The Brougham’s Nicomekl or Cohoe is a largely forgotten wet fly used for fall run sea run cutthroat and coho on southwestern BC’s Nicomekl river and others as far back or earlier than the 1920’s. Its namesake river is a small, short, muddy, highly abused low gradient stream that winds and turns through rich farmland and flows into mud bay near the US border. It is a ghost of what it used to be it and for a time was used as an open sewer for the nearby township of fools Langley, which from all reports pretty much extirpated the river’s salmonids by the 30’s. In spite of receiving far far more abuse over a much longer period of time than headline rivers such as the Thompson or Coquihalla, each fall a decent run of coho return here along with vestigial runs of sea run cutthroat, chinook and others. A small volunteer hatchery is partly responsible for these returns and has been a force for education and the protection of this river.
http://nicomeklhatchery.com/cgi/wp/
Nicomekl sea run cutthroat
An old pattern that still very much works, if your looking to tie up some older sea run patterns start with this one
Hook: size 6-8 standard wire streamer or wet fly hook
Thread: Black or dark brown
Tail: A few strands of GP pheasant tippet topped with a small bunch of red swan or goose (or whatever you have, like dog or cat hair)
Body: back half yellow floss
front half claret/burgundy wool, seal or other spiky dubbing
Rib: medium oval gold tinsel
Hackle: Claret or burgundy (in other circles known as dark red)
Wing: matched bronze mallard strips or if that’s a bit tough (on small flies like this it certainly takes practice) a small bunch of darker duck flank or bronze mallard
You will find a thorough history of this fly and it’s creator amongst many others in Art Lingren’s Fly Patterns of British Columbia (I believe the fly is in most editions). You should definitely read it if at all interested in the history of sea run cutthroat fly patterns.
cutthroatsgalore 