Rocky River Chapter Trout Unlimited
Charlotte, North Carolina
We Conserve, Protect and Sustain our
Coldwater Natural Resources
Just a few of the folks from Saturday...
Sugar Creek Streamside Cleanup 8.17.2019
A blistering hot morning, met with an excellent determination and grit from many, many RRTU members and new faces. Thanks to everyone who was able to attend. The bags full of trash from the stream and the riparian were full evidence to the joyful hard work. It is certainly nice to make a difference in our own backyard and it is certainly nice to have such a good turnout. Thanks again.
Sign up for Fall 2019 Alarka today !!
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Fly of the Month 08.19
Modern fly pattern design for a beetle is often based on utilizing some type of foam material. However, there was a time when there were no foam materials available (foam was not even invented yet) and fly tyers imitated beetles with a bulky dark body of wool yarn, peacock herl, dyed black ostrich herl, or black Chenille and primarily with cock-y-bondhu feathers, then later with simply brown or black hen feathers as a hackle.
The Red Tag fly pattern is a classic example of a beetle imitation for trout and grayling from the north country of England. The Red Tag is still in use today in Australia and Tasmania as a beetle imitation. But this article is about the beetle imitation that once used the cock-y-bondhu feather in the past. Subtle colorations of chicken feathers made all the difference to our ancestral fly-fishers who believed that natures colors meant the difference in fly pattern performance. For the most part, dying chicken feathers was a practice adopted more so in the late-1800s, prior to that, natural was the in thing.
Note: The cock-y-bondhu may be found spelled many ways. We have used the spelling which appears to be the one most commonly used today.
Cock-Y-Bondhu Fly
