Red Frances Tungsten Conehead

In recent years this has become a fly that you simply can't afford to leave out of your fly box. It has accounted for simply huge numbers of fish and there's nowhere it doesn't work - often in difficult conditions and for difficult fish that can't be tempted by other flies. With a heavy tungsten conehead to get it down into the salmon's space and hackle stalk feelers for maximum water 'noise' (and because most experienced salmon fishers want these rather than boar bristle). We tie the feelers quite long but they can of course be trimmed if necessary (Icelandic guides often like to do this)

Our sizes for conehead Frances patterns are based on measurement 1 below

1. the front of the cone to the back of the red wool body
2. the front of the cone to the tips of the feelers

Overall lengths (2 above) - are:

25mm - 95mm

19mm - 65mm

13mm - 55mm

10mm - 45mm

Putting it less mathematically, the 25mm is a big old fly and the 10mm is a pretty subtle little tube - which can be lethal!