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Found 228 results

  1. Video on why and how to tie the Midge-May Be: https://youtu.be/qk5DegDRtnU A midge to Baetis crossover pattern with trident tails like seen on Baetis mayflies but tied with a downwing like a midge. The Midge-May Be has a body profile that suggests both insects--that is--- a segmented yet thin abdomen leading up to a leggy thorax. The fly also introduces a new wing material, CPE, that has a milky translucency like that seen on both naturals, yet is durable and tear-resistant. Besides being a crossover pattern that has features of two insect families, the Midge-May Be is also designed to lay flat down in a depression it makes on the water surface as well as dimpling the surface film--like the phantom midge does in the video. The Baetis-like tails are thought cross over to look like the legs of a midge--midges who hold their front legs out in front of them like antennas. The tail/legs are thought important to the flies performance is that the tails and palmered fly body press into the film, depressing it and, at the same time dimpling it. Depression and dimpling of the film is thought to be an early visual clue to a trout that food may be floating towards them. Recipe Hook: I use a wide-gape dry-fly hook. Like a Firehole 419 light wire 2x gape hook or a Tiemco 100 sp-bl heavy wire 1.5x gape hook. Hook Size: Because the Midge-May Be is a midge and Baetis mayfly crossover need hook that spans the size of both those insect families. In the Central Rockies, river-based midges roughly span a size from 18 on down. Baetis span a size range of about 16-24. The crossover is about size 20 but can be a size 18 in the spring when the hatching insects tend to be larger. In the Fall, If needed, I fish it in a size 22 or 24. I don't tie this fly below size 24, because such small hooks often require playing the fish to exhaustion to land it. Thread: Semperfli Nanosilk 20D black. I keep the body as thin as possible because midges and Baetis both have a thin abdomen tapering slightly up to a rounded leggy Thorax. I tie in the thread and wind it using side by side wraps back the hook bend where I lash in the tails. Tails: I cut off three straight hairs from patch of moose body, even the tips up, and lash them at the hook bend projecting out at a length equal to the hook shank. I then pass the thread between hairs and pull to flair them out into a trident-like array. The tails are important to this flies performance. First of all, the tails act as outriggers to help the fly land upright on the surface film as well as by adding flotation help keep the fly floating parallel to the water surface. Second, the tails suggest midge legs or Baetis tails-- a key crossover feature because while midges do not have tails-- many species hold their front legs out front of them in an antenna-like way. In any case, trout don't seem to care/know which end is which on a tiny fly, nor can they count the number of tails/legs so its not unreasonable to expect they could be taken either as tails or legs. Finally, the tails/legs are thought important to the flies performance in that the tails press into the film, depressing and dimpling it making an early clue to a trout that food may be floating towards them. The palmered hackle on the fly body, tied in next, adds to the dimpling effect. Body: Palmered grizzly hackle trimmed flat-- reverse Mohawk style -- so fly is lays flat and low down in a depression its made in the film --as well as further dimpling the film -- again as shown in the video-- common for midges and mayflies lay low in water. The stem of the palmered hackle makes for a segmented abdomen like seen on both midges and mayflies. Further, the palmered hackle trimmed flat sitting under the translucent wing used here makes for a diffusely-lit fuzzy bodied fly-- which by the response of the fish--is thought to be alluring to trout. Wing: For wing material, I use strips cut from a frosted CPE (chlorinated polyethylene) bag. You can buy 4 mil thick bags from Ebay for $9/100. CPE is a durable, tear-resistant lightweight plastic. CPE's frosting lets a diffuse light through unto palmered hackle-- lighting up the body like would happen on the naturals. If needed, I use a strip cut from the bags welded seam to make a stiffer doubled wing. The strip is cut to about 2mm wide and 10-15 mm long for ease of handling. Before lashing in the wing, I make several winds of thread just behind the hook eye to make a platform for the wing so that it is not wedged upward by the thickness of the palmered hackle. This platform allows the wing such to project more or less parallel to the the flat-cut hackle and hook shank. Trim the wing into a V-shape and a length just short of hook bend after lashing it in. Double Whip finish.
  2. Can you use sewing thread to tie flies? I have access to a lot of sewing thread and wandering if I can tie with it.
  3. Hello All, I am HUGE into the Flyfishing/Fly tying books! I have searched around a little and there are mentions of books, here and there. I thought it might be a neat idea for people to post up what they have or, are tying from. My extensive library consists of many rare and valuable editions from the 1600's to the present! I have primarily English and American volumes. A few years ago, I ran into some hard times and had to ship some of the really nice volumes off to an auction house in England and one here in the US. The English titles went to England and the American titles went to a large auction house here. However, I still have many desirable titles/authors left in the collection. Also, many old and new Limited Editions. It took a few years for the sting to go away, but I have just started getting back into them. Currently, I am thumbing through this classic volume... jpg Sorry for the glare off of the protective cover. I figured I would start out with something, not so wild and Mr. Radencich gets so much reference here (as he should!).
  4. Crabs and shrimp are a staple food source for fish like the Redfish, black drum, pompano, and other popular saltwater sport fish. These are fun fish to catch while fishing flats as you can sight cast to them while they are eating. I fish a lot for redfish down in the Gulf of Texas and the reds down there love eating crabs. Most crabs are difficult to tie, but when you get them down they can work really really well. This crab fly has worked really well for me and my closest fishing buddies for fishing redfish in the Gulf of Mexico. It is a great representation of a blue crab, but can mimic other crab species if you want to tie it in other colors. It sits on the bottom in a defensive stance which make it look like a crab trying to use its pinchers against a redfish or other crustacean eater. They aren't easy to tie and definitely aren't quick, but do work well. So give it a try.
  5. Here is another spey fly from my vice, Orange spey. Happy tying Tight lines
  6. Here is two new spey flies I have tied
  7. Hi, I purchased a few pheasant rump patches to tie some octopus patterns for lough trout here in ireland. However i will never get through all those feathers. I was hoping someone could give me some examples of other (uk) patterns that they could used for? Thank you very much. Kindest regards, Connor
  8. I'm sure that very few in this forum have even heard of a Squirmy (HA!), but here's a variation I came across and wanted to share. It's a technique I prefer to use in larger sizes and have had good success with it. The technique isn't foolproof, as the dental bands lashed onto the hook will eventually fail, but overall, the pattern has more longevity than the traditional tie...plus allows for a quick change of color when on the water! TC
  9. Here is some new flies from my vice
  10. Here is one new from my vice, I think the trout going to like it.
  11. When I use UV glue, it looks whitish blue, and kind of cloudy when under the UV light! It looks just fine under normal light! Does any one know, what it looks like to the fish? I like the UV glue, but I don"t want to use it, if it totally changes what the fish sees. What do you guys think?
  12. I just moved to South Texas and small crayfish patterns tend to work very well for smallmouth bass, Guadalupe bass, panfish and the Rio Ciclids. They also work for other fish like catfish and trout as well. So I decided to come up with my own small crayfish pattern. Now, I am sure someone has tied something similar to this in the past, maybe even exact. If you know of a fly that is similar or exact that has already been tied, please let me know. Pretty much everything under the sun has been tied before, and someone always seems to lay claim to a pattern. In fact I will regularly have multiple people lay claim to the same fly every time I make a video. But, either way, I thought this combination of materials and way to put them onto a hook was something that would work for this area. So I made it. LOL Ok so, with that aside. This fly will be able to be fished like a nymph, but also like a crayfish streamer as well. I mean, you could float it under an indicator, or put it on as the sole fly, and site cast to fish. Bounce it off the bottom, or swim it right by them. I do think this fly is very versatile in the way you can fish it. You tell me what your experience with it is.
  13. What is commonly called the "brahma" bugger is an improvement on the original wooly bugger due to its incredible look, and movement when under the water. This fly pulsates due to the chickabou and soft hackle makeup. Now I call this the "soft hackle bugger" because I dont tie it with a brahma pelt. I find any soft hackle pelt with chickabout, or even the mini marabou packages paired up with the soft hackle packages will give the exact same effect for less money. You can also get longer or shorter fibered soft hackles this way, and a wider range of colors as well than just using the whiting brahma pelts. Basically any type of hen soft hackle with chickabou (or mini marabou) will work for this fly. I also added a bit of flash in the tail like I do with original wooly buggers, which from my knowledge wasn't originally done with the first version of this brahma bugger. You can also make this two tone, or even stripped by changing out colors of the hackle as well. For instance, alternating a darker and lighter hackle will give a neat effect. If you can stick around to the end of this video, I put some underwater footage of this fly, showing just how well this flows in the water. This fly really moves well, and every fiber seems to vibrate. The fly also pushes a fair amount of water as well, so its a great fly for many situations. I love swinging this fly in riffles for trout, but also it makes a great fly for a sink tip in a deep pool, or even in lakes for bass. Just like the original wooly bugger, I suspect this will work for just about any species out there including some salt water ones as well. As always im listing all the materials I used on this fly. Hook: Daiichi 1740 in size 8 Thread: Veevus 6/0 Tail: Chickabou/mini marabou Flash: Holographic Flashabou Body: Soft Hackle Head Cement: Solarez "ultra thin" UV Resin
  14. Here is new Pike flies I have tied
  15. Here is some new pike streamers from my vice, enjoy
  16. Some sea trout patterns from my vice.
  17. I thought it would be interesting to see what homemade fly tying tools people have come up with over their years of experience. Things like dubbing brushes/spinners, packers, holders, etc. Or even other useful repurposed items you have on your benches. I ask because I was gifted a bobbin threader that is made with the metal wire. I had just been using a piece of doubled over 10lb tippet to thread it prior to this. After using the metal wired threader I noticed the thread kind of catching inside the bobbin, not enough to snag or cut it but enough to p*ss me off. Maybe I shouldn't have used this kind of threader on a ceramic tubed bobbin? Anyway friends... LETS SEE THEM SHANKS!
  18. Hello everybody! I'm new to this forum; but I've been tying flies for 6 months now. I've quickly gone from beginner to intermediate, then from there to somewhat experienced! I'm open to ANY new advice on places to get cheap materials (such as thread, wire, dubbing, hooks, feathers, everything else). I'm also open to any of you whom tie flies to ask for advice. My question today is: where would I go, either online or offline, to start selling my flies for about $0.75-$1.00 a fly? I'm located near SW Ohio, and there aren't very many fly fishers here. I'm aware of how to ship and what not, but I don't know where to go to get my business started. I also want to know where to go to sell materials as well, if anyone can help me with that. Anyways, I appreciate the time and effort of anyone who helps me out! Please, feel free to email me at: [email protected]
  19. Hello, I was wondering how to start a small fly tying operation online? As you might've read I like to tie flies for fun during my free time and sometimes would get carried away. There are some local fly fishing shops around me but I've never seen more than one person go in there in an hour. I'm thinking about selling on eBay but there is lots of competition. Should I sell multi-fly packages or just sell flies singularly? Thank you for you're reply's and Tie On!
  20. This Caddis utilizes CDC feathers that have been used already on other flies. Many times (with quite a few patterns) you will use just the tip of the CDC feather. Therefor you have almost an entire feather unusable for your following flies. But I utilize a clip to get all the goodness from each feather I can. You can use other colored CDC here as well to create different colored caddis. Its easy to tie, and floats super high because of the CDC. And best of all, no need to use floatant as CDC has a natural oil in it that keeps it afloat. Get creative with different feathers for your wings and create whatever type of caddis fly you want. The review of these chip clips came out earlier this week, if you want to see that video and a closer detail of the clips, you can view that here... https://youtu.be/Wp-dAzGLmHs Materials--------- Hook: Risen barbless dry fly 100, size 14 Thread: Veevus 16/0, in black Body: Stripped CDC Dubbing Wing: Hen Saddle Hackle: CDC Feathers Head Cement: Solarez Ultrathin UV Resin Just letting you know, even though I did not use someone else pattern to create this fly (basically just came up with it on my vise), that does not mean someone else has not come up with this pattern or something close to it in the past. I didn't go off of other's patterns for this, but I am sure somewhere along the way I probably saw something similar to this. If you know of a pattern similar, or the same that has already been tied, don't hesitate to let me know. Just keep in mind, I am in no way trying to steal someone elses pattern, so I would appreciate you not getting angry, just simply tell me where you have seen it before, and Id be happy to mention that fly here in the description section. With so many different patterns out there, someone probably has come up with a fly like this before, and it might even be a fairly common pattern. Just not one Ive personally took note of in the past. Thank you!
  21. Last Chance Cripples mimic an emerging mayfly (PMD to be exact) that has a crippled wing or cannot emerge from its casing. This is a fairly common phenomena for many aquatic bugs, especially the Pale Morning Dun. These crippled bugs make for an easy meal for trout and therefor trout will rise to them more often than a healthy bug. Healthy bugs fly away, but crippled bugs do not, and therefor its a bigger chance that their energy spent rising to a bug will result in a meal. Not only are these effective, but they are also very easy to tie. In fact, I find them slightly easier to tie than catskill style flies or even parachute flies. The only thing that costs a fair amount of money when tying these is the hackle and hook. The rest of the materials are not bad, and it doesn't take a ton of them. Once you have the dry fly hackle, and some hooks, all you really need is some dubbing and a couple variegated feathers. Mallard flank can be substituted for the expensive wood duck if you would like. Or even use a different tailing material. Also the turkey Biot body could be substituted for goose Biot, but I find the turkey to be longer and easier to work with for bodies. Do not save money though buying the hackle as you will be very disappointed in low quality hackle.
  22. The Everglades Special is an EP style saltwater streamer fly that is a specific coloration. This is a popular color pattern for, you guessed it, the everglades. Well, anywhere that fish eat mullet as its an imitation of mullet. Its a great fly for fishing Redfish, tarpon, sea trout, snook, and other saltwater predator fish. However this can be tied in other color variations to make a pattern that could work for other species of fish as well. It would be a great fly to fish for bass, pike and other large predatory freshwater fish. So I guess you could say its not just a saltwater streamer fly, but also could work as a freshwater streamer as well. As for the materials I used, traditionally they are tied with EP fiber, hence an EP style streamer fly. However I used something called Congo hair which is an inexpensive version. It works as well in my opinion, and fishes just the same. Most people will not know the difference between the two, because they are so similar. This fly works best stripped and paused where it will get a slight side to side action. But constant stripping of the fly works well, and the slow sink makes any pause seem to entice fish. The profile, coloration and action of this fly seem to entice even the most stubborn redfish. Once you get the hang of tying these also, it is quite quick to tie. You should not have much trouble at all filling a streamer box in an afternoon. Trimming these is probably the most difficult part of the entire operation, but once you get the hang of trimming a couple, you will start to speed up and get more consistent. I like to tie up multiple, then trim all of them at once. This helps with consistencies with trimming and tying as you get the hang of just doing the same thing over and over.
  23. The copper John really does not mimic many species of aquatic bugs. In fact, it doesn't really resemble any of them. I guess one could say it somewhat looks like a dragonfly nymph, maybe even a stonefly. But that is a very abstract representation. However, even though its not an identical representation of any specific food that trout or other fish target in a river or lake, that doesn't mean it won't catch fish. In fact, despite it looking like no organic life, it catches fish very well, in fact sometimes better than hyper realistic flies. Part of this could be due to the curiosity of trout, sunfish, or bass, but another part could be to how this thing fishes. It is very heavy, and possibly catches more fish because it can get down quicker to where the fish are. Another reason is that it is very visible in the water, with its bright copper abdomen, and flash back thorax. Especially helpful when fishing stained water. No matter the reason of why this fly is effective though, because it just is. That being said, it is not the easiest fly in the world to tie, but once you get the hang of it, they can be tied rather easily and quickly. And no one can argue the fact that it is fun to tie.
  24. Dragonfly and damselfly Nymphs are tasty snacks for may fish species. They are larger than many other aquatic bugs and therefor fish are more willing to move out of their hole for one. Many say an olive wooly bugger is a fly that can mimic a dragonfly nymph and I don't disagree. But where you want something more true to the look of a dragonfly nymph, I find there aren't a whole lot of popular patterns out there. Not saying they cannot be found, and you will always find a few at a fly shop. But when you search for them online, you find some samples of what people have tied, but not really any staple patterns. This I believe is because the vast majority are tying something that is too difficult to create at quantity. You can maybe bust through 5 an hour on a bench and that just isn't fast enough to effectively fill a box for most people. I designed this fly with that in mind. I wanted something simple, and easy. The body will be automatically built in both taper and the right width using just a single marabou feather. It also forms the tail. Same thing with the head and thorax of the fly, simple techniques and quick, easy ways of tying in the materials that are quite simple. So I hope you guys like this, and I hope it becomes a staple in your box especially during the times of year your local river or lake are holding dragonfly nymphs.
  25. This fly has been in the making for a while now. Paul from the youtube channel Killer Fuz contacted me about his idea for making a fly on a worm hook. One that will be fully weedless. I had already wanted a good sunfish imitation, so I started tying it. Then I came up with adding the orange beads for both a rattle and to insure it swims hook point up, or keeled. It took quite a few tries though to get this just right, and the first time I tried fishing this, I was getting fouled on my fly line because there wasn't enough stiff materials to keep the line from wrapping around. However, with the addition of the Faux bucktail, this issue has been fixed. I am very happy to say, this is the final version of the fly. Well I take that back, I found out that I liked using Coq de Leon soft hackle feathers instead of shlappen for the body feather. But, all in all this is my final version of the fly and I could not be happier.
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