The challenge thread!

[Sandan 0]

@mvendon   Awesome rendition of the muddler.

[niveker 0]

I agree with those above, that is a nicely tied muddler

[mvendon 0]

Thank you all very much !  You're way too kind !🙂

[jcozzz 0]

22 hours ago, mvendon said:

Here's my attempt at a Muddler Minnow. I tried to make it as close to the original as possible. There's quite a few sparsely dressed original pics on the net here and there. I ended up going with the one that's in Bates Streamer Tying and Fishing book, since it was tied by Gapen and was more than likely tied for presentation.

Hook:  Mustad 38941 size 4

Tail: A pair of mottled turkey wing slips

Body: Weighted with 0.010 lead wire and old gold metal tinsel over that

Wing: Grey squirrel tail just beyond the fly's tail in length, with two mottled turkey slips tied in above that.

Shoulders: Fine deer hair tied in on either side of the wing so it reaches all the way back to the bend of the hook

Head: A couple of clumps of deer hair spun and packed loose, clipped tapering back above and below the hook shank

Thread: Red for weighted

For the next one, how about a Professor wet fly. It's almost a hundred years older than this one, and most folks should have just about all the materials for it.

Regards,

                        Mark

 

 

Very nice,i have several Gapen tied muddlers.And a bunch of other Gapen flies on display boards.The original Muddlers had a scraggily head like yours.Modern ones have a more tightly packed and trimmed head.I like the originals,they have been around a long time also.

[dflanagan 0]

The Professor

Hook: size 10 wet fly

Thread: 8/0 uni white for body, black UTC 70d (out of 8/0) for head

Tag: small gold Mylar tinsel

Tail: Red schlappen (out of red duck quills)

Rib: small oval tinsel

Body: yellow uni-stretch

Hackle: brown hen

Wing: teal (no decent mallard flank)

 

 

[dflanagan 0]

How about a Blae and Black next?

[chugbug27 0]

I'll bite. 

[niveker 0]

15 hours ago, dflanagan said:

The Professor

👍

[upnorthtier 0]

16 hours ago, dflanagan said:

The Professor

Well done. Of all the years tying I've never tied a professor, I'll put it on my to do list.

[niveker 0]

38 minutes ago, upnorthtier said:

I've never tied a professor,

A bit of history, from  Midcurrent.com 

https://midcurrent.com/flies/the-professor-fly-history/

Beginnings in Scotland

Two centuries ago Scottish angler John Wilson, a highly acclaimed Scottish professor, author, poet and outdoorsman, ran short of flies, and to create something of a fly like appearance, he fastened the petals of buttercups on his hook, adding bits of leaves or grass to imitate the wings of a fly. This arrangement was so successful that it led to the making of a fly with a yellow silk body, which has since then been widely known as The Professor. (Mary Orvis Marbury 1892)

John Wilson (1753-1825) tied the first Professor and Blue Professor while his brother and zoologist James Wilson originated the Grizzly King and Queen of the Waters. Quite an accomplished family. The Professor, Blue Professor and Grizzly King all have similar dressings except for color of the silk floss body.

...

The Professor was originally a winged wet fly, as most flies were before the 20th century. It quickly earned the respect of anglers and became widely popular in America’s fly boxes as well as angling literature. It was soon featured in the first American literary work on flies, Charles Orvis’s Fishing with the Fly in 1883, then in Mary Orvis Marbury’s Favorite Flies and Their Histories in 1892.

I do well with its brother, the Grizzly King.  

[cphubert 0]

17 hours ago, dflanagan said:

The Professor

nice fly

3 minutes ago, niveker said:

A bit of history,

thanks for the post I enjoy the history of a lot of patterns.

[upnorthtier 0]

6 minutes ago, niveker said:

A bit of history

Great read 👍

[USMCflyt1r 0]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this site, but was wondering if it is too late to get in on the challenge?

Semper Fidelis

Jim

[cphubert 0]

43 minutes ago, USMCflyt1r said:

Hello everyone,

Welcome Marine, glad to have you on board you'll have to wait for chugbug27 to finish and name the next pattern then you can join in. Welcome to the site and feel free to introduce yourself on the General Discussion Tab. 

[niveker 0]

4 hours ago, USMCflyt1r said:

I'm new to this site, but was wondering if it is too late to get in on the challenge?

Welcome to the site, Jim.  

My son just moved down to North VA, hoping to get down there in the Spring and maybe get in a little fishing and camping with him.  

Everyone is encouraged to join in on the challenge, new, old, good, bad. It doesn't matter.  Here are the general guidelines, then tend to get buried under all the posts:

 

1   Tier that accepts challenge  has up to 5 days to tie fly and post pic,  some leeway will be allowed on the number of days.

2  only the first tier that accepts the challenge will tie and post a picture of the fly

3  after posting pictures of the completed fly, that poster then names a new challenge fly.

4  any version of the challenge fly is acceptable 

5  have fun, this is not a competition, just a way to see some different versions of flys

6 Flies should be tied "fresh" for the challenge you accepted. Don't pull 'em out of the already tied box.

 

Hope to see some of your flies in the site.