Start from absolute zero in fly tying for FREE: doublebadgers.kartra.com/page...
Gammarus species (and similar) freshwater shrimp (or scuds) are an important part of the diets of fish - particularly in rich limestone or chalk streams and rivers. Where you find lots of shrimp - you tend to also find large trout and grayling.
While some species swim "upright" and others on their side, most have characteristically flattened bodies when viewed from above. In other words, freshwater shrimp bodies tend to be taller than they are wide.
The colors of the shellback, dubbing and rib can all be varied depending on whether you want very drab/non-spooky flies (for fishing low, clear water) or something that will stand out a little from the crowd (often in slightly less "spooky" water - and where natural, live, shrimp occur in huge numbers) - right through to bold, artificial colors not really seen in nature (at least to the same degree of fluorescence).
The book "How to Fool Fish with Simple Flies" (available on Amazon) goes into a more complete system for judging how much to exaggerate (or tone down) the colors and sizes of your artificials.
The video shows the basic "floor-plan" of how to go about combining the basic shellback, dubbing and ribbing materials. It also shows a couple of tricks to making the shellback look as juicy and plump as possible - as well as avoiding getting the dubbing trapped in the ribbing (or caught up and wrapped over the top of the shellback).
Doing a "reverse" tying in of the shellback material (and catching down with the rib) also really helps to create that classic "blunt" face profile of the natural Gammarus. If you want, you can even stack up more strips of lead wire on top of each other to create a more flattened body.
Some of the materials I'm using here were kindly provided (as replacements to my old, battered stock) by John Tyzack and Andy Cliffe at Fish On (thanks guys). You can find their materials here: www.fishonproductions.co.uk/sh...
Paul
3 янв 2021
