24 replies to this topic

[Rocco]

In the spirt of sharing I'd like to offer some easy tyes/ties? to beginners that work well for me and could serve as a few 'fallback' patterns when things are tough on the water.

The first is a mini-blood worm that is embarrassing simple. Ingredients are-- wet fly hook of your choice # 10-14, 3-4 strands of the red maribou-type shaft feathers from the base of a red dyed long streamer hackle or small maribou; and fine thread to match the color. Wind a thread base to the bend of the hook. Tie a small bunch of maribou as the tail about the length of a hook shank, leaving the excess in place. Take the excess and twist it around the thread and wind the rope up the hook to the eye. Tie off and lacquer the head. Done. Anyone can ties dozens in an hour.

You can vary the color of the maribou -- chartreuse works too. And you can also mix a single strand of very fine mylar or other flashy stuff into the maribou to add a little glitz and reinforce the dubbing rope on the shank.

Fish it on a fine tippet as a dropper behind a weighted wet or nymph, or all alone with a mini split shot 8-10 " up the leader tip. This little devil has nailed lots of wily big browns and planted palomino trout hybrids that see every fly in the book.

The other simple tie is a mini streamer --tied on a wet fly hook # 8 or 10. Ingredients -- white bucktail in a sparse bunch tied in as a wing to just over the end of the hook. Tie in this wing over a silver mylar or tinsel wrapped body. Lacquer and done. MAYBE add a sprig of peacock hurl over the wing if you are feeling the need. Fished unweighted, this fly has nailed lots of early season trout, scads of panfish, and several bass and walleye which crashed yellow perch fishing outings.

Gopod luck,
Rocco

[NJFlyMAn]

In the spirt of sharing I'd like to offer some easy tyes/ties? to beginners that work well for me and could serve as a few 'fallback' patterns when things are tough on the water.

The first is a mini-blood worm that is embarrassing simple. Ingredients are-- wet fly hook of your choice # 10-14, 3-4 strands of the red maribou-type shaft feathers from the base of a red dyed long streamer hackle or small maribou; and fine thread to match the color. Wind a thread base to the bend of the hook. Tie a small bunch of maribou as the tail about the length of a hook shank, leaving the excess in place. Take the excess and twist it around the thread and wind the rope up the hook to the eye. Tie off and lacquer the head. Done. Anyone can ties dozens in an hour.

You can vary the color of the maribou -- chartreuse works too. And you can also mix a single strand of very fine mylar or other flashy stuff into the maribou to add a little glitz and reinforce the dubbing rope on the shank.

Fish it on a fine tippet as a dropper behind a weighted wet or nymph, or all alone with a mini split shot 8-10 " up the leader tip. This little devil has nailed lots of wily big browns and planted palomino trout hybrids that see every fly in the book.

The other simple tie is a mini streamer --tied on a wet fly hook # 8 or 10. Ingredients -- white bucktail in a sparse bunch tied in as a wing to just over the end of the hook. Tie in this wing over a silver mylar or tinsel wrapped body. Lacquer and done. MAYBE add a sprig of peacock hurl over the wing if you are feeling the need. Fished unweighted, this fly has nailed lots of early season trout, scads of panfish, and several bass and walleye which crashed yellow perch fishing outings.

Gopod luck,
Rocco

Sounds like some good patterns. Do you have a pic of them flies that you can post? This way people can see it and it will help them out when it comes to the proportions of the fly.

[utyer]

There is NOTHING wrong with simple. Your first one is not only simple, but it uses the "junk" hackle fluff that most people just discard. That fluff, is great dubbing in almost any color. I save and soak my hackle stems for use as quill bodies, realistic legs, and tails. I also tie that bucktail, but mine use black bucktail, and pearl Christmas tree tinsel.

[tidewaterfly]

Rocco, great post! I think that sometimes we get too complicated with tying, especially as we gain more experience. Nothing wrong with being artistic, or innovative either, but often simple, practical flies work just as well, or sometimes better than complicated patterns! Thanks for the reminder!

I hate wasting materials, and am a bit of a pack rat. I save everything that is usable. When I tie streamers or bass flies I save that fluff at the base of the feathers, and use it on smaller flies. I also make some tiny panfish jigs which I use it on, and small panfish spoons by soldering a hook to a spinner blade, and tie the fluff to a trailer hook. Great wiggle & action! I also save the hackle tips when wrapping feathers. They make very simple streamers/wet flies that work for all types of panfish. A hook, tinsel body, a pair of feather tips for the wing & a couple of wraps of hackle for a collar. Maybe a couple of strands of Flashabou or other flash too. Simple, but it works.

[FrequentTyer]

Great topic! I fish a lot of really simple flys that work consistently. It does not get much simpler than Al's Rat. Brown monocord body and a few turns of muskrat dubbing for the head. I also like simple soft hackles with bodies of rabbit dubbing or peacock and a few turns of partridge, starling, or whatever soft hackle you have. Add a loop or puff of cdc instead of the hackle and you have an emerger. Mix and match, maintain a general buggy outline and you can fill a flybox in no time.

[EricF]

Being lazy and not nearly talented as the rest of you guys, I consider myself ... well, ok, a better than average schmo on this subject. My favorite easy flies to tie include bivisibles, griffith's gnats, ants (floating, a bit of foam w/ a wind of black hackle or sinking, a mess of thread with a wind of black hackle) and of course wooly buggers. Not exciting, but damn if they don't work.

[NJFlyMAn]

Great topic! I fish a lot of really simple flys that work consistently. It does not get much simpler than Al's Rat. Brown monocord body and a few turns of muskrat dubbing for the head. I also like simple soft hackles with bodies of rabbit dubbing or peacock and a few turns of partridge, starling, or whatever soft hackle you have. Add a loop or puff of cdc instead of the hackle and you have an emerger. Mix and match, maintain a general buggy outline and you can fill a flybox in no time.

Guess you live or fish in PA?

[FrequentTyer]

Guess you live or fish in PA?

Both Did Al give it away?

[NJFlyMAn]

Guess you live or fish in PA?

Both Did Al give it away?

Yup. The name Al Miller {Al's Rat}.. Gave it all away.

[slowpoke]

I must be really lazy,or dumb or stupid or you know. I'm a soft hackle addict. It doesn't get any simpler than that.But the best
thing is THEY WORK. Anywhere,anytime. It doesn't get any better than that. Trouble is I have over $2,0000.00 worth of material
I'll never use. I hate you Sylvester Niemes.LOL
ALL the Best,Joe

[bluegill576]

I must be really lazy,or dumb or stupid or you know. I'm a soft hackle addict. It doesn't get any simpler than that.But the best
thing is THEY WORK. Anywhere,anytime. It doesn't get any better than that. Trouble is I have over $2,0000.00 worth of material
I'll never use. I hate you Sylvester Niemes.LOL
ALL the Best,Joe

If you ever want to get some of that off your hands, I think I can help you with that . My favorite simple fly that usually works for me is just a black bead head wooly bugger.

[slowpoke]

Sorry no black beads. HA HA

[NJFlyMAn]

A simple pattern that has been working great the past few weeks is "Craig Mathews X-Caddis".

Dry fly hook 14,16,18 For me #16 works the best.
Thread 8/0 or 6/0 Tan
Body Olive Or Tan dubbin
Wing Bleached Coastal deer hair
Trailing shuck: I skip this step. But use some Amber Z-lon.

[JohnP]

Here's another simple fly that has worked well for me: tail is brown hen hackle fibers, body is muskrat dubbing, hackle is a couple of turns of brown hen hackle. I have used it in sizes 12 to 16 and it has caught trout, bluegill and bass. I also love to tie and fish soft hackles, and it doesn't get much simpler than that.

[NJFlyMAn]

This is one of my favorite simple soft-Hackled wet flies.

Starling & Herl.. I'm sure most of you guys know this one!!!

Wet fly hook
Black thread
Starling hackle
Peacock herl for the body