Re: who invented it 'Cats Whisker' streamer/lure pattern

[Derek.Moody]

In article >, Aquazur-Dra
> wrote:
> 'Cats Whisker' is a very famous streamer/lure pattern and is used by fly
> fishermen all over the world but do you know who invented it ??.

Is that the yellow job with white marabou fluff and (unless you excel at
destroying neighbourhood yowlers) a few strands of bucktail?

Very much a pond rainbow catcher I'd have thought. I've seen them with
metal eyes big enough to resemble a dog nobbler in action so they may have
been inspired by Housby (or t'other way round).

Cheerio,

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[BAC]

"Derek.Moody" > wrote in message
...
> In article >, Aquazur-Dra
> > wrote:
> > 'Cats Whisker' is a very famous streamer/lure pattern and is used by fly
> > fishermen all over the world but do you know who invented it ??.
>
> Is that the yellow job with white marabou fluff and (unless you excel at
> destroying neighbourhood yowlers) a few strands of bucktail?
>
> Very much a pond rainbow catcher I'd have thought. I've seen them with
> metal eyes big enough to resemble a dog nobbler in action so they may have
> been inspired by Housby (or t'other way round).
>

As someone else has said, the pattern was developed by David Train.
Basically, he noticed that fish sometimes concentrated on the tail of a
tadpole like lure with yellow chenille body and white marabou tail, so he
added a wing of white marabou, stiffened by a small bunch of white cat's
whiskers (hence the name)to prevent the wing looping round the hook bend. He
later added bath chain bead eyes, ostensibly to improve the looks and
improve stability on retrieve, although, of course, you are probably correct
in thinking the weight would lead to 'Nobbler' type jinking in certain
circumstances, possibly going some way to account for the lure's success on
floating or slow sinking lines in summer (it was originally intended for use
with fast sinkers in early or late season).

Incidentally, it could be argued Trevor Housby's innovation with the Dog
Nobbler wasn't the use of the shot just behind the eye (Dick Walker had
already done that with his 'Leadhead', itself inspired by some American
patterns) but the replacement of the Leadhead's hair wing by the marabou
tail.

[Derek.Moody]

In article >, BAC
> wrote:

> Incidentally, it could be argued Trevor Housby's innovation with the Dog
> Nobbler wasn't the use of the shot just behind the eye (Dick Walker had
> already done that with his 'Leadhead', itself inspired by some American
> patterns) but the replacement of the Leadhead's hair wing by the marabou
> tail.

I first used Dog Nobblers in sal****er - where they caught fish for a short
while before falling to bits. Then spent a fair while reworking them into
tougher versions so that marabou forms no part of their descendants which
are now just about rugged enough to last for a tide and a couple of dozen
toothy fish.

Cheerio,

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