Follow the Perd

DECEMBER in Scotland has a knack for reminding you who's in charge.

- BY LOUIS FEROX

The days feel about 20 minutes long, the wind comes at you sideways, and the water temperature is somewhere between "brisk" and "should have stayed in the car".

But while the weather does its best to bully us back home, this is prime time to top up the fly box and there's no pattern more at home in cold, fast wintry water than the Perdigon Nymph.

The Perdigon's story begins a long way from the Tweed and Clyde. Spanish competition anglers designed it for the rapid, technical rivers of the Pyrenees, where fish don't give you the luxury of a slow sink or a lazy drift.