Three Eye Streamer

 
Flies With a Story
 

The Flytier:


Origination
: Recipe adapted by Mark Vendon from Jason Hamel's Woolly Peacock
Tied By: Mark Vendon
Story By: Mark Vendon
Home: Westerlo, NY
E-mail: BV1MV2MV3@aol.com

Interestingly, it was fly-tying that introduced Mark to the sport. One year after tying his first flies, he bought a fly rod only to see how the flies worked! Like so many of us, it all spiraled up from there. Mark fishes primarily in and around the Catskill mountains. Mark is employed as a product development technician in a plastics manufacturing plant.

 

The Fly:

 

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streamer-top-193-148.jpg

 

Hook: Sizes 6 to 10, 3XL to 6XL
Thread: Black
Tail: Grizzly Marabou, dyed olive or gold with a few strands of Flashabou multiple or single colors
Body: Three strands of peacock herl
Ribbing: Small oval silver or gold tinsel
Throat: Red hackle
Wing: Left and right sides of a peacock eye feather tied so that the dark blue section appears like the eye pupil

 

The Story:

 

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In June of 1998, shortly after I started fly-fishing, Jason Hamel's Woolly Peacock pattern (recipe available in the Virtual Flyshop Pattern Archives) caught my attention since trout are known to like peacock and woolly buggers.  At that time there was just the recipe and tying instructions, and no picture.

For some reason I never tied the wing according to the instructions. I just clipped the peacock eye from the stem and folded the barbs over the top half of the body before tying them down.

With just a couple of these tied, my son and I went fishing at West Canada Creek. It was the last Monday in June and we went to a spot called Blue Barn Bend, located in the trophy section of that stream. This pattern was the first and only one that I tied on that day. Our entire fishing day lasted a little more than three hours, but in that time I caught two browns, a rainbow (uncommon in that stream), and a chub. Two of those trout were in the middle teens! It might not seem that amazing until you factor in that I had only been fly-fishing for three months and my casting skills were basically just lobbing the fly out there. It was also mid- to late-morning, not really the best time to fish at that time of year.

Needless to say, I was hooked on this pattern and have worked on it so that the eye part is more pronounced. I brush on some thinned Dave’s Flexament just to the back of the eye so the quills don’t split when you tie them in. I add some ribbing for strength and a red throat for an injured look. Instead of folding the eye over the top, which tends to split the quills even more, I now take a left and right section and tie them more on the sides of the streamer.

As an alternative, try gold marabou and gold Flashabou in the tail for a much different appearance.  To get the streamer down deep, try weighting it by wrapping lead wire or lead substitute over the hook shank before winding the peacock herl body.

This pattern seems to work better in larger streams where there is enough current for a down-and-across drift. I have yet to try it on bass or brookies since I fish top water stuff 90 percent of the time.

By the way, a photo image of Jason’s Woolly Peacock was added to the recipe and instructions sometime around September of 1998, and it was then that I realized I was not tying it the "right" way. But by then it didn’t seem to matter much, as I had my own favorite variation.

--Mark Vendon

 

 

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