hairwing

Materials for the A.P. Paradrake, Hook ... mustad #12 94840 Thread... grey danville 6/0 Tail... light dun microfibbets Body... golden tan antron dubbing Wing and post ...white polypropylene Para-hackle ...Ring neck pheasant rump feather and ginger variant rooster neck hackle

I have a pair of 4 " Dr. Slicks with the benefit of a half hitch tool on the end. Cool tool ! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dr-Slick-Rotary-Hackle-Plier-Brass-Large-Stainless-Steel-Jaws-Fly-Fishing-/141288719317?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20e576c3d5

#12

A Platte Sucker.....

I like Nylon, it sinks immediately and has a sparkle and translucent just like juvenile baitfish.

No, the turkey feather is not dyed it is natural. It's not really important. Please.....do not get hung up on specific pattern materials. Imitate the insects by form and shape that you find in the water that you fish !!!

You like this one, but don't adhere to the materials and consider the form and size of the fly that you would find in your home water. Look at it like a "pheasant tail nymph" with a few adjustments. The fur thorax is a simple clump tied atop the hook shank and trimmed to look the way you see fit to imitate what's in your streams. I have found that my most effective flies have what they call a "halo" effect...there is a glow around the fly and the body. I used about 5 fibers of the turkey for the body. Here are all the things I used to tie this fly..........

Most of the flies that I tie are based on stream samples from the local waters I fish. This particular fly will do a fare job imitating baetis and some ephemerella. Most have a speckled tail, a body with fringed gills, and when they are ready to hatch, their thorax turns dark. I started off the thread calling it a "combo nymph". Your free to interpret the recipe anyway you'd like and give any fly like it you tie a name. The way I tied the fly is a result of past tyers and flyfishers who influenced me through their books, like Schwiebert ,Frank Sawyer, Swisher and Richards and Poul Jorgensen.

Thanks Piker !

Combo nymph...body =5mm white thread wooduck tail cinnamon turkey herl body trimmed beaver fur clump thorax...

It's a puzzle ! I like the looks of a sweeping taper on a palmered fly from rear to front though. It fits my eye. I'm by no means an authority but I size the body hackle using the 1.5 gape rule but use the barbs closer to the bottom of the stem to select a hackle. The barbs are longer there when tying with a India Cock neck and taper well toward the tip. Not so much with genetic hackle and saddles. Most of the time when I use the 1.5 rule the hackle tips when they are swept back on the wet fly style reach that magical goal of touching the point of the hook from just behind the eye. Tying the hackle tip first at the rear of the body gives the impression that a smaller hackle is used. Here's a pic showing a barb pulled from the tip and one from near the butt. Almost two times different.

As I recall from reading not experience, one of the problems using animal fats was that they turned rancid....oops now your gonna have to explain to the wife where you have been besides fishing on the stream...lol. Some interesting thoughts from Darrell Martin on floatants............http://www.flyrodreel.com/magazine/2008/july/staying-top

That's sad... I can't recall ever finding fly dope containers along streams I fish but I'm glad you are into the recycle thing.

One great thing about the e-net is that I can find stuff. I recently bought ten 1/2 oz. ointment jars for 5 bucks, perfect for stowing my favorite dry fly dope. I'm all set ! ...and they're custom too, I put my little logo on the lid ;-D. a tidbit of FF history regarding Abolene....http://books.google.com/books?id=kCQ9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=edward++r+hewitt+albolene&source=bl&ots=RqGz6U7MgN&sig=qICQKsv0eEKybIxMRmt8HEQpO9A&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vl6KU4u5LJClyATS-IDoDw&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=edward%20%20r%20hewitt%20albolene&f=false

I have absolutely no argument dubbing fly bodies with teased fur and synthetics but many flies have been tied with a strand of yarn in the past. I'm offering you another option, seems like it is an ole time technique lost in modern fly tying instruction, lots of vintage flies have been tied by simply wrapping a strand of yarn around the hook shank ! A nymph.....eg.

Two thumbs up from me CK ! I'll bet that feather wing had you stickin' your tongue sideways lol.

Splayed double hen wing wet.........

A Hairwing.... Looks surprisingly like a R.A.T. fly...........

Nymph.......

Dry Fly.......

Thanks for your comments gents. :-D The hook is an Eagle Claw Aberdeen 202-8 gold finish. It is a light wire bait hook (helps the fly stay afloat) . The eye is normally straight but the eye on this one is bent slightly up about 20 degrees with a pair of flat nose pliers to give it a little more eye appeal.

Two views.......

Al McClane types out the definition in his great book "The Practical Fly Fisherman" 1953. (pg. 150 if you have a copy)....."The spider-type dry fly is strictly an American innovation. On foreign waters the term "spider" means a long-hackled wet fly....." Take note that one is a "dry fly" and one is a "wet fly".

Ah !!....a floating, dare I say it...... "nymph" Like your pics Terje