wschmitt3

Thanks Switch10. Your tying blog is something else. Very well done tutorials. I'm pretty sure I have used it as a reference before.

Tied up some of the Guides Choice Hares Ear. Mixed some Pearl Ice Dub in with the Rabbit Dubbing for a little flash and used Gold HoloTinsel for the rib. Should there be something under the Pearl Tinsel to darken it up and represent a wing case like on a Flash Back P.T. or a Copper J?

All great suggestions. To start with I tied up a half dozen Lightning Bugs. Had a hard time taking pictures of them but here they are.

I think I'll also tie up some of those guides choice hare's ear and the nymph suggested by hair wing. Those were on my list a while back and never got around to it.

I also like the poxybacks but don't have any epoxy or uv resin. only loon hard head clear and dave's fleximent. I could see myself going to UV adhesives I like the rapid set up. I'm open to suggestions for the purchase of an initial UV set up.

I had a hard time getting good photos my camera has a macro setting that works well outside but doesn't seem to work well in the lighting available on my bench.

Thanks all for the suggestions.

-Will

I will start with the statement. I am not a salmon or steel head fisherman but I do tie and fish a few streamers. I addition to the many salmon and steelhead flies that call for marabou many traditional streamer patterns calling for bucktail can be tied with marabou as an alternative. Marabou is not too expensive and comes in lots of colors.

With that said buck tail is a good material to have around and you get tons of material for the $5 or so dollars it costs for a bucktail. So for like $20 you could get a Pink, white, red and yellow and there are quite a few patterns that could be tied from those colors. If you need black and don't buy one you can take the brown hair from the top of the red tail (darkened by the red dye) and blacken it with a big sharpie.

I have never used craft fur and never heard of the congo hair that switch10 suggested but they do seem like good options. That congo hair seems pretty neat and there are tons of colors. I might give that a try when I run low on buck tail (which is probably a long way off).

Today I sat down to tie some P.T. Nymphs to replace the couple I've lost to snags the last few weeks and the four or five I dropped in the stream when retrieving one from my box with cold wet fingers very very early yesterday morning. After I accomplished my task I wanted to tie something new but have no particular need for a specific fly pattern and nothing struck me as "the one" when I was flipping through my pattern books.

So, I am looking for some suggestions of good searching nymph patterns to tie for rainbows and browns as a learning experience and to get feed back on.

I have a pretty good variety of common materials but nothing exotic so try to keep that in mind.

I already have lots of P.T. Nymphs, Zug Bugs, Prince Nymphs and I'm going to sit down to tie some hare's ears right now. In addition I am holding off on tying any copper J's until I get my order from feathercraft because im out of Thin Skin.

If you got a suggestion please post a picture with it and Ill post a picture of the fly I tie for comments and critique

Thanks,

-Will

That's a really good question jbieg. I had wondered about wax. I figured it wasn't a concern because most of the threads I use are prewaxed.

Thanks FlaFly. Its one of my most productive flies. You should see it 175 miles north in December, its even colder. I saw in your profile you are in the environmental science field. I am currently using my G.I. Bill to take classes online towards a degree in environmental science with a focus on fish and wildlife management.

Battenkillbum I may take you up on that offer some day.

Thanks Every one for the welcomes!

I really like those crawdads denduke. I think I'd like to take a shot at replicating those. Would you share your materials and methods for those?

Very very nice. Works of fishing art.

Some More of my flies.

Got my camera working off of the usb cable to take some better photos.

Moorish Mouse

Gurgle bugs

Damsel Fly

Pink and White Clouser

Rubber legs Kaufmanns stone variation

Brown Wooly Bugger (Love this Fly)

Adams

Grey rs2

BWO rs2

CDC Shuttlecock Type Thing

Stimulators

The last two are flies I tied to imitate the Northern Case Maker or October Caddis which I see lots of in the Fall (October as the name implies)

Thanks for the comments utyer. The brassie is a size larger than the zebras but the zebras are the same size. Just different distances from the camera. I'm using my phone for pictures my camera battery is dead. Left it in the charger for waaaaaaaaaaay too long.

Thanks again for the advice. I'm self taught in both fishing and tying and going it alone kinda limits the level of refinement I can acheive.

These are some of my recent flies. Feel free to critique.

They are: Hare and copper, soft hackle zug bug with a hot spot, olive pheasant tail with sparkle thorax, Carey special, brassie, red and black zebra midges and the last is a cross between a birds nest and fox squirrel nymph.

-Will

The three flies that I have caught more fish on than any other are brown wooly bugger, flashback pheasant tail and zug bug all with tungsten gold beads. I do fish trailing nymphs with out weight but easily two out of three fish I've brought to net were hooked on beadhead flies.

I got this chart from J.S. Fly Fishing with an order it has been useful.

But I can't get it to show right side up.

"Essential Trout Flies" by Dave Hughes has good instructions for a few flies and lots of examples of other patterns.

"Benchside Introduction to Fly Tying" was very useful when I was starting out. I really like the split pages and the number of patterns in the book.

I almost hate to say it but I have gotten more info out of watching tying videos on YouTube than any books could provide. Videos from Tim Cammisa, tight lines video, Davie McPhail and Hans Weilenmann have been indispensable in my tying.

Re: using them as fly bodies:

I remember way back when Seagram's Seven Crown started giving away gold(ish) 7-crown keychains. People started putting hooks on them and using them as lures. Which leads us to two alternate conclusions:

1. Some fish will eat just about anything,

OR

2. Some fishermen will try just about anything.

I caught my first big bass as a kid on a mini budwiser can novelty fishing lure type thing I found on the bank of the river.

I think about that every time I get all worried about what fly or lure I should use.

Oh that's terrible. I had my first broken rod experience the other day. I was bass fishing with my 7 weight TFO BVK and while climbing along a cliff to get into position to cast to a hard to reach hole I jammed the tip into a crevice in the rock. While trying to back up and free up the tip I slipped and snapped it right at the first ferrule (spelled correctly?). Super bummed.

This is my fly tying station. Its a little bit of a mess but it works. I keep desiccant packs from shoe boxes and other stuff in the drawers to keep the humidity from causing mold. I love the drawers for storage. Everything is organized by type of material and its all very easy to access. Hooks and beads are in craft containers and that works just fine for me but I can see how it could be a disaster as mentioned earlier by rotaryflytying.com.

I made my work station a couple months ago. Very easy and cheap. Was just a couple wooden dowels and some cheap wood from home depot its nice to be able to sit on the couch and watch tv or something while I tie flies.

Thanks. It was a great fight on the fly rod.

Hello All,

My name is Will. I currently live in Wells River Vermont right on the Connecticut River and a very short trip to a half dozen very decent trout streams in Vermont and New Hampshire. This is my third season fly fishing and I started tying my own flies over the winter. The past few years I have primarily been fly fishing for brook, rainbow and brown trout in medium and small rivers and streams but due to really low and warm water conditions in the trout streams near home I have been fly fishing (and a little spin casting) for bass, pike and walleye on the Connecticut River.

I've attached some pictures of flies I've tied. Ill probably add some more later. I am not in the habit of photographing my flies and I find it quite difficult to get a good photo of them.

They are B.H. Wooly Bugger, Cased Caddis, hare's ear, Mickey Finn, rs2 and something like a Black Ghost

Some fish shots. I don't take many and I never seem to photo my best catches.

I like you bugger nice job. Here is my bugger. I'm pretty new to tying also but I think I got this one pretty well under control. I make it kind fancy with a little flash in the tail and a strip of holo tinsel up the side. I use big heavy tungsten beads and lots of round lead free to get it down. Has been great for bass where the river I fish meets the Connecticut and rainbows further upstream.

I like you bugger nice job. Here is my bugger. I'm pretty new to tying also but I think I got this one pretty well under control. I make it kind fancy with a little flash in the tail and a strip of holo tinsel up the side. I use big heavy tungsten beads and lots of round lead free to get it down. Has been great for bass where the river I fish meets the Connecticut and rainbows further upstream.

If your looking for advice on what flies to tie to start your collection of hand made fishing flies my favorite patterns to tie and fish are as follows.

nymph patterns:zug bug and flashback pheasant tail, gold ribbed hares ear nymphs size 12-18. I tie on straight shank and curved hooks bead head and weighted beadless. Also olive, black, grey rs2

Dries: light cahil, blue wing olive and Adams again in 12-18, elk hair and x caddis various sizes and colors, brown stimulator size 14 on 3xl curved hopper hook, royal wulff

Streamers: lots of brown wolly bugger's with and with out beads and weight size 12-6. I like a couple strands of pearl flash in the tail and a strip of gold holo tinsel on the sides I also like marabou black ghost and maribou Micky Finn size 10-4

All are relatively easy to tie and effective in most places I fish.

Good luck and have fun tying