Dry fly
Claret Dun
Acidic-stillwater claret dun
TroutSurface
Claret thread, dark blue-dun hackle-fibre tail, claret-dyed heron herl body ribbed with fine gold wire, and a dark blue-dun cock hackle clipped flat underneath so the body sits down in the film. J R Harris tied it for the acidic loughs and it has outlasted almost everything else aimed at the same fly.
Fish this when
May and June on moorland loughs, hill lochs and Welsh llyns when a very dark, three-tailed dun is coming off in open water near the edge — usually from around midday into the evening.
Why it works
The clipped underside drops the claret body flush into the surface where the natural sits, and on peat-stained water a dark silhouette read against the sky is most of what the fish is judging.
Naturals it imitates
claret dun (Leptophlebia vespertina); sepia dun (L. marginata); dark upwing dun
Typical zone & fishable range
usually
Surface
Film
Subsurface
Deep
Setup sensitivity: medium
Quick facts
Tying difficulty
Beginner-friendly