Published Mar 2. 2012 - 12 years ago
Updated or edited Dec 5. 2015

Brenda

The Brenda is a beautiful, harmonic and productive seatrout pattern from Danish fly tyer Ove Monrad. It features a brass bead to add some weight and a sexy, jigging motion.

Ide - An ide (Leuciscus idus) caught in the brackish Baltic water on a Brenda
In the box - Ready for some action
Brenda fish - This ide (Leuciscus idus) took a Brenda that was actually intended for seatrout
The quarry - The Brenda is meant to catch sea run brown trout - sea trout
Brenda
Kasper Muhlbach - Henning Eskol - Per Gade Nielsen

My attraction

to the Brenda lies first and foremost in its color. Rainbow and yellow Golden Pheasant! What's not to like?

The original Brenda

was tied by Danish fly angler and tyer Ove Monrad and incorporates a brass bead to give it some weight. We rarely see brass beads on coastal flies, but personally I find that flies with heavy beads and cones do very well on the coast, and the added weight in the front results in a very sexy, jigging motion in the water when the fly is retrieved in small strips. You find the same principle and motion in flies such as Raoul Kempkes's Perfect Woolly Bugger not to mention the renown Jiggy.

There's a variation

called Brenda's Mother. Larger, longer and unweighted, using yellow golden pheasant feathers for the hackles, but it's essentially the same pattern. My personal favorite is the weighted version, but I will most likely tie the smaller, weighted flies using GP feathers. Brenda's Sister, maybe?

I will most likely tie the smaller, weighted flies using GP feathers. Brenda's Sister, maybe?

Yellow Omoe Brush

I may also

break the original pattern by cutting down on the number of hackles. The prescription says hackle fibers for a tail and four body hackles, but I think a tail, a middle hackle and a front one will do.

The fly is said

to have been inspired by Ken Bonde Larsen's Omoe Brush, and while I can see the resemblance in the row of hackles, I still find this a distinctly different fly and one that certainly exists in its ow right. Oddly enough I used to tie an Omoe Brush using light dubbing and yellow GP feathers many years ago - not unlike a dull Brenda without a bead. It's been years since I tied and fished this fly, but I still remember catching a few seatrout on it. I only have a small, B/W image of this fly.

Body - The rainbow dubbing is discrete yet very bright
Golden rainbow
Martin Joergensen
FMJGPB - Full Metal Jacket Golden Pheasant Brenda. Brendas tied with yellow GP and a cone head.
FMJGPB gff
Martin Joergensen
Brenda
Pattern type: 
Cold saltwater fly
Originator: 
Ove Monrad
Materials: 
Hook
Partridge Sea Streamer CS11 #6 or other suitable salt water resistant straight eye hook
Thread
Yellow, tan or red 8/0
Bead
4 mm brass bead
Tail
Tan rooster hackle fibers plus some flash
Hackles
Four tan rooster hackles - two smaller, two larger
Body
Flash dubbing, yellowish rainbow colored
Skill level/difficulty: 
Medium

1 - bead

2 - thread base

3 - super glue

4 - position bead

5 - start the thread

6 - tail fibers

7 - tail

8 - tail done

9 - flash

10 - flash

11 - trim flash

12 - hackle selection

13 - tie in 1st hackle

14 - wrap hackle

15 - stroke back

16 - 1st hackle

17 - dub

18 - dub

19 - 2nd hackle

20 - wrap the hackle

21 - stroke back

22 - 2nd hackle done

23 - dub

24 - dub

25 - 3rd hackle

26 - wrap

27 - stroke back

28 - backswept

29 - last dubbing

30 - cover the gap

31 - last hackle

32 - wrap it

33 - last stroke

34 - done! - Whip finish over the last few wraps, vut the thread and the fly is ready for some varnish over these last wraps
Done
Martin Joergensen
Brenda - The Brenda tied with light brown rooster hackle is a bright but still very harmonic fly. See materials and full pattern description.
The bead - The brass bead is an important part of the fly, adding weight and a jigging motion
Brenda factory - A Brenda with GP feathers underway in the vice
Sexy body - The combination of the bright rainbow colored flash dubbing and the tan hackles really works
Brenda
Martin Joergensen - Henning Eskol

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