Designer / Tier – Gwilym Henry Hughes

I am constantly asked for the dressing for the ‘Rat’ fly, so here it is for you.

Firstly, you need to catch some Rats, tame ones will not do – they have to be wild.  To keep Rats you will need a license, all good pet shops issue them.  Keep the Rats in a strong cardboard box about 2 feet squared.  They have to be well looked after and kept alive and warm as the fur off a dead Rat is of no use at all – it loses its body and shine almost immediately.

With six Rats in the box, use the tapered end of a good quality weight-forward floating fly line to tie the box up, with plenty of wraps to keep them in.  Get some size 14 hooks (about 8 hooks are about right for 6 live Rats), some tungsten beads and a tube of SuperGlue.  Then open a small corner of the box and quickly drop the hooks into the box through the small hole and cover over, making sure that the box is securely tied with the fly line.  This is essential as the Rats will get high on the small of the SuperGlue and become uncontrollable.

Now, this is the intricate part of the dressing.  You need to get the tip section of your best five weight rod and give the box a good beating on all sides.  This action creates an important chemical reaction in the Rats blood which then transfers into the fur.  At this very instant, and this is critical, you must start to kick the box relentlessly about the house for at least 10 minutes.  This causes the Rats to shed and, if you have timed it well, enough fur will have caught on the hooks before the SuperGlue will have dried off … actually, it is good exercise too – all that frenzied kicking.  You can whoop and shout too if the mood takes you.

There you have it, one other important point you can only use the Rats once, hence the reason I have to charge £5 ($7.89 USD) per fly ... good luck.

On a Health and Safety front wash your hands after handling the Rats and also be very careful that you don’t get the SuperGlue on your fingers.