, or the pulsating orange & black 'skirts', I would not like to say..

Regards,

wm.

[The Dog]

Nice reply - thanks. Funny thing is, a mate and I were only talking about the baby doll pattern the other night on the way to the river! The pattern you mention with Golden Pheasant sounds ingenius.

I still haven't tried the white bodied pattern that I knocked up, but it is there in the box, and I am sure there will be a moment during one night on the river, where it will just be crying out for a swim. I will let you know.

Cheers.

[Salarex]

Watermole, that Nellie Gwynne sounds fantastic - wouldnt be able to post a picture would you? Trying to envisage the 'skirts' - are they just at the head or all down the tube?

[watermole]

Watermole, that Nellie Gwynne sounds fantastic - wouldnt be able to post a picture would you? Trying to envisage the 'skirts' - are they just at the head or all down the tube?

Dog/Salarex; Have had a look in some old fly boxes today-and found three well-used, battered, but absolutely original "Nellie Gwynne" tube-flies and have tried to take pics for your reference.

These were made at least 40 years ago, by a Scots gentleman-no longer with us- named J.J.Robertson, who was also a most expert bamboo rod-maker and distance caster. He moved permanently to the Westcountry after demob. in 1946 and fished notably in the Walkham and Tavy rivers, measuring his annual sea-trout catch by the hundredweight-that is not an exaggeration either!
He made all his own flies, preferring to stick to very basic and simple patterns and as far as I know, was also the inventor of this one!

It was named-rather obviously-after Nell Gwynne, the well-known historical lady retailer of oranges-probably because of the colour, anyway, the name stuck!

To make one, place a needle in your vice and push a short-ish length of white, plastic 'bell-wire' (with the copper core removed) over it.

Tie in a 'bump' of thread near the tail, then tie in two-or three, G.P. tippet feathers, arranged like a skirt about and around it, so the bump makes them stand up and outwards.
Next, tie in some bigger G.P. tippets at the head, also in front of a 'bump' of silk, thread, so that they too stand out.
I think that the general idea was that the black bars should overlap.
...And that's it!

You can also dress the wire with silver if desired, or just leave it plain.
The fly is something of a surface lure, and was found to fish best in slower water, by casting upstream, then fishing it back, just faster than the current..

The pics are not good, but you get the idea..





Best wishes-and Tight Lines!

wm.

[Teifi-Terrorist]

Nice looking fly WM, thanks a lot for posting the pics. It looks like a nice, generic pattern, which would imitate a multitude of items from shrimp through to bull-heads.

TT.

[The Dog]

Thanks Watermole. What an unique pattern. Really interesting to see one.

Cheers.