Yellow Mallard Spey

Yellow Mallard Spey Feathers

Yellow doesn’t get as much love as pink and orange, and that’s exactly why it works. It shows up in stained water, it nails the golden stone, and a couple of turns behind a black collar makes a hot spot fish can’t ignore.

Twelve jumbo yellow mallard spey feathers per pack, hand-picked for steelhead, salmon and big-trout tiers. Wrap them as collars, strip them for wings, or tie fibers in as legs on stonefly patterns.

Bright, barred and long. All 12 go to work.

Recipe 1: Golden Stone Swing Fly

• Hook: Size 4 to 8 3XL nymph or streamer hook
• Thread: Gold or tan 6/0
• Weight: Lead-free wire, eight turns over the thorax area
• Tail: Two ginger goose biots, split
• Abdomen: Golden stone dubbing, ribbed with gold wire
• Wing case: Mottled turkey, two segments
• Thorax: Golden stone dubbing, picked out
• Legs: Yellow Mallard Spey fibers on each side
• Collar: One sparse turn of Yellow Mallard Spey

How to fish it: Golden stones crawl out along the banks in early summer, and steelhead and trout both eat the nymphs. Fish it on a sink tip and swing it along the edges and through pocket water. Or dead-drift it under an indicator and let it swing at the end. On the Madison and the Big Hole, this is a June fly that keeps working long after the hatch.

Recipe 2: Yellow Jacket Spey

• Hook: Size 2 to 6 spey or up-eye salmon hook, black
• Thread: Black 8/0
• Tag: Flat gold tinsel
• Body: Alternating bands of yellow and black SLF dubbing, three of each
• Rib: Oval gold tinsel
• Hackle: Black schlappen through the body
• Collar: Two turns of Yellow Mallard Spey, then one turn of Black Mallard Spey
• Wing: Black Mallard Spey strips, low
• Head: Black

How to fish it:

My answer for slightly stained water in fall when the leaves are coming down. Fish it on a floating line or light tip through walking-speed runs. The yellow collar shows up against the black, so the fish can find it even when visibility drops. Swing it, hang it, and take two steps.