#74 - Black Kiss

Tied by: Harri Lehtonen
Originated by: Harri Lehtonen

Hook: Gaelic Supreme Mike Martinek 8xl #2 - 8
Tag: Medium silver wire
Ribbing: Medium silver wire
Body: Flat copper tinsel
Belly: First orange bucktail (sparsely), below that yellow bucktail
Throat: Magenta hackle
Underwing: 5-7 peacock herl
Wing: 2 magenta hackles flanked by black hackle
Shoulders: Red golden pheasant feather
Eye: Jungle cock nail
Head: Black

Notes: The original Black Kiss was born about 5 years ago. I was looking for a darkened classic eastern feather wing pattern with red and black in the wing, because Finnish fish seems to like those colours. I didn't find any matching the vision I had in my mind. Mike Martinek's pattern Pete Williams had some characters I liked: copper body with some yellow and orange in the belly. Those colors, I knew, were desired among Finnish brown trout.

I wanted this fly to last many fish, so I tied tag and ribbing with medium silver wire, which is very strong and gives nice fish-alike twinkle to body of the pattern. The inner wing is tied with peacock herls as a tribute to Carrie S. Stevens. Then there are two magenta saddle hackles, over which are two black hackles. Throat is tied with a bunch of magenta hackle fibers. On my original version there was scarlet red under wing and throat, but magenta proved to be better. The shoulder is from golden pheasant body and sides from jungle cock.

The Black Kiss has been tested, by me and my friends, in central Finland and Lapland. It's good catcher for a rainbow and brown trout, but it was last summer I found out that the Black Kiss is also a productive salmon fly. I managed to catch many salmon on Black Kiss last August, but it is consistent and works well in all conditions throughout the year.