Hnat

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by Hnat: Furry Baitfish

Are these spiders some kind of your extra efficient/tested low water pattenrs? Nice ties!

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by Hnat: GF Salmon-Type Flies

Central/Eastern European tiers just got used to observing their surroundings and consuming any material to tie new patterns, some of them killing. I gues you've heard about the pig's bladder and the famous Polish Nymph based on it? Catgut (natural surgery thread) is just as good, and much easier in use... Other nymph 'cult materials' are smoked mackerell skin, eelskin etc. (I use the smoked lavaret skin and, on the other hand, synthetic and protein 'skins' from some kind of sausages etc. It's a long story. There's a bunch of materials in any haberdashery: myriads of beadheads of different colours and sizes, sparkling ribbons for streamer bodies and ribbings, synthetic lines suitable for synth/mixed dubbing and even some great hairwing/pike flies (after unbraiding, combing out and trimming/shaping), organza ribbon (you can yield a pseudo-hackle and a nice 'base thread' out of a single piece), sequins for baitfish patterns (eyes), clear and coloured vinyl/lycra ribs for a penny and so on, so on... And that was only about haberdashery - and only a fragment in that branch. The world offers new, and sometimes fantastic materials everywhere you look. It's the whole science My favorite "flyshop" ever is called 'Costa' and it is a "Christmass articles" wholesales" in Wrocław, Poland (they also rend greeeeat lymuzines for special occassions And what about MY weirdest material ever used? Well, it is definitely NOT the 'cat dubbing' because this is my regular dubbing! Just as eelskin, foamed packing materials etc. Among the weirdest, I could mention the Lithuanian bison dubbing (dyed in wood stains - great for bigger salmon patterns) and the onion skin, suitable for dying (nice yellow/amber/apricot color) but also for scud's shellback, as they say... (I've used it only for dying so far).

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by Hnat: Some Nutria Emergers

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by Hnat: Nutria Baitfish Zonker

Świetne muchy, great flies! I'll tie some similar. Congrats from Poland/Wrocław

You can smell it for some time, then it disappears (a month or two?). It's not a problem, just like moth repelents and so on: nothing disturbing. I use the powder stains to be solved in boiled water; they're available in any small "tool and wood" store for just a few penny. Should be applied hot, really hot, but not too hot - especially when you want to cut zonkers off the dyed material.

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by Hnat: Baltic Partridge

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by Hnat: Muskrat Damsel

Hi, Nice tie. However, I've never seen speckled muskrat hair! Muskrat guard hair looks just like brown dry hackle single 'barb' and has similar qualities (mayfly tails!). This one looks like nutria to me. Maybe they've grown a new muskrat race in the US... Ofcourse there's a lot of fantastic possibilities of tying hairwing wet flies, even using the most common rabbit fur.

They're not so bad, anyway And the nutria collar really works. I just don't like tying cock hackles And the wing is snowshoe = snowshoe feet.

These ones are quite long. A bit different than the typical bucktail stuff (which I like ofcourse; marten tail is great too).

It's really durable. Use it wet (then it's soft and flexible), wind tightly from head to tail and back, just like tinsel body. It's propably the easiest way to build the great mayfly abdomen. A cult material.

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by Hnat: NRS Mayfly