Heron Grey Mallard Spey

Heron Grey Mallard Spey Feathers

The old Spey and Dee flies were built on grey heron hackle. You can’t legally use real heron in most places now, and you shouldn’t want to. Heron Grey Mallard Spey gives you that soft, smoky grey with the length and movement those patterns were designed around.

Twelve jumbo feathers per pack, hand-picked for steelhead and Atlantic salmon tiers. Wrap them as the long, flowing hackle on a Lady Caroline, use them as a collar on a Grey Heron, or strip them for a subtle wing on a clear-water summer fly.

If you tie the classics, this is the pack you’ve been looking for.

Recipe 1: Lady Caroline

• Hook: Size 1/0 to 4 Alec Jackson spey hook
• Thread: Black or olive 8/0
• Tail: Golden pheasant red breast fibers
• Body: Brown and olive wool or SLF, blended two parts brown to one part olive
• Ribs: Flat gold tinsel, with oval silver and oval gold tinsel following
• Hackle: Heron Grey Mallard Spey, wound from the second turn of rib, long and sparse
• Throat: Golden pheasant red breast, one turn
• Wing: Bronze mallard strips, tented low and tight
• Head: Black

How to fish it: The Lady Caroline is a cold, clear water fly that looks like nothing and everything at once. Fish it on a floating line or light tip in walking-speed water. Long casts, slow swing, full hang. On pressured rivers, it gets eaten after the bright flies have been through.

Recipe 2: Grey Heron Spey

• Hook: Size 1/0 to 4 spey hook
• Thread: Black 8/0
• Tag: Flat silver tinsel
• Body: Rear third yellow floss, front two-thirds black seal or SLF dubbing
• Ribs: Flat silver tinsel and fine oval silver tinsel
• Hackle: Heron Grey Mallard Spey, palmered over the dubbed section
• Throat: Guinea fowl, one turn
• Wing: Bronze mallard or Natural Mallard Spey strips, low
• Head: Black

How to fish it:

A great fly for summer and fall steelhead in clear water. Fish it on a floating or intermediate line in riffles, pocket water and tailouts. Swing it slow and shallow. The long grey hackle breathes with every change in current, so let the river do the work.