Danish Pastry Fly

This fly pattern has recently had a name change. The reason for this will be obvious later in this story. It was originally nameless - as many other newly developed patterns are.

Danish Pastry Fly

Copper head

Martin Joergensen

Danish pastry fish - and Danish pastry fisher

Henning Eskol

The camel and the copper

I tied it in a small breeze of inspiration primarily started by a box of camel's wool I was given as a birthday present by my Father-in-law. He had picked it up in a Danish animal park and thought of me and my fly tying. Very considerate.
I paired the wool with copper wire and a cree hackle, and wound up with a fly, which to me appeared quite fishy. It was simple and certainly seen before, but seemed very appealing to my eyes - even in the vice.

The only thing it had that I hadn't seen that often before was a head covered with copper wire - an idea that had come to me while tying the fly. I just continued winding the all-too-long rib over the eyes and the head of the fly before trimming the tag. Apart from that it was like many other inshore flies seen in Denmark.

The first fish

It did catch fish. Its first victory was actually the reason for the coming name change. At first I dubbed the fly the Copper Camel in lack of better ideas, and the name stuck for a couple of years.

Back to the first fish: Good friend Henning and I were on our way to a place we love and fish a lot. Upon arrival we remebered that we had forgotten to buy our traditional Danish pastry - a very important part of every fishing trip, eaten outdoors with a good cup of coffee. Henning was driving, and we decided that he would shuttle quickly to the
nearest bakery while I sampled the water
I unloaded my gear and he drove off.

01 - Thread and rib	02 - Dubbing
03 - Body	04 - Eyes
05 - Cut	06 - Hackle
07 - Web	08 - Tie in
09 - Ready	10 - first turns
11 - Wound	12 - Rib
13 Don't crush	14 - wind copper
15 - Tie down	16 - trim

Martin Joergensen

Boom!

I pulled on my waders, put my rod together and tied a Copper Camel to the tippet. Just in front of me was a small reef, which had produced a fish or two before. I started upwind from the reef, barely wading with water just over my boots. In the second or third cast I felt a small tug. It could have been sea weed, but it could also have been a fish. I placed a second cast exactly the same place: parallel with the reef over very shallow water. Boom! A sea trout took the fly as it hit the water and ran off towards deeper water.
It wasn't big, but a very nice fish in the 2-3 lbls. range. I beached it and decided to keep it - if for no other reason, the at least to show to Henning.

3 minutes later

Three minutes later Henning was back, parking the car and approaching me with the bag from the baker in one hand and his rod in the other.
Needless to say that he wasn't happy with my catch! This is probably the last time I ever get him to do the shopping alone while I fish...
Since that incident we have talked about the fly and the situation many times, and recently someone called the fly Wienerbrodsfluen - The Danish Pastry Fly - and that name stuck.