Bullet Hopper Dry Fly #14 Strout32 - Tel 0151 203 6111

The bullet dry fly pattern was commissioned by a CudaFly customer following the outstanding article in the September issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Magazine (pages 44-47).
This is the bullet hopper version tied on a size #14 hook with Petitjean CDC and has been pre treated with 2 coats of floatant to the Elk Hair wing.

The original fly pattern was devised by Chris Sandford (Thanks Chris this fly is great) and the article states that his inspiration for the fly came when tying para-duns with CDC. The resulting fly was the bullet. Chris has tested this fly over many venues with his friends and believes that this dry fly is one of the most successful dry flies for both rivers and still waters.

Over the years I have heard many claims of such flies in magazines and many of them don't match their claims. This one is different. As above this fly was tied as per a custom fly order and extras where tied for both testing and for the CudaFly shop. On a recent trip to the river Dee in Wales this fly proved to be truly remarkable. The wind that day was very strong gusting to 50 mph with a chill in the air. Consequently very few fish where rising and from the looks of the rises they where mainly salmon par. Not a typical day for dry fly fishing. As soon as the fly hit the water with the first cast there came a nice river brown to this fly. This continued throughout the day with over 20 brown trout of which all where returned. The fly is that good that it will be difficult who will get these flies when I tie them. The shop or me!
The Bullet trout fly pattern is available in 4 variants - The Bullet, The B100 Bullet, The Bullet Hopper and the Bullet Buzzer.

Hand tied in the UK by Steve personally.

How to fish

Fish the fly with a minimum of a 9 foot tapered co-polymer (floating) leader making sure that the leader has been de-greased. Floatant should be applied to the Elk hair wing regularly only, for the fly to sit correctly in the water. Once a fish has taken the fly, the fly must be dried with a "dry shake" product. I personally use Shamazaki Dry shake (http://www.cudafly.co.uk/acatalog/Tiemco-Shimazaki-Dry-Shake.html) which I find superior to others. Do not apply further coats of floatant once a fish has taken the fly, as due to water already being soaked in the fly this will result in the fly sinking. Eventually the fly will be drowned with fish slime to such an extent that the fly will have to be replaced. The article states to fish the flies static on still waters letting the fly drift on the wind, and on rivers to match the speed of the river flow. For rivers I also found this the best approach. On the Dee I fished this fly on a 2lb breaking strain dropper with a micro bead size #18 hares ear on the point with spacing of a minimum of 18 inches from dropper to point fly.