salmobytes

...and here is a white-winged version.  The hackles are a bit long so I'll call it a  variant--thereby pretending I intended it that way? At $100 a neck or more I increasingly like any and all dry flies that don't use rooster feathers.  I do have a larege collection of necks.  But I'm not excited about buying more.

Here's a better one.

A one material dry fly, albeit two separate clumps of mule deer hair.  From a mature late season buck.

Tie the hackle hair on facing forward.  Push it back with the barrel of an empty ball point pen. Wrap in front.  Whip finish.  Add CA or UV glue up front.  Or fabric cement, to hold the deer hair facing straight up.  Without the final glue step the deer hair eventually starts to point forward again.  I like fabric cement best, because it is soft and flexible compared to CA or UV.  Aleene's Flexible Stretchable fabric cement is the softest.

I'll post another in a day or two, incorporating a prominent white wing, so old guys can see it.

Cool flies.  Blue Winged Olives are hatching on the Jellystone.  I need to get organized.

This is crude I know.  It needs work.  It's a proof of concept.  It's not really dry fly season yet.

This is a two material dry fly.  Mule deer tail.  Badger guard hairs hackle.  It doesn't have to be badger.  Most guard hairs seem to work just fine.  Tie the badger on facing forward.  Push it back with the barrel of an empty ball point pen. Hold it. Build up a head in front. Whip finish.  Add CA or UV glue at the head. Or fabric cement (fabric cement can be thinned with water).

I need to figure out how to add some Royal Wulff like white wings up front, so I can see it on the water.  I'll be working on it.

Hair hackles tied the no-bead way, as above, would make an interesting dry fly.  George Grant Randy Flynn and others made and still make woven hair hackle dry flies.   I'll have to work on a no-weave version.  

The Sandy Mite is one of the greatest flies if all time--largely because of it's transparently superior name.

Here's Mark Freedman's version of the Sandy Mite.

https://montana-riverboats.com/?robopage=Flies/Mark-Freedman

I need to start making video.  I'm pretty close.  I have a new camera and all the needed software.  I'm having trouble getting my butt in gear.

How does a rubberleg body  hold up? Good question.  Silicone rubberlegs do not last all that long.  I don't know the chemical difference but I use the strong stretchy rubbery stuff that includes the trade name Spanflex.  Or is it Span-Flex?  That stuff is indestructible.  You could make a sling shot with it.

The bead behind the hackle version of the Pott Sticker is a good decade old at this point.  It's long been one of my goto flies.  The bead in front of the hackle and the no bead at all versions are new.  They depend on tying the hair so it points forward at first.  And then somehow someway forcing the hair to point back.

 This is a Frans Pott Sandy Mite.  Pott started manufacturing these in the early 1920s.  They used to be by far the most popular fly in Montana.  Woven hair hackle weaving is time consuming and hard to learn.  Frans Pott, George Grant, Henry Wombacher, Tom McIntyre, Mark Freedman, Matt Watrous, Robert Biggar, Todd Collins and Randy Flynn are the tiers I know about who have figured it out--and who make their own woven hair hackle flies--with two or three thread strand weaving techniques that often vary slightly from tier to tier.

I'm a retired computer programmer--software engineer as it were.  In my profession "lazy" is considered a virtue.  Larry Wall who invented the Perl programming language coined this idea.  What he really meant was "Any technique that is faster and easier and just as good or better than its more complex competition..................is by definition better."  In that sense Larry Wall dedicated his programming career to being lazy.

In that sense, as a fly tier, I've been dedicated to lazy for a long time now.
Here's the Frans Pott original deal:  A Sandy Mite:

The Pott Sticker
A long time ago I found I could wind hair onto a hook so it jambs up against a bead, so it looks a lot like a woven hair hackle fly but I didn't have to weave anything.  This idea puts a bead behind the hackle.  I called it a Pott Sticker.

I never could get Pott Stickers to work with the bead in front of the hair hackle, or with no bead at all. Until I tried tying the hair on so the fibers point forward (temporarily) tenkara style that is.  If you put a bead on the hook as a first step, then tie the body (two contrasting rubberleg strands) and then tie the hair on so it points forward over and past the bead, you can then push the bead backward so it forces the hair fibers to point slightly back instead of forward. Then whip finish in front of the bead.

Or do the same thing without any bead.  Fibers face forward.  And then back. Then wrap a head and whip finish.  Pott Stickers.  I like'em.
                                                                                                     

It turns out Halford himself invented the first wigglers!

https://montana-riverboats.com/?robopage=Flies/Sandy-Pittendrigh/Articles/Hoyt-E-Toytea.htm

No name. Just a bug I made up. A generic nymph.  Tying nymphs on a needle, sliding them off the needle and then attaching to a hook (like the above) is growing on me.  It's easier to tie on a needle (thin #10 beading needle) than trying to tie inside teh bend of a hook.

by iteself and then with a #16 scud hook. On a snell. Might be a bit too much Partridge hackle. Sparser would have been better.

This moroning's effort

Bass fishermen  sometimes refer to lumps of soft plastic molded independently of any hook as Grub Baits.  Does that make this one a Nymph Bait? It was tied on a waxed (ultra-thin) beading needle. And then attached to the hook after it was made.  I'll have to make another one with a bead up front, on the hook but before the nymph is attached.

Instead of fabric cement you can use clear silicone seal too.  It's faster but messier.  Fabric cement is easier to clean up.

It's important to keep the fabric cement (or silicone) at the rear end only.  If you glue up the length of the flap tail the fly becomes too wind resistant and too hard to cast well.  

Shape Shifter -- with a waggle tail made from a saddle hackle and fabric cement, glued onto the end of another saddle, with fabric cement.

They sure do wobble. 

I target them for sure.  

https://montana-riverboats.com/?robopage=Flies/Sandy-Pittendrigh/Articles/Catfish-on-flies/up_another.jpg

We get March Browns in April/May. But still.  It is almost March.
This is  a size #14 or #16 fly tied a short shank #18 hook.
 

I need to get some Gadwall.  I love duck flank for lots of things dry fly.  

This one on a #18 hook with a more elaborate needle body

Ok.  This is a remarkably durable fly.  I make a "wash bottle" out of thin CA glue by inserting a 28 guage thin wall PTFE (teflon) tube all the way to the bottom.  Then caulk it in place with a hot melt glue gun.  You don't tip the bottle.  You squeeze it and watch the glue ride up the PTFE tube.  Release pressure at the last second.  That way you can accurately dispense pin point drops, ezzackly where you need it.  22 or 24 guage for thicker ZapAGap.

I put a #10 beading needle in the vise.  Wax it with purple cross country ski wax.  Get thread started with maybe ten wraps all in same place. Lash on the tip of a duck flank feather. The rear end of that body feather looks like a paint brush at this point. We'll fix it later.

Pull a strand of Senyo Laser Dub either side of the body, where the body is wrapped onto the needle.  Parachute wrap on the top side of the body, around the wing clump with two wraps (all that while pulling up on the wing with your third hand).  Whip finish.  Pull it off the needle.

Hook in vise.  Add hackle feather but don't wind it yet.  Attach modular body LOOSELY (loosely).  Now wrap horizontally 5 t6 10 times between body and shank.  Leave bobbin hanging.  Wind parachute.  Turn vise so bottom of fly faces you, so bobbin and hackle pliers hang.  Put a micro dab of resin (UV or thicker CA like ZapAGap) at fulcrum of parachute.  Snip of the hanging stuff.  I use a razor.

Last step is to fix the paint brush tail.  Use a sewing needle to carefully roll and stroke a tiny amount of fabric cement on the end of the duck flank feather.  End only. Use a needle to stroke it out to a sharp point.  It's done.  Ready to fish in a half an hour (fabric cement takes a while).

The fly is all on top of the hook, which creates some wind resistance.  The weight of the hook pulls down on that wind resistance as the fly settles, so it always lands upright. 

lands gently too. Floats well. Dries off with two snap casts.  Floats again.  If I catch a fish I wash it off and put in silica powder.  But in between fish it only needs a quick snap cast.  

I can't see'em anymore either so I fish them behind a Royal Wulff.  And set the hook if the water dimples in the right place. I have to carry 5x jewelers goggles in my fishing backpack.  So I can get them tied on.

Mostly i just enjoy tying them.