Not so good.

[McFlyLures 0]

So I didnt do to well on this one... Its tough when they are small like this (for me). I am sure some of you have no trouble with the smaller ones. Plus, when I'm filming I have to sit further back from my vice, where I'm tying with my arms stretched out in front of me, so these smaller flies are tougher while filming. But yeah, Any suggestions for the casing other then turkey feather?

 

Hook: Umpqua U002 - Size 18

Thread: Ultra Thread 70 - Wood Duck

Tail: Hairs mask clipping

Abdomen: Hares ear dubbing - Natural

Ribbing: Small gold wire

Casing: Flashabou & turkey tail feather fibers

Thorax: Hares Ear Dubbing - Natural

[ihang10 0]

Casing: flash and epoxy. Root beer or copper.

[Dave G. 0]

I don't know about all these fancy hares ears with flash this and flash that but my favorite wing case material on a hares ear nymph is peacock herl. Depending on the size of the nymph I might use 4 strands on average, bigger ones 6 strand etc. Favorite material why you ask ? Because the fish love them that way. It's my most productive hares ear nymph that have peacock herl for the wing case.

 

Incidentally, I don't know if you upgrading lighting and camera but the visual quality in this video is excellent.

[flytire 0]

use a biot

 

 

moose body hair

 

 

black holographic tinsel

 

 

be creative. experiment

[JoeBillingsley 0]

I agree with Dave G. A drop of super glue on the back of the hare's ear thorax before pulling the herl over will make the peacock wing case a little more durable. Not enough to soak into the peacock, just enough to make the back of the thorax sticky.

 

Joe

[McFlyLures 0]

I don't know about all these fancy hares ears with flash this and flash that but my favorite wing case material on a hares ear nymph is peacock herl. Depending on the size of the nymph I might use 4 strands on average, bigger ones 6 strand etc. Favorite material why you ask ? Because the fish love them that way. It's my most productive hares ear nymph that have peacock herl for the wing case.

 

Incidentally, I don't know if you upgrading lighting and camera but the visual quality in this video is excellent.

Will that be too fluffy for the casing? Like the fibers I would think would stand up a lot, especially on these smaller size ones I tie.

[McFlyLures 0]

I like the black tinsel idea... thanks!

[Dave G. 0]

 

I don't know about all these fancy hares ears with flash this and flash that but my favorite wing case material on a hares ear nymph is peacock herl. Depending on the size of the nymph I might use 4 strands on average, bigger ones 6 strand etc. Favorite material why you ask ? Because the fish love them that way. It's my most productive hares ear nymph that have peacock herl for the wing case.

 

Incidentally, I don't know if you upgrading lighting and camera but the visual quality in this video is excellent.

Will that be too fluffy for the casing? Like the fibers I would think would stand up a lot, especially on these smaller size ones I tie.

 

All I can say is try it, it works great for me. It's buggy, yet velvet looking if you do it right and it really turned the fish on when I tried it, so I never looked back.

[JoeBillingsley 0]

When I first started tying flies back in the early '80's, the first fly I learned to tie was the Hare's Ear. I can't remember what book it was that I first bought to learn to tie (one of Jack Dennis', maybe?), but the author recommended using peacock herl for the wing case because he wrote that any time you can sneak peacock into a fly, do it. I have always used it ever since. I also saw recently that Kelly Galloup has always used it on his Hare's Ears, too. It works.

 

Joe

[McFlyLures 0]

I'll try it, but I'm just thinking on these 18-22 sized flies it would be too large and fluffy on top. I could be wrong though! So I'll try. I can totally see it as the whole thorax (like a copper John) but somehow a wing case doesn't seem to work out in my head. But heck, I'll try it and probably love it! Haha.

[Gene L 0]

Looks fishy. Me, I'd make the tail shorter, but that's just me. Good video.

[McFlyLures 0]

Good point about the tail length, I agree...

[Poopdeck 0]

Don't sell yourself short. I don't do much trout fishing, maybe a dozen trips a year, but when I do it's 98% with a hares ear in some shape or form. I tie them with beads, no bead, flashback, flashback with bead, humpbacks, gold ribbing, mono ribbing, no ribbing, peacock herl, pheasant tail, short tail, long tail, whatever they all work. I really like the flashback for early stockies. I also see no point in tying them smaller then 18 but again I do very little trout fishing in the grand scheme of things. I think it's more important to weight them appropriately to get them bouncing along the bottom then any other factor, When I want smaller I just go with a simpler tie like an als rat which the brookies really seem to like on a nearby native stream nearby.

[fishinguy 0]

I'll try it, but I'm just thinking on these 18-22 sized flies it would be too large and fluffy on top. I could be wrong though! So I'll try. I can totally see it as the whole thorax (like a copper John) but somehow a wing case doesn't seem to work out in my head. But heck, I'll try it and probably love it! Haha.

try the smaller shorter herls up near or in the eye of the feather.

[Dave G. 0]

I tie my hares ears down to size 20 but size 16 is a very productive size and universal for several species of bugs where I fish. Peacock herl wing case in an 18 will work fine, probably two strands worth in that size.. But it depends on your peacock herl , I have packages of stranded herl and with different shadings and various thicknesses , some the bronze you don't see so often today. But even so, you can rub some of that fuzziness off too if it bothers you. If you are going to pull flash down over it anyway, then certainly the fuzz won't matter ( I wouldn't personally, I like the raw material showing and the fish seem to as well).

 

I didn't used to use peacock herl in the HE, they showed up around here in fly shop display cases with herl wing cases probably around 1990 and I just didn't care for the look. Then one day in Maine in our old trailer we had at the time I had some herl on my tying bench, too lazy to dig out some other feather ( I had been using either turkey or pheasant back then) I just decided to try the herl in the Hares Ears I was about to tie. I liked using it immediately, instant buggy look and the fish responded very well so it became my standard. Tailing fibers I'm in a constant flux over though. They tend to end up being what I have out, which is often natural hen, coachman brown or something ginger ( barred ginger fiber are good and badger fibers too ).

 

I tie a large Hares Ear ( size 8 or even 6) for the Drake hatch ( I hope to get to Maine for one again some day, we seem to miss it fairly regularly, but if you go pre drake , like a week before the nymphs are moving ,you can bump these on or near the bottom anyway and pick up fish), I tie them in brown but also olive. I use fairly heavy lead wraps to weight the forward part of the shank and wrap the rear portion with an under body of fine olive chenille to meet up with the lead , then dub over that with natural hare/rabbit dubbing in either olive or in brown. I use 6-7 strands of herl on that for the wing case. For the record, the brown out fishes the olive. Probably if you put a collar or palmered hackle through the thorax on the olive, it would be a good hex nymph in some locations.