The Peacock Killer

[mic]

You may have a seen my other threads below on a Book, Simple Flies and the peacock hurl fly.  That has been my go to fly all summer and fall.  Anyway, I was telling the owner of Reading's Fly shop about it.  He told me that was a hot fly in the early 70's, and they called it the Peacock Killer.  I forgot to ask why it died out.  Anyway... I was wondering if any of you old timers remember the "Peacock Killer"?  Do you remember if it had a tail?  

Anyway... I love the name, so that is what I'm going with from here on out.  LOL

Tight lines.  

[fishinwrench]

There's a bluegill fly (Killer Peacock) with bead chain eyes, rubber legs for a tail, peacock body, and a black hen hackle behind the eyes.  

 

 

[tjm]

Any fly tied with peacock herl is a killer.  But, the only fly I recall from the '70s with "Killer" in the name was Sawyer's "Killer Bug" which can never be truly duplicated because the special yarn is no longer made. Other  "Killer" flies in my memory date from the '80s, and were many, as flytying/flyfishing magazines were everywhere for a few years.

Peacock flies  I used back then were the various Coachman versions, soft hackles (of which Morgan gives Starling&Herl but we used grouse or hen), Brown Hackle  and Griffiths gnat; that I recall. 

 

 

 

[FishnDave]

3 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

There's a bluegill fly (Killer Peacock) with bead chain eyes, rubber legs for a tail, peacock body, and a black hen hackle behind the eyes.  

 

 

that's great!  Very similar to "The Captain" fly that T. Hargrove sells (a bluegill fly, which also works great on many other species... like common carp, grass carp, catfish, goldeye, longear, redear, gar, etc.):

https://www.thargrove.com/the-captain

[fishinwrench]

44 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

that's great!  Very similar to "The Captain" fly that T. Hargrove sells (a bluegill fly, which also works great on many other species... like common carp, grass carp, catfish, goldeye, longear, redear, gar, etc.):

https://www.thargrove.com/the-captain

If a bluegill fly is what you're interested in......this BUBfly here in a size 10-12 is my personal favorite "killer".  

Has a really slow fall rate, and they eat it on the drop.     

Originally touted as a river smallmouth fly in a size 4-6......but I never could interest Smallies in it.   

[mic]

I'll try that out, but mine is trout focused.  Looks something like this, but I add different tails.  It really a simple tie. 

 

[mic]

Here is one that is more close to what I tie:

[tjm]

Well there weren't any bead heads in the '70s. Moser first published about the gold bead in 1985 and Orvis brought them to US around '88-'89, I think.  If that was used as a nymph back then it would have been either on a 2X heavy hook or lead wrapped or both.

Where I fished it would have had wings and hackle.

[tjm]

Or looked like this.

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

Well there weren't any bead heads in the '70s.

No, but there were 1/100 and 1/80 gold painted jighead's.    

And peacock herl wrapped on a mini-jig head has been a trout park staple for as long as I can remember.