The challenge thread!

[Heff2 0]

21 hours ago, cencalfly said:

Didn't have any egg beads so I cinched up some Glo-Bug yarn with backing

@cenafly I quite like the version with the yarn egg,  I'm going to try this myself.  

 

CP, that is a great tie,  I'll be trying this one too.  sounds like a great way to lock in the bucktail.  

[flytire 0]

ed haas technique

SST Flies: Salmon Steelhead and Trout Fly Tying: Ed Haas Tying Technique: The Weitchpec Witch

[Heff2 0]

thx flytire,  very cool 

[flytire 0]

i'll attempt the golden girl

[cphubert 0]

6 hours ago, Heff2 said:

CP, that is a great tie

thank you I really like the Haas method with squirrel or bear wings any slippery hair that doesn't compress well is really locked in place. Norm thanks for finding that link a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

[Heff2 0]

Here is my attempt at a golden girl.  Norm, I look forward to seeing yours.  

 

Hook: Mustad signature 

Tip: orange floss 

Body: Gold Mylar

Throat: cream hackle 

Underwing: Orange bucktail (subbed White bucktail )

Wing: Golden Pheasant tippet   

(Overwing should be golden pheasant but I reorganized and can't find my crests at the moment  )

[flytire 0]

Golden Girl

Roderick Haig-Brown, 1940s

Tip - Gold oval tinsel (fine)
Tag - Orange silk
Tail - Golden pheasant crest
Body - Gold flat tinsel
Hackle - Yellow
Wing - Orange polar bear hair*, two golden pheasant tippet feathers
Topping - Golden pheasant crest

*I used orange bucktail

Classic Steelhead Flies - John Shewey

 

For the history buffs

 

The preeminent British Columbia fly-angling historian, Arthur Lingren, produced two editions of Fly Patterns of British Columbia, one of several titles he has released through Frank Amato Publications. The original edition found a waiting audience in 1996, and then in 2008, Lingren again demonstrated his grasp of historical research methodology in an expanded edition timed to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Roderick Haig-Brown, the pioneering, British-born angler who fell in love with the waters of British Columbia and penned some of fly angling’s most poignant and powerful words. Lingren’s expanded volume was subtitled The Roderick Haig-Brown Centenary Edition and it is replete with captivating details about Haig-Brown and other prominent fly designers of British Columbia. 

Of the Golden Girl, Lingren informs the reader that Haig-Brown devised this fly chiefly for winter steelhead; he wanted a simple fly dressed in shades of red and orange that would bear some resemblance to the ornate feather wing Atlantic salmon flies he knew so well from his British upbringing. “The pattern Haig-Brown developed,” explains Lingren, “was a combination of the slim-bodied Red Sandy and the golden pheasant tippet-winged Durham Ranger without many of the frills.” 

Lingren notes that the original dressing had a tail made from the small red feather of the Indian fruit crow (a South American bird of the Cotinga family), but that eventually Haig-Brown opted instead for a golden pheasant crest feather (a “topping,” to use the Atlantic salmon parlance) for the tail. Indeed, the topping-tailed version is the familiar pattern, though the fly looks nothing short of riveting when the golden pheasant crest tail is itself topped with a layer of fruit crow feathers or substitutes, such as small, scarlet-dyed hen neck feathers or likewise dyed golden pheasant throat feathers. In later versions, Haig-Brown also included a tag of orange silk, which is made all the more lustrous if underlain and tipped with flat tinsel. As evidence to that variation, Walt Johnson (in the 1990s) supplied me with copies of steelhead fly recipes submitted to the Washington Fly Fishing Club in the 1950s and 60s, including a page of patterns submitted by Haig-Brown. 

For the Golden Girl, Haig-Brown specifies a tag of orange silk, and says of the fly, “This is primarily a winter steelhead fly. Have also taken cutthroats and summer steelhead on it in sizes down to No. 8.” The other flies he included are the Quinsam Hackle, Silver Brown, and Stickle-Back.

 

[flytire 0]

next challenge fly is a.....Chironomid

sorry, no zebra midges

examples

chironomid fly patterns - Google Search

how about some of the lurkers/new members participate in tying a simple challenge fly?

[cphubert 0]

12 hours ago, Heff2 said:

golden girl

 

2 hours ago, flytire said:

Golden Girl

Nice pair of Golden girls and thanks Norm for the great addition of the history, your additions are always informative and well presented..

[Sandan 0]

On 10/21/2023 at 6:21 AM, flytire said:

next challenge fly is a.....Chironomid

sorry, no zebra midges

examples

chironomid fly patterns - Google Search

how about some of the lurkers/new members participate in tying a simple challenge fly?

This has been sitting here way too long. I'll take it

[Sandan 0]

Sawyer's bow tie buzzer variation

Hook, 200R size 16

Thread:Uni 8/0 rusty brown

Rib: brassie utc amber

Tail/body/thorax/wingcase: natural pheasant tail fibers

Underbody: med opal tinsel

Breathers: glamor madeira

Next up: since it's streamer season for trout....Heng's Autumn Splendor. Variants are AOK.

[Heff2 0]

I'll take Heng's Autumn Splendor

[Heff2 0]

Heng's Autumn Splendor - 

Hook: Mustad Streamer 
Weight: .02 Lead Wire
Cone: Medium Copper 
Thread: Uni Camel 6/0 
Tail: Brown  Marabou
Flash: Krystal Flash*
Body: Mixed Brown and Arizona ice dub 
Legs: Yellow Round 
Rib: red Wire
Hackle: Grizzly and Barred ginger 1 of each 

* forgot to add the crystal flash but I think the ice dub in the body is enough flash,  for clear water anyways. 

 

Next challenge fly is the RS2 

 

 

[Poopdeck 0]

I’ll take the RS2 and I’ll tie it on my official Rim Chung RS2 tying vise.

[flytire 0]

challenge list updated

Challenge Thread Fly Pattern List - The Fly Tying Bench - Fly Tying (flytyingforum.com)