Hot Orange Mallard Flank

Hot Orange Mallard Flank Feathers

Hot orange is a fall color. Spawning brook trout, coho in the river, steelhead in tea-stained water. Fish don’t eat it because it looks like food. They eat it because it makes them mad. Wrap a couple turns of this as a collar and you’ve got a fly that moves and glows at the same time.

What you get: About 60 feathers in a 2 gram bag, mixed sizes. Hand-sorted, junk removed.

Recipe 1: Hot Orange Comet

• Hook: Salmon/steelhead hook, #2–#6
• Thread: Orange 6/0
• Eyes: Silver bead chain
• Tail: Hot orange bucktail with a few strands of gold Flashabou, 1.5x shank length
• Body: Gold Mylar tinsel
• Collar: Hot orange mallard flank, 2–3 turns, then a turn of yellow hackle in front

How to fish it: Built for salmon and steelhead in moving water. Swing it on a sink tip through the tailouts and holding water. Fresh coho will chase it; older fish will often just nip. Slow the swing with a downstream mend and give them time.

Recipe 2: Fall Brookie Soft Hackle

• Hook: Wet fly hook, #10–#12
• Thread: Orange 8/0
• Tag: Flat silver tinsel
• Body: Hot orange floss, slim
• Rib: Fine silver wire
• Thorax: Peacock herl, 2 strands
• Hackle: Hot orange mallard flank, 2 turns, sparse

How to fish it: Brookies and browns get aggressive in the fall. Fish it on a floating line with a short swing across small creeks and beaver ponds. In stillwater, cast near structure and strip it back slow with twitches. Pair it with a dark nymph and let the fish choose.