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What Are You Tying 2015 Edition


AndyR

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Hey Bird, I really like this one. Have you fished it? Is it supposed to be a beetle or a backswimmer or am I wrong on both counts.

Nope I haven't fished it. But it sure looks yummy! Just trying out different stuff. It's suppose to be a backswimmmer/boatman.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Murray, the extended body is based on a technique that I developed (sure I'm not the first to do it) when designing this green drake pattern.

 

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The basic idea is to cut a strip of closed cell foam (of appropriate colour) and attach it to a long needle held in the vise. In the case of the green drake, the foam is wide enough that you can thread it on the needle, and then apply dubbing and ribbing as you would on the shank of a fly. In the case of the damsel, I cut a foam strip that is very narrow (~ 1mm tapered to a point at the tail) so you need to wrap it onto the needle with tying thread. It is important to compress the foam enough that when you pull the finished abdomen off the needle, the foam will expand and maintain tension on the thread wraps. The abdomen is done with five or six marabou fibres -- tie in to form the tail, then twist the remainder and wrap it forward to form the abdomen. Tie off, whip finish, and pull it off the needle. I usually crank out a number of these before moving on to constructing the complete fly. The hook is a #12 TMC 2457. The steps are 1) attach the eyes, 2) attach the abdomen 3) tie short sections of 0.02" lead along each side of the hook shank to widen the body and add weight, 4) dub the back half of the thorax (olive antron), 5) tie in the legs on either side (green mallard flank), 6) dub the forward half of the thorax up to just behind the eyes, 7) tie in a strip of thin skin for the wing case (mottled oak, olive), 8) lightly dub over the tie-in point on the wing case and figure eight over the eyes. 9) whip finish at the eye.

 

The dumbbell eyes are made using 30lb mono and small glass beads (~1.5 mm dia.). Use a lighter to melt and form a ball on one end of a short section of line, string on the beads, trim the other end, and form a ball on that end to keep the beads in place.

 

As you might have guessed, I am a firm believer in extended body flies. The green drake is my go to green drake pattern. I haven't tried the damsel yet. In designing this pattern, the main objective was that the extended body be very flexible, so that it would show motion in the water when stripped. If you've ever seen a damsel nymph swimming, there's a lot of wiggling that happens in the back half.

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