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Hey folks, haven't posted in a while so thought I'd share what I've been working on lately. As a Swede i don't fish with terrestrials that much since we don't have the massive hoppers and cicadas that you get in the US or NZ. However, my parents now live in Kenya and I've done a bit of troutfishing there and let me tell you, the African bugs are massive. Found this grasshopper in the living room that dwarfed a size 6 slumpbuster for example... So I decided to try my hand at large semi-realistic terrestrials with only natural materials, and so far I've tied spiders, grasshoppers, and a funky looking cicada: Also is there any way to resize the pictures so they aren't so big? Tried resizing in the BBCode but the forum wouldn't allow it...

Some people taxidermy their dead dogs, so i don’t see why i can’t turn my cat into a zonkered pelt when it kicks the bucket . . . ;D

Great pattern! Thanks Eide Cheers mate, the head is a mix of thin flash like angelhair and gray cat fur from my old cat. The cat fur has allot of guardhairs in it and its is a bit longer than rabbit fur, i saved up a bunch and use it on all types of flies. Sorry for the late reply haven't checked in in a while, been pretty busy lately

Tying some articulated streamers, fun stuff.

Nice flies tom!

Just an experiment, probably won't work but I hope it does. would be nice for picky trout sipping caddis flies off the surface

Thank you gentlemen! Vicrider you should definately try cdc as a post material, its the best option out there in my opinion. It floats really well, and is visible in light colors since it stays 'puffy' when fished because its so water repellent. I use regular loon floatant om my cdc dries and it works great. As for the leftover feathers what I do is I cut out a bit of the stem and preen the fibers forward before tying it down. That way you can get two or sometimes three posts out of a single big feather, which really cuts down on cdc usage.

Been tying alot of mayflies recently. Is is just me or was the website down for a day or two?

GC59 No worries no offence taken in any way!! thanks for the compliment

GC59 As a european (swede) i guess vice was the spelling that came to mind, although I spent a couple of childhood years in NY so maybe I should spell it with an s...

Size 8 PT's with some biot legs and tails for good measure, 4mm bead. Going to use these brutes as anchor nymphs.

I like those decievers fshng2,nice n' sparce is the way to go. What are you planning to catch with them? Yea mike if i had a proper camera them focus stacking would be a fun concept to tinker with, however its a bit tricky with a 10$ macro lens that you clip on your cellphone (shh don't tell anyone...)

Finally got myself a macro lens, can't wait to tie small stuff to photograph The fly pictured is a size 12.

Im definately with ya when it comes to the closers effectiveness, got alot of respect for the pattern for that reason. Truth be told I've barely fished anything back home this season but I'm planning to head to the closest trout river later this week. The populations of trout and grayling there are unfortunately not that great but its a really big river and large specimens are still around (and lots of pike/zander/perch too). The really good fishing (for trout char grayling etc.) is way north and i don't own a car so my fishing on home turf is pretty limited :/ The pike/perch/zander fishing in the archipelago is on the other hand just around the corner and really good, but the problem there is you need a boat.

Nice pattern, I never fish with closers because i really don't like the look of the traditional bucktail variations, but this variant i quite like! As you mentioned it would sink like a rock and be very visible and sparkly, makes me want to try it for tigerfish or something... (not that i have a tigerfish fishery anywhere near where i live (sweden 😅))

thats very true fisherboy, and I've used that type of fly for grayling alot and their takes are even more gentle than trouts...

Thank you! 🙏 Nice work ....they can be a little tricky at first can't they .There is however a couple of great youtube vids on technique which are quite handy Thanks, Yea the wings on that fly aren't as pretty from another angle if truth is to be told... I've seen tighlinevideo's tutorial a bunch of times and as with everything else flytying practice makes for improvement, however I intend to actually try one in a fishing situation for once before churning out a bunch just to realize i really don't like how they perform on the water...

Finally got around to trying my hand at wally wings, it's a technique I've wanted to explore for a while now. Hook is a size 14 but it's quite a large fly.

Thats interesting mike, the ones I've fished have held upp well. maybe the type of dubbing used make a big difference? I used super fine dry fly dubbing soaked in liberal amounts of silicone

I would tie an extended body style dry like the one bruce posted but with a body made out of silicone and dubbing, got the idea from a mediocre tutorial on youtube. Essentially you coat a needle in silicone and while rotating it you "feed" it with small pinches of dubbing. when the desired thickness is reached finish off with a last layer of silicone, wipe off the excess and take the finished body off the needle to dry. Works great from size 16 up to the very large 👍

It was great thanks for asking, just got back home a week ago. All in all i managed to cover 30 rivers, and I feel more competent flyfishing in nz than back home in sweden... 😅 I'll make a lengthy post about it when I've checked some boxes on my tying to-do list.

Thanks retro, those caddis look great!

Hey all ordered five dryfly capes and some large peacock eyes a couple of weeks ago and when i got back home last week the stuff was waiting for me in the mail, I live in sweden so was a little concerned about shipping etc. The capes were in unmarked bags and of good quality. As a reference they were of slightly lower quality compared to two whiting bronze capes I've tied with in the past but definately usable for all intents and purposes. My only conplaint is that on the website it says that for orders over 125 usd shipping internationally a complementary whiting 100's pack will be included, and this I never recieved despite specifying feather size for the 100's pack in an email.

Bought some size 8 "carp hooks" on ebay for big nymphs. They seem ok at first glance will be interesting to see how they hold up in a fishing situation... URL=http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/sgt-Bulb/media/IMG_20170630_221616_303_zpsowb8nhjj.jpg.html][/url]

Cheers JSzymczyk back home now, had a blast. SILKHDH ran out of money so had to round off my trip but you should try it sometime, if you buy a car and sell it before leaving your costs go wayyy down