Jim Curry recalls a lifetime of fly-tying and sea-trout fishing on the River Bann
THE EDITOR RECENTLY received a box of beautiful flies: Invicta, Peter Ross, Wickham’s Fancy, Alexandra and many more. A wonderful surprise gift from a talented tyer.
The sender was Jim Curry, a sea-trout fisher of the River Bann in Northern Ireland. There is so often a story behind a fly and when we rang Jim to thank him for his kindness, sure enough, there was more to these flies than meets the eye.
Jim, 90, now lives at a care home in Newtonabbey. He told us that, sadly, he can no longer fish or tie but wanted to share his flies with Trout & Salmon.
If Jim’s surname is familiar, it is no coincidence, for Jim is the nephew of Pat Curry, inventor in the early part of the 20th century of the Curry’s Red Shrimp, probably the most famous Irish salmon fly.
Jim said, “I took up fishing very young. I always got my flies at Christmas time from Pat Curry. I was hoping for flies and couldn’t have got better than from my uncle.”
When Pat died, Jim, only 12, decided he would tie flies himself. He found out that a fly-tying teacher attended the “tech” across the road from where he lived and so Jim went there to learn.
“Pat’s nephew”, as he was known by local rods, became an accomplished tyer of traditional wet-flies and dry-flies. He entered the prestigious Mustad Scandinavian Open fly-tying competition several times and won gold and silver medals — as well as many hooks!
His flies weren’t just for show. He said, “My quarry was the sea-trout of the lower River Bann, flowing from Coleraine to the sea. There was always a good run.”
We asked Jim which of his flies he likes best. He said some of his most effective sea-trout patterns were, like his famous uncle, his Shrimps, hackles tied fore and aft, bodies deadly in blue but also gold and silver. He fished them “down at Dougan’s Bay”, at the rivermouth, where he said, “The fresh-run sea-trout take the Shrimp like mad.”
Another brace of proven sea-trout flies (pictured below right) are an unnamed hairwing that Jim says was “never off my cast”, and Jim’s Fly, a hairwing with a particular shade of seal’s fur body.
Jim explained, “I wanted something a bit different, and I had been given a tiny amount of the darkest blue seal fur from a friend, which you couldn’t buy anywhere. I managed to get some more dyed by Ellis Slater, and after a lot of trial and error, w
