The Red Golden (hairwing)




The Red Golden
Tag: Gold Mylar
Butt: Red wool
Tail: Golden pheasant red breast feather
Body: Gold mohair
Rib: Gold mylar
Wing: Red polar bear
     Collar: Golden pheasant yellow rump feather, hen ringneck
 pheasant breast feather or ruffed grouse feather both tied sparse
Head: light brown thread

This hairwing is a conversion of a spey fly I call the Red Golden. I tied it for swinging  & grease lining in low, clear water, with the main target being Great Lakes Steelhead. It could probably serve well for fall Atlantics too.
This thing really glows in the water. More of a subdued glow, which is a quality I strive for in a fly I tie & fish for specifically pressured or dour fish. It proved successful on its first swing this past fall. The target was a small riffly pocket of water that migrating steel would hold in for a few moments before heading into the main pool. I like to concentrate on these areas when the pools become too crowded to swing flies. This particular piece of water was a couple of feet from the opposite undercut bank. I cast the Red Golden a few feet upstream & close to the bank. A few mends & the slow current against the bank, helped the fly get down quick. As the fly drifted downstream, I could imagine the wing & hackle pulsating in the slower current. The quicker main current quickly tautened my line & the R G quickly followed.
 My presentation consists of A.H.E. Wood's greased line presentation where the fly is presented broadside, but unlike Wood's I do not "lead" the fly with my rod to have the fly slowly sweep downstream. Instead I'll leave a larger loop of line downstream from the fly after it has dead drifted & sunk to the bottom. I then abruptly stop the rod tip. The current flow will pull on the belly & the fly, which has been deadrifting,  will suddenly burst across stream. I then slow down the fly by mending & either "lead" the fly to continue its broadside swing or swing it conventionally. The majority of the takes come quickly after the fly has its burst after deadrifting. Some come on the dangle or when the chasing fish runs out of real estate. I have more success with Wood's method & it's variation then swinging conventionally for GL steelhead.
Back to the RG's baptismal swing....
     It had just begun it's "burst" when line ripped from my reel! A silver bar leapt & with what felt like such anger, turned & freight trained downstream!  Then the most empty of feelings.... the line goes dead. Broke me off! Loved it! 


Back to the hairwing. It came to me that this would look great as a hairwing when I was tying the RG spey while thinking of which hairwing I would tie for a fly swap I had just joined. It came together rather quickly & I really liked the way it turned out. Can't wait to fish it!!!

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