Fly Tying: A Brace of Wet Flies

A little experimentation with Flexi-Floss and heavier wire ribbing for a more pronounced segmentation effect. The wet flies were tied on a size 14 and a size 16 Mustad 3906 hook. Love this hook. The verdict is out on how the body material will impress fish. To the naked eye it looks ok and as usual to the macro it looks a bit troubled. I would normally use a finer copper ribbing but I thought I would see how the larger ribbing came across. For those that like a cleaner appearance, the patterns look a bit clunky. Yet, I bet they will fish just fine. A dubbed thorax separated the abdomen from the Starling wing. It a simple fly to tie; could even be simpler. Any number of combination exist for the simple wet fly, soft hackle, flymph….call it what you will in your fair corner of the earth.

I know...a bit weak in the bum.

Fly Tying: Snowshoe Parachute Emerger

Tim Barker at PlanetTrout recently tied a nice emerger pattern with white Snowshoe rabbit hair. I was impressed by the appearance and figured I would try to use the material. I have been on a CDC kick of late and Tim suggested the Snowshoe hair might be a better material compared to CDC.  So, I tried it. Lordy me! I struggled with it on a size 18 hook. So, I would suggest experimenting with the material on a bigger hook and getting use to the hairs.

The hook was a Gamakatsu C15-BV, size 18, vertical eye. The tail/shuck was a single strand of copper/black Krystal flash. The abdomen body was black and olive 14/o Sheer thread wrapped around each other and then wound onto the hook. The wing post is a clump of hairs from a tan Snowshoe Rabbit foot. I tied it in and elevated it with thread wraps around the base of the post. A very small Grizzly hackle was tied in and wrapped around the base of the post ala parachute style.

I fumbled with the rabbit hairs and tying off the hackle. I really could not see very well. The lighting was great, but frankly I just cannot cleanly tie the smaller flies, unless it is a simple nymph or pupa pattern. But, I will continue to muddle through because the reality is you do need some smaller patterns and I will continue to experiment until I find the simpler, cleaner patterns to tie.

Fly Tying: Georgi’s (Harley) Damsel

I wanted to work on the photography lighting for my pics. Also, I wanted to point out that the often cast off hackle bottoms are a source of fluffy tail/wing material. In the Harley Damsel, I copied a pattern I saw years ago, called Georgi’s Damsel tied by Georgi Abbott of Logan Lake, BC. So, consider it a Georgi’s Damsel. I have temporarily named it Harley because the side shot looks amazingly like my goofy pup Harley. Ok, enough personal info. Additional info re Damsel Nymph-Instars at Troutnut.

Fly Fishing: Catch & Release

CATCH & RELEASE ETIQUETTE CONSIDERATIONS BY JOEL LA FOLLETTE

Fly Tying: A Few Hours of My Life………..

I intended to bring attention to a material I only recently discovered: Hareline’s Grizzly Krystal Flash. In this instance, I was liking the Copper and Blue. Now, I know I am not using it as most probably envisioned..incorporated into wings and tail of marauding Intruders  or a pattern named after some portion of the Deschutes R. canyon. No, I wrapped it on a small hook and the blue and copper just looked so damn awesome.

Now to capture that look. Try as I might, my settings have gotten askew and not a darn shot turns out. Further my clumsy attempts at artistic presentation have been equally frustrating. So, I’m going to give you what I got and leave it to the more gifted to use this material in better fashion. It was just a few hours of my life on a Friday night.

Above: The color cast was off and I could not alter my White Balance after several attempts. The material looked great on the little hook, but of course, up close my wraps were crap…but, not visible to the naked eye. And, of course, I misspelled Hareline. Sigh.

Below: Was a pointless effort at displaying the Grizzly Krystal Flash & Starling…..

And finally, another effort at presenting the material on a hook…….. and, well never mind….

Someone do it justice…… And, spell Hareline correctly!

Fly Tying: Ostrich Herl

I was experimenting with two kinds of ostrich herl here. I have used ostrich herl before for The Orb, a Callibaetis emerger pattern. I just thought the pic worth sharing for the qualities of this material. It would have a lot of life to it for a tail, for the gills along the abdomen or up in the thorax area for emerging wings or legs. Long strands incorporated into spey flies are frequently used for increased animation-agitation.

Fly Tying: Midge Emerger

Sorry about the picture. I have messed up my white balance and need to correct that. This pattern is on a size 18 hook. 14/0 Sheer thread binds one strand of black Krystal flash for the abdomen. A small slice of closed cell, white foam was attached with a few short strands of mylar for a wing. I over wrapped the thorax with one herl of peacock and tied it off. I tied this for in the film presentations on stillwaters or slow tailouts on rivers. It seems to float just in the film.

Fly Tying: Are The Materials Sacred?

I was just recently talking to a friend about a beginning fly tying class they had just completed. My friend remarked how the instructor embarrassed the beginning tier in front of the classmates for failing to properly cut the material for use on the fly. The not so delicate implication was the student was being disrespectful to the material, wasteful and to the creature that had given up its hide in the process by not cutting the material from the hide close enough. Hmmm? Seriously?

Now, I appreciate there are endangered critters out there protected and hence we most probably should not use the critter’s fur, hair or feathers because of that protected status. But, beyond that is it coming to the point that now the materials are sacred?

BS I say. My $$$, my choice to hoard, waste or share. Such foolery! Like moralizing away over the waste not, want not, ways of utilizing every ounce of a harvested whale or cariboo.

Save it righteous one for bigger issues. Like all the premium hackles being scarfed up for head bands, hair weaves and earrings. What say you pious one to that?

Fly Tying: The Old Standby?

Not too many years ago, the beginning fly fisher was told they had to carry at least two nymphs in assorted sizes: the Pheasant Tail Nymph (PTN) and the Gold Ribbed Hares Ear (GRHE). Maybe I wrong, but the Hare’s Ear almost seems to have gone the way of the Muddler Minnow, Woolly Worm, Montana Stone or….. Well, maybe I am wrong. The Hare’s Ear Nymph is an excellent crawler/clinger nymph pattern. I suffer tying these because I almost seize up around rabbit. In fact, years ago, I regretfully eliminated the Hare’s Ear from my beginning tier’s lesson plan because I could not breath around the fur. It is the only fly tying material that seems to affect me so. Anyway, tie this pattern from size 8 to size 16, mostly in the natural Hare’s Mask. You can fool around with rubber legs and some flash at the tail, but it isn’t necessary. The Gold bead head can be omitted if desired. I have not had as much success with this pattern on stillwaters (not a good Hex or Callibaetis pattern for me). It is outstanding on rivers. You will notice in the attached link, the tier uses hackle barbs for the tail rather than the traditional Hare’s Mask guard hairs. That is quite acceptable. That way you don’t have to buy a Hare’s Mask and can buy the dubbing and sub hackle barbs for the tail.

Fly Tying: LaFontaine Halo Emerger