The Oscar Fly
First there was The Collie Dog, then the less famous Charlie Fly and now the Oscar Fly.
A traditional palmered wet fly in greyish colors - with a secret and rare smoke colored body. See how to tie it and why Flemming prefers them in small sizes.
The story of the Oscar Fly
As many other flies is the Oscar fly created by inspirations of the classical flies for sea trouts - e.g. Grey Frede, but the Oscar fly have of course some differences.
The story began few years ago, when I was going for summer sea trout fishing at a small reef close to a sandy beach. By a coincident I realized that at the same reef I could also catch steelheads in absolutely mint conditions - silver blank and with perfect tails, but they were very selective about the flies. The right flies for success was small flies in light colors and not too flashy. Since it was great fun to catch these steelheads did I actually change my strategy from the focus on sea trouts to dedicate my efforts to the steelheads, when they were very hard fighters and an average weight around 2 kg.
Background
The Oscar fly was created an evening, when I was preparing my next day for summer fishing at the reef. My wife was brushing the fur of our dog Oscar - a Bichon Havanese. I simply took the "waste" material from his underfur and I used it as dubbing for the body of the fly - and the material was very "lively" and pulsing in the water when the fly was fished slowly. As the tail I was using a black/white squirrel and the hackle was a traditional grey Grizzly hackle. The next day I was going to the reef for the steelhead and sea trout fishing. I arrived to the beach and the reef around 4 pm, but because of the very nice sunny weather were people swimming close to the reef and potentially disturbing the fishes. I was forced to wait.
the steelheads, when they were very hard fighters and an average weight around 2 kg.
Finally at around 6 pm I could start my fly fishing with my new creation - a small Oscar fly size 6 - at the end of the tippet of my leader. After only few minutes I got a serious take of a heavy light colored sea trout. I saw the back of the fish when it took the Oscar fly and then the thin tippet was broken and the big fish disappeared into the deeper water again. I took another Oscar fly and bind it to the tippet of my leader and after few casts more I got a beautiful silver blank steelheads at 2.25 kg. That evening I caught 3 nice steelheads up to 2.25 kg and 2 light colored sea trouts between 50-60 cm. I kept only the biggest silver steelhead. A new "Star fly" was born!
A Favorite
The Oscar fly is now one of my two favorite flies for steelhead and sea trout fishing and I have many nice memories by using this fly - e.g. in April 2013, where I caught a beautiful silver blank sea trout - 4,3 kg and only 67 cm!
The Oscar fly I'm using is made in two different sizes - size 4 and 6 and my preferred hook is the Kamasan B170 Medium traditional wired, but I also occasionally use more saltwater resistant hooks in similar sizes.
Tying section
Want to give it a tye? Keep on reading and follow the step-by-step.
Step 1
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Step 2
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Step 3
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Step 4
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Step 5
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The finished Oscar
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