The Royal Bluf
Hi
(X-cuse my esl.)
I am quite new to fly tying. I started tying flies last december. Soon after beginning I began to see dead people. These zombies told me there is only 1 way to learn to tie flies; "From ye old pat-te-terns" &in ser-RRR-ies". After fighting the windmills, I understood; I should have bought the coloring books instead of oils &because I did not, there was no getting through on finnish flytying forums when I started to invent my own patterns. Not that any who has not been tying flies for @ least ½ a century could do such a feat, but I still have my delusions!
I call the following Royal Bluf, since it was inspired by Royal Wulff. The pattern is told to be no good &too hard to tie. I think Royal Bluf is about as brilliant as is the para-Dun compared to Dun. I have not seen a flypattern tied in this "inverted" way anywhere. When some tiers spend hours tying salmon flies, 5 to 10 mins seems quite a short time to tie a fly. Luckily my childhood friend who is an enthuastic fisherman encouraged me by telling me he likes the flies I sent him, so here goes nothing. (the tying pics are not the sharpest on the block, but I think they give pretty good idea how to tie the Royal Bluf). I hope you like it!
Material list:
Straight dryfly hook (with 1x longshank makes tying slighty easyer)
backbone &tail: Bucktail or calf
Chest: Peacock or ostrich herl
½-Sphere-Hackle: longish rooster neck feather
backbody: bodysilk or floss
Butt: the tying thread (different color then the backbody)
Colors you can choose to your or target species liking or even match the colors to local insect life
(If you would like to buy these flies, send a PM)
Tie tail hair on to the hook sharp ends forward. The Exact length &number of hairs varies depending on the size of the hooks, but on size 8 dry fly hook ~7 2" hairs seems to be nice.
Attach the herls &the hackle feather on the hook as shown.
Create the chest from the herls.
Now comes the "tricky" part. Take the hackle feather gently. Since we are gripping the tip "gentle" is the magic word. Lift the tailhairs up tight, as 1 would when tying a para-hackle, with the hand that does not use the spigot (left I assume)! Rotate the hackle feather thightly around then until there is only as long tip left as the hairs are long. Push the hackle slightly down on the hairs.
Pull the tail hairs back &tie them down. If you succeeded, only the "laboury" part is left . Spin the tying thread to the rear end of the shank &attach the bodysilk.
Build a conish back body out of bodysilk. Either end tying the body with couple of half hitches or take it to the tying thread &tie it down.
Make a butt for the fly with the tying thread &end it with some half hitches.
-Happy Fishing-
Ilkka Tenhunen
Finland