THE CATS WHISKER

Materials required:

• Long Shank Lure hooks size 10-6
• Black Tying Thread
• Lime Green Chenille
• Silver Wire
• Pair of Silver Bead Chain Eyes
• White Marabou

Tying:

1. Cut a pair of silver eyes from a length of chain and using black tying thread tie in the eyes on top of the shank behind the eye using figure of eight tying method to secure tightly. Continue taking thread down the shank in tight touching turns.

2. Take a large pinch of white marabou and tie in to form a tail.

3. Tie in silver wire at the point where the tail is tied in. Tie in lime green chenille above the wire at this point. Take the thread up the shank to behind the silver bead eyes and wind the chenille up the hook shank in tight touching turns to be tied off behind the eyes with the thread. Follow with the wire using open turns winding the opposite way to the way the chenille was wrapped.

4. Take another large pinch of white marabou and tie in behind the eyes to form a wing.

5. Ensure all the materials are securely tied in behind the eyes and bring the thread in front of the eyes, form a head, tie off and varnish the head.

This fly can be used all year round but excels in late autumn when the trout become active on fry.

It is a sinking pattern, so can be fished at any depth on either floating, intermediate or sinking line using the countdown method with all fly line densities.

The Cats Whisker is very attractive to fish because the materials have plenty of movement and the best retrieves are long erratic pulls giving darting movements to the fly. This can be varied by adding pauses in the retrieve followed by very quick short jerky pulls before reverting to the longer retrieve.