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Following the remarkable success
of his Ally’s Shrimp, one of the most successful salmon flies of all
time, Ally Gowans went on to create yet another classic in the
Cascade. Indeed, in the space of little more than a decade, the
Cascade has established itself as probably the most used of all
salmon flies, certainly here in the UK, rivalling even Ally’s Shrimp
in popularity. Dressed in appropriate sizes and weights, the Cascade
may be fished effectively throughout the season.
The Cascade Salmon Fly
Materials
hook:
single, double, treble or tube
tail:
hot orange & yellow bucktail with clear Krystal hair.
body:
half silver and half black floss silk with medium oval tinsel rib.
wing:
silver Krystal Hair and black squirrel.
collar hackles:
yellow & hot orange.
head:
black thread and varnish
Step 1
- Wind a bed of thread towards the tail and tie in a few turns of
oval silver tinsel
Step 2
- Tie in a tail of mixed yellow and orange bucktail plus a few
strands of Krystal Flash; wind an even bed of thread midway up the
body
Step 3
- tie in silver tinsel, wind to tail and back, add black thread or
floss to form front half of body. Overwind with oval silver tinsel.
Step 4 - Add a wing of
black squirrel tail and a few strands of Krystal Flash
Step 5 - Wind two or
three turns of yellow cock hackle, followed by two or three turns of
orange cock hackle; form a neat head and varnish with two or three
coats of Cellire No. 1
The fly may be dressed on
singles, doubles, trebles or tubes. Ally Gowans himself produced the
first variant, by substituting gold for silver on the rear half of
the body. Since then, the Cascade has spawned numerous variants, the
Ness C for example, in which purple replaces the black in the body,
and the Park Shrimp, which adds jungle cock cheeks.
The Cascade can also be dressed
most effectively on the multitude of tubes now available to the
salmon fly tyer. The pattern lends itself to a bit of minor
tinkering here and there. For example, squirrel tail or Arctic fox
may be substituted for the original bucktail. A minor change of just
one colour, in the tail or hackle mix or in the wing, can alter the
appearance of the fly dramatically, as in the examples below, yet
the origin of the resultant variant is undeniable.
The Cascade Tube Fly
- a simplified Cascade, omitting the body dressing
The Highland Cascade
– substituting green for the orange in the tail
The Fiery Cascade
– substituting red for the black in the wing
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