WWKimba 0 Report post Posted May 1, 2020 Their are many patterns that can catch fish year round (the Wooly family -Bugger and Worm come to mind). The problem is that fish (especially warm water pond/lake fish) move around in the water column and to have the best chance to catch them is to keep your fly in the fishes water column as long as possible. Fish may move because of the season of the year, light conditions and weather conditions. Here's the challenge - you have two IDENTICAL patterns one weighted and one unweighted. How can you easily tell which is which? I guess you could drop each one and see which lands hook first vs. eye first. The problem with that is 1) I'm just too old to bend over a find the flies and trust getting back up! and 2) I would probably lose the flies in the grass and find them with my feet and not my hands! Luckily the first thing I do before I tie is debarb the hook! Here's a solution - tie each fly with a different color head. Here's what I do. If a pattern calls for black thread I use it on all the WEIGHTED flies. For the UNWEIGHTED flies I'll either use brown tying thread throughout or tie with the black and finish with an under finished head then anchor on the brown thread and finish the head. This way you can tell at a glance which is weighted and which is not. This works for other color threads as well. Just remember that the LIGHTER color is the Unweighted(lighter) version and the dark color is the weighted version. As an extra reminder (due to a senior moment or two!) I put "W" and "U" on the end of my spools. You could also write something like "Dark = Weighted" on your flybox (luckily I'm not QUITE that old yet!) I hope this helps and have fun tying and fishing. Remember there are always two things you can do if if you tie a fly you think is ugly 1) Take off your glasses and it'll look better or, 2) Go out fishing on an ugly day and catch an ugly fish! See you on the waters! Oh, and by the way the "WW" in my name is for Warm Water! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Piker20 0 Report post Posted May 1, 2020 Did try this with a set of flies. Wasn't as sensible with colour choice as you and by the time I came to use them I couldn't remember which thread meant weighted and unweighted. 🙄 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FliesbyNight 0 Report post Posted May 10, 2020 WWKimba, I use a slightly different method so I never worry about which pattern should be weighted and which just have the weight added for experimentation or other purposes. I follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) by adding a few wraps of red thread at the base (not the eye side) of the head to all weighted flies no matter what the head color should be. If the head should be red then a few wraps of black indicate the weighted flies. If I am looking for a weighted fly, the red wraps at the base of the head are the ticket. This way, the indicator is consistent throughout all my patterns. Maybe it even adds a little gill slit but I think gill slits are mostly for the fisherman's benefit. I have never noticed any advantage to a fly with a red throat over those that don't. Kudos for de-barbing your hooks. Better for the fish, better for you and no loss of fish if you keep the line tight. I started doing it after sinking a 1/0 hook into my upper lip all the way to the bend. had to pop it through again to cut off the barb to get it out. Not fun but I am trainable. That will never happen again. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flat Rock native 0 Report post Posted May 10, 2020 18 minutes ago, FliesbyNight said: Kudos for de-barbing your hooks. Better for the fish, better for you and no loss of fish if you keep the line tight. I started doing it after sinking a 1/0 hook into my upper lip all the way to the bend. Welcome to the forum, and, thanks for posting FbN... (from one with scar on nose🙄) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Philly 0 Report post Posted May 10, 2020 At one time I used red or orange thread to differentiate between weighted and unweighted nymphs. I've long moved over to using bead heads for weighting my nymphs which made it much easier to separate the weighted from the unweighted. For warm water. I either used bead heads or dumbbell eyes for weight on the few subsurface flies I fish, sorry I'm a dry fly snob. The one exception would be Zonkers, where material is wrapped over the weight. Then it becomes a matter of the difference in body shape. Unweighted and weighted Zonker Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
