| This is a story about one simple
and wonderfully effective pattern. Actually the fly is a mixture of two famous dry flies:
Henryville Special and Elk Hair Caddis. I guess we can call it Elk Henryville, but I'm
using different name because my friend insisted on it. My old friend and fishing pal Dusko
uses only this pattern for all his fishing and always ask me to give him some of my
"Hairy Sedges". If you look into his fly box you can see only this pattern in a
few different sizes but still he manages to catch quite a lot of trout. He insisted so
much on that name that I accepted it. 
Dusko fishing on a high mountain stream
I discovered this fly in late 80s
on the Resava river in Eastern Serbia, where I used to fish regularly every summer. It is
not a big river, but its waters are clear and it supported a nice population of brown
trout. (The picture of the river is showing it the way I prefer to remember it - like a
current of silver.) After experimenting with different flies I observed that during the
summer there is little need to use any other dry fly on the Resava. It was interesting
that trout were ready to take this fly when various insects were hatching and sometimes
even when there were no insects at all.
The Resava
Hairy Sedge was tested on all
other rives where I fished whenever there was chance to try dry fly. It became my first
choice when I have to search for the trout. It is producing best results on faster water.
The trick is to keep the sedge close to the main current, but not exactly in it, and to
lead the fly into trout holding places. If the trout is willing to take it will not
hesitate.
The river Visocica where Hairy Sedge is
usually successful
When tied well this fly can stand
a lot of abuse because elk hair is the strongest of all deer hairs. I caught many trout
with it and from personal experience can tell that single Hairy Sedge can easily cope with
more than ten trout, one after another. There are very few high floating dry flies with
such capabilities.
Brown trout with a Hairy Sedge in its mouth
Although I consider the first
version of Hairy Sedge as the best, there are many possible variations of this fly style.
They can imitate sedges, stoneflies, bigger mayflies, grasshoppers and almost any other
insect. In some of those variations I added high visible deer hair into the wing, like I
did in the Flame Sedge, described before. This was not really necessary because pale color
of the elk wing makes Hairy Sedge very visible.
Hairy Sedge Variation
Hairy Sedge is not successful for
trout fishing only; it is also well accepted by all other fish species willing to take
insects from the water surface. In the summer 2002 I had a very nice chub that firmly
believed that this fly is exactly what he needed.
Chub taken on a Hairy Sedge
Tying details:
| Hook: size 8-14, light wire dry
fly models, both standard and 2x long |
| Thread: olive 6/0
Danville |
| Body: olive dubbing |
| Body hackel: cree or
grizzly, short |
| Wing: stacked bull elk
in natural golden color |
| Collar hackel: brown |
Comments
When the fly is tied apply generous amount of head cement not only on the whip finish but
also let it soak the center of the collar hackle. The cement will hold firmly the hackle
and the wing, which will make very durable fly. |
Photo 1 and 6 by Aleksandar Panic
Photo 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 by Goran Grubic
Flies tied by Aleksandar Panic
Contacts:
Goran Grubic
grubic@infosky.net
Aleksandar Panic
panicfly@yahoo.com
http://www.panicfly.co.yu/ |
