The Charlie Fly was inspired by the underfur from the originator's Chocolate Lab. Ken Bonde Larsen's dog has unwillingly become the material manufacturer for this great sea trout producer. As it often is with Danish with sea trout flies it's a small, generic pattern.
A Chocolate Labrador has not only delivered the name for this fly, but also one of its main materials - the body dubbing.
Charlie is the originator Ken Bonde Larsen's 12 year old brown lab, and since his first year his underfur (the dog's that is) has been meticulously saved by Ken as a staple material for fly tying. This particular batch has been mixed with some copper/brown Angle Hair to add a bit of sparkle, but has still kept the brownish, grayish tone, which is typical for most dark dog underfur. You can of course replace the dog underfur with the underfur of the brown Arctic fox used for the tail - should you not have a Chocolate Lab in the house.
This particular pattern has by far been his most productive Charlie-underfur-pattern, and is now a permanent resident in Ken's coastal fly box.
He uses it as a go-to-pattern on days with clear water and calm conditions or when the fish seem to be in the mood for "small and discrete". The fly isn't minute, but its colors and size aren't exactly yelling out "here I come!" either. Ken's entries in our small online report system tells the story. He has registered about 40 sea trout caught on this fly during the last few years.
The fly is again one of those generic patterns, which don't imitate anything in particular, and it would most likely produce both bonefish, brown trout, bass and panfish if used for these species.
As you might remember, we have featured "dog patterns" on GFF before, and can remind you of The Mia Fly (Cocker Spaniel) and the Sunray Shadow (Shetland Sheepdog), and we know that angler's dogs have delivered hair and fur for many a killer fly.
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