Pott Stickers

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 This is a Frans Pott Sandy Mite.  Pott started manufacturing these in the early 1920s.  They used to be by far the most popular fly in Montana.  Woven hair hackle weaving is time consuming and hard to learn.  Frans Pott, George Grant, Henry Wombacher, Tom McIntyre, Mark Freedman, Matt Watrous, Robert Biggar, Todd Collins and Randy Flynn are the tiers I know about who have figured it out--and who make their own woven hair hackle flies--with two or three thread strand weaving techniques that often vary slightly from tier to tier.

I'm a retired computer programmer--software engineer as it were.  In my profession "lazy" is considered a virtue.  Larry Wall who invented the Perl programming language coined this idea.  What he really meant was "Any technique that is faster and easier and just as good or better than its more complex competition..................is by definition better."  In that sense Larry Wall dedicated his programming career to being lazy.

In that sense, as a fly tier, I've been dedicated to lazy for a long time now.
Here's the Frans Pott original deal:  A Sandy Mite:

The Pott Sticker
A long time ago I found I could wind hair onto a hook so it jambs up against a bead, so it looks a lot like a woven hair hackle fly but I didn't have to weave anything.  This idea puts a bead behind the hackle.  I called it a Pott Sticker.

I never could get Pott Stickers to work with the bead in front of the hair hackle, or with no bead at all. Until I tried tying the hair on so the fibers point forward (temporarily) tenkara style that is.  If you put a bead on the hook as a first step, then tie the body (two contrasting rubberleg strands) and then tie the hair on so it points forward over and past the bead, you can then push the bead backward so it forces the hair fibers to point slightly back instead of forward. Then whip finish in front of the bead.

Or do the same thing without any bead.  Fibers face forward.  And then back. Then wrap a head and whip finish.  Pott Stickers.  I like'em.
                                                                                                     

[DarrellP 0]

So these are wound rubber legs rather than hair?  How do they hold up?

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How does a rubberleg body  hold up? Good question.  Silicone rubberlegs do not last all that long.  I don't know the chemical difference but I use the strong stretchy rubbery stuff that includes the trade name Spanflex.  Or is it Span-Flex?  That stuff is indestructible.  You could make a sling shot with it.

 

The bead behind the hackle version of the Pott Sticker is a good decade old at this point.  It's long been one of my goto flies.  The bead in front of the hackle and the no bead at all versions are new.  They depend on tying the hair so it points forward at first.  And then somehow someway forcing the hair to point back.

 

[SilverCreek 0]

The Franz Pott flies are woven out of hair, for example, hair from a horse's mane.

The two fly tying books (The Master Fly Weaver and Montana Trout Flies) that I have that discuss Franz's method of tying these flies are written by George Grant who applied these methods to tying stonefly nymphs. Here is a George Grant fly

 

I've fished woven flies when I fished the Big Lost river on a private ranch near Mackay, Idaho. My fishing buddy's a son in law owned the ranch.  The woven fly I used is the Mackay Special which is an imitation of the cranefly nymphs in the river. I had a great day catching rainbows on that fly.

 

 

[Al Beatty 0]

Hi Group,

Franz Pott patterns, George Grant patterns, the Makay Special and others are featured in our book, the Art of the Weave. It is available on Amazon or on our website (btsflyfishing.com). The hackle for the Pott's Mite and the Grant's patterns are all woven on a loop of thread. Both men "patented" their weaving designs. Pott's patent(s) featured 2- or 3-thread weaving loops and Grant used a 2-thread weaving loop. Grant's hackle weaving method was different that either of Pott's methods. Take care & ...

Tight Lines - (Gretchen &) Al Beatty
www.btsflyfishing.com

[flytire 0]

sandy mite

 

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Here's Mark Freedman's version of the Sandy Mite.

https://montana-riverboats.com/?robopage=Flies/Mark-Freedman

I need to start making video.  I'm pretty close.  I have a new camera and all the needed software.  I'm having trouble getting my butt in gear.

 

 

[salmobytes 0]

The Sandy Mite is one of the greatest flies if all time--largely because of it's transparently superior name.

 

 

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Hair hackles tied the no-bead way, as above, would make an interesting dry fly.  George Grant Randy Flynn and others made and still make woven hair hackle dry flies.   I'll have to work on a no-weave version.