Heritage Flies - Part 6 The Hover dragon. Peter Brigg The Hover Dragon – 1985.
He was Roger Baert, the creator of the Hover Dragon in 1985. Roger’s dragonfly nymph imitation was arguably the first design to mimic the spurt and slow-drop movement of the natural insect. Roger says that the basis for the fly was laid in 1983 but that it reached its final form in 1985 with the addition of the red Edge Bright eyes.
He was the son of a diplomat, born in Shanghai and his boyhood years were spent in many parts of the world. His first angling memory was at the age of five on the coast of Japan – a broken arm prevented him from swimming and his father took him fishing instead. But many will remember him as the guy behind the counter at the Flyfisherman in Pietermaritzburg with the warm, welcoming smile, a good sense of humour and knowledgeable, the guy who was known as the father of float tubing in South Africa and sometimes controversially, subduing large stillwater trout on an Orivs Superfine 6’6” 2 wt. www.saflyfishingmag.co.za
I asked Roger about story behind this fly – “It needs to be tied to last. But it also needs to sink very slowly, on an even keel. It was the much-missed Keith Miller who was behind my ideas on the subject. Keith, who tragically drowned when his float tube deflated on a trout dam in KwaZulu Natal, used to keep nymphs in a fish tank to study 28
Return to contents
