Terry's Terror
Peacock herl ribbed with copper, a natural red hackle, and a short blunt tail of orange and yellow goat hair clipped square. It imitates nothing in particular and has been catching fish since the 1930s, which puts it in the same argument as the Red Tag and the Coch-y-bonddu: peacock herl plus a spot of hot colour is a combination trout have never worked out.
A searching fly for water where nothing is showing, and a good choice in bright light when a duller pattern goes unnoticed. Fish it dead drift, or give it the smallest twitch to draw an eye.
The clipped tail is the detail people leave out and then wonder why it does not work — trimmed short it reads as a hot spot at the rear of the body rather than as a tail, and that is what draws the take. The copper rib holds the fragile herl together for more than one fish.
