albannachxcuileag
-
Posts
336 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Store
Posts posted by albannachxcuileag
-
-
ok so I came up with about 3 really good steelhead ties today wiating on Greg to finish up some last minute work. The question: naming the pattern.... where can I find a database of flies that have names so I do not infringe on another's fly name. Came up with ONE pattern I think will become a classic in my box, and I hope many others boxes soon... pattern and pictures to come after our trip.
You guys ever just sit down and tie without looking at patterns and come up with your own "killer pattern"?
This one is calling out to me "I won't let you down, put me on first!!"I got to the name for my Rusty Nail the same way, sat looking at the hook in the vice for ages before deciding that I wanted a fly that had the same colour all the way through and the only colours I had that would match up were Fiery Brown Seal's Fur and American Speckled Hen Back dyed Crawfish Orange that I had bought on a whim. The end result proved itself as this fly has taken a good many fish now at my local place including a 14lb prime rainbow!
Searching out the name can be a bit harder than you think as I originally called it the Rusty Nailer only to be corrected that a fly of the name, Nailer, already existed so drop the 'er' part and the Rusty Nail was born. It falls into a Classic Wet design and makes a good nymph imitator even though it is tied as a wet. Hopefully others will try it and prove that the effort was worthwhile.
Good luck with your Steely fishing and your new tying.
-
Damn! That vice looks good!
-
Now I know where my cat disappeared to!
You guys like your flies long! I have never seen flies like these, even the SWF guys use shorter ones.
Nice work though, I appreciate the craftsmanship involved.
-
I have a couple of boobies myself. The eyes are made with silver chain like from your sink or bathtub. They sink really fast, they are also weighted, and they work great on the Highwood in the deep pools. Basically jigging it in the slow slack water. Why I haven't used them this year is another question. Thanks for the post reminding me I have these.
Er, not boobies but chain eyed lures! Most famous of these was the Cat's Whisker, white marabou tail, chartreuse green chenille body, silver mylar rib, white marabou wing and chain eyes on the head - a deadly rainbow lure in the UK and Ireland.
-
Bassarisk is right about the washing line method not being restricted to a floating line but it is the line that I prefer using as most of my fishing is done either on the surface or sub-surface when using boobies, not that I use them much, maybe two or three times a year! I do not like taking the risk of gut hooking a fish at depth as this is what happens in a lot of cases with anglers who do not control the retrieve correctly and has led to some fisheries introducing bans on boobies and egg flies, another gut hooking item when not fished in the proper manner.
No, I am not a snob when it comes to methods of fishing but I prefer my fish hooked in the mouth.
-
A book that I constantly refer to since buying is. Matching the Hatch by Pat O'Reilly. as this simplifies fly choice and describes alternatives to use at any time.
Next on the menu is the purchase of the Fly Tyers Benchside Reference.
-
ooo, i'm fur and feather fluff. yep that fits. lol
exchange is about 2.03 last time i checked, end of sept average for the month.
i'd like one too but alas, i dont need one, i bought a tool just for scruffing up dubbing a troutfitters Kerry - $7. doesnt have the bodkin/dubbing needle but it is like a very fine round file - i can think of a better comparison, but not in mixed company, think spurred, male and feline but smaller
Ouch!
I got a freebie from Peak with my vice, the Ritt Pick'n'Brush, handy little thing as it beats the ass off of velcro bands! My 'new' dubbing needle is a home made effort as a lot of my tools are, made from a sewing machine needle and a slim handle from an old threading tool, I don't see the point in paying out loads of money for something you can knock up from scrap, ie my bobbin threader tool - made from an old guitar string and an offcut of brass tubing and some epoxy - does the job nicely!
One thing I do not skimp on are scissors, they have to be good quality and I am currently using Tiemco ones after a few other substitutes such as cuticle scissors and embroidery scissors which served the pupose but are now superceded.
Knowing Tupps, he has the elite tooling for his fly tying and uses it to great advantage as well demonstrated by his SBSs, mind you as things improve at my bench, he had better watch out!
-
antique flies perhaps?
i was also thinking the bar fly theme would be rather fun. perhaps not useful as they may never catch anything but fun nonetheless. and who knows, maybe they would work.
The term "Bar Fly" tickles my fancy! You could get names such as - The Rheumy, Gin Soaked Sod, The Paralytic, A Busted Wheel, Foggy Dew, etc!
We ran a traditional swap (post 203) on another forum with 15 tyers and the Swap Meister presented all the flies with history sheets of all the information that was available to the tyers.
-
Could this be the end at last?!
Trim the wing to length and shape the rear and the fly is finished
Here is one that has the winging correct but has suffered from being boxed.
And here are some I made earlier waiting on wing shaping before getting posted off for a traditional fly tie
Here is one tied to Jimmy Tyrell's method using an orange hen feather stroked over with varnish. Just put a couple of small drops on your forefinger, bring your thumb to meet it and then apply to either side of the feather, stroking the fibres to shape and put aside to dry.
-
Party of four? Centre table
Next stage is to form the antennae from two fibres from a pheasant tail
Strip them off the stalk and rotate them between your fingers in order to get opposing curves - don't worry if it does not do this, there is a cure at the last step that helps
Present them to the head and loop a couple of slack turns of thread around them after ensuring that the thread is at the back of the head
Adjust the lengths and positioning of the antennae before tightening the thread loops and adding a couple more for security
Find the two stalk ends of the fibres and lift clear of the hackle before cutting flush with the head
Whip finish and apply varnish if the antennae are sitting cocked up, if they are not, slip a loop of thread under then before whip finishing and varnishing the head. You can adjust their position while the varnish gets to the tacky stage
-
Part three
Cut across the slip where the fibres are complete to square it off
Present this folded slip to the body about 4mm back from the eye so that it sits on top of the seals fur, if you set it on the thread it will cock the wing up and you want to get a more or less level wing on the body
As you can see from the image above, the wing is disproportionate to the body so the image below shows the wing in a more suitable size
Trim the excess with a diagonal cut sloping towards the eye of the hook
If you look at the next image you will see that the wing has split to form a wing on either side, this is not correct but when the fly is on the water this is how it actually looks, you can heal the split by careful stroking and seal with varnish or floo gloo if required
Take the larger of the two hackles and tie in to the thread that is over the end of the wing
Make a minimum of 6 turns as you want to achieve a really bushy thorax area on the fly before tying in and trimming
-
Part two
Now for the swearing part, take your Oak Turkey quill and match up a slip to the fly
Ease the selected slip out to right angles trying not to break the barbule lock of the fibres as I do here.
Cut your slip free from the quill holding on to the thinner end of it.
Turn it over so that the dull side is facing you
Fold one third from the good side to the dull side
Then fold the top third over this again to have two good sides on the wing slip
Reverse your hold on the slip so that you are now holding the thicker end with the tips free
-
This is a tying (if you can call it that) of the Irish Murrough sedge adapted for modern materials but using the folded wing method (something I will never master!).
The original as far as I can find out was tied with brown wool, gold tinsel, red game hackle and grouse breast feather wing.
As a dry fly, the materials let it down as it had to be heavily ginked to float.
The natural that the Murrough represents is the Great Red Sedge or Murragh (Eruciform, Phryganeidae, Phryganea striata )
Here is another tying for the Murrough.
Successful on slow running rivers and stillwaters when fished on or very near the surface. Large sizes (6 to 10) are great `wake' flies but smaller 12 to 16`s also do the business in most hatches. The dressing should be medium, not bushy but not overly sparse. Body grey mole, body hackle palmered dark red cock hackle, rib gold wire, tail red cock hackle, wing brown speckled hen tied roof shaped rather than upright.
As you can see, tyings can vary from all over the country with no-one agreeing on the proper tying but I had some assistance from Jimmy Tyrrell, a well known tyer and instructor and also, owner of the Irish Fishing and Game museum at Abbeyleix in Co. Laois, who's own tying follows a more traditional pattern using either fiery brown seals fur or claret seals fur, gold wire rib, red game palmered body hackle, varnished red grouse breast feather roof winging, red game thorax hackle and cock pheasant antennae.
My effort uses the folded wing technique which on hindsight may not have been the best choice for winging.
On with the tie.
Materials:-
Thread - Olive UTC 140 Denier
Hook - any medium long shank from size 10 to size 6
Rib - Hot Yellow UTC wire
Body - Fiery Brown Seals fur
Body Hackle - Ollve with Skunk strip in Black
Wing - Mottled Oak Turkey, folded
Hackle - as body hackle but with longer fibres
Antennae - Cock Pheasant Tail Fibres
As this is not a beginner fly, I have missed out the threading and wire attaching as this should be second nature when tying complex flies such as this.
Form a heavy dubbing rope as this is a substantial fly in reality and the thick body is needed to wing it properly
Run the dubbing up to behind the eye quite thickly
Catch in the body hackle after stripping away the flue from the base, the fibres should be equal to or just slightly larger than the hook gape but not overly so.
Palmer the hackle down the body in about 6 to 8 turns, the black centre gives a segmentation effect on this fly that is supplemented by the ribbing in reverse turns.
Run the ribbing wire in opposite turns after making two turns around the hackle end making sure that you do not trap too many of the hackle fibres by waggling it through the fibres on each turn up the body.
Take your scissors and lie them flat along the body without pressing in to it and cut off the top hackle fibres, if you do not do this then you can end up with a cocked wing.
] -
I warned you all previously, that man Tupps is a wolf in sheep's clothing!
One mean tyer!
-
had the rod, had the flies. forgot the reel... had to use my 8wt instead. a little heavy for a full day of drifting and nymphing
Woose!
Try dry fly on a 12' loch style boat rod!
-
Nice tie, Tupps! (I prefer the blue silk one myself)
Funnily enough I was rattling some of these up this afternoon for a little outing tomorrow along with some size 16 Hare's Ear Paras and Black and Copper wire buzzers in the same size.
Folks, Tupps is a Tackle Tart! Note the exclusive and unashamed usage of C&F paraphernalia!
-
This arose from looking at some of the stuff in the Calgary site and also with the fact that this is also part of the trout's natural diet when available. Looking at it again, there is also the possibility of using this for Grayling due to the colouration of the casing.
Materials -
Hook - Kamasan B830 size 12
Thread - UTC 140 Denier Olive
Body - 3lb nylon and Copper Micro Seed Beads
Hackle - Olive
Thread up your hook to the start of the bend and then catch in 3 strands of thin mono. Put a couple of dabs of supeglue on the shank and run your thread back to the eye catching in the mono with touching turns, run the thread back to the bend and up to the eye again to bulk out the hook.
Feed 24 of the micro seed beads onto your home made bobbin threader!
Slip one of the mono lengths into the loop and peel off 8 beads, keep a hold of this loose end!
Repeat this for the other two lengths until it looks like the photo below
Stretch out the 3 lengths of mono and hold in place with a couple of wraps of thread before aligning them to your satisfaction. Put a dab of superglue on the shank behind the eye and bind in the mono keeping it taut. Allow to harden before trimming off the excess
Catch in a prepared hackle stalk and form a dense thorax with about 5 to 6 turns.
Whip finish and varnish generously to achieve a Conceptual Cased Caddis
-
Ooops!
Nearly headed for an a** kicking from moderation as I mistakenly posted a PM text here! A quick edit was in order to save grace!
-
Ladystrange - FOMCLMFAO!
Try this one -
Bowmore 1955 / 40 Year old
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
Bottled in a beautiful crystal decanter, this gorgeous fruity Bowmore has been declared by more than one of our customers to be the best that they have ever tasted. After such a long period of ageing, the malt has taken on a very elegant character and shows restrained peat combined with ethereal layers of exotic fruit. A serious, subtle malt that demands the drinker's time and full attention.
£4,700.00 inc. VAT (£4,000.00 ex. VAT) = 9,504.63 Canadian Dollar
-
This is not a time based thing, it is just a suggestion to get those little grey matter things working and see what everyone can come up with. What I may do is post all the different submissions from all the tyers and have both forums vote on what is their favourite. Alternatively, everyone can send their creation to me and I will test drive them all!
Above all I am looking for originality in design and to have a direct link with the name that they give to the fly. Who knows, we may end up with some really interesting flies for us all to copy from this.
-
Part two, the second part, following on from part one, the first part
Prepare your CDC puff - the one on the left is too big, the other next to it is fine, split the fibres equally and then tear it in two
Tie in the CDC breathers directly behind the hook eye securing well
Form the head with your thread trying to achieve a ball shape
I think that whip finishing by hand is better as you can control the positioning of the thread much easier and then varnish with SHHAN or black cellire
Once dry, pinch the breather fibres to the required length
The almost finished article showing the rib effect from the film
Fishing the buzzers as a pair suspended beneath an indicator fly with the first at 6" below and the second at 18" below the indicator. Fish them into the wind to allow the indicator to drift towards you and keep your line under control.
To see how effective looking these are, drop one into a glass of water and look at the body colouration - as near to the real thing as possible.
Here is a version tied as an indicator on a size 8 circle hook with a shocking pink spanflex collar
By changing the underlying thread colour of the base, you can achieve a range of effects on this buzzer, here it is Fire Orange Uni thread which gives a copper sheen when the electrostatic film is applied to the abdomen. Tyed a little bit differently with a wing case on this example.
-
This is a buzzer designed to work in the top layers during a rise. The benefit of the electrostatic film is that is becomes translucent and forms it's own rib during the tying eliminating the need for wire and also making the buzzer much slimmer.
Assuming that most viewing this are right handed tyers then we will proceed -
Materials -
Hook - Kamasan B100 size 12 or 14 (see note)
Thread - Black UTC
Body - strip cut from electrostatic envelope / bag
Breathers - split natural CDC puff
Preparing the electrostatic material is easy - lay out on thick card and trim away the seam from the side leaving the bag open. Depending on the size of hook you will have to cut strips accordingly.
NOTE - I have found that for size 12s, 2mm maximum and for size 14s you have to reduce this to 1,5mm.
Make sure that the cutting blade that you use is new as a blunt one will rag the edges of the film. Cut parallel strips of the width desired by placing a ruler over the bag and maintaining pressure on it as you cut. One strip from a 5" bag is enough for about 6 to 8 flies size 12.
Wind on your thread in tight touching turns until you reach the bend area
Prepare your strip of electrostatic film by cutting at an angle and tie in with long side down as shown, this eliminates bulk at the tail end
Return the thread back up the body again with tight touching turns
Wind the film up the body in turns that just overlap to produce the rib effect required
Complete the body to the eye of the hook - you are not going to finish the fly here
-
Seriously though, more detail on how you fish them, please. My intermediate line sinks at 1.5 - 2in/second. I count down to get it to the depth I find the fish at. If I strip in fast, the line will pull up some and start rising. If I retrieve slow, it stays at that depth. Hand twist will allow it drop in the column even more. If you where fishing with that type of line, how would you fish the boobie?
To give a basic use of the Boobie is simple, you need a still water that you know the depths of and a fast sinking line to get it down quickly. DI7 is used by a lot of anglers over here but I have used a DI3 in reasonably deep water (14 feet) and counted it down. When you are fishing the booby, you are fishing a relatively short leader of 2 - 4 feet in some cases. If you retrieve the line with short jerks, it causes the booby to drop down fast and on the stop, flutter upwards. Repeating this gives your average trout the idea that he will have it the next time it moves!
There is one drawback to fishing these flies - fish can get gut hooked easily if the retrieve is not controlled, a static line will result in gut hooked fish, timing the tug and rise is of the essence when boobying and you can see the action required if you start with a short leader and fish it in visible water depth close to you for practice.
A lot of takes can come on the drop but the majority are on the rise and fall sequence, especially the 'dive' that is created by the tug retrieve.
The other method is to use them with a floating line as a point fly with a couple of buzzer or nymph droppers, this is called the 'washing line' method. Your booby is a floating anchor, your buzzers or nymphs are in between this and the end of your floating line and their natural weight will let them slowly descend. Give a short pull and they will rise in a motion similar to that of the natural and you are hoping for a take then. Contrary to some beliefs, buzzers will rise and fall depending on conditions and fishing the 'washing line' will emulate this natural movement. Using weighted buzzers or nymphs will accelerate the motion and an added bonus that is obtained with this method is that your 'static' anchor fly will also move on the tug and become a wake attractor on the surface. Often a fish will rise to the floating booby and turn away only to take one of the suspended flies beneath it
Hope this explains a little bit about booby fishing.
Good luck and tight lines.
-
I have a pocket in my pack I use until it is full. Quite a few years ago I came upon a camp of sorts with a pile of magazines left behind. All of them were addressed to the same person so I boxed them up and mailed them back. Cost me a couple of dollars but I figured it might make a point.
Around town here there is a huge amount of construction and alot of the stuff from the construction sites blows over to Don Sparrow Lake where I clean up the shoreline in the Spring or any time I happen to be over there, though this year I think I have only been there twice.
Sad thing is I am finding more and more tapered leader packages.
One other thing, for folks who stuff there bits of leader etc. in their pockets, it is a pain isn't it? So cut a square of thin cardboard and snip a little slit in one corner and wrap your trimmed ends or found line on the card and stick the end in the slit to hold it in place. It is easier to keep in your pocket and you just toss out the whole thing when you get to a trash can....Kerry
thanks for your reply kerry. good tip on the line. i do have a pocket full of leader bits. another tip is i often use different leader/tippet setups for dries versus say streamers. i use old tippet spools to hold my different leader configurations so that i don't have to waste my leaders in the first place and reduces trash.i fished a canyon yesterday where the only reason somebody would be there would be to fish. i found a cigarette butt on shore (belmont)! what kind of a moron leaves a cigarette butt on the shore of a pristine mountain stream? you hike all the way in there to enjoy wilderness and then stamp out your butts and leave them there?!?! pack out your dang trash!
Here is a simple tip for you guys, I have a 35mm film can in my waistcoat pocket that I stuff used leaders into through a cross cut on the lid, this is fine for a few trips and then you can dispose of them correctly at home.
Cigarette ends? I never leave any as the stub is extinguished and then put in my LHS pocket that is reserved solely for this and the leader can. - Always keep your fishings clean and ensure others do so as well.
Marabou Matuka Cat's Whisker
in Fly Patterns
Posted
You folks might have seen these in the mags and on the net, it is one of the deadlier patterns used for still water Rainbows on this side of the pond. Fished on either floating or sunk lines it has always been a good taker, especially when the fish are fry bashing at the back end. I stuck a thorax hackle and headlamp eyes on it instead of the usual silver chain bead eyes (rod smashers!). Matuka-ing the wing was a bitch but turned out not too bad when I worked out an easier method of doing it.