IRISH FLIES 295 



THE OWENMORE AND BALLYCROY RIVERS 



Patterns from Hearns. These two rivers run very near to 

 each other. The Ballycroy is the river described by Maxwell 

 in his Wild Sports of the West. 



No. i. Tag, silver tinsel ; tail, a small topping, a slip of 

 black partridge, a kingfisher, and an Indian crow breast 

 feather ; butt, black ostrich ; body, three turns of orange floss, 

 the rest of black floss, silver tinsel ; hackle, gallina stained 

 yellow, clipped at breast, not on the back, tippet feather tied 

 on as hackle at breast, blue jay over ; wing, a red hackle and a 

 yellow hackle, a red rump feather of gold pheasant, sprigs of 

 tippet, slips of gold pheasant tail and peacock, a large blue 

 chatterer feather over all en croupe or on the back, Indian crow 

 at the cheeks, blue macaw ribs ; black head. This fly can be 

 varied by using lake floss instead of black. 



No. 2. Tag, silver twist; tail, a topping; butt, one turn 

 of orange floss; body, black floss in five joints, at each joint 

 two turns of fine silver thread, then from the back comes the 

 mane, and then for the two middle joints, side by side with the 

 silver thread, is taken a turn of orange floss, so that the 

 termination of the three lowest joints is one turn of orange 

 floss ; the two lowest manes are a dirty clarety red, the next 

 two are a mixture of yellow, olive, and light claret ; the hackle 

 is at the shoulder only, and is brown olive, and over it a little 

 blue jay ; the wing, a slip of tippet, over it slips of mallard and 

 of peacock, blue macaw ribs, and black head. 



No. 3 is The Claret, already described at page 253, as to 

 the body and hackle, save that there is no orange floss at the 

 lower end ; substitute a little blue jay at shoulder for black 

 hackle, and make the wings of fine dark mallard, with blue ribs, 

 and you have a fly that will kill not only in Erris, but all over 

 Ireland. Hooks from 6 to 10, and in low summer water sea- 

 trout size. 



There are a great variety of these jointed bodies used in 

 Erris ; some have blue and yellow, or blue, yellow, and black 

 joints alternately, with black or coloured herls or hackles at 

 each joint. They are considered indispensable enchantments 

 by those who admire them, and as they are a peculiar class of 

 fly, I have gone into them, though my own faith is by no means 

 implicit. My friend, Mr. S., and his cousin rented the Ballycroy 

 river for some years, and I wrote to him to ask for a cast from 

 his experience, as, although I fished the Owenmore several 



