The Hare’s Lug and Plover – Revealed!

I have been asked many times recently about the origins of the Hare’s Lug and Plover so perhaps it’s the right time to reveal the truth.  The fly seems to have been accepted as one of the old spider patterns since it appeared in The Art of the Wet Fly back in 1979; indeed one or two magazine articles since then have listed it as a genuine nineteenth century pattern.  However, it isn’t.  I first tied the fly about 35 years ago – I didn’t actually invent it per se since it just kind of happened at the vice when I was messing around.  I thought it would be neat to call it the Hare’s Lug and Plover because the old colloquialism, ‘lug’, made it sound like an ancient northern pattern.  When I was naughty, which apparently I often was, my grandpa would offer to give me a ‘clip round t’lugs’ though he never did.

So, what is the Hare’s Lug and Plover supposed to represent?  Well, in the first place I just liked the look of it but the passage of time has proved it an emerger pattern par excellence either dressed as a conventional soft-hackled spider or dressed Stewart-style (the hackle being palmered half way down the body).  As an emerger it is best fished as a single fly either close to the surface or right in the film.  You may even dab a spot of grease on the hackle and moisten the body so that it tilts at an angle in the surface film to imitate an emerging fly.  It is often quite deadly fished in that manner.

Hare’s ear is a particularly good body dubbing material because it comes in different shades.  Darker dubbing mixes can be used when imitating dark or medium olives and lighter mixes for the pale watery olives and spurwings.  It should still be possible to acquire golden plover wings but substitute feathers may be obtained from either the snipe or starling (add a few dabs of yellow Pantone pen to emulate the distinct blotches on a golden plover hackle).  Now here’s the dressing:

Hook: 18-14 (Drennan straight-eyed barbless coarse fishing hooks are ideal).

Thread: Primrose silk (Pearsall’s shade 3).

Body: Lightly waxed primrose tying silk sparsely dubbed with hare’s ear (just a ‘tinge’ of dubbing for the abdomen and a little fuller at the thorax).

Hackle: A single turn of well-marked golden plover marginal covert feather (grey-buff with deep yellow blotches at the edge).

As with many spider patterns, the Hare’s Lug and Plover will also work well on lakes and reservoirs too.  Smaller dressings are ideal for any of the paler emerging chironomids, and good too for lake and pond olives, while larger dressings may be used when sedge flies are emerging.  Incidentally, have you ever tried fishing Snipe and Purples, Orange Partridges and Greenwell Spiders on reservoirs?  If not, give them a try and you may be in for a surprise!