'Faughan' Flies

There are a few flies around that have the name of my river attached to them.  Faughan Purple, Faughan Shrimp etc.  I am not sure who first created them and I can't really find out that much about them.

The Faughan Purple is probably the most famous of them all yet I am not sure who actually attached the name of my river to the 'Purple Wool Body' pattern that E.C. Heaney gives in his book, "Fly Fishing for Trout and Salmon on the Faughan", in 1947.

The Faughan at the time was a Sea Trout river with Salmon Fishing not all that popular by many accounts.  An old article I have found from "Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News" from September 1908 states that, "The Faughan is the best free Sea Trout river in the North of Ireland".

Even Heaney states the following:

"The Faughan for obvious reasons cannot be regarded as a first or even second class salmon river ; to state it as a fairly good salmon river may also be very wide of the mark."

 So, how did the name of a poor quality salmon river get attached to salmon flies?

Heaney gave a list of Salmon flies in his book and the pattern of materials needed to tie them.  He stated that they were 'Mourne' flies but would also catch salmon on the Faughan or anywhere else.

He gave a pattern for the 'Purple Wool Body', this is the No. 2 version given.  The No. 1 version had no amber hackle:

Tail: Mixed strands of tippet, red ibis and Peacock sword
Body: Two turns of golden olive pig's wool, remainder dark purple pig's wool
Ribbing: Flat silver tinsel
Hackle: Blood Red with Amber over
Wing: Strands of G.P. Tippet, red ibis, peacock sword, dark mallard over

This was my own attempt from the pattern given above.

Purple Wool Body No. 2 as given by E.C. Heaney

Heaney says of the 'Purple Wool Body No. 1', "No other pattern is so well known on the Faughan as that above".

Purple Wool Body is a bit of a mouthful.  Perhaps as the purple pattern was so popular on the Faughan the name of the river was affixed to it just by locals?  I really don't know.  Heaney's writings were first published as articles in the 'Londonderry Standard' in 1946 with the articles combined in book form and published in 1947.

Heaney also gives a pattern for the 'Purple Body' as a sea trout pattern with an description as follows; "...a very old Faughan pattern that needs no further comment." It is a much simplified version than that above.

Tail: Strands of G.P. Tippet
Body: Purple seals fur (a reddish purple)
Ribbing: Flat or oval silver tinsel
Hackle: Blood red
Wing: Mallard

I have found mention of the 'Faughan Purple' in old angling reports in the 'Londonderry Sentinal' in the 1950s but no actual pattern to see what was being referred to as a 'Faughan Purple' by then.

The first mention of the 'Faughan Purple' with a pattern is in E.J. Malone's book, Irish Trout and Salmon Flies.  It was first published in 1984. He gives the pattern the same as Heaney's Purple Wool Body No. 1 with a second version as I have tied above.  Malone also lists a 'Purple Body' as a trout fly as descibed by Heaney.

Stuart Donaghy, in the chapter "Angling experiences on the Faughan" in Olly McGilloway's book "Along the Faughan Side" states the following:

"...perhaps the best all-round fly for sea trout and salmon that I know of.  That fly is the Faughan Purple; so well known here, as a salmon fly, that the colour of purple used to be a source of debate among anglers and the secret of the correct dye was something that was only passed from father to son..."

He then gives the following pattern.  A different one again;

Tag: Flat Silver
Tail: Golden pheasant tippet
Butt: One turn golden olive wool
Body: Dark purple wool tied in immediately in front of the golden olive, both ribbed flat broad silver tinsel
Hackle: Crottle with amber over
Wing: Bronze mallard

He then states, "The crottle hackle is what is now known as Hot Orange..."

I had a go at the fly above and what I understood to be an amber shade, did not look that much different to the hot orange.   I instead used a more golden red, from a cape dyed by my good friend Paul Slevin, to get some contrast between the two hackles.

Faughan Purple as given in 'Along the Faughan Side'.

I was contacted by a man a few years ago who said he had an old Faughan Purple that had been given to him when he was doing work at the Pumping Station at Campsie during the 1960's.  He asked if I'd like to have it.  I wasn't long in accepting his offer and I sent him a few shrimp flies in return.  This is one of the flies I recieved:

A Faughan Purple tied in the 1960's

As you can see in the pattern above, the hackle is much more of a claret shade than the red used by myself and many others today.  I might have to start experimenting with dying, something I have never even attempted before.

Stuart Donaghy also gives a pattern for a sea trout fly that is similar to Heaney's Purple Body Trout fly.

I remember Stuart fishing on the pools local to me when I was quite young.  I wasn't much into fly fishing or probably hadn't even started tying at that time.  I don't ever remember having a conversation with him but from reading his remarks in 'Along the Faughan Side', I think I would have found him very interesting and would dearly love to have some of his knowledge and ideas on both flies and fishing.

This brings us on to the shrimp flies.  Looking at the pattern above, given by Donaghy, It is easy to see where the 'Faughan Purple Shrimp' came from.  Extend the butt to form a rear body, use purple for the front body, the obligitory GP tail and split the hackles.  Again,  I have never used the Faughan Purple Shrimp, that I can think of anyway, but it was pointed out to me recently that these 'Faughan Shrimps' were on sale in Tom's Tackle on the Ardlough Road for many years.  I bought very few flies in Tom's so I can't really remember if they were there or not.

The Faughan Purple Shrimp really only came to my attention relatively recently.  I was given a very generous gift of Chris Mann's "The Complete Illustrated Directory of Salmon Flies" in January 2013.  The number of times I have looked at this book since and found a pattern I've wanted to try.  It has been a great help and interest to me and I can't thank the generosity of the person enough who bought it for me. Thank you once again!

Chris Mann states of the Faughan Purple Shrimp, "This is a Northern Irish fly from Albert Atkins which has the intense colouration typical of many of his flies. It is intended for use towards the end of the season when there is some colour in the water after a spate."

Albert Atkins' Faughan Purple Shrimp from Chris Mann's book

 I tied the above with denser, softer, cock hackles to give it more presence in a spate with a bit of colour still in the river.  I am not overly fussed on very bright flies myself so I decided that I would 'tone down' the Faughan Purple Shrimp by using more drab shades of Orange and Red.  Both capes dyed by Paul Slevin.

A more subdued attempt at the Faughan Purple Shrimp using golden olive seals fur, burnt orange and golden red hackles

I have not tried any of the last two patterns yet and have tied them just for this blog.  With the way we seem to miss the rains that fall, they might never get wet.

The next fly to have the Faughan name attached to it is the Faughan Shrimp (light).  I only knew this pattern, or indeed the dark version, existed when I bought a copy of Peter O'Reilly's 'Trout and Salmon flies of Ireland' around 20 years ago.  I had never seen or heard of the pattern either before or since and I have never seen anyone fishing with it.  Apparantly it is a good 'back end' fly on the river Roe.

It looks quite and old pattern and I can't think of another Irish Shrimp fly that uses GP Tippets in the way they are used here.  I can't really find another pattern that this fly could be based on.  I really cannot offer anymore thoughts or opinions on the pattern.

Faughan Shrimp (light) on the left and a Faughan Shrimp on the right.

I cannot really offer any help or insight to who may have created the Faughan Shrimp either.  Again, it was one I was not aware of before I saw O'Reilly's book.  Even then, my respect for patterns was quite evident in that I could never tie a Faughan Shrimp as it was stated in the book that the middle hackle should be a burnt orange and not a hot orange.  Purely because of this, I never attempted the pattern.

I could be wrong, but I believe what we now know to be the 'Faughan Shrimp' to be a variant of a Laurence Cunnigham Pattern given in 'Along the Faughan Side' as the Orange and Purple Shrimp.

The pattern for Cunningham's fly is given as follows:

tag: Fine gold oval tinsel
tail: A red feather from the body of a golden pheasant wound on as a hackle
body: First half orange floss silk ribbed with fine oval gold tinsel, then a double orange and claret middle hackle with the claret hackle over.  Second half of the body purple floss silk ribbed with gold oval tinsel slightly broader than the fine used on the first half, with a large purple, or claret, hackle over.
sides: Two medium sized jungle cock feathers
head: Black varnish over tying silk

Here is my attempt at the pattern using claret front hackle:

An attempt at the 'Orange and Purple Shrimp' from Along the Faughan Side.

I could be completely wrong but there is more than a passing resemblence between the two.  Leave out the claret for the middle hackle and the two patterns are more than similar.  More similar again depending on the shade of purple that is used for the front body.

A Faughan Shrimp (top) and an Orange and Purple Shrimp (bottom)

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 As can be seen from the picture above.  There is very little difference between the two.  The claret used here is a lovely shade of soft hackle dyed by my good friend Gary Welsher.

Could it be that a shrimp designed by a well known Faughan angler and fly tyer took on the name of the river it was tied for?  I remember growing up and people telling me to tie a Green Silk as it was a great fly for the Faughan.  No one could ever show me one though.  When I did actually get to see one, I had the pattern all along in Along the Faughan Side as the the 'Green and Black Shrimp'.  Perhaps the Faughan shrimp was a similar overlook on my part?

So that is a look at the patterns that are well known in the angling and fly tying world.  There are other flies out there that I believe to be variants of the Faughan Purple shrimp but others believe they are Bann Special variants so I'll not start any fuss on that.

I've really enjoyed writing this and hopefully a few other people will enjoy the read.  If you have any comments or remarks, please feel free to leave a message either below or on the Fly & Clay Facebook page

If nothing else, I now have a few flies to add to boxes.