The 'Perfect' Irish Shrimp Fly

Does such a thing exist? The 'perfect' Irish Shrimp? 

With so many variations and alterations that exist of this type of fly it is impossible to find a yes or no answer.  So many different colours of hackles, bodies, heads. With flash, without flash. With Jungle Cock or without Jungle Cock. 

Anglers and fly tiers around the UK and Ireland, and indeed around the world, will have their own thoughts and ideas of what makes the perfect Irish shrimp fly.

For an angler, it will probably be the pattern that they have caught the most fish on. A pattern they would not consider fishing without at least one on the cast somewhere. Maybe its a pattern that was given to them by their father or grandfather and holds many special memories.

I can look into my own box and see flies and automatically get thoughts of fish I've had, or lost, on them and remember vividly in my mind certain aspects of the day I'd had success on them.  Who I was with, the pool I hooked the fish in, the time of year, the weather on the day, the water conditions... So many memories just from seeing a random fly in the box.

Each individual angler will have their own preferences when it comes to Irish Shrimps.  Some anglers prefer a bright and bold pattern like an Apache or a Wilkinson where as others prefer more subtle and subdued patterns like the Foxford, Green Peter or John Anthony. Some anglers would not even consider using Irish Shrimps at all and some would fish with nothing else.

The perfect shrimp my mean something entirely different to the fly tier who may look at a fly's proportions, materials used, size, colour, shade, etc.

One thing that gets both groups backs up must surely be poorly tied shop bought, or more likely Internet bought, flies that fall apart after a trip or two to the river. Tags unraveling, tails falling out, ribs coming undone, hackles pulling out or heads starting to unwind for no good reason. Regardless of the pattern. These flies are far from perfect.

My own idea of a perfect shrimp is not based on any particular pattern. Although I do have a few shrimp patterns that I favour over others, but in the main, it is the tying aspects that I look to more than anything else.

The first thing I look at is the tail. I see shrimp flies with tails that, I feel, are much too long for the hook used. Then I see bodies that are bumpy and uneven, which is most apparent on bodies made with flat or oval tinsel and floss bodies.

In my mind, a shrimp fly must have movement in the water. When I think of how a fly looks in the water, I see a nice pulsing movement of the hackles and the tail. Tails which are too short or short cock hackles may be too stiff and not move at all in the water.

I also like to see the body of the fly through the hackles. Too many turns of the hackles leaves a fly bulky and lifeless and if you can't see the body through them, what is the point in putting a body on at all?

Then there's the head. The head of the fly is something I struggled with for years. I always left them either too big or didn't start the fly far enough down the hook shank so the fly ended up with most of the head covering the eye. Which just looks awful.

Over the years I have tried many different things in search of the perfect shrimp fly. I feel that it is only fairly recently that I've got anywhere near a good fly, albeit still far from perfect.

I'll try to show here some of the steps I've settled on for the time being for the tying of my Irish Shrimps. Please don't take this as "this is the way flies MUST be tied".  It is purely how I am tying my flies at this present moment in time.  Some steps may change in the not too distant future if I feel I can in someway improve.  This is one of things I love about tying.  All the learning and evolving in the search of perfection.

The steps shown below are shown on a size 6 Partridge Nordic down eye double but these are the same steps I use for all my tying, including tying on small trout singles.  It is just much easier to photograph a bigger hook.

I now start tying the fly by starting to wind on the thread.  Notice that I have left around 5mm behind the eye of the hook.  This is to finish the fly on at the end of the tying process.

In order to leave a nice flat body, you must have a nice flat foundation to put it on.  For this reason, I like to add my tag material from here.

Now wind the thread towards the hooks in as close of touching turns as possible.  They don't have to be perfectly together but it helps if they are.

Now I wind the tinsel forward in touching turns and secure it with three turns of thread, wound forward. I also cut the tinsel at roughly the length of the shank that is covered by the thread.

Here is a close up of where my thread is sitting after I have secured and cut the tinsel. This is the area where my tail will be applied.

I will now add my tail which I have already doubled. I want my fibres starting just in front of the tag.

Here is a closer look of what I mean

I now wind the thread back towards the tag with three turns

 Now I pull the tips of the feather, those pointing towards the eye, back over the top of the tag and wind the thread forward again in three turns.

I have wound the tail hackle three times and have secured it with three turns of thread

I now pull the hackle stalk round until it is sitting on top of the hook shank.

This fly will have a body of oval gold in touching turns. Tie the tinsel in at this point.  This is also the point that I will tie in a rib material for flies using floss or fur bodies.

Now wind the thread forward in touching turns keeping the tinsel to the bottom of the shank and the tail hackle stalk on the top.  This is as secure a method of ensuring that the tail and rib don't fall out as I have found to date.  Wind the thread to roughly the half way point and you can cut off the waste materials

Although it may look relatively flat. There will still be a 'bump' close to the tail and the tinsel will not sit tight against the previous turns.  This is easily sorted

Wind the thread back towards the tail stopping just in front of the bump

Now wind the thread forward again to the mid point.

You should now have a nice flat foundation to wind the oval tinsel body on. As I have done previously, I secure the tinsel with three tight turns of thread.  Those three turns of thread will be the area where I will add I middle hackle.

I cut my tinsel roughly the length of rest of the area covered in thread.

I add my hackle in the same way I added my tail.  From the thread sitting in the 'three turns forward' position as shown above.  I tie in my hackle fibres just in front of the read body by winding the thread again, three turns, back towards the rear body.

Pull the tip of the hackle back towards the rear body and wind the thread forward again in three turns.

After cutting off the hackle point.  Wind the hackle forward in touching turns. You've guessed it. Three turns and secure with three turns of thread in touching turns.

Now I will tie in my front body material which will be oval gold again but this is where I would also tie in my ribbing material for flys using other body materials.

Now wind the thread forward in touching turns to the point where I started the thread to begin with and cut the hackle off here and any body material left over.

Flatten the body out as showed previously by winding the thread back towards the middle hackle and then forward again.  Now you can wind on the the tinsel for the front body.

Now with plenty of room at the front of the fly, you can add as many hackles as you wish.  I'll use two here and make it an autumn looking pattern and use Orange and Claret hackle that have been doubled and will be wound together.

As before, I want my fibres starting just in front of the body material.

Tied in with three turns of thread.

Pull the hackle tips back towards the body and give another three turns of thread.

Now wind on three turns of the hackles and seure with three turns of thread.  I then pull the stalks back towards the body and give another three turns to secure the stalk in place.

Cut off the waste material and the fly is almost finished.  In the past I was struggling to keep the head small.  Now I have to build a head up.

A couple of Jungle Cock eyes added and a nice build up of thread to form a nice shaped head with still room to spare behind the eye.

Whip finished and a coat of varnish to help stop the thread unraveling.  I'll give it another coat or two before it gets to the river.  The finished article.

This was the colour scheme for this particular fly but don't be afraid to experiment.  Here is a yellow and red version I had created also using the steps above.

And the same way this one was tied with a few other materials changed

The flies created above may not be quite 'up there' with the Perfect Irish Shrimp flies that exist.  One thing I am confident of though is that they won't fall apart very easily.

As I've already stated.  I am not saying that this is how everyone MUST tie their flies.  It is simply how I tie mine.  If it helps someone starting out at tying, I'll be more than happy.