Wet fly

Badgers

Irish badger-hackle wet

Salmon · Sea troutSurface & waking

An Irish salmon and sea-trout wet using badger hackle — the distinctive black-centre, white-edge barring of badger fibres creates a pattern that reads as something alive at any speed. Used on the western Irish loughs and spate rivers for both species.

Fish this when

Summer on the western Irish loughs and rivers. On a team of wets from a drifting boat, or swung across river current on the smaller spate systems.

Why it works

Badger hackle fibres have a natural contrast that reads as movement and life. The light-dark barring creates micro-flash at any retrieve speed and produces takes when plain-hackle wets are ignored.

Naturals it imitates