Woodcock And Green

[ladystrange]

My first go at a traditional north counrty spider

 

love these pattern descriptions

 

hook 18 - 14

body green silk

leg woodcock

 

 

 

edit: description

[Tango]

LS, to interpret the patterns use this. If it says wing then it needs a paired wing, legs use a wound hackle, hackle use a wound hackle. Or any combination of the three.

The recipe above states wing so it would look like this.

 

[albannachxcuileag]

The simplest of patterns, spiders are, but the most difficult to tie correctly. Spiders were always tied with silk thread and today's synthetics cannot match the look that silk gives to these flies. I have always steered clear of these despite their simple looks because of the difficulty in getting them right. Natural silk lies flat on the hook and to emulate this you have to let your thread untwist and then apply it to the hook to get that super smooth body that the oldtimers achieved. The hackle part is another story! Super webby hackles work best on these and the sparser the hackle the better. Trying to get that evenly spaced look with only about 10 fibres is a real pain! They are an art form in their own right.

[ladystrange]

sorry. my fault on the matieral. i will edit. there was no recipe. i copied the picture.

 

but that makes more sence now that i have read other patterns and was trying to figure the wing/leg thing. my bad

[Harps]

Great flies to use, Easy to tie (for fishing).

One thing about these... if tying a silk or flosss body, keep it short, that way you prevent the material from sliding off the hook bend, especially when hit by fish).

(not a critique of your flies LS, the bodies are pretty short, just a general observation).

 

These flies fish great at the tail of a riffle where caddis would be rising. I love fishing these, and they take up ualot of my box.

 

Cheek out Donald N's site for a great reference of Soft Hackles: http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/

Also http://www.flymph.com/ has some great stuff on soft-hackles and flymphs in general.

 

Definately under-appreciated flies! Nice work

[ladystrange]

i did look at Donald N's site. the flies are easy to tie if you arent doing them for show. i'm sure the fish dont care if the floss is out by a millimeter. LOL otherwise the legs are a bit finiky to say the least

 

this is another good site spider plus

 

i learned something new, which is the whole point. i dont think i butchered them too badly for my first try. and i got use stuff from the exotic box of fur and feathers.

[Fishietales]

LS, to interpret the patterns use this. If it says wing then it needs a paired wing, legs use a wound hackle, hackle use a wound hackle. Or any combination of the three.

The recipe above states wing so it would look like this.

 

Sorry Tango but I beg to differ, Ladystrange, was making a spider pattern of the Woodcock and green, and she has it right, it is a spider pattern, I fish the rivers these flies were originally created for in england, and although the original was dressed with a wing to be fished wet, it is as often the case that a spider pattern fished either on the surface or just in the film produces better takes, and we over here do tend to change patterns to suit conditions, we woud never go river fishing without a variation of every fly we intend to fish

[Tango]

Would you call this a spider or a wet?

 

If the pattern had stated legs or hackle I would have given it a hackle like this.

.

[SanJuanWorm]

The red bodied flymph fishes well on the bow. I also pulled one outta my lip last year with the help of Elliot.

[Fishietales]

Would you call this a spider or a wet?

 

If the pattern had stated legs or hackle I would have given it a hackle like this.

.

 

It has a wing that's tied over the back so I assume it's a wet, But that's not the issue, all I was pointing out was that the young lady made no claim to it being the original pattern, she said it was her first attempt at a north country spider, and for a first attempt it was extremely good, the tying and finish were fine, a very good first attempt indeed, and getting the patterns right is something you develop later, I aways encourage new flytyers, it gives them the confidence to continue

 

so what would you call this fly, is it a wet or a spider ?

 

The answer is it's what I want it to be