What are you tying late 2024, into 2025?

[BowLurker]

Hi folks! Looks like the topic is open, so here we go!! 

I watched many of these insects over the past 2024 summer ( lacewing / green Sally? ) and would like to tie a version. Any tips would be appreciated!

 

[snuffy]

Lacewing. Must have been a good year for them as they were getting into my house every night all summer long and I've never noticed them before.

I'm thinking of an extended body using green para-post foam with a sparse antron  wing and a few turns of grizzly hackle over green dubbing for the thorax

[BowLurker]

Haven't tried a Green Lacewing pattern yet, too busy tying smaller and smaller midges! 

Had to stop squinting at Sz20 hooks, so went for a big salmon pattern. McKenna's Freestyle Fall Favourite, on a Sz4 Daiichi 2139 - Bob Veverka's 'Classic Salmon Hook'. Hard to tell from my photo, but the steel is blued. The original calls for a 2441, but I liked the shape of this hook. Time to break out the tripod and big camera methinks! Tim Flagler also has a great tying demo for this pattern on his YT channel. 

Red holo-tinsel for the butt, silver mylar body (UV resin optional) and small orange arctic UV chenille wrapped for the underwing. Red guinea fowl for the throat with a fire orange arctic fox wing. Top sparkle is Senyo's barred Predator Wrap in Fluorescent orange & black. This is a joy to tie, and one of my favourite patterns. I'm also trying a few different styles to adapt the pattern to a tube fly. Cheers!    

 

[BowLurker]

I had run out of calf body hair, so I used white CDC for the gills on this chironomid. I'm sure there is an official name for this pattern, but I am calling it a Stoplight Chironomid. Sz 14 Klinkhammer hook, using three different colours of floss and a black tungsten slotted bead with a UV resin coating.

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[BowLurker]

Had one of the best summers for dries this year ('24) and one of the best patterns for the great days was a Comparadun...in pink, no less! Sz14 traditional wet fly hook, preeeeeeemo Comparadun hair  and the body was 'Dirty Bug Yarn' by SemperFli in the "Shrimp" colour. The Rainbows smashed the pinkies all day, switched to olive or gray...nothing. Scruff it up a bit to make it extra buggy and Sz16 might have done it too.