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Yesterday I took two new members around the river beasts
owned by my fishing club and, when we reached Paythorne,
on the Ribble, one of them asked me if that was the Paythorne
the Paythorne Caenis is named after. It is.
In Europe the several species of Caenis split into two groups.
One group (including the common species horaria) hatches
in the afternoon and most of us know it only too well. The
other (including the special luctuosa) hatches at dawn.
It was at Paythorne that I first met the dawn Caenis in
1983, a bigger fly than the tiny afternoon sort, and devised
the pattern.
Paythorne Caenis
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Hook:
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Dry fly Partiidge YL3A,
size 18-20; for afternoon hatches Marinaro Midge (K1A),
size 24-26. |
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Thread:
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Finest black or Spiderweb
if you can get it. |
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Tail:
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3 white microfibbets or
coq de Leon fibres or a sparse bunch of white cock hackle
fibres. |
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Abdomen:
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Stripped white cock hackle
stalk |
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Wings:
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2 light blue dun or white
cock hackle points tied spent.* |
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Thorax:
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A bronze peacock herl,
figure-of-eighted round wing bases. |
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Hackle:
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White or light blue-dun
cock.** |
* This
is a spinner pattern and is more effective than a dun
imitation.
** Optional.
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White Ptarmigan
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Hook:
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Wet fly Partridge YL2A, size 16-18. |
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Thread:
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White. |
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Body:
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White thread. |
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Thorax:
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Bronze peacock herl. |
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Hackle:
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Ptarmigan neck hackle in its white
winter plumage.
Those of you in Canada, Norway, Sweden and Finland have
ptarmigan (I got mine from a hunter in Lapland); otherwise,
use a small white hen hackle. |
Fish the Paythorne Caenis
dry on or in the surface; fish the White Ptarmigan just
under the surface (floating fly-line), twitched back
in a lake and dead-drifted in a river.
Try these when any small pale upwinged flies (mayflies)
are about, including tricos and pale wateries. |
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