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.