Fly Fishing Tips: Flies for Gaula

Big Tubes for Early Season

• Gaula Howler (tube by Matt Hayes)

• Body: Plain aluminium tube, undressed
  
• Under Wing: white polar bear followed by soft white fox (pearl uv flash combed in)
• Middle wing: Chartreuse Fox (chartreuse ice angel hair combed in)
• Top Wing:Long black fox or templedog
• Additional Flash: a few strands of pearl Krystal flash (two each side)
• Eyes: Jungle Cock (either natural of dyed chartreuse)
• Hackles: throat hackles (two). First hackle tied when the wing has just one layer, the second before the top wing is layed. Both layers are wound dirty yellow schlappen or soft cock, gathered under and stroked back.

This fly, invented and tied by me (Matt Hayes) has been deadly both early and late season. it has caught lots of fish not only for yours truly but also friends. It is now in commercial production but this is the way the inventor ties it. It works best when the water is clear. As the season progresses, I simply tie it smaller and alittle sparser. I am covinced that the white polar bear underwing is essential to its success.

 

 

Green Highlander Tube (Norling/Frodin)

• Thread: black
• Tag: highlander green floss combed out
• Rib: oval Gold or silver
• Rear Body: highlander green floss wound
• Front Body: yellow and gold lite-brite dubbing wound in a dubbing loop and combed out
• Wing: orange polar bear followed by orange fox and then yellow, highlander green fox and finally a long overwing of black fox or templedog. Comb sparing amounts of flash inbetween the wing layers, just a few strands of each are enough. i favour hot orange, chartreuse ice and hot yellow angel hair
• Extra Flash: two strands of green pearl flashabou down flank
• Soft cock or schlappen. First throat hackle is highlander green wound after the second wing layer and combed out. The second hackle is yellow and is applied just before the top wing layer. Both hackles are wound, gathered and pulled underneath before being brushed with velcro.
• Eyes: natural jungle cock

The classic Gaula fly tied large but with the distinctive willow shaped templedog wing. This fly is the modern variant known as the "black green highlander."It works on all water levels early season and is at its best from the start of June to some time around early July. After the snow melt has left the river it is not as effective.

 

Ace of Spades (Walther Deus)

• Body: silver (either aluminium tube, undressed or other tube with silver tinsel)
• Wing: white fox folowed by more white and built up in layers with long black over
• Flash: UV pearl combed in and a few stands of pearl krystal flash or pearl flashabou
• Throat: Guinea fowl
• Cheeks: jungle cock
  

I am not sure whether this fly originated from Walther Deus or Ulf Sil but I know that it was tied for Walther by Ulf. I tie a few variants of this one but it seems that it is simplicity that is its biggest asset. With very little colour, this is a contrast fly with black and white delivering the starkest contrast of all. Why does it work so well? All the best flies have an illusionary aspect about them - we want the salmon to see them fleetingly. With this fly, they will either see the black or the white according to the light conditions but i think that they will never see a solid fly. It works really, really well in clear water and while it will take fish in broad daylight, I love this fly for late evening and twilight fishing.

Heart of the Sunrise Flood Fly (Matt Hayes)

• Head: fluorescent orange thread (utc)
  
• Body: flat copper tinsel or lite brite
  
• Rib: gold oval tinsel

• Tag:hot orange fluoro fibre
  
• Butt: orange thread
• Wing: sunburst yellow fox with yellow angel hair combed in followed by orange fox or templedog with orange angle hair combed in, followed by red fox or templedog with red ice angel hair combed in
  
• First hackle: (tied as a throat) yellow schlappen or soft hen
  
• Second hackle (tied full over final wing): scarlet cock schlappen or hot orange. Hot orange guinea fowl is good too
  
• Cheeks: jungle cock

A flood fly if ever there was one. A combintion of red, yellow and orange that i use at the height of the flood and when it is just beginning to run off. The bright colours show up really well in peat-stained water.

Banana Fly (Hakan Norling)

• Thread: chartreuse UTC
• Body: Flat gold Tinsel
• Tag: chartreuse or gold fluoro fibre
• Rib: oval gold tinsel or chartreuse UTC wire
• Wing: hot yellow fox with hot yellow angel hair combed in, followed by sunburst yellow fox with chartreuse ice angel hair combed in followed by curry yellow or dirty golden olive templedog or fox
• Throat: dirty golden olive cock
• Cheeks: JC dyed golden olive or chartreuse

This is one of the hot flies on Gaula of the past couple of seasons. Dirty olive, yellow/greenand dirty yellow have become really popular because these colours blend well with the general colour of the stones on the bottom of Gaula and give the fly that suggestive quality without being too visible. This fly is a winner in different sizes all throuhg the season. The later the season gets the smaller and more drab I make the fly.

 

Mid to Late Season Flies

 

Jonas (Matt hayes)

• Thread: hot orange
• Body: Larguton copper tinsel
• Tag: red fluoro fibre
• Rib: fine oval silver tinsel
• Wing: three layers of brown and orange brown soft fur, either fox or templedog. The lower wing is orange brown, the centre a mid brown and the top a rusty brown. In between each layer, comb in copper angel hair
• first throat hackle is orange and is tied in after the first wing layer. the second throat hackle is blue guinea fowl wound just before the top wing layer

The Jonas is a fly I named after Jonas Hamarstedt, famous Gaula ghillie. He once showed me a fly quite like this and I set about making a copy, adding a few extra touches so that it was not a direct rip off. This fly works well after the first high water of the season, usually around mid-July but it will catch fish from the mid to the late part of the season - just vary the size and amount of flash.

Electric Ray (Matt Hayes)

• Thread: black
• Tubing: Guideline FITS chartreuse, Large
• Underwing: yellow fox tied fatback style (forward then folded back)
• Flash: yellow krystal flash
• Middle Wing: yellow goat
• Top Wing: long black fox or templedog
• Topping: peacock herl

This fly is fished with a double hook with the hook points facing up. Fish tend to come over the top of sunrays and and clamp down on them. The fly works well at all times of the season but especially so in clear water when fish start to become resident. Deadly when fished fast either with a stripping action or a downstream hook in the line, this fly makes salmon aggressive. The first time I tried it it produced a fish of 24 pounds, second cast.

Bomber

• Thread: Kevlar or other very strong thread
• Hook: large single, usually a Partridge Salar
• Tail: kip or calf
• Body: spun deer hair clipped into a cigar shape
• Body hackle: cock
• Front "Wing": kip or calf

The Bomber is a fantastic fly for skating around the tails of pools on a floating line. Sometimes it provokes fish on a low, clear river when nothing is happening but more often than not these flies work best fished in the smooth tongue of water right at the back of the tail of the pool either at dusk or just going into dark.

Night Specials (Matt Hayes)

• Thread: black
• Body: flat silver tinsel
• Rib: silver or gold oval tinsel
• Tag: red fluoro fibre or yarn brushed out
• Underwing: scarlet fox
• Middle Wing: longer scarlet fox with red ice angel hair brushed in
• Top Wing: long black fox or t.dog with peacock angel hair and Peacock mirror flash
• Throat Hackle: scarlet red followed by black cock or schlappen
• Cheeks: Jungle cock dyed scarlet red

These are my own night flies. At night, black is the common denominator in all my flies. Black and blue, black and white and in this case, black and red all work well. The flies can be larger than those that you would use for daytime fishing in the same conditions.

Cascade

• Tail: red, yellow and orange buck tail fibres with two strands of pearl krystal flash
• Middle Wing: Golden pheasant tippets tied roof style followed by grey squirrel
• Eyes: Jungle cock dyed sunburst yellow
• Head Hackle: yellow and orange cock fully wound

This fly can be tied either as a tube or on a double hook. For low water fishing the double is best but given reasonable water height and a touch of colour, the tube version fishes very well. The Cascade catches salmon everywhere and the Gaula is no exception. the fly starts to work well in the first or second week of July and goes on until the end of the season.

Phatagorva (Matt Hayes Tying)

• Thread: black
• Butt: rear of orange Guideline tube
• Tag: orange fluoro fibre
• Body Hackle: orange grizzle rear, black front half
• Body: flat silver tinsel rear half, front half black lite-brite brushed out
• Underwing: orange fox with orange angel hair combed in
• Middle Wing: burnt orange and rusty brown fox mixed with orange in flames Guideline FITS flash combed in
• Over Wing: brown fox or temple dog with peacock angel hair brushed in
• Throat Hackles: orange grizzle followed by black cock
• Cheeks: natural or dyed orange JC

This is a fly designed to test the skills of any tier. The smaller versions tied either on mini-tubes or double hooks can be simplified if you wish. There are a few different tyings of this fly but common to them all is a silver body, black hackle and brown wing. The phatagorva is one of the best selling flies in the Lax store and probably catches more fish in the second half of the season than any other.

Joshua Shrimp (Matt Hayes)

• Thread: UTC hot orange
• Hook: Partridge Salar from 7 to 13
• Tail: golden pheasant rump feather
• Butt: peacock glister dubbing
• Rib: fine oval silver tinsel
• Rear Body: ruby red uv deb
• Centre Hackle:rump feather, golden pheasant, wound
• Front body, glister peacock dub, brushed out
• Front Hackle: ringneck pheasant rump hackle wound
• Cheeks: JC tied roof style

I named this fly after my young son because he sat on my knee when I tied the first fly. It worked first time out on a low, stale river and has carried on working ever since. I vary the size from 7 at the beginning of August to size 13 if the water drops really low.