Flies

Lunn's   Particular

Origin

This fly was developed by William Lunn in 1917 for fishing one of the worlds most famous chalk streams,  the Test, in southern England.  The Test is one of the worlds most famous fly fishing rivers in the world and Bill Lunn, his son, and his grandson, were the river keepers on the Test for more than 100 years.  They were all head river keepers for the Houghton Fishing Club founded in 1822 who’s 20 or so members have the sole fishing rights to 15 miles of the Test. Charles Ritz in his book “ A Fly Fishing Life “ lists this fly as one of his favorites.

As a personal note, Barbara and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a little time in England visiting our son John and his wife Anna who were working in London for a little over a year. Anna had arranged for us to stay at the Fishing Cottage B & B in the very small town of Clatford south west of London. Clatford had about thirty very old thatched roof cottages and was on the Upper Clatford River that flows into the Test. We went out to eat one evening in a pub nearby called the Peat Spade in the town of Stockbridge.  It wasn’t until later that we found out that the headquarters of the Houghton Club is in that very town.
 
While staying at the B & B, Barbara noticed a copy of a book called “ A Particular Lunn – One Hundred Glorious Years on the Test “ by Mick Lunn, William’s grandson.  We have tried for years to get a copy of that book and recently my son John has found it for me that tells of the year round hard work that the river keepers face. After reading the book and finding out that we were that close to such an historic place, I want to go back and explore more of this river and the countryside – maybe another day.

Pattern

  • Hook     --  standard dry fly, sizes 10 to 18
  • Thread   --  brown
  • Tail        --  red game cock hackle fibers ( reddish-brown )
  • Body      --  stripped red game cock quill
  • Wing      --  blue dun hen hackle tips, tied spent
  • Hackle    --  red game cock

Tying Instructions

  • Tie on a small bunch of long reddish/brown hackle barbs for the tail about as long as the hook shank
  • Strip the barbules from the hackle stem and use that stem to wrap around the hook to form the body
  • Tie on the two hackle tips in the horizontal ( spent wing type )
  • Tie on and wrap around the hook one or two hackle feathers behind and in front of the wings
  • Tie of the hackle and make a small head with thread

Flies  Imitated

an adult spent may fly of the Ephemerella class.

How to fish

dead drift in the seam line of the stream usually in the winter time of the year for this particular fly.  It became a favorite of many of the Houghton Club members.

Gary Kutz, Golden State Flycasters, March 2005