Box of Usuals

[william anderson 0]

I've been fooling with Usuals using the snowshoe foot hairs as tails and wings and the underfur from the foot as the body dubbing. I've tied the wing in a very comparadun manner, rather than the bulky wide/post style. My sympathies are with the comparaduns for the past couple years and I can't wait to fish this box this season.

 

 

 

w

[wschmitt3 0]

They look nice. What color thread did you use? I tied up a bunch thinking that a red thread was the traditional/original recipie but it turns out it was an orange thread.

[william anderson 0]

Will, I like your version. It's very hard to mess these up, but to try and do something consistent and visually intentional is a task. I used Uni thread 8/0 in Rusty Orange. It really shows through very well. I understand the originals were tied with red thread. I've tied a row with gold thread in #16 and a row with green. I suspect these would do well for green caddis as well.

 

It's a shame there are so many other things to be done before getting out on the water. I think I could spend a lot of time fooling with these usuals. Such a fantastic pattern.

 

w

[Philly 0]

One of my favorite patterns. Nice bunch of Usuals. I like the compradun wing. I'll have to give that a try. Normally, I tie them like you do but with the standard Usual wing but don't use the traditional color thread. I do a variant using the foot hairs for wing and tail and wrap in CDC for the body, just like I'm tying a CDC and Elk.

[Matt7082 0]

Excellent tie! Very simple and effective pattern. I have several dyed rabbit's feet. I like usuals and all different colors. Any time I am dry-flying, there is almost always a usual at the end of my multi-fly rig. I too like the camparadun wing. Nice touch!

[wschmitt3 0]

Will, I like your version. It's very hard to mess these up, but to try and do something consistent and visually intentional is a task.

 

Thank you. I agree about doing it consistently and visually intentionally, I made a dubbing blend from the guard hair from the top of the foot and some Hareline Hare's Plus Dubbin Natural Hare's Ear color. As I tied them I collected the under fur from between the toes where I collected the wing and tail material. I mixed it in with the dubbing I made up. It looks sweet, very spiky, I cant wait to tie some up using the blend I have now. I think I am going to tie it in a split thread type method very sparse for two reasons. So the thread shows through better and to maximize spikiness to give the illusion of movement. It seems to me this patterns is intended to imitate a caddis fly wiggling through the surface of the water so movement seems like a good thing here.

 

You say that you tied some up using green thread, do you think the green will show through well enough to give the impression of a green colored bug?

[Stevester 0]

I think the original was tied with red or orange thread. Fran Betters liked red and orange on his flies, the Usual, the original Haystack and the Ausable Wuff all used orange. I have had good luck with Usuals using different thread colors that were lightly dubbed so some thread color showed through. Try a few with chartreuse thread when olive mayflies are hatching. It worked for me in VT and NH when I lived there.

 

Steve

[wschmitt3 0]

I posted earlier that that "I tied up a bunch thinking red thread was the traditional/original recipe but it turns out it was an orange thread". I have now read both in several places. For me though I tied this up as a searching pattern so it doesn't really matter which is "proper" (what ever that means) or historically correct. I think that orange and red have the same degree of attractiveness to fish that's why royal flies and stimulators are two of the most popular attractor flies so I think for my purposes either will fit the bill. Its kinda funny, to illustrate my point do a google search for attractor flies, in the images those are the two flies shown.

 

I might try that chartreuse thread idea I like it.

[william anderson 0]

Thanks again, fellas. It's cool to hear some of the variations on this original theme. Cdc body sounds awesome. A hare dubbing blend sounds good too. I shaved down the top of oneof the feet as well for some spiky nymph dubbing.

 

I keep a very small glass candle holder on my desk with water in it. It helps sometimes to just toss flies in it as I'm tying. Sometimes they float much longer it higher than you expect or the materials change drastically. If the under fur from the snow shoe foot is used for the dubbing, every color used on the body comes through very bright, not than you might expect unless you fish this pattern often. Green shows up vibrant.