Simple flies...

[navigator37 0]

Hi all.

We have probably all gotten into tying some complex flies to test some ideas

and skills.

Do any of you ever just try out some of the simple flies you can make

with just the thread and a few wraps of material?

I have found flies like this to work just as well as some complex creations

I have tried in the past. With synthetic hackles now, you can create a real buggy

looking fly that works for trout quite often.

Super bug yarn and Rainy's micro mohair are examples of some materials you can use.

[utyer 0]

You have a winner there, and you have hit on a very good consept. The KISS principle is a good one to follow when tying flies. Simple flies are easy to tie, usually cheap to tie, and CATCH FISH. When I teach, I alway start with one material flies. Patterns like the Green Weenie, San Juan Worm, thread midges, and mohair leaches are nothing more than one material wrapped around a hook, or tied to a hook. Easy for even a beginner, and all worthy of any fly fishers fly box. More advanced, but still single material would be dubbed fur nymphs, or "flymphs."

 

Add just one more material, like a wire rib, or a hackle, and there are hundreds of patterns you can create. The Griffith Gnat is just herl, and a hackle. A little deer hair, and some dubbing, and you can tie up a comparadun. These simple dry flies are about all I ever use for "matching a hatch." My fly boxes are full of one, two, and three material simple impressionistic flies. I rarely ever spend more time tying a fly to fish with, that the time it takes me to loose it in a tree, on the first or second back cast.

 

Keep tying simple patterns, and your boxes will fill quickly with great fish catching flies.

[dwiltshire 0]

Do any of you ever just try out some of the simple flies you can make

with just the thread and a few wraps of material?

I have found flies like this to work just as well as some complex creations

 

Yes: I totally agree

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=53062

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Hair wing streamers are another example. Flies like the Mickey Fin, The Blonde, and Bucktail Bendbacks don't really need the tinsel or chenille bodies. A hunk of bucktail pulled through the water has the shape of a baitfish more or less.

 

But what would I spend the rest of all my money on if I only had to buy bucktail and hooks?

 

Kirk

[rockworm 0]

navigator

 

I couldn't agree with you more. Some of the most effective flies are no more than tying thread and a hackle (Stewart's Spiders, Snipe and Purple, ...) Another good example is the original Pheasant Tail Nymph which was just copper wire and PT!

[blakejd 0]

I've never fished them but the string thing is suppose to be a killer and its just thread on a hook. The only possible thing simpler would be hoping the fish finds the hook looks tasty. I'll have to give them a go soon.

[letumgo 0]

Simple flies have produced very well for me as well. I am a firm believer in impressionistic patterns for fishing.

[biginjapan 0]

[totally with you on that, my top chrominid pattern is simply a layer of thread down the hook and a turn or three of peacock at the thorax. deadly too.

[flytire 0]

Do any of you ever just try out some of the simple flies you can make

with just the thread and a few wraps of material?

 

heres one on my blog

 

http://flytyingnewandold.blogspot.com/

 

[redietz 0]

You have a winner there, and you have hit on a very good consept. The KISS principle is a good one to follow when tying flies. Simple flies are easy to tie, usually cheap to tie, and CATCH FISH.

 

You left out another important attribute of simple flies, although it's related to all of the above. You can take more chances with them and get them to where the fish are. I think twice before casting a fly that took me 15 minutes to tie into a brush pile, or under a low overhang. With a fly that took me less than a minute to tie, though, there's no reason not to try it.

[iso18 0]

In the summer,like right now,when the water begins to get very low,my favorite fish catching fly is simply a #28,30,or 32 hook wrapped with thread and then i put a cdc wing on it.Thats it.Learned the pattern from thye book "midge magic".This past weekend i caught over 50 fish on this fly,yes simple is better allot of times.

shane

[FlatzFatz 0]

Do any of you ever just try out some of the simple flies you can make

with just the thread and a few wraps of material?

 

heres one on my blog

 

http://flytyingnewandold.blogspot.com/

 

Great blog bro...enjoyed your post and fly tying instructions.