I was out in the shed, the one piled with camping stuff, Christmas stuff and bikes long since abandoned by kids. Setting on a shelf beneath a old external frame backpack, broken white gas camping stove and a cracked plastic toboggan was an old plastic tub. The kind you now buy licorice in at Costco. It was full of several hundred flies that were never used. Discarded as never pulled from the active boxes or just not standing the approval of the moment by me. Dumped into a plastic grave and set on a shelf to be further buried by the outdoor’s discarded tools. I reached into that tub and grabbed a handful of failures and, as a good story goes, saw a couple little glimmering gems. At least this morning they seemed worthy of possible redemption. Simple, suggestive patterns tied about 25 years ago…….
Wet Fly w/ floss body~G. Muncy
Brown Floss Wet~G. Muncy
You know those just might work. This time at least, I plan on making the effort to put these before a fish. The old Mustad hooks deserve a dunking
Dayle's Bend, Montana
Hello Gary, Wow! thanks for the tips, are very useful for me. The Whiskey Creek has become compulsory reading, is really very useful and inspiring. I once again congratulate you for SwettersB.
Really? These flies have 25 years? Wonderful! I’m having great difficulty with the soft Hackl, to me these flies are excellent.
Hello Junior,
Thank you for visiting. When you can, check out http://wcflies.com/blog/. He has inside his blog very nice Wet Fly info. Also, for years, David Hughes and Rick Haeffle have written pieces about Wets and Flymphs. Westfly.com may have info hidden away on wets. Probably many other resources as well. You can tell by those patterns, that I over hackled them back then. Now, I would use less wraps. Also, it is the question of should I tie in by the tip or down on the stem.. I generally do the following…if I tie in by tip, I wrap a couple turns forward. If by stem then a turn or two back. I seem to always over hackle my flies. Less is better. The classic UK wets are sparse and best. It seems Partridge is often used. Also, if you can find it something similar to Starling is great for smaller patterns (14-18’s) Good luckk.
Gary