Skill Builder Trout Series Round 3

[PJ2 0]

super nice Vic> those are fish slayers to say the least!

[breambuster 0]

Here is PJ2's entry. It's a great looking fly, but it looks like a Dry to me and this swap is for Wet Flies. Beyond that, this is a really nice fly.

 

 

 

 

[breambuster 0]

OK. Guys, I have finally gotten a picture from the camera to the forum. But it's way too late for me to do any more tonight. Now that I know what to do, I should be able to get the rest of the pictures posted tomorrow. This new computer is driving me NUTS! Maybe one day I'll figure out how to do stuff on it. The old computer that crashed had Windows 10 on it, also. And I had no problems doing stuff on it. But this one, also Windows 10, requires hours and hours to figure out the smallest little thing. I do NOT understand what the difference is. Sorry for the rant. And I'll try to get the pictures posted tomorrow, that is, if nothing else goes wrong.

 

Take care

 

BB

[breambuster 0]

OK. Good afternoon. I'm back to it again. The next fly is from Chris_NH. I think this one is a well-done little fly. I don't see much to critique here. Thanks, Chris.

 

BB

 

 

[breambuster 0]

Our next fly is the first of two by Vicrider. He said that these are his second and third attempts. He will have to be the one to tell us which was the second and which was the third. The body is nice and the beard seems to be about the right length. The head looks good. On the one I'm holding, the wing may be a tad too long? Maybe? I'm not sure. The wing is well-formed without any splits, etc. Overall, I'd say this is a very nice fly.

 

 

[breambuster 0]

Here is Vicrider's second of two flies. My only comment on this one is that the wing seems a bit blocky. All the tips of all the fibers are too close to the same length. I'm not sure how you did that, Vic. To me, the wing should have more of a graceful taper to the end.

 

 

 

[breambuster 0]

The next fly is by Jacktjl. This is a long, graceful looking fly to me. I'm not sure of the hook style, but it's long enough to be a streamer hook. The body is very nice and the segmentation is very even. The wing has a nice swoop to it and the beard seems to be the right length. The head is nice. Overall, I would say this is a very nice fly.

 

 

[breambuster 0]

Our next fly is by Idaho RC. I know that he struggled considerably with the wings early on. But I think finding the right feathers helped. Guinea tends to be a bit ragged on the ends. And I think that using a right wing feather and a left wing feather, rather than trying to use a piece from either side of the same feather made a big difference. I only have a couple of questions about this fly. The first is that the tail seems to be a bit wide to me. Maybe just a few less fibers to make the tail a bit more slender? The second, and this is getting picky, is that there is a narrowing between the back of the head and the beginning of the wing. Perhaps the head could taper a bit more into the shoulder of the wing rather than making the fly look like it has a skinny neck. But overall, Idaho RC, good work. Thanks for participating.

 

 

 

 

[breambuster 0]

The next fly is by RexW. Again, there are a lot of nice things to say about this fly. The body is very well done and the segmentation is nice and even. The beard seems right and the head is slender and tapered. It may just be the type of feather used for the wings, but as with Vicrider's fly, the tips are very even. There isn't as much taper to it, but it does have a gentile up-turn at the end. There is no tail, but that's probably the pattern. Over all, a very nice fly.

 

 

[breambuster 0]

This fly was tied by Stilis. Nice full wing and smooth, evenly segmented body. The tail may be a tad short, unless that's the pattern. I tend to think of the tail being about the length of the hook shank or a bit longer. More so in the photograph than in the one I'm holding, but the head seems a bit short and blocky to me. Perhaps a few less wraps and a little more taper to the head.

 

 

[breambuster 0]

Our next fly is from Riff. This is a rather large fly. I'm going to hazard a guess that the hook is about a size 6. The wing is nicely tapered and you've got to love the jaunty swoop of the golden pheasant tippet tail. All in all, this is a very pretty fly.

 

 

[breambuster 0]

Our next to the last fly is by Wetsock. A lemon wood duck wing avoids some of the frustrations some of the rest of us had with wings, but still has a classic look. The head is nicely formed. The beard may be a tad long. I'm thinking the tips should come to about the hook point. But over all, a very nice fly.

 

 

[breambuster 0]

And finally, my offering. What isn't wrong with this fly? For starters, I must have used the wrong hook. It seems too short. The tinsel is too wide. Where do you guys get the very narrow tinsel? The wing may be a bit too narrow, although I used an extra hook to try to get the wing a hook gap wide. This pattern called for a hackle collar rather than a beard but I may have gotten the collar fibers a bit too long. The one thing I learned from this swap, though, was that I learned how easy hen pheasant wing feathers are to work with. I bought these from Feather Emporium and I have to say that when they arrived, they smelled to high heaven. I finally put them under the carport so as not to have that odor in my man cave. But the feathers were really easy to tie on a fly wings and this will definitely NOT be my last time to use this material.

 

 

 

 

[breambuster 0]

OK. Guys, the sets of flies are in the mail coming back to you. I mailed them this afternoon so you should have them in a few days. We had a couple of guys to drop out of the swap and so I divided the left overs with you. There were two extra and so I kept one and sent the other back to you. Several of you guys included extra flies for me in your sets and I REALLY appreciate that. I've teased Vicrider several times about tying a Parmachene Belle and he actually tied one for this swap. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of it to post here. He really did a nice job with it. The fun part, I'm sure, is marrying a wing feather to have a white then a red and then another white stripe in it. But he did a good job with it. I also got a couple of others, including one from Riff that made use of SEVERAL married stripes of feather. My wife is making a collection of flies to put in a shadow box to hang on the wall, and these are definitely candidates for that. Thanks guys.

 

I will be posting info soon about the next swap which will be Classic Dry Flies. If you know that you're going to be interested in being a part of that one, you can go ahead and post here that you want in, and when I post the new thread, your names will already be on the list.

 

Also, I would appreciate if you guys would post here what type of feather you used for your wings. There were a couple, such as Riff's fly, that I didn't recognize. Please identify the material and tell me how easy it was to work with.

 

Thanks

 

BB

[fishingbobnelson 0]

Apparently my fly did not warrant a photo, I did use Grizzly Hen Hackle tips for the wings. The pattern is a Don Bastian recipe. I plan on tying a classic dry, just not sure which one.