Currys Red Shrimp
Curry's Red Shrimp is acknowledged as the pattern from which all other Irish-style shrimp flies evolved. It is used exclusively for catching Atlantic salmon, works well in a variety of water conditions, and is especially good in small- to medium-sized spate rivers. Although extremely impressionistic as far as imitating a real shrimp is concerned, the pattern employs a mixture of feathers to add plenty of movement. Of most interest is the tail, which imitates the shrimp's whiskers and consists of a golden pheasant breast feather wound on at the bend. This tail should always be tied long, but can vary between quite full to sparse, depending on the type of water in which it is to be used.
Tail:
Front Body:
Black fur
Golden pheasant breast feather
Mid Hackle:
White-tipped badger hackle
Tag:
Fine oval
Collar Hackle:
Front Body Rib:
Fine silver tinsel
Wing:
Jungle cock
Hook:
Size 6-2 salmon hook
silver tinsel
Veiling:
Dyed red hackle points
Rear Body Rib:
Medium-width silver tinsel
CURRY'S RED SHRIMP
IRun on the thread and catch in 2 inches (5cm) of fine, oval, silver tinsel. Run the thread a short way up the shank, then wind on four turns of tinsel. Select a golden pheasant breast feather, trim the tip short and catch it in just in front of the tag.
3 Catch in 3 inches (7.5cm) of medium-width silver tinsel, then wind the thread halfway back to the eye. Catch in a length of red floss and wind it back to the tail to form the rear body. Secure the loose end and remove the excess.
2 Grasp the base of the feather with hackle pliers and wind on three turns. As each turn is made, stroke the fibers back past the hook bend. Secure the fibers in position and remove the waste.
4 Wind the tinsel rib over the body in evenly spaced turns. Secure with thread and remove any excess. Catch in two pairs of dyed red hackle points above and below the body to act as veiling.
6 Trim all the waste ends. Complete with a collar of badger cock hackle, and cast off.
5 Apply a white tipped badger hackle at the mid-section. Dub on a black fur front body section and rib it with fine, silver tinsel. Add another set of red hackle point veils and a wing of jungle cock.
Streamers are tied to be very mobile, using soft feathers to give them plenty of action. Streamers can fulfill a variety of roles, from the imitative, where they are used to mimic the color and shape of small baitfish, to the more impressionistic, with gaudy patterns designed to trigger the fish's aggression or curiosity.
While feathers are not as robust a winging material as hair, they do have the advantage of imparting a great deal of mobility and life to the fly. Various types of feathers are used, though in many older patterns cock neck or saddle hackles are used for the wing. These are tied in as opposing pairs so that the curves of the feathers cancel one another out and produce a perfectly straight wing. Hackle feather wings are normally tied in at the eye so that they lie low over the body and project well past the hook bend.
While cock hackles are still used, the material now takes second place to turkey marabou as the most commonly used feather for winging streamers. Being soft and highly mobile, marabou produces an absolutely wonderful action in the water. It is also a great deal easier to apply than cock hackles. Because of its superb action, marabou is also widely used as a tail. In patterns such as the Woolly Bugger and Tadpole, a long, mobile tail produces an allure that game fish of all kinds find difficult to resist. Marabou works well in all water types but lends itself particularly well when fishing in Stillwater where there is no current to give the fly movement and all the action must be imparted by the retrieve.
Brown trout
Arctic char
Cutthroat
Rainbow trout
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