Viva Scotland !

[Santiago]

In the guide book for the lochs that I'll be fishing in a few weeks time the writers highly recommend just three flies, the bibio, the black pennel, and the viva! The first two I have plenty of , and the third, the viva , I'd never heard of. So this weekend I made a few and a few variants.

The body is black chenille, I used rabbit fur for the tails for more movement (pattern says fluorescent green wool),black cock hackles , and black maribu for the wings , along with silver tinsel. On a size 10 long shank hook. When wet they look like tiny fry. And I'll probably make a few more variants this week using white maribu. Although a white hackle may work well , as well, with the black maribu on top.

When wet the Butcher variant looks fantastic , almost like a tiny roach fry.

[OldRod]

Enjoy your Scottish fishing Santiago.
Where will you be?
I fished in Assynt a few years ago, and again during a campervanning trip last year - beautiful!
And very importantly, what is your anti-midge strategy?

[Santiago]

I fished the Assynt several years ago . Hiking around Lochinver with my son. A fantastic place. We'll be near Gairloch this year.

[Moley]

An anti midge strategy that works.

Is there such a thing. Fatty has tried lavender oil, various citron based concoctions, netting in clothing and head wear, bin bags to prevent the little blighters biting through clothes, even tried a wet suit but they got through the gaps.

The best result was furious pipe smoking of aromatic tobacco like Clan and drinking copious single malts like Laphroaig.....it doesn't stop the flying assaults much but when slightly inebriated you just don't care. Hence why most Highlanders seem to indulge heavily in the water of life.

Hope this helps.......

As ever,.....

Moley

[Santiago]

Thanks Moley. I use several layers of Smidge best applied over several hours as the wind drops!

[Santiago]

These flies look much better wet, and even better in the water. But they'll look even better in the jaws of a nice trout .

[Moley]

They look good flies that will work.

The Viva is a versatile fly as you can fish it deep, or shallow, slow pull retrieve or buzzer style with floating line, long leader and just left to drift about naturally. For smaller fish if you want you can rip it back hard and don't forget to hang the fly at the end of a retrieve if the water is deep enough as sometimes they do follow it in.

Good luck.

As ever,...

Moley

[Santiago]

Cheers Moley. I'm always surprised by those trout that attack the flies just as they're leaving the water as I'm already in recast mode. It's always good to be reminded . A good friend of mine never tires of telling me to hang the flies in the water at the end of the retrieve . A few months back I did just that for several minutes and nabbed a good pike that followed his fly to the punt .

[Ian]

That’s a good selection of flies Santiago. The viva, that’s one I probably forgot about 20 years ago, so thanks for bringing it back to me.
A raging fire regularly fed with a clump of damp moss on top will keep the midges away to a certain extent, but at the end of the day they come with the highlands.
Talk about midges, mind to take some midge patterns Santiago

[Santiago]

Cheers Ian. Will do! Last year on my last night in the wilderness the trout went crazy topping for midges and I didn't have any flies small enough.

Apparently , the zulu version of the viva was so effective when it first was derived, it was banned from competions, so I might make a few of them as well .