#297 - Pikku Ahven

Tied by: Harri Lehtonen
Originated by: Harri Lehtonen

Hook: Streamer hook #2-6 6xl
Tail: Orange hackle fibers tied short
Ribbing: Gold flat tinsel
Body: Lavender silk
Belly: White bucktail
Pelvic Fins: Two orange hackle tips, extending to the middle of body
Throat: White hackle fibers
Wing: Two yellow ostrich herls, four to six peacock herls, two barred ginger (or cree) hackles, flanked by olive hackles.
Eyes: Jungle cock nail
Head: Black

Notes: This is a new pattern designed by Harri, but you can consider it as his tribute to Lew Oatman.

Last winter I began to develop an imitation for European perch (Perca fluviatilis), which has quite a different coloration than the more familiar North American perch(Perca flavescens). In Finland, fly fishermen appreciate Oatman's Golden Shiner as a good perch imitation, and that is what it really is. My biggest Brown Trout on Oatman's Golden Shiner weighted over 6 lbs!

The Golden Shiner streamer is very close to small Finnish Perch, but not quite close enough. In the Golden Shiner there is a lack of vertical stripes and olive green shade so I decided to create a new pattern using Oatman's Golden Shiner as the basis.

My first attempt had a golden body, tied with embossed tinsel. I thought it was good, because I've used several golden bodied perch patterns with success. But no, brownies did not agree. Grilse instead liked this version very much and it gave me many salmon. I changed the body from golden tinsel to lavender silk, which is a closer match to the side of the perch.

European perch have a very bright orange anal fin and pelvic fins. So I added long orange hackle tips, a bit like in Edson Dark Tiger, between the belly and throat, to imitate these fins. In the first version there was an inner wing of yellow polar bear with peacock herl as a topping like in the Golden Shiner. After studying and phographing little perch, I made some changes. I rejected the Polar Bear as it was too bright and replaced it with yellow ostrich, somebody may guess why...

After looking and photographing small translucent perch using a strong back light, I noticed a dark core of their bodies. So I replaced peacock herl just over the ostrich. Tying the inner wing with yellow ostrich and peacock herl formed the dark core seen in the small perch, with a touch of yellow. The vertical stripes of small perch are not very intence. Grizzly hackle was way too far from the natural appearance, so I ended up using barred ginger hackle, over which I tied olive green hackles. The result is very close to a small natural european perch.