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This is a basic stripped hackle stalk buzzer, the good thing about then is that you can use almost any longish hackle feather that you have lying around. This is in Olive as it is one of the colours that I prefer for buzzers of this type so go grab that 5 quid cape and we will get started. Apologies again to the left handed tyers as it is a right handed jobby again, if I had been ambidextrous then things could have been more interesting! Materials - Hooks - from size 18 to 12s Kamasan B100s Thread - UTC 140 Olive Hackle - in this case - Olive bugger piece - the muckle big ones that were no good for anything but lures Wingcase - Cock Pheasant Tail Fibres Thorax - Hot Olive Seals Fur Run your thread down the hook of choice into the bend, on smaller sizes allow the thread to flatten out and reduce bulking Cut your hackle stalk at the appropriate thickness - experience will make this easier Tie in the hackle stalk at the bend and return the thread to the thorax area in tight touching turns Wind your hackle stalk in touching turns to the thorax area and tie in with a couple of turns before cutting off the excess Catch in your pheasant tail fibres and secure with a couple of turns. I use about 7 or 8 for a size 12 and reduce this to about 4 or 5 for a size 16 Dub on your seals fur to form a thin rope, wax the thread beforehand on the larger sizes of hook. If you find that your rope is too long and going to bulk the thorax just pull the excess from the thread and keep for the next one

Here are a few that I have found quite informative in the past - Fly Anglers Online - Fly of the Week Fly Tying Forum Home Page - browse this as flies are in different sections The English Fly Fishing Shop - this is a fantastic reference site - click on a subsection and then click on a fly for background information River Don Flies - traditional flies as used in the UK And by no means least of all, probably one of the most respected - Hans Weilenmann's fantastic collection Flytier's Page That is enough to be going on with, there are plenty more on the net so happy browsing.

OK - let's help you out with some facts straight from the very beginning. It is not scotch, it is Scotch Whisky and we prefer it called and spelt that way. It is our national heritage beverage, despite what a few might say and there are more Single Malts that any man or woman can get through in a month of 24 hour drinking. Flavours vary from the very gentle Lowland Whiskies to the almost harsh smoky peat flavoured whiskies of the western isles with every nuance in flavour between. It is sacrilege to pour water, coke, tonic, lemonade into any Single Malt Whisky or add a truckload of ice to your glass, you may either add more whisky or to release the full body of some whiskies, a few drops of natural Scottish burn water. Any person who puts coke into a Single Malt should be gralloched in front of everybody in the bar for this behaviour. Single Malt Whisky is appreciate by age, the older it is, the smoother and more palate pleasing it is. Best aged in old sherry casks made of oak before being decanted to bottles. Once whisky is in a bottle then any change in it's character is halted, only the cask can improve this. Malt Whisky should be served in straight, short open tumblers that allow the participant to inhale those heavenly fumes as it is warmed by their hand on the glass. Many are put off enjoying our national drink by being introduced to the wrong type of whisky to start with, it is an acquired taste and I would not expect someone to enjoy an 18 year old Islay Laphroaig as their first lesson in appreciation of uisge beatha, the water of life. My great uncle on my grandmother's side was one of the coopers in Bowmore Distillery on the island of Islay and when I was there as a child, he gave my mother a real roasting for her way of drinking whisky - ashamedly, she used to drink it with coke! On a tasting, take it easy. Do not try to enjoy too many in one night as your taste buds will get confused and not be able to distinguish the subtleties that each whisky has. If you find that one particular whisky attracts you more than another, then stick with that one for the rest of the night or be prepared to have the mother of all hangovers if you persist in sampling more! For beginning, Glenkinchie - very smooth subtle tasting Single Malt Whisky from the Scottish Borders, Eradour - produced by Scotland's smallest distillery, a very smooth, easily drunk malt., going up the scale and you come to the Spey Whiskies, distinct in flavour and only distilled in the Spey Valley. The range is incredible from the smoothest to the the smokiest. Whiskies from the Islands vary considerably from the inner Hebridies to the Orkneys and here you will find the peatiest tasting of all Scottish Single Malt Whiskies. Word of advice - NEVER drink Laphroaig with Tweed Ghillie, you might not survive the night, I know I didn't! Enjoy Tuesday! Slàin·te mhath

This is one of the first SBSs I ever did on another UK forum and I thought I would present it to you for the difference in tying as to the norm. Not being the most adept fly tyer and also buying the wrong CDC, I wondered how I could use it and after a few minutes at the vice came up with the idea of doing it all backwards! Materials:- Hook - Captain Hamilton International size 14 Thread - Fine black Body - Black Floss Thorax - Peacock Herl Rib - Fine Silver Wire Suspender - CDC Natural Puff Run your thread as normal and return to the eye area in open turns then tie in the CDC puff with the fibres facing the hook - just 2 turns Gently pull the CDC through the thread and then tighten turns and add an extra one for security Loop the CDC over and catch in the point over the existing threads Tie in the wire rib first Followed by the floss and then the peacock herl, wrapping the thread under the herl and down to the start of the thorax Form the thorax with the peacock herl and tie in Stand the rib wire up out of the way and run the thread to the end of the body followed by the floss to form the body, tapering to the hook bend, tie in the floss Wrap the rib evenly and secure before cutting or breaking off the excess then whip finish making an additional tapered end then coat body with SHHAN One finished Backwards CDC Suspender Buzzer!

The deer hair does the floating part, most dubbings will absorb water to some extent. even seal's fur.

I have just spent the better part of the morning looking for the article and have had no luck so far. It was one of those idle moments where you start clicking links in one page and end up miles from where you started but I remember this article was very well illustrated showing the tippet / eye / hooking point relationship of different styled hooks. It went into depth about the speed of penetration of the hook and it's ability to retain the fish also it showed that certain popular styles of hook used by fly anglers had very poor hooking rates as opposed to others. One thing I do remember well is the section on circle hooks and how the 'strike' is not necessary for them due to their extreme geometry and the action of the fish in turning. I'll keep looking!

Here is a link to that other Scottish materials supplier's Ebay shop, Artifly, here you will find Micro UV Straggle Fritz along with a few other things not available in Canada. The 'Black Shadow' goose biots originate from a request I made to him for a special dying for buzzer construction, there should be a brown version soon as I requested this a while back. Happy tyings!

A lot depends on the gape and bend of the hook for my selection of eye, the majority I tie are on down eye because if you are fishing wets then the take anchors the fly more firmly. On dries, I prefer straight eyed hooks as the take is horizontal to the axis of fishing. There was a recent article about hook penetration compared to the hook eye and also to the shank length that went into great detail with hook geometry - more than I needed to know! If the fish takes and stays on, then it is the right hook and eye combination!

......and that is ask we ask of a vice if we really admit the truth. The rest is just ego massaging and one upmanship, saying that, if anyone was to drop a LAW on my lap, I would not object!

Have a look at this then!

Having used ultra cheapos for years and have now invested in a Peak Rotary, I can see where I went wrong. The Peak is a great mid range vice that is well engineered and not too expensive either. Should suit my needs for the foreseeable future, I would guess. Peak Vice Review This is a review of the vice I did for our Forum across the pond.

Candice Bergman? Count me in!

Rusty, our forum has a section devoted to this method of display tyings. We get a lot of novices joining and if they see how the fly is constructed, it gives them a better understanding of technique and material. Scotfly, one of our more experienced tyers has created a section for people who have never tyed before and gets them up and running with a fly right away in one of the most explanatory SBSs ever done. We try to encourage all and improve ourselves by using this system, I should know, I am a crap tyer myself but getting better. Ladystrange, any tool used to cut wire will always leave a small stub, the only exception I have found has been a pair of cuticle cutters which have flush cutting edges but the wriggling of the wire is the cheappest and best, remember I am Scottish and like to save a buck or two! TLs

Just a little quickie that is easy to do and can be varied to suit conditions and time of year by changing the colours of the Seal's Fur. Let's get to the vice Tying assumed as right handed as usual Materials - Hook - Kamasan B830 LS size 14 Thread - any to suit colour of Seal's Fur Tail - Cock Pheasant Fibres Rib - Red UTC Brassie Weight - Fine Lead Wire Abdomen - Blended Seal's Fur (equal amounts of Olive and Dirty Brown) Hackle - Olive Grizzly Thorax - Black or Dirty Brown Seal's Fur Method Thread up your hook to the bend Catch in your ribbing wire and don't return the thread to the end Catch in your tail fibres with a couple of turns Holding your bobbin to keep tension of the thread, pull the tail fibres through until you get them about equal to the hook shank length Tighten the loops on the tail and trim to length Wind on your lead wire in the middle area of the hook shank Wrap your thread over the lead wire to secure, you can also brush on some varnish or super glue for extra security Dub on the blended seal's fur to form a dubbing rope Wrap the dubbing up the shank of the hook to approximately 2/3rds of the length of the shank You need to go Here next

You have just come from Here Wind your wire rib in the opposite direction to prevent it sinking into the abdomen Secure the wire with a couple of turns and wriggle it to break it off before attaching your hackle Wrap the hackle using 3 or 4 turns over the abdomen and secure with the thread and then cut off the excess Dub black seal's fur onto your thread for the thorax / head Make sure that this is pushed hard up against the hackle and you don't crowd the eye area Whip finish to make a small head and then varnish over the threads and avoid getting goo on the seal's fur Trundle this along with an SFn on the dropper from a floating line at the water of your choice and hope for the best!

Bumped up to keep the tying in one piece!

If you vary the colour of the straggle and the deer hair, you get a huge range of flies that can imitate a lot of sedge patterns - increase and reduce the size to expand this range even further, swap the straggle for seals fur with a wire rib and the possibilities are endless. TLs

Click Here for info on straggle - bottom of this page

<--------------- I came from here Cut a smallish tuft of deer hair away from the hide and compare it for length on the fly before trimming the butts square Position this so that it is just a little forwards of the eye, too much and you will block access for finishing the fly Loop your thread over the deer hair and position before making another couple of loose turns of thread Slowly tension the thread while holding onto the wing part, the short fibres will start to flare Continuing tensioning the thread until you get it to flare like this and then put another couple of tight loops over it before the next stage Ease back the short ends and wrap about three turns under the deer hair before finishing of with a whip finish and varnishing the thread Your finished fly should look something like this, you can cut the short stubs up at an angle but this is not really necessary as it is a surface / wake fly and this helps create the disturbance that will attract your fish. Here are a few variations of the same fly in Claret and Olive

As Tango and I have reached the same conclusion at the same time, there must be something about this fly that makes it special. You could say that 'great minds think alike' but that would only apply to Tango. There is nothing complicated in the tying and would make an ideal introduction to Deer Hair for a beginner as it is easy to improve on the technique required for this. OK - enough preamble, on with the tie! Materials - Hook - Kamasan B175 size 12 Thread - any strong thread, in this case UTC 140 Denier Body - Vampire Vippy UV Olive micro straggle Wing - Bleached Deer Hair (you can use natural and dyed varieties as you prefer) Thread up your hook to the end of the shank, I have used a dark thread to make the steps more visible, use a thread to match the body or deer hair Catch in the straggle material leaving enough length to reach behind the eye, this avoids a lump in the abdomen Cover this with thread and leave the thread behind the eye Start to wind on the straggle, you need to stroke back the fibres on every turn to avoid trapping them Secure with 3 turns of thread and cut off the excess. You will see that I have added a few more turns to make a good solid base for the deer hair to sit on. Follow me ------------------->

In fact, here is a photo of some different types Hope this indicates just a few of the varieties we have available to us here. Right to Left - Veniards Trilobal Red, Olive, Vampire Hippy Claret straggle, Vampire Vippy UV micro straggle, Artifly UV micro straggle, Generic UV micro straggle You will notice that on the Vampire samples, the core material is quite thick and this is unsuitable for small flies whereas the micro straggle is perfect for down to size 16s. (pulled the image from our forum posting)

Dennis, we are from wild natural stock and not C&R stockies! That term you used that I have highlighted in bold red, youngster? Harrumph! BTW Folks, this guy is sh*t hot at tying flies of any description and is our forum's Step By Step Meister.

Ladystrange, Straggle Fritz is a version of Cactus Chenille that we use across here, it is not as densely packed with fibres as normal Cactus is and hence the name, Straggle Fritz. I have had a few enquiries from your side of the puddle about that and micro fritz, what I can do is get a hold of more and mail some across to you. One to look out for is a brand called Vampire, they have a plain coloured straggle fritz called Vippy and a UV micro fritz called Hippy (or is it the other way around, Hippy and Vippy?)- this is becoming well known here along with the excellent Electric Range from Artifly from whom I get my micro UV fritz. Another good supplier this side is Dave Downie, the Scottish Internationalist who has his own range of materials. These are small outfits and everything is hand dyed to get perfect colouration. Artifly stopped producing micro UV fritz because he could not get a good enough white base material and therefore was not inclined to market an inferior product. Currently he is producing the Electric Range which is similar in quality. The best to get a hold of is Black UV Micro Fritz followed by Olive and Claret and possibly the bright Orange. TLs More chance of them looking you in the eye then!

Ladystrange, sometimes the soft approach, even from a woman, does not work and then you have to resort to butt kicking to get things moving! Glad to see your enthusiasm for this swap - you want to see the horror I have created for this! Go for it Girl!

Part 1 that way <------ Fold the foam back over the shank and secure with tight loops holding the foam in place with your other hand to prevent it spinning on the hook Run the thread and the fritz to behind the hook eye leaving a little space that you need to secure the head Bring the foam over again and secure above the space you left with tight turns before whip finishing Trim the excess foam carefully at the rear and head of the beetle If you have used black foam here then miss this step. Colour the foam with an indelible black marker Not forgetting the underside! Finished under view To increase the attractiveness of the beetle, give it a single coat of SHHAN, this will slightly melt the foam and will give a better colour spread as well as a gloss finish