THE
SUNSET FLY

ORIGINALLY TIED by my son Robert when a schoolboy, this big flamboyant fly was named for its resemblance to a good Tasmanian sunset, the orange and yellow of the sky contrasting with the black silhouettes of trees. Nevertheless, though the fly is brilliantly coloured it doesn't appear very bright when submerged, the vivid yellow and orange hackles taking on a brownish look.

It works best at sunset, from the time the sun first dips behind the hills. It is an excellent night fly, and, tied much smaller, is often useful in the early mornings for midging trout, or in the evenings for fish 'mopping up' food items from the surface. The large Sunset Fly is particularly attractive to rainbows after dark, and has taken its toll of big browns.

It appears to be a big fly, and so it should, but after a short time in use the long hackles develop a more pronounced backward set and the fly assumes a more streamlined shape. What does it represent? Well, it seems to be a general fly that may imitate a number of food forms, especially small fish such as young perch, or galaxiids. The little Sunset Fly scores when trout are midging, though it looks nothing like a midge pupa. I suppose that to the trout the pattern looks like something familiar that is good to eat. Trout can still be opportunistic feeders even when they appear to be selecting one particular food form, as our examination of the contents of thousands of trout stomachs has demonstrated. Perhaps we should stop calling certain flies 'lures' and rename them 'opportunity flies'.

Some anglers are taken aback by the size of the big fly and say that it is more suited for Atlantic salmon in Scotland, or for steelhead in the United States. However, it's results that count! I have often fished different patterns when others of our group have stuck to the big Sunset Fly. On almost every occasion the Sunset Fly has won hands down. In fact, each season we take at least 80% of our evening-caught rainbows and browns on this pattern alone.

It is a grand searching fly when cast out on either a floating or a slow sinking line. Retrieved at a medium speed, with pulls of about a metre at a time, a taking fish usually hooks itself.

When fish are showing at the surface in the evenings the idea is to cast to the ring of the rise, allow the fly to settle a little, then pull-retrieve it. Often it's a case of two or three pulls from the angler and then a pull from the fish.

It is a hard-wearing fly, though with use it gradually diminishes in size. We never reject the scrubby old ones. A Sunset Fly seems to catch fish until the hook wears out.

DRESSING
Hook: No.6 or 8 long shank; No.10 ordinary shank for the small version.
Tail: Black squirrel tail hair.
Body: Three big cock-hackles, a yellow, a hot-orange and a black.
Head: Yellow.
Thread: Yellow polyester sewing thread.


The Sunset Fly has an 'all-round' look, having the same shape when viewed from above or from the side. This is not surprising, since the general pattern is that of a fly with a body formed from three hackles wound round the shank. The idea is simple, but there are a few points to watch in the selection and preparation of materials and in the proportions of the finished fly.

The hook we use is a size 6 long shank. The tail is a bunch of black squirrel-tail hairs and the hackles should be the biggest you can get from the bottom of a white cock's cape. Tie the feathers into small bundles and dye some jet-black, some a light, rich yellow, and some a hot-orange.

After whipping down the hook with yellow polyester thread the tail is tied in securely and the thread returned to a point a little less than mid-way along the shank. At this point tie in a big yellow hackle by the butt, wind on as many turns as possible, tie off, snip out the surplus tip, then tie the hackle back with a few turns of thread to give it a good slope.

Now, take the thread forward again for a few more turns, tie in a hot-orange hackle, and tie it in the same way as the yellow hackle. Do the same with a black hackle and then form a head from the yellow thread.

Since the black hackle is close to the eye of the hook a gap can be left in the middle of the head, leaving some of the black showing, to give the effect of an eye.

Varnish the head, as usual, to finish the fly.


SUMMARY
* Whip to bend of hook with thread.
* Tie in tail and, working forward from the tail, tie in and wind on first a yellow, then a hot-orange and then a black hackle, each with the fibres sloped backwards.
* Form a yellow head with the thread.

Note: When tied as a small Sunset Fly on an ordinary No. 10, then much smaller hackles have to be used, in keeping with the smaller hook.

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