Fly Tying: Wets tumbled and swung

2 Wire Bead Head Wet (SwittersB)

The wet fly/flymph patterns, less the bead are probably my most enjoyable stream pattern to fish. Second to that is to incorporate a bead into the pattern to fish a bit deeper. I just have so much success with this type of pattern on streams and rivers, I am somewhat overly preoccupied with them. The bead heads are less successful, for me, on lakes unless fishing a diving Caddis pattern. Wets, Flymphs and Bead Head Patterns are suggestive of Caddis and Mayfly activity. Trailing shucks and sparse tails added to the fly at the bend/rear of shank help sell the Mayfly. Take those components away and the Caddis is left as an option. 

Tumbled and then swung, they are an easy to tie pattern for the beginning fly tier. Partridge, Starling or Hen Hackle lend themselves to suggestive wings if sparsely tied. Keep the body (abdomen) lean regardless of the material for a Mayfly and a little fuller for a Caddis. A small, built up thorax of dubbing helps keep the wound hackle from totally collapsing back over the shank. I am not convinced the metal bead needs to be any particular color, but I tend toward the more traditional colors of gold, brass, black and more recently rootbeer. Some tiers advocate for the hot colored bead.

Now is the time to tie for the next trout season, unless you are fortunate to have open waters to fish. 

A simple wet fly (starling & herl) without a bead head.

Fly Tying: Fore & Aft Patterns

I am by no means a fly pattern historian. I leave it to others to delve back through the annals of fly tying. The fore and aft style fly pattern is reputed to have originated in England over a century ago. Most patterns (save those with new synthetic materials) probably had multiple originators in the far corners of the fly tying/fishing world.

The fore and aft is often offered up as a midge cluster. Well, that seems fine for a very small pattern, say size 16 to 20, but my experience with say the Renegade pattern is it has done amazingly well in B.C. lakes as a Caddis pattern beneath the surface. I recall a small, remote lake near Wavy L. that to this day afforded some of the most amazing fly fishing I have ever experienced. The Renegade pattern was in tatters, with the tinsel and rear hackle trailing behind. There were no chironomid/midge in sight. Only, Caddis/Sedge were emerging and skittering. As tempting as it was to put on a large dry Caddis pattern, the sunken Renegade was intoxicating to the fish and to me. I will never forget the fly line zipping through the water as the Kamloops took the fly and jetted off across my path. 

Whether the body in tied thinly or rather plump, like the Renegade, experiment with the fore and aft hackling on a pattern. Try it as a searching pattern where exact dry fly /emerger pattern presentations are not called for. Lakes and busy surface streams would be good choices. The hackles can be the dry fly quality feather or even a softer hackles for a busier look. I have include a Renegade I tied and a Stick Fly (midge) pattern that shows Ostrich Herl for the hackle. 

Fly Tying: Wet Fly (Oversized Hackle Barbs for Wing)

USING OVERSIZED HACKLE ON SMALLER HOOK FOR WET FLY

Pulling hackle barbs off of a larger hackle and tying them in over the eye of the hook, then after creating a body, pulling them back over the body. Key: make the barbs only the length of the hook shank (not longer or shorter). 

Oversized Barbs Used Here and Pulled Back Over Peacock Herl Body (SwittersB)

Fly Fishing: The Pale Morning Dun (Summer’s Hatch)

For the beginning fly tier and fisher, the Pale Morning Dun is a ‘predictable’ hatch on Western rivers from June into September. It is a late morning to early evening window of opportunity  for a hatch that has a pronounced pre-hatch nymph ‘drift’ before the emergence on the surface. It is enjoyable to figure out and to fish to. It is one of several Summer hatches that are satisfying to discover and react to.

PMD Adult Wing (McKenzie River Page)

The ‘crawler’ nymphs will move from the rocks and bottom debris where they have hidden. As they move up out of the protection, toward the surface, they are now at the mercy of the currents and trout. This drift, in moderate to slower waters, can take place over an extended period of time as the nymphs drift, wiggle upward, split their wingcases atop the thorax area, wiggle further toward the surface, shed that nymphal case at the surface (emerge) and poke through the surface film (meniscus) to ‘hatch’. The adults will drift a bit further as those now upright wings (opaque) dry a bit and then they lift off into the air, fluttering and drifting with the breezes of the day, toward shore. (Is that a mega paragraph or what?)

The Clear PMD Spinner Wing

This whole process provides stages of presentation that are satisfying  & predictable: nymphs drifting along the bottom in the moderate to slower waters (careful wading, longer distance-stealth presentations?); then emerger/wet fly/flymphs/floating nymphs in the top foot or so of water to the surface; dry fly action and later spinner fall action as the females bob about in quieter side waters to lay eggs and then fall with their clear, spent wings stretched out to the sides like a partially submerged little airplane in film…drifting down in the slower currents.

So many opportunities here for presentations from bottom to top. Once you find a hatch of PMD’s on your favorite stream note its location.  Your patterns will tend toward the tan to dark tan (mottled earth tones) in sizes 16-18 over the course of the summer. You can research Google Images for PMD nymphs, emerger, dry and see a large variety of pattern options. 

 

Fly Tying: Winged Wet Fly Template

http://www.dermaestetica.es

In an effort to search far and wide, I found this classic beauty on a Spanish dermatological site with no attribution re the fly nor even a reference to the picture itself. The fly looks to be tied on a size 12-14 hook, the tail is pheasant tail fibers. A dubbed body is ribbed with perhaps copper wire. It is not clear but the pheasant tail fibers may extend up the top of the abdomen and be bound down by the ribbing. I can’t quite tell. There is a partridge feather wrapped one to two times and overlaid with a wing of either mallard, gadwall or teal. The head is finished over with red thread and a coating of head cement.

The pattern could be altered with different colored abdomens while maintaining the same tail, hackle, wing.

Fly Fishing: Hemostat Triple Twist~Grab Tag & Pull

h/t to John Newbury from FB re this knot tying technique: The Hemostat Knot.  This might be particularly helpful when the finger tips are frozen, or for general use.

For the beginning fly tier, you would be well served to practice your tying techniques while tying a limited scope of patterns. The temptation is to tie every pattern in that book and more that come to mind. Tie this and tie that. If you were limited to just tying as a past time with no opportunity to fish your creations, then tie hither and yon, but otherwise I would stay toward basic nymphs, dries, emergers, streamers and flymphs/wets (or, the basic patterns for the species you chase….it could be a variety of streamers only for a predatory species). This way there is a practical benefit to your targeted tying.

Flymphs: this style of ‘wet’ fly is worth a study on your part and worth a lot of tying. Selection of hackle and style of body are the two key considerations. Sparse patterns for almost dry fly presentations have/had their place. But, buggier dubbing and softer hackling offer a great deal of animation and life. A flymph can fish from the bottom up to the top with the correct presentations: Leisenring Lift.

A couple presentation considerations: study spey (two hander) casts and research their applicability to a single hander. Jean Paul from Roughfisher mentioned this the other day and it true. Line handling with bigger flies or more staged presentations can be easier by moving line, dumping it and then rolling it out into a zone. Research this. Also, for the stream fishing angler chasing primarily trout there is a tendency toward only using a floating line and rarely a sink tip. I use five lines for stillwater but severely limit myself on rivers when chasing trout. (I carry multiple spey line heads). But, a readers comment about using sinking lines and manipulating the fly up through pools and rapids reminded me of watching an old timer fish streamers with a clear, intermediate line to fish streamers on a river (something I would normally only use on a lake). 

Fly Tying & Hair Extenstions: My $25.00 Worth, More or Less

Rooster Saddle Hackle for Extensions

My daughter recently asked to raid my hackle bins for some lengthy rooster feathers for extensions to be crimped into her hair. She helped herself to a half dozen feathers. At about 3 feathers for $25-36 crimped in, I can spare the feathers, because of my OCD (Obsessive Consumerism Disorder)

I don’t doubt this fashion craze is of consequence for some shops and the beginning fly tier, albeit short term, I believe. It the hackle sources are jacking prices to the shop, shame on them. This subject matter is actually pretty stale, but you need to maintain momentum as a beginning tier. 

So, my advice to the beginning tier, ride out the fashion craze. Tie wets, flymphs, nymphs, emergers and streamers. Tie anything that doesn’t require the premium dry fly hackle. Fish them and catch fish.