The Butcher
The Butcher
Mr. Moon from Tunbridge Wells, butcher by profession, originally dressed this
fly - somewhere around 1830. First it was called Moon's fly, the name Butcher
came up later and relates to the inventor's profession, rather than the fly's
fish catching propensities.
Nevertheless, this fly is one of the deadliest you can present to trout or sea
trout. Salmon, Perch, Greyling, Chubb, Zander, the fly seems to be good for
everything everywhere, doesn't represent anything natural - is a real fancy one
and always worth a try. Fished deep and slow, the Butcher is an excellent brown
trout fly for the early season, resembling a small fish or beetle.
Over the years lots of variations have been developed, there is a Bloody
Butcher, with a red hackle, the Canary Butcher ( yellow hackle ), an Irish
Butcher of course ( has a yellow palmered hackle ) and lots more.
Depending on what fish you intend to catch, hook sizes can be varied: as big as
a size 4 or 6 for salmon, or as small as 12 or even 14 for brown trout.
Materials:
Thread - black
Tail - a few fibres of red ( dyed ) feather
Body - flat silver
Ribbing - oval silver
Hackle - two or three turns of a soft black hen hackle
Wing - made from matching crows or iridescent blue duck wing
feathers.
Top Ten
Flies for Ireland
Hilariously funny, seriously, this is angling's answer to "Last Of The Summer
Wine"! .....Ray Robinson is a real life "Compo" who goes fishing with Dietrich
Bohnhorst.....I give it 10 out of 10.....a must have DVD for all the
family.
Roger Baker, Irish Angler Magazine
This DVD is a must for every fisherman who wants to learn the delicate art of
flytying.
The beautiful scenery enhances the pleasure of this film, as does the dry
humour of his eccentric English friend "the great Raymondo". Watch as they
tramp the landscape, dressed as if extras in Monty Python's Quest for the Holy
Grail, (which in a sense they are, in a fishy sort of way).
Great Entertainment for all the Family
114 minutes of fly-tying and fishing. Dietrich Bohnhorst's entertaining and
practical guide for every game angler. On DVD for only EURO 20
or order by phone
Tel.: ++353-(0)74-97 36922
Waving Arms
My fly-fishing started 1974 in North-Germany, at the River Weser. Haute ecole;
or the high art of angling as fly-fishing was called; reading so much about it
in magazines and books, I just had to have such an instrument.
In a catalogue of ( naturally ) an English manufacturer I found a three-piece
split cane rod, with two tips for 24 DM, that was just within my means. The
tackle dealer ( who had never seen a fly fishing outfit before ), ordered it
for me, together with a reel, slow sinking level line and an assortment of
flies. The lot came to 54 DM, or €27.
There was nobody known to me who had ever held a fly-rod in his hands, and even
the tackle dealer himself, who knew almost every angler of the area, couldn't
help any further in my search for a teacher. He didn't know anybody fishing
with a fly-rod either.
So, back to theory, to books and magazines, studying the normal cast in all
it's phases; the drawings and descriptions were really clear and all the
necessary movements in my head; it seemed to be easy enough.
The second last reinforcement pier, or croy, as the experts called them, way
down behind a hydro power dam, or weir, as we called it, of the River Weser,
seemed to be the right location for my first trial casts. Mainly because the
possibility of any spectators was as remote as the place itself. My fly
assortment consisted of twelve thingies, hooks with colourful feathers. I chose
a silvery one with red and black ( later I got to know that this fly is called
The Butcher ), attached it to the end of the cast, placed myself in the middle
of the croy, in order to have water in front as well as in the back of me and
began to whip the thing around. Somehow the fly landed in the water and got
taken immediately by a perch. The first cast with that new rod and straight
away a fish, that is surely a wonder method I thought, much better than
spinning!
But this one perch was it for the day, after a few more casts the waters around
me were so whirled up, that most likely no fish remained. Theoretically casting
was nothing alien anymore: timing, stop, forward-and back cast no unknown
topics, but it just didn't work. The drawings and instructions always assumed,
that during one phase of a cast the line is totally straight and elongated. My
line did only circular movements and the touch down was always the same: at
first the line belly smacked the water, then that bit of remaining line I had
managed to bring into the air, fell in front of my feet. It made me almost
furious, because I was convinced that every successful cast with this
miraculous thing at the end of the line would bring a fish.
Jupp and Erwin, who appeared at the far side of the Weser river, ledgering for
rudd, remained totally unnoticed by me; I was too engaged with my fly-casting.
Only the next day, in the tackle shop, Jupp asked me why did you wave all the
time?
I? wave? why?
Well, you had your arm always up in the air, and you were waving, like
mad.
So, I explained to Jupp everything I knew about fly fishing, which didn't take
much time, and had to notice, that he wasn't sure whether to believe what he
was told there, whether somebody was trying to fool him, or whether I actually
really had gone mad - catching fish on bits of wool and feathers, ridiculous,
when every child knows that they take maggots - and immediately branded me a
lunatic; he had a point, hadn't he?
DEDICATION
In 1995 Dietrich Bohnhorst and Ray Robinson produced DEDICATION, a four part
movie, following two dedicated fly-fishers through various entertaining and
exciting expeditions on land and sea in the North-West of Ireland.
After DEDICATION was shown on European TV via French Station AB-Sat and in
North America via a cable network it became somewhat of an angler's cult
film.
All 107 minutes of DEDICATION are now available for only €20 on DVD;
or order by phone
Tel.: ++353-(0)74-97 36922
DEDICATION is not a how to or where to go program. It's a slice of life.
