DManley

I'm in the same spot. No decent white wing material. The swap is also ending during the absolute most hectic weeks of the Summer for me. I sure would like to get back into swapping flies, but I need to wait until Fall to commit. Here's some inspiration, though! http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=15707 and http://stevenojai.tripod.com/rwulff.htm It looks like the Grizzly Wulff uses brown bucktail too.

For surface flies, I use Bivisibles in a variety of colors. I make them with white fronts and the back 3/4 of the fly is brown, black, olive, grey or variegated ginger. Sometimes I tie in a tail of bright red orange or yellow. I have made a few before with yellow or red hackle in the front. I also have tried "Trivisibles", (Bivisibles with a band of bright red or orange hackle between the white and the dark hackles.) I also use smaller Trudes and Stimulators in colors ranging from natural to retina searing. Almost any catskill style dry fly will work well if the color is right for the day. I never go fishing without a white or very light dry fly, a very dark or all black dry fly and an Adams. For wet flies, I use smaller woolly worms and woolly buggers and I tie a lot of small streamers in sizes 12 and 14. I make small Thunder Creek style flies with either deer hair or calf tail. I also make Mickey Finns with bead heads on 2x or 3x nymph hooks. A real nasty trick is to tie a Mickey Finn (Or any color variation of a hair winged streamer) with a marabou tail and throat on about a size 12 nymph hook with a bead head. I have had really good luck with those when nothing is happening on the surface. I mostly fish in Northern Michigan, so if you are further South, you will want to tie them a bit larger than we do. For still, warm water a Zug Bug will also work well. For Perch, I make a Zug Bug with Marabou in the tail and a red marabou throat. We also use the "Zuggy Bugger" which is a Zug Bug without the wing and with a palmered soft hackle. (A Woolly Bugger with the body and tail of a Zug Bug) Most standard trout fly nymphs will also work on panfish. (They eat a lot of the same bugs after all.) If they don't work in a a variety of natural colors, try them in a hotter color. I always make sure I have something with reds or yellows, something black, an orange fly and something with peacock herl and sword on it. Another nice pattern can be a soft hackle spider with the blue body feathers from a Peacock. I usually carry them weighted and unweighted. I enjoy tying classic wet fly patterns, so I fish with them a lot. They all seem to work reasonably well. Panfish aren't quite as picky as trout, so as long as you have a couple of different shapes in whatever color is working well that particular day, you should be okay. I'm not an expert by any means, but those are a few of the things I use, and I haven't scared the fish out of the local lakes yet!

Where am I going to find a Snook in Michigan to test that fly on??? Seriously, stuff happens. I was in two swaps at once a decade or so back and I took both to the post office at the same time. One swap was for Catskill style dry flies and the other was for "Your favorite trout fly". I tied up Mahogany Duns for the dry fly swap and some Montreal wet flies for the favorites swap. I apparently held my own one man fly swap before the actual swap, as I sent the flies to the wrong swaps. The favorite trout fly swap was fine, as the Mahogany Dun is a great pattern and is close enough to at least one hatch in almost every part of the country. A couple of the dry fly purists were deeply and noisily offended to have gotten a wet fly in their packages! I almost got thrown off the list for that one. I am just one tier in the swap, so I can only speak for myself, but I am fine with a snook fly, or also fine with waiting a few extra days to get the flies shuffled. Whatever you and BB do won't hurt my feelings. This has been a fun experience. Nothing, short of getting a pink fly, could change that.

I will be shipping Tuesday. BB, can you message me with an address to send them to? As notorious as this swap is, I don't think I can just stick the box in the mail with "Nightmare Fly Swap" written on it and have it reach you!

For starting out, the patterns are a good guide to learn some proportion and to imitate certain food items. I wouldn't worry about using the exact same body material. Switching dubbing for chenille shouldn't prevent the fly from functioning. I try to keep colors fairly accurate when tying an imitator type of a pattern. I take a few more liberties with attractor patterns. When tying classics, I usually try to stick with the original pattern. Sometimes that is not possible, due to rarity, laws and the like. In the end, as long as the fly holds together and you are happy with the results, you are doing well. Most patterns have been improved on over the years, and most will evolve further as new materials and techniques come into the hobby. None of the classic dry flies were made with synthetic dubbing, but many even are tied with flash these days. All of the wet flies I have seen for fishing incorporate new materials. (Usually flash and dubbing) At one time, (Back when Reagan was still in office!) I was going to tie up a group of framed salmon flies, accurately tied to the 16 essential patterns in George Leonard Herter's book. Just for fun, look up the pattern for Richardson's Game Keeper and then decide if you are going to tie directly to the pattern! I can't even remember what I actually used to tie the fly, but I'm pretty sure I could have gotten thrown out of College if I had gotten drunk and gone off looking for materials!

Sorry about starting all of the confusion. I was still planning on having my flies in well before the deadline, but it looks like we were tying to two different deadlines. If I am the only one who won't have their flies in by the end of June, I can do one of two things. I can send out the earlier flies a few days after the Fourth, or I can drop. (Sending before the fourth is really not an option right now.) If anybody else is still tying, then I won't be holding up the swap anyways, so I will just finish my flies and send them in two Weeks or so. I sure don't want to start out swapping on this board by being the last guy to mail in for a swap. I was a little surprised to read that some of you were sending in this early, but now I realize that we were on two different pages. Either way, I'm glad that I jumped into this swap, as it has been a neat kickstart for my tying. I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge when I joined, but I was pretty sure I could do it. vicrider. No worries! I completely agree with what you said. I hate rushing to finish, paying $24.00 for overnight express delivery and then waiting a Month because somebody else couldn't get their act together. If I ever can't make a deadline, I would drop out as soon as I realized I couldn't make it. If we are all going with the early deadline, let me know what you want me to do. If some others are still tying, then I will just shoot for the middle of the Month. Thanks, all and I hope I haven't just ruffled a bunch of feathers. Dave

I am still puttering along here. I just came back to the vise a few weeks ago after being away for a few years. New bifocals fooled me into thinking I could tie again. I thought this swap looked like great fun, so I jumped in without thinking it through. I am actually lucky to have a fairly simple pattern to tie. I have just tied a whole pile of dry flies for a few friends who are going on a trip. The basics are coming back pretty well. I took a stab at the swap pattern and tied a bunch up on larger hooks. My size 12 ones seemed a good bit too bulky for the hook size. They will fish well, but they aren't swap quality. I have switched chairs and vise mounts three times. I have bought every lamp that the local Salvation Army store had! I am finally getting my setup working well. I am supplementing my bifocals with an Optivisor. I feel like things are finally really coming back together. The last batch of dries I tied look a lot better than the earlier ones. I just tied some of the nymphs on a size 10 hook and felt pretty confident that I can take it down to a 12 and have them be okay. They won't be exhibition quality, but they won't look like I just dumped the materials into a blender, covered the hooks with super glue and dipped either. (That's what the first ones looked like.) All in all, it's great to be back at the vise and have something to shoot for. I am launching into production mode here. I will tie two or three a day for the next two weeks and pick the best to send. I'll get them out by mid July, unless that is going to hold things up. The particular pattern I am tying seems to work best when tied from start to finish in one shot. It's a pretty simple pattern and it ties very smoothly. One thing for sure... I will have a lot of Red Fox Squirrels to fish in a year or two when I finally get to hit the water again. Being totally homebound (Taking care of a family member who needs 24/7 care and supervision) is tough, but getting back into tying has helped me a lot. I have actually been excited the last Month or so. Thanks to all of you for setting this up and participating.

Q: What do you call a fish hook that's missing an eye? A: a fsh hook!

I am making progress on the Red Fox Squirrel Nymphs. They will be in Size 12, but the hooks are Daiichi, not Tiemco. (10 and 12 were out of stock) I am using Hungarian Partridge and I am getting the hang of making it look like a stonefly nymph instead of a hook that was used to pick out the corners of the lint filter in the dryer. It's a bit of a trick to make the silhouette of the thorax look right. (I am used to wets and drys where there is usually one smooth body profile from the tail to the wing.) I always use lead free wire for swaps, as I know some guys out there are fishing lead free waters. I will get some pictures up in the next few days. I hope everybody else is having fun too!

One of my fellow dry fly fishermen up here is just a bit older than I am. He has started to fish more parachutes. He ties with a bright white or Flourescent white synthetic (Antron or Krystal Flash) post. Sometimes, he will also cut a slight indent into the top of the fibers of his post. Then, he can put a small dab of fluorescent orange or green paint on the indent on the very top of the post, but still not spook the fish. The paint is only visible from above this way. Another trick he uses is to tie in a fluorescent post and then tie in some white material around it. This also gives him a little view of color from above, but hides it pretty well from the fish. A good parachute fly with a fairly densely wound hackle can hide the post pretty well. One last trick he has tried is making the bottom of the post white or grey, and the top brightly colored. He either ties in a bright post and touches some grey paint to the bottom of the post before winding the hackle, or he ties in a natural post and paints the top half of the post with orange Hi Vis paint. Both of these methods rely on the density of the hackle to hide the bright post. Some of the guys are laughing at his funny looking flies, but I'm getting too close to his age to find fault. I'm probably going to end up stealing his ideas before too long!

I am ordering a bunch of hooks tomorrow. I will tack on a box of TMC 5262s. What size do you guys want your nymphs? I am looking at 12 or 14? If there is a better standard size for this pattern, I can do that too. My first thought was 10 or 12 to make tying them a bit easier, but I want to stay within the range of the other flies in this swap. What size would be most appropriate? I'm kind of leaning towards a 12 or 14 because that seems about right for a trout nymph. Since I almost always fish dry flies, traditional wets or an occasional streamer for trout, I am not really versed on nymphs and their sizes. It seems like they should be a size or two larger than my wet or dry flies . Most of my ties are usually 14 or 16 for wet flies. If 12 or 14 aren't right for this fly, (The pattern sheet says 2-20!) please let me know by early Morning. Otherwise, the order will go in for 12s. Thanks, Dave

Sounds like this is going to be a great swap. I was getting a bit nervous about the first deadline, only because I am still waiting for supplies to arrive. I should have the flies to you well before the end of July.

Thanks! I am looking forward to this challenge. That is a nice looking pattern. I will call up the shops in Grayling and see if either of them have a skin in stock. I will probably make a run up there right after the weekend. If they don't have it, I have found a couple of places online that have it. I showed this to a friend, lamenting the fact that the Golden Stone we have in Michigan is the Giant one and tends to be tied on size 6 hooks or so. He suggested tying it in a smaller size (12 or 14) and using it during the little yellow stone hatch with either pale orange or yellow thread. It's not exact, but a couple of the locals have tried it with grizzly or white lace hen hackle or light Hungarian partridge. My neighbor has used the bead head version with and without rubber legs. I'm probably going to heed your advice and keep it simple, but with the Hungarian partridge, or a similar soft feather for the hackle. Thanks again for the fun challenge.

I hope your daughter makes a fast and full recovery! I tie a lot of Classic wet flies and catskill style drys. I also do a lot of streamers. I actually have two different nightmares. One is a fly type and one is a material. Either one would work for me. I have almost no experience with nymphs. If the trout are down and feeding on them, I will try a wet fly or a wooly bugger. I understand the proportions of the dry and wet flies, but when I go to tie a nymph, I always fear that I will just end up with a random pile of materials on a hook. (Cathie told me my nymphs look like I dipped the hook in glue and swished it through the wastebag under my vise!) I can do the really simple stuff, but I tend to avoid any nymph pattern that has legs, casings, or more ingredients than a bugger. Someday, I need to take the time to figure out a pattern and tie a dozen or so that all look similar and all match a real insect. The material that scares me off is squirrel tail. With all of the tying I have done, I still balk at tying it. When I was in Middle School, we had a 4H show for the Bicentennial. I tied a fly with squirrel tail wings. I had tied hair wings, but Squirrel was a bit beyond my capability at the time. It didn't "lock down" like other hairs, and I tied one huge clump on the top of the hook and trimmed it too closely. A woman acting as a judge (Who had never seen a fly in her life) picked it up to look at it closely. All of the hair popped right out when she handled the fly and got all over her white dress. You would think I had ruined the entire County Fair and probably cause the entire nation to regret ever lasting 200 years. She threw such a fit that it still raises an eyebrow when it is mentioned today, 40 years later. I have only used squirrel begrudgingly ever since. Either one would be a fair nightmare and if there is a nymph pattern with squirrel hair, I will have to adjust my bench to let me tie in a fetal position! No matter what you choose, I will have great fun with this! Thanks for hosting this swap. It will be great to get into a swap after all of these years. I used to do a lot on the other forum, but they seem to have dried up. Thanks again, Dave