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Jcb68

New fly to tie

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Hello all,

I have been tying Woolly Buggers for a couple months now ...at least 25 if not more. Anyway I am looking for my next fly to tie either a streamer or a nymph. Any suggestions would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance

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I suggest tying the Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear.

As Charlie says it won't win any beauty contests, but is one of those flies that you may never want to be without.

 

http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/print.cfm?parentID=55

 

Tip: To have more options to fish with. Add a little colored dubbing/yarn to your hare's ear mix, like dark brown, olive, pale yellow or black.

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I would have said g.r.h.e too, it's one of the first patterns I ever learned to tie, and it catches fish everywhere. The hardest thing for me to learn was getting the body proportions right, I would always end up with a tiny thorax and wing case. Once you get it down, though, you can sub all kinds of materials and colors and the variations are endless.

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+1 on the grhe.

 

(If you find the grhe too hard at this point try tying some midges first, easy peasy. Those work year round on most tailwaters:)

 

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=87824&page=2

 

Charlie's flybox is a great resource, above. On the grhe there's also a really nice 50 Shades article by Lost Coast / SST blog (click on the # in the blog to get specific recipe and instructions on each of the 50) with an SBS posted here by Scott, and another really nice history from Crackaig:

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=87701&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

 

http://sstflies.blogspot.com/2017/12/50-shades-of-hares-ear-first-25.html?m=1

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=80343&hl=%2Bgold+%2Bgibbed+%2Bhare%26%2339%3Bs

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The GRHE is my number one trout catcher. Easy to learn easy to tie and you don't really need much more for trout.

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When I first learned to tie I had the Fly Tyers Index spiral bound book of fly patterns from Orvis and in it was a progression of about 6 different flies with which when you finished that progression you had been exposed to the techniques or had a taste of the skills to tie any fly in the index. The first in the series was the Woolly Bugger as I recall, the second the GRHE. From the Hairs Ear it's an easy jump to your first dry fly.

 

When it comes to nymphs the Hairs Ear is sometimes all you need to catch fish. Add in the rib or remove the rib, shorten the tail, lengthen the tail, change tailing materials, change wing case materials, change ribbing materials, add a little hackle and those are the steps to other nymphs all spun off the basic skill set required to tie a GRHE, the basic nymph skills are there in the Hairs Ear. I've tied them tiny ( down to size 20) and big and everything in between. I tie them original brown, I tie them olive and I tie them gray.

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I haven't tied a GRHE in a while. I did quit using the rib when tying them. When I was mixing up my dubbing I started adding cut up gold Angel Hair to the mix. Still had better luck with the PT nymph.

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I have always recommended GRHE, Pheasant Tail, and Montana Nymph as starter nymphs. For the same reasons others have stated, they each teach different techniques and they are all fish catchers.

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Carey special. Easy, effective lake fly. Minimal ingredients. Help you learn soft hackle tying in a larger size. Clouser minnow or Black nose Dace, to learn Bucktail. I recommend getting proportions and techniques on larger flies, then going smaller.

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I agree with both the G.R.H. E. and the American Pheasant Tail. The skills you will develop to tie either or both translate well to so many other flies. There probably hundreds of variations of each fly out there.

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