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CharlieD

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About CharlieD

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    Great lakes & Gaspe

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  1. The originator of this fly is Maurice Ingalls of Ft. Lauderdale Florida. He tied the first one around 1956 for fishing the Miramichi River for Atlantic Salmon and since that time at has become a staple across eastern North America. The unique thing about this fly is the many different ways it can be fished. It can be used as a dry, riffle hitched, swung under the surface, or the most popular method, Pumping the fly while it is swinging to make the goat hair wings pulse. Hook: Wet fly hook, 1X or 2X long Tail: Red hackle fibers. Tag: Chartreuse yarn (optional) Body: Peacock herl ribbed with fine gold wire. Wing: White kid goat divided and splayed back over the body. Hackle: stiff brown cock hackle Head: Black I’ve also included a step by step for this fly. Put a wet fly hook in the vise, start thread and attach some red hackle fibers for the tail. Cut some goat hair off the hide, pull out the under fur and short hairs and even the tips with a hair stacker or similar method. Then tie the hair on top of the hook as shown. Trim the butts of the hair diagonally so the body of the fly tapers nicely. Then tie in wire rib, peacock herl and finish body of the fly. Next, grab the tips of the goat hair, stand them up and take a few turns of thread in front of the hair to help keep it up. Divide the hair into 2 equal portions and circle eight the thread between them the same way you would to tie split wings on a dry fly for trout. Grab each wing and take a few turns of thread around the base of the wing pulling the wing back over the fly’s body as you do so. Apply some flexible cement to the base of the wings to help hold them in place. Next, tie in a stiff brown hackle and take a few turns in back and in front of the wings. Tie off the hackle and finish the head.
  2. Odaon, The dubbing is Kaufmann’s black stonefly blend. The hook is a #4 but you can use a smaller or larger one depending on the size of the stoneflies in your area. The mono eyes are ones I burned my-self so I guess there really is not a size for them. I would say the medium or large pre made ones would be close.
  3. So I’ve been camping out in my work shop tying flies like crazy when I think, you need to do some more steelhead flies. The way things are going the season will be here and gone in the blink of an eye so I better be prepared. One of my favorites is John Shewey’s Spawning Purple Spey. The wing on this fly has a very unique leach like action that is very different from most other marabou-winged flies. It needs to be seen to be appreciated. Some care must be taken when selecting marabou for the wing of this fly in order for it to look and work correctly in the water. The best marabou for this fly should have long thin barbules with very even tips. Thick uneven barbules will make the fly look and work sloppy in the water. Good marabou quill. Bad marabou quill. There are several versions of this fly but the one below is my favorite. Tag: Flat gold tinsel Body: Fluorescent red thread or floss Wing: Purple marabou Collar: Purple hackle then dyed orange guinea hen Cheeks: Jungle cock (optional) Head: Red Start some fluorescent red thread on a spey style hook. Tie in some flat gold tinsel just above the hook point and wrap a short tag. Cover the hook shank heavily with the fluorescent red thread to about its mid point. This will be the back half of the fly’s body. Tie in some marabou fibers. They should extend to the bend of the hook. Clip off the excess and cover it with thread to about the thickness of the back portion of the body. Repeat the process with another clump making sure the tips are even with those of the first clump and work your way towards the eye of the hook. Stop the process leaving yourself room to tie in 2 hackles at the front of the fly. Tie in a long purple hackle and wind it folding the barbules back towards the hook point and tie it off. Tie in two jungle cock eyes on either side of the fly (this step is optional). Tie in a dyed orange guinea hen hackle and wind it the same way you did the purple hackle. Finish the head and give it several coats of head cement.
  4. Stonefly nymphs are usually larger and bulkier than most other nymphs so creating the proper body shape is important to creating a good-looking stonefly nymph. Below is one of the most common methods of creating a stonefly nymph underbody but there are other methods that are just as good so don’t think this is the only way to do it. Start by putting an appropriate hook in the vice. I like a hook with at least a 2x or 3x long shank. The R200 style hooks look good for stoneflies. Cover the shank of the hook with thread. Lash two pieces of thick lead wire to the hook shank, one on either side. Depending on how heavy you want the stonefly nymph to be you can use other materials. I also use tin wire, a lighter substitute for lead, and sometimes even thick monofilament if I want the fly to be light and buoyant. At this point, if you are making a smaller stonefly you may have enough bulk and weight from just the two pieces of wire. If this is the case, cover the lead with thread and then with Dave’s flex cement and let it dry. Then you can go straight to tying the nymph. If not, proceed by wrapping lead wire over the hook shank and the other pieces of lead. After you are done wrapping use a pair of flat nosed pliers to flatten the lead further. Cover the lead with tying thread and coat it with Dave’s Flex Cement and let it dry. If I know I am going to tie a bunch of stone flies I will tie up a bunch of these under bodies first and then do the flies. After you have completed the underbody start the fly by tying a ball of dubbing in at the bend of the hook Next tie in 2 black goose biots, one on either side of the dubbing ball so they splay out on either side of the hook shank Now tie in a piece of copper wire on the bottom of the hook shank. This will be used as a rib for the fly. Tie in a piece of black swiss straw on top of the hook shank. Apply some black dubbing to about the middle of the hook shank for the abdomen of the fly. Next fold the swiss straw over the top of the abdomen of the fly making sure to leave a small bit of it hanging over the bubbing ball at the end. This can be accomplished by folding it over a dubbing needle. Now rib the abdomen of the fly with the copper wire, using it to bind down the swiss straw, tie it off and clip off the excess wire. Fold the swiss straw back and bind it down. Tie in a small amount of dubbing to create the beginning of the thorax. Fold the swiss straw forword, again over the dubbing needle to leave some excess hanging out over the abdomen. This will represent the first wing case. Fold the swiss straw back and bind it down. Tie in a black hen hackle on top of the fly and by the tip. This will represent the legs of the fly Tie in a small amount of dubbing to continue the thorax. Fold the hen hackle over the dubbing and tie it down. Fold the swiss straw forword, again over the dubbing needle to leave some excess hanging out over the first wing case. This will represent the second wing case. Fold the swiss straw back and bind it down. Tie in a small amount of dubbing to continue the thorax. Fold the swiss straw foreword, this time without the use of the dubbing needle, tie it in, fold it back and bind it down again. Next tie in 2 black goose biots, one on either side of the hook eye so they splay out on either side of the hook shank now tie in some mono eyes on top of the hook. Tie in some dubbing around the eyes to finish the head. Fold the swiss straw foreword, again without the dubbing needle and tie it down. Clip off the excess and whip finish the head.
  5. cruncher, They can be a bitch to cast when they are wet. The 5 – 6 inch version shown is usually attached to one of my 8 or 9 wt. spey rods. And yes, you can pair them down a bit for different situations.
  6. Thanks bro! been out of circulation for a while.
  7. People always seem to be looking for tying instructions for a string leach so I decided to take a crack at a tutorial on how I tie them. Keep in mind that this is not the only way and there are other good ways to tie them, but this is the one that I like to do. Start by cutting a strip of rabbit fir to a length of about an inch shorter than you want the fly to be. In this case about 5 inches. I like to use magnum cut rabbit strips since they are a bit fuller than the regular ones and we are tying a rather large fly. Next, secure a small section of micro tubing in your vice. Split the rabbit fir on the strip approximately one and one half inches from the front of the strip, lay it on top of the tube and tie it down. Secure the thread with a whip finish and apply some head cement. Remove the tube from the vise and trim the tube on both sides close to the tie in point. Repeat this process about one and one half inches from the first tube. Next, snell a hook to about ten inches of some dark colored line. In this case I used an octopus hook and 50lb. gel spun line. Thread the line through the tubes on the rabbit strip. Next, rotate the head of your vise about 90 degrees and secure a Waddington shank in your vise (I like to use the 20mm size for this type of fly). Secure the turned down eye of the shank in the jaws of the vise. Thread the line with the snelled hook through the turned down eye and secure it to the bottom of the shank with the hook extending about five inches back past the rear eye of the Waddington shank. Thread the remainder of the line through the front eye of the shank, fold it back on top of the shank, bind it down and trim off the excess. Next, secure the front end of the rabbit strip to the back of the Waddington shank (at this point you can tie in some type of flash if you like). Tie in some lead eyes to the front of the shank on the bottom side. Tie another rabbit fur strip to the back of the shank, wind it foreword and tie it off. At this point you can finish the head and the fly is complete.
  8. Hay Damian, Mine went out on the 1st. Sorry I was late. Let me know when they get to you. Thanks, Charlie.
  9. Damian, got room for me to get back in? Charlie.
  10. Mine are on the way. Droped them in the mail this morning. Charlie.
  11. Damian I have just a few left to go. Should be done in a few days. My big worry is getting the heads to dry in time to put them in the mail. I like them nice and glassy. Charlie.
  12. Very Nice! Those have potential. Charlie
  13. Damian, Got room for me on this one? Charlie. P.S. Got the package yesterday, thanks! I owe you one brother.
  14. A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by CharlieD: Polish Prince
  15. For me it's salmon flies, green stone flies to be exact. Getting ready for Gaspe in a week. Hey TroutBum, when do you leave for Nova Scotia? Hope you do well! Charlie.
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