What Are You Tying 2017 Edition

[SilverDoctor]

Happy tying in 2017

 

[snuffy]

 

I am officially sick of making beetles!

[BurningChrome]

I am officially sick of making beetles!

Jake's gulp beetle?

[snuffy]

Jake's gulp beetle?

 

I haven't named it, but it's a basic pattern with a peacock ice dub underbody and midge floss legs. It's my go to fly on the small spring creeks with heavy brush I frequent. I lose a lot, my friends lose more, and many more get chewed to bits. It lands with a satisfying little plop that gets their attention, but rarely spooks them - kinda like what Jensen was doing with his beadhead in his latest video. I'm hoping 210 get me through the season!

[snuffy]

Jake's gulp beetle?

 

I take it back: yes, but I came up with the exact same thing independently!

[RedBeard]

I take it back: yes, but I came up with the exact same thing independently!

 

Haha, yeah me too.. the more you know! lol

[SilverDoctor]

This is the Beetle that has been good to me. I really like the bit of bright foam that acts as an indicator. No longer use the ice dubb.

 

 

 

 

[snuffy]

Haha, yeah me too.. the more you know! lol

 

Yeah, check out what I found when I googled your name for it: http://www.backcountry.com/montana-fly-company-jakes-gulp-beetle-6-pack $3USD is a lot for any fly, but for THAT one???

 

Nice tie Doc, kinda like the love child of a beetle and klinkhammer. I might tie some up and inflict them on cutties.

[SilverDoctor]

I found that by adding the wire and Kick style it seems enticing and I get more hookups. Sorry for the blurry pix

[flyfishfairwx]

Combo-Trude.. Good in swamps for catching leaches, poly-wogs,grasshoppers.

 

[BigFoamy]

Hot Spot

 

First attempt, I suck at grizzly hackle. Calls for brown, mine disappeared? Looks a little heavier on the hackle in the front

 

[ggp]

 

Jeff's Fly tied in honour of my good friend Jeff Willson, rest in peace my friend. It's hard to believe it's almost been two years since he passed.

 

 

It's been a cold winter, so I have spent a lot of time at the bench.

 

 

 

 

 

[BigFoamy]

Blood Midge #16

[BigFoamy]

Parachute Adams

[BurningChrome]

My take on AK's quill body BWO.

 

DSCF0228.jpg by Marc Fossi, on Flickr

[Dangus]

Ggp I really like that ultra natural one, second to last. Double wing throws me off a bit, but id love to swing that for summer runs

[SilverDoctor]

[MichaelKDell]

I've been experimenting with tenkara flies by saying what if I were to add multiple hackles, try a fore and aft, trying grouse or hen hackle, use different materials or colours of thread for the body, add a tail, use wire to add weight, etc.

 

I was using up the bits and pieces of scrap materials on my tying desk to see what effects I could achieve.

 

Here are the results of my experiments.

 

 

[MichaelKDell]

I will try posting some closeups of my tenkara experiments. This first one is not all that unusual. I used a hen hackle, and a chartreuse Uni 8/0 thread. The body is done like a "low water" style whereas my usual tye has the body curved down the bend. I covered the thread wraps with head cement to make it glow a little.

 

 

 

[BrianR]

 

Jeff's Fly tied in honour of my good friend Jeff Willson, rest in peace my friend. It's hard to believe it's almost been two years since he passed.

 

 

It's been a cold winter, so I have spent a lot of time at the bench.

 

 

 

 

 

ggp ;;;Gorgeous flies & Gorgeous bench....Jeff i'm sure would agree. I miss the lonng conversations with Jeff

[MichaelKDell]

Another one of my tenkara fly experiments. This one has a double Sakasa Kebari hackle. Partridge in the front, a little too thick even for my taste, and then a sparse grouse hackle in the middle. Some errant grouse fibres sticking out in the wrong direction. (I don't think the fish care.) Red thread body.

[MichaelKDell]

I realize that these tenkara flies that I am posting are really simple to tie, and that I am just complicating them by adding more or different materials. My additions may be unnecessary but satisfy a need I have to see what else can be done with a simple variation.

 

Here I have added a white bead for weight and a little flash. And added a tail.

 

When I use beads I always build up the base with thread wraps so the bead just barely fits over the thread. Then I build up a head between the eye and the bead to cover the front opening of the bead. I could whip finish, but instead I hop the thread over the bead and build up wraps behind it to hold it in place. When there is a little space left between the thread wraps and bead opening I put some head cement (or superglue depending on what is on hand) so that it runs into the space. More head cement on the head and over the exposed thread on the bead, and then I finish wrapping so the larger hole in the bead is covered.

 

I do this with all my bead head flies because I have found that if you just let the beads rattle around on the hook shaft then they push on the body and the fly starts to come apart. It has also been pointed out to me that I could just put superglue in the space between the bead and the hook shaft and it would achieve the same result.

 

The tail on this fly is just the tip of the grouse feather I use for the hackle.

 

The thread body is Pearsall's Gossamer Silk thread in antique gold, covered with cement.

[Dangus]

So do these swing or just dead drifted?

[MichaelKDell]

Assuming that Bron is asking this question about my tenkara flies, I will answer.

 

You can fish them in a few different ways depending on which rod and line you are using. Using a standard fly rod and line I swing them down and across, but I also cast them upstream and retrieve a little faster than the current speed.

 

Using a tenkara rod and line you are limited in how far you can cast them, so I tend to work them in short pulses through a likely drift. But having said that the actual motion is a combination of dead drift to let the fly sink, pulsing the fly to make the hackles flutter, and swinging at the end of the drift.

 

I hope this answers your question.

[MichaelKDell]

One more of my tenkara fly experiments. This is tied with a gold wire in tight wraps to make the body (like the Copper John) and two hot spots with fluorescent orange thread. Hen hackle. Tied on a ring eye wet fly hook.