Firetiger

Would you consider international dimension? I need some streamer tying practice J.

Thanks guys Interesting remark about the Zulu - there is some liking, though few Zulus have CDC wing. My line of thinking when tying this one was that the poor little fish needs some direction which one of the zilions of identical scruffy emerging caddis flies it is supposed to choose. Something to draw its attention, let's call it a homing beacon. Hence the gold rib and orange tag :lol2: Cheers! J.

Nice mix of materials - CDC, rooster hackle, wood duck. I like that, they supplement each other very nicely

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by Firetiger: Orange enhanced Caddis

There is popular contest in the UK run by Fly Fishing & Fly Tying magazine J.

I am a big fan of natural dubbing - left over guard hairs give it a bit spikey structure and also the color is not so uniform as with synthetics. Water animals have naturally water resistant fur, useful feature for dry flies. My favorites are muskrat, otter and beaver. When I tie emergers and feel a bit on the scruffy side I use hare (my all time favorite) or Australian Opossum.

Thank you gentlemen for your kind support I liked the PTN with orange thorax so much I made another dozen from pheasant tail dyed black & green thorax. I have expectations for them on the Brookie front Cheers Jindra

Thanks, I will try that J.

A subtle twist to two timeless classics - Pheasant Tail Nymph with a little more presence and slightly subdued Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear Cheers! J.

Both flies look pretty cool; the only way I would improve on them would be to let them be chewed up by trout teeth Cheers! J.

To me it is a question of temperature and stream size. On smaller streams - my favorites - I can get rises to a dry fly till the water temperature drops to about 7°C (45°F) even if no hatch is going on. When it gets colder I switch to a heavy nymph bouncing on the stream bed. On bigger rivers I must pay bigger attention to what is going on insect wise - and often end up fishing wet flies and caddis pupae.

For nymph wing case I use 1.5 mm thick black foam and it seems to be working out nicely. 2 mm would be OK as well, but much thicker than that will give your fly a very fat head. I don't like those

These are cool flies, very inspiring. I especially like the combination of CDC and traditional hackle. The E. danica are cool critters, you just gotta love them.

The nylon body looks easy and effective; I like that. I have been using bodyglass for buzzers for long, but it does not scale down easily and on small flies looks fat and ugly. I have a question though: how did you manage the olive and red color? J.

Firefox rules! All clear here as well Sharing my last pattern to test the feature Cheers! J.

Gustav, those are some very nice flies; I especially like the last. Such a wondrous profile! Yummy.... J.

Thanks Mike! I should disclose that the pattern has interesting back story: I tried to imitate one of the floating nymph pattern that sprung around lately and overdid it with CDC - and instead of a nymph legs I had spinner wings. So I just added the tails J.

The problem is that unlike dun and spinner, which are easily defined as the last two instars of mayfly, the emerger is a bit fuzzy category. Not a quite nymphal stage, not quite adult... To that you have to add the failed emergers (btw my favorites) and floating nymphs, no wonder it ends up confusing I would settle on that fishing an unweighted and slightly ginked nymph in the early phase of hatch can prove truly deadly. Cheers! J.

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by Firetiger: Olive Spinner

Wow, I have caught fish bigger than this fly! I am sure it will have tons of appeal for your local pike, but I just have to wonder what caliber of rod would be able to cast your creation once wet Cheers J.

Great tying skills, Terje! I am personaly slightly suspicious of the Big Wing theory (no pun on Mr. Leigh-Mallory intended ) as I subscribe to the view that the trout is out there looking for nutrition and wants to see some protein to justify the effort, but what a wonderful idea to investigate! Cheers J.

The "floating nymphs" refers to nymphs as stage in mayfly development rather than nymphs as category of fishing flies. A mayfly nymph spends most of its larval development on stream bottom (either crawling around or burrowed in debris) but it will hatch into dun on the water surface. So when the time is right it will swim / float up towards sunlight and water surface to hatch. As the mayfly imago lives only short time (it can not eat) the hatch has to be synchronized for many nymphs to float up at the same time, so that young and handsome Mr. Mayfly will meet charming Miss Mayfly and together ensure that a new generation continues in the long tradition of providing nutrition to the fish we love. So yes, most nymph flies are designed to imitate the nymphs doing their regular behavior - i.e. minding their business deep 'n down - but the move upwards just before the visible hatch starts is a feature well recognized by trout and deserves its own imitation. Such flies should be either unweighted or very lightly weighted and show some flash, as the nymph creates a gas bubble inside its body to assist it in its journey upwards. J.

Well, it turned sort of a failed emerger instead of a swimming nymph, but I still like it. Thanks for inspiration! Jindra

And I thought I was overdoing it when I went scuba diving to watch a buzzer hatch first hand!

Very interesting tie, hope you don't mind if I borrow from it for my life cycle series of BWO imitation? Cheers J.