Tag: Gold tinsel, yellow silk. Tail: Gold phesant crest and a Indian Crow. Butt: Black Ostrich. Body: Black silk. Ribbing: Oval gold tinsel. Hackle: A hot orange cock hackle from second turn. Throat: Jay. Wing: Bronze Mallard and a topping. Sides: Jungle Cock. Horns: Blue and yellow Macaw. Head: Black.

Another of the older Classic flies that made the transition to this side of the Atlantic. It was used as a both the stripped wing pattern and as a modern hair-wing, and still is used in Canada. There are some who trace the fly back to Pat Hearns in 1860. Bates credits Jemmy Wright ("the great storm fly" and points to its modern hairwing replacement. As Wright was a professional tier in the right place and time (Sprouston on the Tweed 1850's), he also has a prior claim, but it seems to be undocumented. He was the originator of many important patterns though-some Rangers, Garry Dog, Silver Doctor, Greenwell, Silver/Grey, Silver Wilkinson, and others. So it is very possible he did have a hand in its creation. The name is derived from the colour scheme (golden and black), and like many other Irish Patterns became widely used in Scotland , after the 1840- onslaught of gaudy flies according to Francis et al.Taverner (1947) has high praise for it, as well as Cyril Marson ("Fishing for Salmon..." 1929) who shows two kinds of Thunder and Lightning- an Irish Pattern and a Variant. It appears also to be listed as an important low-water fly.