Yellow Lady Trout Fishing Lure - Variation tied with fluro lime green body and rabbit pelt in place of the hackle wing.
Keith Draper in New Zealand Trout Flies – Traditional and Modern, credits the Yellow Lady to Brad Bockett of Taupo. In Canterbury Robert Bragg created a very similar looking trout lure called the Yellow Terror. Bragg's fly differs in that it has a yellow hackle wound palmer style along the hook before attaching a typical Matuku style yellow wing. The two lures are so much alike that one could pass easily for the other. The Yellow Lady always has a red head; while Bragg's Yellow Terror head is black.
The Yellow Lady in a very popular harling and trolling lure. Indeed few lake trolling anglers would be without some of these lures in their tackle box.
In the South Island the Yellow Lady is also fished as a popular harling lure, but it is also highly regarded as top searun trout and salmon fishing lure in the wide east coast braided rivers. These rivers from the Waiau down to the Waitaki often run discoloured following rain or snow melt. Yellow is one of the easiest colours for the fish to spot when the river is a bit dirty. The Yellow Lady is generally fished in the larger sizes up to size 2 when fished for searun brown trout or salmon. Kahawai will also readily take a Yellow Lady lure fished if fished in the lower river or ocean surf.
The Yellow Lady is a popular lure used when fishing the Canterbury Lure Rod outfit. When fishing this sort of tackle at a Canterbury river mouth, or in the surf, a certain amount of gear losses are unavoidable. Snagging on the bottom, tangles with other anglers, wind knots, and so on can cause you to loose a fair few lures at times. The ability to tie your own is a considerable cost saving advantage. These sort of lures generally retail in Christchurch for about three dollars each. Consider also that most anglers fish them two at a time!
How to tie a Yellow Lady Salmon Lure with Allan Burgess on YouTube. Used to fish for salmon and searun brown trout in Canterbury, New Zealand.
The Yellow Lady also has a number of colour variations. One of the most popular with searun trout anglers is a fluro lime green body. Another is to use yellow sparkle Estaz in place of the yellow chenille body. Many of the lures sold in tackle stores employ an Estaz body together with a red head that has an eye painted on in yellow with a black pupil.
Another variation of the Yellow Lady is the use of rabbit fur dyed yellow in place of the yellow wing hackles. The fur replacement produces a lure virtually indistinguishable from the hackle version. The fur version is also much quicker to tie.
A Yellow Lady and a Black Waimak Wizard lure on a salmon angler's quad bike at the mouth of Canterbury's Rakaia River. This is a typical Canterbury Lure Rod set up.
