The cult of the Hog
Rob Denson questions why the versatile and brutally effective Hedgehog is one of stillwater trout fishing’s most overlooked flies
I WAS asked at a recent fly-tying demo which pattern, in my opinion, is fly-fishing’s best-kept secret. I was able to answer in half the time it took to ask the question: the Hog. The gentleman, however, seemed somewhat disappointed. His expression changed from that of someone inches from home with a 100/1 outsider to someone being pipped at the post by the favourite. He had been hoping for a heads-up on the latest game-changing breakout sensation, not a fly he’d been familiar with for years.
“So, you’re already a Hog fan?” I asked.
“No,” the chap replied, “I’ve never been bothered to tie one.”
ORKNEY PEACH HOG Hook Size: Size 10-14 Kamasan B170 or 175 Thread: Fluorescent orange Wing: Light natural roe Body & Head: Orkney Peach seal's fur (line under dressing in same style) The Orkney Peach Hog, a colour successful at home, but also elsewhere.
Knowing what this fly is capable of, the apparent lack of global interest seems inexplicable
It dawned on me that he is not alone. Even here in the UK, where the Hog was developed, it has a cult following — nowhere near mainstream popularity — despite widespread awareness. As for the rest of the world, even a cult following would seem a long way off. Knowing what this fly is capable of, the apparent lack of global interest seems inexplicable. Allow me to explain why.
An obiging trout from Loch Harray on the Island of Orkney (north of mainland Scotland), where the Hog was born.
The Hedgehog, to give the original iteration its full and correct name, hails from Orkney — an archipelago off the coast of northern Scotland peppered with trout lochs and steeped in a rich history of cunning, capable anglers, adept at removing trout from those waters and devising the fly patterns to assist them in their endeavours. One such angler is Sandy Nicholson, who, back in the early ’90s, responded to several local factors that led him to develop the Hedgehog.
Long since denuded of trees, and with barely an acre of its 2,700 square miles rising higher than a church spire, the Orcadian archipelago lies exposed, like a bone picked dry by the North Atlantic wind that batters the islands from the west. The lochs try their best to seek refuge in dimples and hollows, but the lack of trees, valleys and mountains means the wind runs unchecked across them, folding each into a restless chop. There is no true refuge, only brief moments of relative calm before the weather takes hold again.
Boardhouse Loch on Orkney, where classic loch-style fishing from a drifting boat with a team of three wet-flies — including one or more Hedgehogs — is commonplace.
As well as shaping the landscape, the Atlantic winds have influenced fishing on Orkney for centuries, with the ancient, time-honoured tradition of loch-style fishing — casting a team of wet-flies in front of a drifting boat, with one’s back to the wind — evolving into the bread-and-butter technique.
Orcadian lochs are also remarkably shallow and, whichever loch you fish, you will seldom be casting over more than six to eight feet of water. Wind energy, therefore, permeates the entire system, driving the movement of waterborne food. Correspondingly, trout behaviour is aggressive and mobile, and in such shallow waters, fish are rarely more than a few feet from either the boat or the bank.
The surface, then, is as good a place as any to set out one’s stall. Sandy intended to keep his new fly there for as long as possible — high, if not necessarily dry. The materials — deer hair and seal’s fur — practically chose themselves, giving the fly buoyancy and buggy bulk while remaining lightweight. The masterstroke lay in the way Sandy constructed the fly, with small bunches of deer hair tied along the shank to form a “wing” and create a rather fetching, irresistible silhouette. As with all truly great flies, form and function combine to devastating effect.
HARE'S EAR SPARKLE HOG Hook Size: Size 10-14 Kamasan B170 or 175 Thread: Brown/olive Wing: Natural roe Body & Head: Hare's ear/mask with pearl Ice Dub
BLACK HOG Hook Size: Size 10-14 Kamasan B170 or 175 Thread: Black Wing: Black roe Body & Head: Black seal's fur
BLACK & GOLD HOG Hook Size: Size 10-14 Kamasan B170 or 175 Thread: Black Wing: Black Roe Body & Head: Gold Ice Dub
Another thing Sandy no doubt considered was that, while fishing on Orkney is far from easy — by no means a fish-a-cast affair — Orcadian trout are not a scarce commodity. Competition for food is fierce, which means a long, detailed inspection of potential prey can result in a fish losing a tasty meal to a neighbour. This is always good news for both the angler and tyer, and Sandy knew that vague suggestion beats close-copy imitation, hands down.
Trout almost always respond more favourably to footprint, presentation and behaviour than to exact imitation. His design hits that sweet spot dead centre, as other classic suggestive patterns — Griffith’s Gnat, Shipman’s Buzzer, the Deer Hair Emerger and the PTN — do: a strong yet impressionistic profile that suggests nothing in particular, yet simply begs to be eaten.
The Hog stays higher for longer, giving superb visibility and exhilarating fishing
Sandy’s new Hog worked a treat straight away, especially in rough water, when most traditional wet-flies can get lost. The Hog stays higher for longer, giving superb visibility and exhilarating fishing. It was already proving incredibly versatile, with plenty of tricks up its sleeve. The top dropper was the obvious place for it, making a fuss on and in the surface, with slimmer wet-flies following behind.
Deploying the Hog on the tail is also a killer tactic, giving great visibility again and keeping the wet-flies high in the water. Both tactics can be further developed by using various line densities, although a floater or slow intermediate takes some beating, giving control and feel, and the confidence of knowing exactly where you’re up to.
Full-sinking lines are seldom needed in Orkney, although all 15ft of Loch Harray’s “abyssal plains” can be well worth exploring with higher-density sinking lines when sport is slow.
Small, but hungry: one to the Hare’s Ear Hog on Orkney’s Loch of Swannay.
A team of three Hogs fished on a floater or slow intermediate is a classic Orcadian tactic that soon emerged — if you’ll pardon the pun — and is deadly in calmer weather. The Hogs are treated with floatant and pulled hard, causing them to sink below the surface. They then pop back up when the retrieve is paused. It’s a ridiculously effective and entertaining method when the trout are in the mood and you get the method working well — it’s just about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.
Sandy’s Hedgehog essentially blurred the lines between wet-fly, wake-fly, attractor and dry-fly, and it wasn’t long before it became even more versatile. Around 1994, there was a burgeoning trend to use the Hog as an out-and-out dry-fly. Stan Headley, author of The Loch Fisher's Bible, was among the early exponents with his Sedgehog — simply a Hedgehog with a couple of turns of soft hen hackle behind the eye to give gentle movement when at rest, or when being twitched across the surface.
Flat calm on Boardhouse Loch, where the Hog as a static dry-fly is a great choice — especially during a sunset.
No other dry-fly in my box consistently fools more trout when terrestrials or sedges are on the go
I’m all for the undoubted charms of a gently twitching hen hackle, but I have to say that, after many years of tinkering, I ditched it from my Sedgehogs, leaving me with plain old Hedgehogs. I now tie all my Hog stock exclusively to Sandy’s original Hedgehog specification. For me, the additional hen hackle makes not one jot of difference either way, so the cheaper, quicker, equally effective option wins out.
Size, however, is of utmost importance. For static dry-fly work, my Hogs are tied on size 12-14 Kamasan B170 hooks. For wet work, I use size 10-12 B175s. A size 12 is by far the most versatile, though, and gets the lion’s share of the action by some margin.
No other dry-fly in my box consistently fools more trout when terrestrials or sedges are on the go. A clean, simple presentation that suits the conditions, along with stealth and a pinch of confidence, is all that’s required to elicit the desired response: a single size 12-14 in very light winds or flat calm; two Hogs, size 12-14, in a nice ripple; and three size 12s in a good blow.
I’ll mix up the colours and see if a favourite comes to the fore. A favourite time of mine to use dry Hogs is when I’m treated to a colourful sunset, a gentle ripple, and the water begins to dimple with rising fish. That’s my cue to fish a pair of coloured Hogs. Seal’s fur bodies with orange, red or claret hues pick up their respective wavelengths from the burning sky and literally glow with colour, proving too much for cruising trout to ignore.
Every addition you make to the basic Hedgehog design ultimately subtracts from its effectiveness
A well-tied Hog will ride high for hours, but if action comes thick and fast and buoyancy is compromised, a quick wash, a firm squeeze in a paper towel, and a touch of your favourite floatant will soon restore it.
SCARLET & ORANGE HOG Hook Size: Size 10-14 Kamasan B170 or 175 Thread: Red or orange Wing: Burned orange roe Body & Head: Scarlet/red/orange seal's fur or similar mix
PINK & PEACH HOG Hook Size: Size 10-14 Kamasan B170 or 175 Thread: Fluorescent pink, orange or red Wing: Peach or Orkney Peach roe Body & Head: Fluorescent pink or magenta seal's fur
CLARET HOG Hook Size: Size 10-14 Kamasan B170 or 175 Thread: Claret Wing: Claret roe Body & Head: Claret seal's fur
These days, you’ll see countless variants of Sandy’s Hedgehog tied with all manner of ill-considered adornments, appendages and accoutrements — all desperate attempts to sell an already perfect concept to the trout. Trust me on this: every addition you make to the basic Hedgehog design ultimately subtracts from its effectiveness.
If you must tinker, then colour and body materials are always worth experimenting with. For the body, the translucence and buggy appeal of seal’s fur — in colours such as black, claret, red and orange — are tried-and-tested standards for the Hog, and virtually impossible to beat. It’s also worth experimenting with a touch of sparkle: dubbings like gold, red or pearl ice dub can catch the light — and the trout’s eye — often making the difference on a tough day.
As for the deer hair, I’d wager that colour variations offer less in terms of added attraction than body colour does; however, I do quite often — dare I say it — go the whole Hog and use dyed deer hair to complement and harmonise the livery.
Hogs travel: This trout from Loch Watten in Caithness saw red.
With his Hedgehog, Sandy Nicholson created a brutally effective pattern born of a specific environment; a pattern that then spread rapidly far beyond his native lochs. It has also proved supremely versatile, yet its basic design remains fundamentally unchanged. It remains a mystery to me, however, that the march of the Hog seems to have halted at the shores of the UK and Ireland.
Wherever you are, if you fish stillwaters for trout, whether by boat or from the bank, wet or dry, the Hedgehog is a formidable weapon, and one I refuse to be without.
PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB DENSON
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rob Denson
If he is not creating flies or dyeing materials, Rob Denson will be trout fishing on the wild lakes and lochs of Northern England and Scotland. Regardless of this departure, he has a passion for traditional wet-flies and natural materials. Web: robdenson.co.uk
