The General Practitioner imitates the shrimp and prawn that salmon feed on in the sea. It was designed in 1955 to fish the border salmon rivers of Scotland and England by Lt Colonel Esmond Drury.
Originally invented as anglers on the rivers where used to using live shrimp on a hook to fish for salmon. The land owners banned this practice so Drury developed this fly to imitate the native Northern Shrimp. He tied the original fly on size 2 hook, but found that the smaller hooks caught more fish especially in the low or more shallow areas of the river.
The original design consisted of golden-pheasant body feathers and orange fur. Drury called this fly G.P. at first because of the golden pheasant feathers which went to make up the large part of this pattern.
The name changed to General Practitioner because in the British medical profession a local family doctor was called a GP, and general practitioner seemed more appropriate.
Lt Colonel Esmond Drury (retired) creator of the General Practitioner with a brace of salmon caught on the River Wye.
The General Practitioner has a better record ways of fishing than most flies, and best fished on a floating line at low levels in the summer as well as an effective fly in brownish and murky rivers. It has shown to be very effective on a wide range of waters from its native waters in Britain and Iceland, to Scandinavia and North America.
The key to fishing the General Practitioner is to let it hang above a known salmon lie and let the fly hang in the current, whilst moving the fly slowly side to side. The key is not to be impatient, but to slow down and wait for a take. Wait for the salmon to notice the fly and get annoyed with it, this will trigger instinct to attack.
My first Norwegian fish "Grilse" was caught on a General Practitioner at the end of what I called Rock Pool as the fly hung in the current, so it has a specially place in my fly box because of this as well as the thought of Drury trying the G.P. on the river Wye where I learnt my craft under my fathers instruction. (The Grilse went straigh back to continue its journey)
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