To stay in practice, I tie at least one fly a day. Yesterday it was an orangish soft hackle wet fly.
I don't tie as many traditional style Steelhead flies. For whatever reason, I get the proportions screwed up. Which reminds me, I got to tie up some bunny leeches.
AB
Edit:Â Vince, that fly you tied would look like a great October Caddis skater.
-- Edited by AbelBoy on Thursday 22nd of October 2009 10:49:18 AM
AbelBoy: Yea, I'd love to try skating dries... I just picked up "A Passion for Steelhead" and I'm trying to put together the bucks for a spey rod. I'm intrigued by steelhead flies lately; they look so antiquated in their design and ineffective. I can't believe they still work. Even the old upturned eye hooks look like something out of the 1950s. I look forward to buying some hooks and giving the steelhead fly thing a try.
I've been using this fly a lot lately and it works great! I think it's right up there or even more productive than Bob's Lembroughton pattern and I'm not kidding. This fly will get fish to the surface even if there are no fish rising. It's called a Hi-vis Rusty Spinner and can be found at:
One of the guys at Specialties showed me this fly. It's called Partridge and CDC (formally known as the Barely Legal Wet Nymph). It's tied for the shop in tan, but I tied some up in olive. The outer wing is partridge while the inner wing is CDC. I hooked up with lots of local Yuba trout with this fly during my evening sessions.
I wonder if that CDC forms a bubble underwater. Do you swing it?
Great tie!
V
-- Edited by vince on Saturday 24th of October 2009 08:20:56 PM
I'm sure it does. Plus partridge has great movement.
The fly can be fished on the swing or a drift. Last night, my girlfriend slammed a bunch of Yuba shakers on the drift. I prefer to fish it in the swing.
Here's the recipe.
Hook: TMC 2457, size 12 Thread: 6/0 Uni-thread, color to match abdomen Abdomen: Micro or Small stretch tubing (you can use clear and let the color of the thread be the color of the fly or you can buy colored stretch tubing) Thorax: Ice Dub, color to match abdomen Inner wing: CDC, natural dun Outer wing: Partridge, natural
AB Â Edit: Here are some notes.Â
I normally use clear stretch tubing instead of the colored ones. I ran out of the clear tubing. If you want a skinnier abdomen, use the micro stretch.Â
Also UV treated Ice Dubs work well this fly. I need to buy some.
I haven't tried it during the winter/spring, but I think that this fly in a tan #12 will make a great March Brown soft hackle.
AB
-- Edited by AbelBoy on Sunday 25th of October 2009 11:58:49 AM
"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." - Anon.
Emergers, or if shiny bubbles form, also ovipositing caddis. Ralph Cutter makes it sound like the fly selection choice for ovipositing females is unimportant compared to the presence of bubbles. I think he usually fishes it with a flotant-treated Bird's Nest.
Vince
Edit: Here are some stimi's I've tied recently. Useless in this season, but oh well. These go to Richard for giving me a ride to Putah the other day. Thanks Richard!
-- Edited by vince on Sunday 25th of October 2009 03:44:10 PM
Going to the Yuba tomorrow and thought its time I outfish "the legend" that everyone asks me about when I am up there. So I thought I'll try tie up some of those pretty soft hackles AB posted..... I am too embaressed to post pics.... uuuuugggglllyyy!!!
Not that is going to stop me from fishing them
__________________
"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." - Anon.
So I just bought the book Tying Small Flies by Ed Engle. It's by far the best tying book I own - his research into threads, dubbing, etc is very helpful. I could go on and on about the book... but here are some flies from it.
He uses "poor man's CDC" - Snowshoe rabbit's foot. Has anyone else worked with this? It's a pretty great material for wings.
