Hatches

Fall 2010

Volume 4, No. 1

Practical & Artistic Fly Tying

16 Beads: Tying with light

n evolving composition grows from the A palette—the origin of color, form, and light.

By Russ Forney

26 Traditional Wet Flies

otes on Materials, Procedures, Proportions, and N Techniques.

By Don Bastian

44 “On the Tenth Day”

I n slow motion the fish backs off, flicks its tail, floats to the surface, opens its mouth, and -- YES! Strike!

Oh, my, it’s a trout… and a good one, too!

By Ulf Hagström

66 Covering the

Hendrickson Hatch

o hatch brings Northeastern anglers out like the N Hendrickson. It’s our first reliable hatch of goodsized bugs, bugs we can see.

By Nick Pionessa

90 Fly Tying for Atlantic

Salmon in Norway

uring the last two decades, the flies used in D Norwegian salmon rivers have changed.

By Sverre T. H. Solgård

4 Chubby Muffin Cicada

By Nick Granato

Diving

By Alex Cerveniak

10 Dumpster 36 Blending Your Own Dubbing

By Keith Barton

Perfection

By Capt. John Meskauskas

41 In Pursuit Of 53 Improving Your Tying Skills

By Al & Gretchen Beatty

By Mark Dysinger

62 The Bunny Split 86 Tying the

Devil’s Reject

Fly Tied by Brent Drew Intro by Alex Cerveniak

Reflection On Flies

By Bob White

95 A Midwinter

Cover photo by Jason Jagger Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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From the Editors Al & Gretchen Beatty

We don’t know about all of you, but we usually spend at least a few minutes a day on the Fly Tying Forum (www.flytyingforum.com) Web site. Every time we sign on we are amazed at the depth Will and his team have brought to the site AND how much it has grown since we first joined in August 2004.

Some parts of the site have grown so much they now are sites of their own. Examples that come to mind are the Classic Streamer and Wet Fly Forum and the Classic and Artistic Salmon Fly Forum, not to mention the one “most important” to you the person reading this introduction, the Hatches magazine site.

We know you might wonder why a website would be important to you, a person reading a print-media publication. But take a quick look at the cover of this magazine: The title is Hatches and the cover photo effectively illustrates why it truly is a guide to Practical & Artistic Fly Tying. Today Hatches is a slick “hard-copy” magazine, but it started as a humble digital newsletter that grew into the yearly periodical you now hold.

Isn’t this country a great place? People with vision can grow and nurture their ideas into end products limited only by their imaginations. That’s why we’re pleased to be part of the team who bring this magazine to you each year.

This issue’s editorial lineup is nothing short of amazing! We thought the articles and photography were great in the first three issues, but this fourth issue beats them all. The articles are top-quality and cover a wide range of fly-tying topics.

Who would have thought about flies as windows to a man’s soul, but Bob White gave us that perspective on fly patterns in his article “A Midwinter Reflection on Flies.” As Bob so well explains, flies don’t always have to be tied to end up as an offering to a fish; they can also be viewed as collectibles.

We also are pleased to offer the fly tier a few tying tips of our own, starting on page 53.

Our purpose there is not to insult anyone’s skills, but instead to present techniques that have worked well for us over the years. There may be a tip or two of value to advanced tiers, but you’ll have to ferret them out because we’ve hidden them within the instructions for an interesting pattern straight from our own fly boxes.

We are especially pleased that wet-fly expert Don Bastian has an article that offers four methods of setting a traditional quill wing. His unique writing style presents this fairly complex subject in a way easily understood by any tier who wants to construct patterns with history in their designs. Master what Don has to offer, and you too can be a wet-fly tier.

Nick Pionessa’s article on the Hendrickson acquaints readers with every stage of that fabled mayfly hatch, and includes patterns that represent each part of the insect’s life cycle. It is a must-read for any angler who might encounter Hendricksons.

Another fun read is Mark Dysinger’s piece on the Bunny Split, a pattern that pike and many other species find attractive. You will also find five great patterns for one of our favorite fish (carp) in Alex Cerveniak’s article. We’ve had a chance to try the patterns and are pleased to report they really work if presented to the fish as suggested.

Long-time friend Russ Forney’s article titled “Beads -- Tying with Light” is the best we’ve ever read on the subject. We were quite intrigued with his thoughts regarding what beads represent to fish, and you will be too. It is most thought provoking.

And speaking of thought provoking, you’ll definitely get another take on tying Atlantic salmon flies when you read what Norwegian Sverre T. H. Solgard has to say about tube flies for salmon. They are both functional and beautiful.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of the topics covered so well in this issue of the magazine. Flip over to the contents page and discover all the new fly-tying challenges in store for you! Welcome to Hatches 2010. •

Tight Lines – Gretchen & Al Beatty, Boise, Idaho We think the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the worst environmental disaster we’ve ever witnessed. It will likely take more years than we have left on this Earth for the environment to recover fully, at least in the opinion of two people who tie flies and write about it. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those suffering from the disaster.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

Practical & Artistic Fly Tying Executive Editors Al & Gretchen Beatty Managing Editor Will Mullis III Associate Editor Nick Pujic Editorial Director John McCoy Contributing Writers Russ Forney, Don Bastian, Ulf Hagström, Nick Pionessa, Sverre T. H. Solgård, Nick Granato, Alex Cerveniak, Keith Barton, Capt. John Meskauskas, Al & Gretchen Beatty, Bob White Mailing Address Hatches Magazine 16 Huntington Ave Amelia, OH 45102 Phone: (513) 300-8881 Email: info@hatchesmagazine.com Website: www.hatchesmagazine.com

Articles, news items, and tips are ­invited from freelance writers, anglers, or by any other interested parties. Please include postage for return of photos, slides, or other materials. Hatches Magazine cannot be held responsible for lost items.

All facts, opinions, and statements appearing within this publication are those of the writers, and are in no way to be construed as ­statements, positions, or endorsements. No part of this publication can be ­reproduced in any manner without the written consent of the publisher. ©2010 Hatches Magazine

“ PASS IT ON!”

the 2010

International

Fly Tying

Symposium

November 20 & 21 DOUBLETREE HOTEL SOMERSET, NJ

Complete fly shops & manufacturers will have everything for fly tying on display and for sale.

Plus over 100 tyers from around the world will share their secrets with you!

Celebrating our 20th Anniversary!

The World’s Largest Show for Fly Tying!

internationalflytyingsymposium.com SHOW SPONSORS:

Chubby Muffin Cicada Story, flies and photos

by Nick Granato

Cicada.

The word grabs the attention of any fly angler within ­earshot. Fly shops buzz with anticipation weeks before the first bug even emerges. The word rolls off the tongue and has a pleasant sound, doesn’t it? “Sih-KAYYY-daaa.”

T

he word generally means it’s time to wet-wade and fish large terrestrials to large trout. But this isn’t the case across the country; bass, carp and other species also key in on the succulent, protein-laden creatures.

Truth be told, the word extends to 100 cicada species found in North America and almost 2,000 varieties throughout the world. From New Zealand to Utah they are a “hatch” anglers take note of.

Just how many fish take advantage of this unique food source during its manifold emergences? It boggles the mind.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

After all, cidadas so prevalent when they hatch that fish lock in on them and stay locked, often chowing down on imitations long after all the naturals are gone.

Which words come to mind when I’m asked to describe a cicada’s appearance? Black and orange, at least in my neck of the woods. Loud, fat, stubby, stout and chubby also come to mind, and all are attributes I want my cicada patterns to have.

I also want cicada imitations that land correctly with every cast, ride low in the water without sinking, and will be visible in rough water. If a fly sinks in turbulent water, is hard to

“Sih-KAYYY-daaa.”

CHUBBY MUFFIN CICADA

spot or just doesn’t ride right I’m not fishing it -- period, end of story. I don’t care if it’s a dead ringer for the natural, I’ve been down that road and I’m not going back.

Sure, flies need to look good. But first and foremost they need to be functional. So herein lays the challenge -- creating a complete fly; one that is realistic, rides low without sinking and is easy to spot even from afar. These are the attributes that spawned the Chubby Muffin Cicada.

Too often as fly tiers we create patterns to impress ourselves and other anglers instead of fish. Worse, we create them to

look pleasing while dry. Over the years I’ve heard “that’s too shaggy,” “it needs to be sparser,” “too bulky” and “it needs to be slimmed down a little” said of more patterns than I can recall. Frankly I don’t care what people say, especially while those patterns are dry and out of the water. I do care, however, about what fish eat and why they eat it!

Often the fish want something with more body -- like the naturals they are used to eating, not the pretty and slender flies tied to please ourselves and others.

Tying cicada flies isn’t as easy as it seems. The fly must without a doubt land upright every time, ride low in the water like a natural, land with “splat,” and also be extremely buoyant. A huge dictating factor in accomplishing these goals comes from hook choice, and that is why the CMC is tied not on a dry fly hook but rather on a TMC 2302 nymph hook or a TMC 8089 bass-popper hook (depending on the cicada species being imitated and the hook gape desired).

The extra weight of the hook ensures that the fly lands with enough force to make it noticeable, allows it to ride low in the water, makes it float upright every time, and yet is very hard to sink. The calf-tail or fluorescent-white floating poly wing addresses the need for visibility in rougher water while also adding to the CMC’s buoyancy. I’ve also noticed that

fish often prefer the white wing over a traditional hair wing, probably because cicadas’ wings are transparent rather than solid, with a bold ultraviolet signature. The thick, wirewrapped Evazote foam body helps with buoyancy while boosting the “Splat” factor.

To me this is a complete pattern, one I can have confidence in. It can be fished hard and with reckless abandon anywhere there’s a fish holding in wait of a cicada. As anglers, we all know that the fly we have absolute confidence in is often the best tool in our fly boxes.

•

Materials List Hook: Thread:

TMC 2302 or 8089 Black Danville Flymaster Plus, 210 denier Rib: Hot orange Waspi Ultra Wire, Brassie size Dubbing: A Blend of 70 percent hot orange and 30 percent black Hareline Ice Dub UV Body: Rainy’s black 1/4’’ Evazote foam Legs: Wapsi barred Sili Legs in black/red and orange/black Wing Viens: Peacock Krystal Flash Wing: Fluorescent White calf tail or fluorescent white Floating Poly Yarn Eyes: Montana Fly silver/red 3.5mm Jurassic Eyes.

Glue: Loctite Super Glue

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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Tying Instructions

Step 1: Cut a 1-inch by ½-inch piece of foam.

Step 2: Trim one end, forming the head.

Step 4: Use a lighter to gently flame the edges. Use your fingers to shape the foam as desired while it cools.

Step 5: Start the thread one-third of the way back from

the eye. This will help you keep the proportions correct when it comes time to add the wings and legs.

Step 3: Trim the other end to form the end.

Step 6: Tie in the wire.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

“Sih-KAYYY-daaa.”

CHUBBY MUFFIN CICADA

Step 7: Make a 70/30 ratio of Ice Dub UV orange over black blend and dub it up the thread’s starting point.

Step 8: Apply a line of glue along the back of the ­dubbing.

Step 9: Press the foam body onto the hook with the head right behind the hook eye.

Step 10: Make three wraps of ribbing at the base of

the dubbing before you wrap the body. You will make two wraps around the body before each segment and advance to the next segment through the dubbing.

Step 11: Tie in the peacock Krystal Flash.

Step 12: Tie in the over-wing and trim it flush; you can use either Floating Poly or calf tail for the wing. Poly will ride higher in the water.

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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Tying Instructions

Step 13: Apply enough dubbing to make two to three wraps to secure the legs, and dub up to the hook eye. As you wrap the dubbing apply the legs so they splay slightly downward.

Step 14: Whip-finish the head.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

CHUBBY MUFFIN CICADA

Step 15: Place a small amount of glue on the back of the eyes and press them on.

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Story, flies and photos by Alex Cerveniak

Dumpster diving There’s an age-old question: What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? I don’t know much about all that physics stuff, but what I do know is that when you combine the two,

you get a carp.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

Dumpster diving Whoever named the common carp obviously never did battle with one, because they fight in a way that is anything but common. I’ll never forget the first time I felt the power of these fish, on a muddy stream in upstate New York. That first fish bulldozed its way into my backing and spun my reel handle out of control, beating chunks of skin from my knuckles. That painful encounter marked the beginning of a new obsession in my fly fishing life.

Much has been written about fly fishing for carp over the past five to 10 years, and most of it adds to a misconception that these fish are hard to catch. From my experience, carp don’t really care what the fly you’re using looks like as long as it is presented properly. It’s for this reason that I carry just a few select fly patterns, each of which allows me to adapt to different conditions or to present the fly to the fish in a different manner.

You’ll notice that I won’t be sharing patterns for cottonwood seeds, or for the fabled mulberry hatch. Carp might feed on these items when they’re highly

abundant, but I have never seen a mass of purple berries floating down the river, and chances are you won’t either. I’ve seen enormous numbers of cottonwood seeds on the water, but have yet to see a carp pay any attention to them.

I should also mention that you shouldn’t have to resort to applying scent to carp flies. A friend tried this tactic once and, despite plenty of shots at feeding fish, we all paid for his greed with a thorough skunking. The lesson?

Scent is bad mojo; avoid it unless you want to smell like a skunk.

The one bit of fishing advice I will give is to seek out feeding fish. If you see fish leisurely cruising around or sunning themselves, don’t waste your time casting to them. This is probably the most common mistake I see beginning carp anglers make. Who can blame them? It’s tough to ignore a 30-pound fish. I like to cast my fly past a feeding carp, being careful not to let my fly line land in the fish’s view. Normally I use a homemade 12-foot leader tapered from 20-pound to 8-pound test. I cast so my fly lands about 8 feet past the fish, giving me about 4 feet of buffer between the end of the fly line and the fish’s field of vision. After the fly settles to the bottom, I’ll quickly bring it near to the fish’s feeding area and then slow my retrieve down until the fly has passed completely through the fish’s dinner plate. Once the fly clears the fish’s feeding area, I’ll stop my retrieve until the mud plume dissipates or the fish emerges from the sediment cloud. I’ll then give the fly a few more twitches, a suggestion to

the fish that it stirred something up that is now getting away. If the fish hasn’t taken the fly by this time, I’ll recast and repeat this sequence until the fish stops feeding, I put it down, or I hook up.

One of the key advantages to this presentation method is that I don’t spook nearly as many fish as I would if I drop the fly directly in front of the fish’s nose.

Nothing spooks carp like the loud plop of a fly entering the water or a fly line landing too close to them. If you prefer to put the fly closer to a feeding carp, I’d recommend using a lighter eye material such as bead chain to form the eyes of your flies. I’d also suggest using an excessive amount of dubbing, especially near the eyes, to help cushion the fly as it enters the water.

Without further ado, here are five flies I’ve found indispensable for targeting common carp. You’ll notice that each fly is some shade of brown. This is because brown flies seem to produce better for me on the waters I fish. Don’t be afraid to try other colors such as olive or black. One thing I’ve learned to love about this assortment is that I can take any of these fly patterns to any body of water, anywhere in the country, target any species of fish, and be successful. The other nice thing about these patterns is that they all are relatively quick to tie.

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Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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The Mixed Media

ZZ Top Carp Bug (variant)

This is my go-to fly when hitting the water for carp.

This fly pattern was originally created by Ohioan, Joe Cornwall, to target both smallmouth and largemouth bass. Since adding this pattern to my arsenal, I’ve taken pretty much every species of fish targeted by fly fishermen in the Northeast/Midwest. But where it really excels is on shallow flats when water clarity is excellent. Avoid dumbbell eyes with shiny surfaces, or coat them with an earth-tone paint, and you’ll see the number of refusals decrease dramatically.

The ZZ Top Carp Bug is a pattern I received in a fly swap from Chad Coontz of Fort Collins, Colorado.

The fly I received from Chad had a smooth body, bead-chain eyes, and legs tied in on the underside of the fly. The fly shown is a variation of Chad’s bug, the main differences being a heavily dubbed body, lead eyes, and legs on top of the body. The changes make the fly more visible as it is being retrieved along the bottom. I like to use dumbbell eyes one size heavier than would normally go with the hook size so the fly gets to the bottom in a hurry. This fly is dynamite under clear-water conditions, and also fishes well in a dark olive color scheme. I should also note that I caught my personal best smallmouth bass with this pattern.

Hook: Thread: Eyes: Underwing: Flash (optional): Overwing:

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3XL streamer hook, Size 4-10 Rusty brown Lead dumbbell eyes Brown rubber-leg material Copper Krystal Flash Six strands of brown marabou under a toothpick-sized clump of rust-colored Arctic fox, underfur included.

Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

Hook:

Eyes: Tails: Body: Legs:

XL, 2X heavy nymph hook, 2 Size 6-10 Lead dumbbell eyes Brown rubber-leg material Brown seal dubbing Brown rubber legs

Dumpster diving Shaq’s Polar Bugger

If you’re like me, the first thought that comes to your mind the first time you see this fly is, “It’s just a Woolly Bugger.” Well, this is no ordinary ‘Bugger. This fly has saved countless trips for me and its creator, guide Geoff Schaake of upstate New York. The pattern has a long list of species to its credit, including tarpon -- yeah, tarpon! While this fly can be fished on the bottom, I fish it in the middle of the water column. After tying in the tail, tie in the Polar Chenille, and then tie in the saddle hackle by the tip over top of it. Fold the saddle around the Polar Chenille and then palmer them forward together.

Hook: Tail: Body: Hackle: Weight:

ize 6, 3XL streamer hook with bead; S size 8 without bead Golden brown marabou Amber Polar Chenille Saddle hackle, olive dyed over brown Lead wire and/or black or blued bead

Circus Peanut

Carp make me think of elephants. Elephants make me think of the circus. The circus makes me think of circus peanuts. This is the largest fly in my carp box, and is only pulled out when water clarity is minimal.

Hooks: Tail: Body: Rattle (optional): Legs: Collar: Eyes:

Two 3XL size 8 streamer hooks Orange marabou Root beer brown Ice Dub Rainy’s 3mm Rubber legs Brown schlappen Lead dumbbell eyes

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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Billy Badass Step by Step This dragonfly nymph imitation is one of my favorite flies to use under slightly-stained or stained water conditions.

Inspired by Earl Madsen’s classic fly pattern, the Michigan Skunk, this pattern generates just a bit more turbulence and a lot of noise on the retrieve to help hungry carp locate its position. It’s also nearly weedless, thanks to the wing -but be careful not to use too much hair in the wing, or you may lose too much hook gape.

Hook: Eyes: Underbody: Abdomen: Legs: Wing:

Mustad 3399, Size 2-6 Lead dumbbell eyes Two 3mm Rainy’s Rattles Seal or Angora dubbing mixed with peacock Ice Dub Brown rubber legs Olive deer-body hair

Apply a small amount of Clear Cure Goo to one side of the hook shank behind the eyes. Hold a rattle in place with fingers or tweezers and hit it with the Clear Cure Goo UV light for 2 or 3 seconds. Repeat on the other side of the hook for the second rattle.

Step 1 Step 1 After securing the hook in your vise, attach the dumbbell eyes on top of the hook shank.

Step 3 Step 3 With your thread at the rearmost point of the

rattles, twist your dubbing on and build it up until you can start to dub forward without the thread sliding off the ends of the rattles.

Step 2 Step 2 Create a sparse thread base. Move your thread to a where the rear point of the rattles will eventually be.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

Dumpster diving

Step 4 Step 4 Dub up to the eyes.

Step 6 Step 6 Tie in the wing. Try to size the length of the wing

before tying it in; that way you don’t have to spend time trimming the butt ends later. Pre-trimming the wing will also give you a nicely rounded head. Avoid using too much hair, otherwise you’ll reduce the hook gape and possibly risk missed hook-sets. After the wing is tied in, move the thread in front of the eyes. Form a small head and whip

Step 5 Step 5

Attach two rubber legs on each side of the hook shank. I like to leave them connected to one another until later on in the tying process.

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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Story, flies and photos by Russ Forney

Beads: tying with light An artist’s palette is a gateway to a world of infinite possibility.

Skillfully blended colors express mood and vitality, bringing imagination to life well before a brush ever touches the canvas. An evolving composition grows from the palette—the origin of color, form, and light.

F

ly tiers also wield a palette of colors and textures. Fur, hair, hackle, tinsel, foam, yarn, wire, and beads replace oils and acrylics. We arrange materials on metal hooks and create images designed to excite aquatic audiences. Flies, like other artists’ works, are compositions of color, form, and light.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

And of these qualities, light is the most captivating.

It is impossible to definitively say how the light signature of a fly pattern affects fish behavior, at least until we better understand how fish perceive light. Best guesses take the form of human interpretation: We attribute flash, glow, sheen and other descriptions to light, and we optimistically assume fish see light in

the same way. We craft our feathered creations to express the reflective and refractive features we see in trout food: translucent gas bubbles, shiny wing cases, the silvery shimmer of fins and scales, and luminous shucks trailing behind emerging insects. Light often adds to the effectiveness of selected patterns, but the “why” of light and fish is more mystery than fact.

Beads: Tying with Light

Free-style fly designed and tied by Ronn Lucas, Sr; even craft beads enjoy an elegant setting in Lucas’ fly gallery.

Photo by Ronn Lucas, Sr.

Flash, dash, and panache The translucent patterns of light reflecting from an insect’s body change during the process of emergence. The secretion of gases beneath the nymphal skin at the onset of emergence alters the insect’s pre-emergent light profile, silhouette, and its vertical posture in the water column. Gas bubbles give the nymph buoyancy and aid its ascent to the surface. Expanding gases trapped inside the shuck may also play a role in orienting the insect in the surface film and splitting the shuck to create the opening from which the insect emerges.

Trapped gases initially appear as a translucent space beneath a nymph’s skin, an expanding bubble that shifts rearward to highlight the residual shuck trailing behind the emerging insect. As the trailing shuck is progressively cast off, it dimples the surface of the water, disturbing the refractive surface film and adding another characteristic element of light to the emerger’s appearance.

The vertical movement of an emerging insect, from creek bottom to the air-surface interface, further affects its appearance as light waves are selectively filtered when they pass through the water column. A broader spectrum of color is available at the surface than at depth.

The translucent and reflective qualities of emergent insects are visual cues for feeding fish. Trout are extremely welladapted predators, likely to notice even

Another of Lucas’ artistic fly creations, this one featuring a lampglass bead made ­specifically for Ronn.

Photo by Ronn Lucas, Sr.

subtle changes in the aquatic environment, particularly in the appearance of their prey. When thousands of nymphs begin to bloat and float, hungry fish take notice. And if vulnerable insects radiate a reflective, sparkling glow as they near

primal level, light is life energy, a natural attractant for predators.

Light reflecting from emerging caddis flies was the impetus for Gary LaFontaine’s Sparkle Pupa pattern, a revolutionary leap in fly design. More

“Most of all, glass beads provide unique transitions of light underwater due to reflection and ­refraction ­depending on the color and finish of the bead… one can argue questionable variables such as ­water ­turbidity and depth of light penetration, but the ­average trout stream or lake is going to carry plenty of light to give the glass its magic.”

Joe Warren, fly tier and fisheries biologist

the surface, they rarely go unnoticed by feeding fish.

Emergence is an energy-demanding process, as insects struggle to rid themselves of their nymphal shucks, extract their wings and bodies, and complete the transformation to terrestrial adults.

Light imparts the perception of energy and motion to a pattern, conferring lifelike attributes to a fly. The ability of materials to absorb and reflect light adds contrast to the fly and is an important design element for imitating the highly animated process of emergence. At a

recently, glass beads have been incorporated into fly designs to achieve the same effect as LaFontaine’s yarn sheath.

A glass-bead extension at the tail end of a fly further exaggerates the impression of an emerging caddisfly.

Tying with glass beads One of the greatest tools in a tier’s kit bag is the ability to add light to a fly

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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Beads: Tying with Light Pettis’ Pulsating Caddis:

Joe Warren, a fisheries biologist and fly tying author, agrees that light passing through a translucent material like glass attracts fish to a fly. He is convinced the reflection and refraction of light through glass beads provides unique spectral

tied with metal beads. The glass bead head offers a translucent alternative to the shiny surface of a brass or nickel bead. Clear, unlined glass beads can be accented with an underlying thread or tinsel base -- providing not just color,

“…glass beads take a bit more thought. Their value lies not in weight but appearance, so one has to consider design more critically. I really enjoy using glass beads, as they are still kind of a ‘frontier’ material… there is much yet to be discovered…”

Mike Mercer, fly tier and guide Notice the effect of clear, silver-lined beads (left) compared to translucent green beads (right). The clear beads reflect the green highlights and provide contrast to the darker dubbing.

Photo by Russ Forney

Hook:

urved emerger C hook, sizes 12-18 Thread: 6/0 Danville nylon monocord, color of choice Body: Three to six glass beads, depending on hook size, nymph dubbing wrapped between the beads Thorax: A collar of darker dubbing, coarse and brushed out Note: Jim’s original pattern includes legs made from wood duck flank feathers and is tied on a Tiemco 2457 hook.

pattern. Materials like reflective tinsel, metallic and opalescent threads, tinsel, colored wire, synthetic dubbing and metal beads are commonly used to enhance a pattern’s luminance. Epoxy nymph backs, plastic wing cases and synthetic fibers also add highlights to flies and draw attention to specific parts of a pattern. Glass beads, however, take the process to an entirely different level, amplifying the appearance of a fly by intrinsically illuminating the pattern.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

transitions based on the color and finish of the beads. Warren makes the further point that a bead completely surrounds the hook shank, giving the pattern a 360-degree radiance that enhances dimension. His book Tying Glass Bead Flies illustrates the striking transformation glass beads bring to fly patterns and is the sole compendium to date on the topic.

Bead position and fly design The position of one or more beads in a pattern is an important design element for tiers. You can tailor the light qualities of a fly by placing glass beads behind the hook eye, anchoring them midshank at the “belly” of a fly, stringing several beads on the hook shank, or by creating terminal extensions from the fly such as trailing shucks or extended bodies. Bead position is further enhanced by surrounding materials, allowing a wide range of contrasting colors and textures to influence the reflective surface of the glass. In some patterns the glass bead is conspicuously placed and distinctly visible, as with bead-headed flies. Glass beads can also be veiled with a sparse covering of dubbing, hair, yarn, or hackle to partially obscure reflected light, producing an inner glow to the pattern.

Glass beads on midge larvae and small nymphs resemble similar flies

but also enhanced depth and dimension.

A simple thread-body midge, with a contrasting rib and topped with a glass-bead head, is a popular pattern for tailwaters and lakes. As seen in the accompanying tying tutorial, this is an easy pattern to tie and can be endlessly modified to suit local conditions or a tier’s fancy. Red and white are common color themes, with gray, blue, cream, and candy-stripe combinations as particularly effective variations. The color and lining (clear, silver, inner color scheme) of a glass bead head can complement body color or create contrasting hue and reflectivity.

Mike Mercer, a creative tier and author, finds glass bead-headed nymphs among his most consistent patterns for trout. Mercer notes that a single glass bead added to a traditional Pheasant Tail or Prince Nymph adds a translucent appeal to the fly that is impossible to duplicate with other materials. His Midgeling fly series capitalizes on the translucent qualities of glass bead heads and is an excellent example of bead position as an effective design tool.

Beads incorporated into the body of a fly heighten transition points in the pattern. For example, beads can enhance the distinction between thorax and abdomen, or emphasize the partition between an emerging fly and a trailing shuck. Body beads do not have to be prominently displayed to call attention to a pattern, and they can

Beads: Tying with Light highlight a pattern by reflecting light through overlying materials.

Jim Pettis’ Pulsating Caddis patterns highlight the alluring effect of glass beads thinly veiled by dubbing.

Jim strings several beads on the hook shank and dubs between them with scraggly nymph dubbing. The coarse dubbing is brushed back over the bead body, partially concealing it.

The sparsely veiled beads produce a unique light signature in the pattern that, according to Pettis, pulsates light between adjacent beads.

The Bead Belly Caddis uses a glass bead to better imitate the active transition to an emerging caddis fly. A silver-lined glass bead is placed midbody and, similar to Pettis’ design, is overlapped with dubbing brushed back over the bead. The light from within that thin shell of dubbing draws attention to the pattern.

are extended off the hook shank and blended into a shank-mounted bead to form the body of the fly. A split elk hair wing orients the fly in the surface film and adds buoyancy to offset the mass of the bead body.

Tubular bugle beads offer another option for building an extended body with glass. These beads are long and hollow, like miniature tubes, and come in straight and twisted designs. The twisted bugle beads have a slight spiral, about an eighth of a turn along the length of the bead. The spiraled surface enhances the reflective surface of the bead, bouncing light along each angle of the spiraled facets.

Beyond the bend

Occasionally someone comes along and punctuates the tying process with remarkable handiwork. Such is the case with Ronn Lucas Sr. and his artistic expressions using glass-beaded flies.

The graceful lines of his dressings showcase the light-gathering qualities of glass. Ronn designs flies around artisan beads, and the results are spec-

Positioning a string of glass beads off the hook as an extended body or trailing shuck is a creative technique that maximizes the visual appeal of glass in a fly pattern. Mike Mercer moved most of the beads completely off the hook

The art of glass-beaded flies

“The bottom line is that using beads for flies can not only produce exceptional fish catching flies, it can be downright fun producing wild free style flies.

I hope you will give it a try for either or both use.

We haven’t seen anything yet, there are more wonderful things to discover!”

Mercer’s Midgeling:

Mike Mercer’s Midgeling pattern features a translucent glass bead head and microtubing overwrap on the body. Shown here in opalescent olive (top left) and tan with orange flash (bottom right).

Photo by Russ Forney

Hook:

urved emerger C hook, sizes 16-20 Thread: 8/0, color of choice Tail: Short tag of white or opalescent Lite Brite Underbody: Metallic flash, color of choice Overbody: Plastic micro ­tubing Wing Case: A short bud or loop of ­metallic flash, white or ­opalescent Gills: A collar of ­ostrich herl, color of choice

Ronn Lucas, Sr., fly tier and hook maker

for his Glasstail Caddis Pupa pattern.

Three beads extend beyond the bend of the hook and merge into an upper body made from a fourth glass bead veiled in dubbing. The effect on trout is amazing, proof positive of the power of translucent glass in a fly pattern.

The accompanying illustrations show Mercer’s extended bead-body design in an adult caddis pattern. Three beads

tacular. Even common craft beads get treated to an elegant setting in Lucas’ creations.

The accompanying photographs illustrate Lucas’ free-style flies, a distinctly artistic style of tying. Both translucent craft beads and lamp-glass beads are shown. This is a small sample of the collection posted on Ronn’s Web gallery (www.ronnlucassr.com).

What’s next?

The future of glass-beaded flies could be as bright as the beads themselves, or it could continue to linger in the shadow of more popular materials. Some tiers regard the novel qualities of glass beads as just that, a novelty of limited value on the water. And if the current round of retail catalogs is any indication, bejew-

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

19

Beads: Tying with Light eled flies accounted for only a tiny share of the fly market, less than 2 percent of the flies displayed.

Since Joe Warren’s book was published in 1997, glass-bead coverage has been sparse. Media exposure seems limited to occasional magazine articles, references to patterns in a few tying books, and small sections in Ted Leeson and Jim Schollmeyer’s collaborations on tying techniques. It isn’t that glass beads have fallen out of favor; it just seems they never really kindled the imagination of fly tiers on an appreciable scale.

For all the brilliant qualities glass beads bring to a tier’s kit, what do they lack that keeps their remarkable appearance from dominating fly designs? Weight, for one thing. Metal beads add shine and density to patterns, a functional advantage over lighter glass beads. While wrapping wire around the hook shank achieves the same effect as using a brass bead head, it lacks the simplicity of sliding a metal bead behind the hook eye. And wire’s bulk can be a hindrance on small flies, whereas miniature metal beads are available to dress hooks as small as size 20.

Glass beads also do not float, which confounds their placement into dry-fly designs. Supplemental foam, or heavily dressed hair wings and hackle, are needed to offset the addition of a glass bead to a previously high-riding surface fly.

The semi-submerged posture of a bead-laden fly beneath a buoyant wing does, however, make beads terrific for emerger patterns.

The huge array of sizes, colors, finishes, and quality of glass beads may be a hurdle for some tiers. A recent trip to a large craft store revealed eight shades of green beads with two different glass qualities (translucent, solid color), three lining variations (clear, silver mirrored, color-lined), and three surface finishes (clear, opalescent, metallic). Add the variables of size and shape, and a fly tier looking for a green glass bead would have more than 20 different types of beads to consider in making a purchase decision. From this multitude of options, where does one begin to select the best bead for a particular pattern? It is easy to be overwhelmed by the multitude of colorful choices.

Beads distributed by fly-tying vendors tend to be more refined in color and size, reducing choices to a manageable level. But the limited selection assumes the correct colors and finishes for your specific applications, an assumption only as valid as the next hatch.

Glass beads sold specifically for fly tying are more uniform in size and shape than their craft-store brethren; a package of craft beads often includes misshapen and odd-sized beads.

The quality and consistency of craft beads also varies significantly among manufacturers. But if you are willing to sort through a package of glass beads to find those of uniform size and shape, the price per usable bead is a bargain. Before you load up a shopping cart with sale-priced craft beads, though, be sure your patience can be bought for 2 to 3 cents a bead.

Glass beads might never become a prominent tying material despite their almost magical qualities. They will, however, continue to appear in creative patterns and will highlight artistic innovations. Novel uses will appear and spark renewed interest. Beads are neither a fad nor a fundamental. As for me, as long as fish are beguiled by the glow of translucent glass, colorful beads are welcome in my tying kit.

•

20

Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

Tying a Glass Bead-Head Midge Hook: Thread: Body: Rib: Collar: Head:

Dry fly hook, sizes 16-22 6/0 Danville nylon thread, color of choice Smooth thread base Metallic or opalescent thread Dubbing to complement thread color Small glass bead

Note: This fly can be tied in a variety of colors: red, white, blue/gray, cream, orange, and black are popular. Glass beads in translucent or solid colors, metallic finishes, and silver-lined beads are all commonly used on midge patterns.

Step 1 Step 1: Begin by sliding a glass bead onto the hook

and push it up behind the eye. Mount the hook in the vise and start the tying thread just behind the bead. Lay down a smooth thread base, counter-spinning the bobbin to keep the thread wraps flat.

Step 2 Step 2: Attach a piece of metallic thread or tinsel

on top of the hook shank and anchor it the length of the body area. Wrap forward to the hook eye, leaving a smooth thread base.

Beads: Tying with Light

Step 1

Step 3 Step 3: Spiral the flashy rib forward to an area im-

mediately behind the bead head; three or four wraps is enough on these small flies.

Step 1: Slide a glass bead onto the hook and then

mount the hook in the vise. Push the bead forward to the eye to clear the body area. Start the tying thread at the midpoint of the body area. Wrap a smooth thread base over the back half of the tying area.

Step 4 Step 4: Secure and trim off the excess ribbing behind the bead. Complete the fly by whip finishing two turns of dubbed thread behind the bead head. Tighten the finishing knot and cut the bobbin free from the fly.

Tying the Bead-Belly Caddis Emerger Hook: Thread: Trailing Shuck: Bead: Body: Wing:

Step 2 Step 2: Make a 5-inch dubbing loop with the tying

thread, anchoring the loop at the tail end of the fly and returning the bobbin to the midpoint of the shank. Load the thread loop with a pinch of Ice Dub, twist the loop to hold the dubbing, and wrap the loop forward in overlapping turns. Cover the lower third of the tying area with the Ice Dub loop, secure the loop with tying thread, and then cut off any remaining loop.

urved emerger hook, sizes 12-18, Tiemco C 2487 or similar 6/0 Danville flat-waxed nylon, color of choice Ice Dub UV, color of choice Silver-lined glass bead, bead to complement size and color Coarse dubbing; Wapsi Sow-Scud Dubbing works well Light elk hair, clipped at an angle over the body

Step 3 Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

21

Beads: Tying with Light Step 3: Anchor the tying thread with a couple of

half-hitches or a whip knot and cut the threaded bobbin from the hook. Now slide the glass bead back to the dubbed shuck and restart your tying thread forward of the glass bead.

to the shank. Now cover the cut ends with body dubbing, tapering down toward the hook eye.

Step 6: Complete the fly with a thread head and whip finish. Pull the elk-hair wing back over the body of the fly and cut the hair at an angle. The wedge-shaped wing should extend to the shuck end of the fly.

Tying an Extended Bead-body Caddis Hook: Thread:

Step 4 Step 4: Dub half of the body area forward of the glass bead with a coarse dubbing material, wrapping tightly against the glass bead to hold it in place.

Body 1: Body 2: Wing:

urved emerger hook, sizes 10-16 Tiemco C 2487 or similar 3/0 Danville nylon monocord, color of choice Three silver-lined glass beads extended beyond the hook bend One glass bead on the hook shank, dubbed with coarse dubbing Light elk hair, down wing style and split

Note: This pattern is a hybrid of Mike Mercer’s Glasstail Caddis and Jim Pettis’ Pulsating Caddis; the fly features a split elk-hair wing to improve flotation and stability in choppy water.

Step 5 Step 5: Tie a small bundle of blond elk hair (cleaned

and stacked) to the top of the hook, trim the ends of the hair behind the hook eye, and securely bind the cut ends

Step 1 Step 1: Slide a glass bead onto the hook and push it

forward behind the eye. Start the tying thread at mid-shank.

This bead is translucent green with a blue lining; the combination reflects yellow highlights from the green bead.

Step 6

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

Practical & Artistic Fly Tying

Beads: Tying with Light

Step 2 Step 2: Add two large glass beads (these are size 6/0,

silver-lined beads) and a single smaller seed bead to a loop of Kevlar thread (the black thread in this photograph). The seed bead prevents the loop from sliding through the larger beads and gives a taper to the extended bead body. Hold the beaded loop to the hook shank with several firm wraps of thread, but do not anchor it too tightly yet.

Step 3 Step 3: Cut an 8-inch strand of gel-spun polyester

(GSP) thread and poke the ends through the two large glass beads from back to front; the loop extends out of the picture frame over the tail end of the fly. This creates a second loop through the extended body; it will be used as a dubbing loop in the next step. Now pull the two ends of the Kevlar loop forward and securely fasten both loops to the shank; double Continued next page

Practical & Artistic Fly Tying

OVER 10,000 FLY PATTERNS NEW ARTICLES EVERY WEEK HD QUALITY VIDEOS HATCHESMAGAZINE.COM Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

23

Beads: Tying with Light Continued from previous page the thread back and wrap it twice with tying thread. Be sure to leave enough slack in the bead body for it to move freely, adding a little animation to the drift.

Step 6

Step 4 Step 4: Catch a small amount of coarse dubbing in the

GSP loop, twist to tighten, and wrap the dubbing loop forward. Make two to three wraps between each set of beads, beginning with the small seed bead at the tail of the fly and passing under the bottom of the next bead in line as you work your way forward. You might find it helpful to add a strand of thread through the tail bead and pull it away from the fly (black thread is used in this picture); this puts tension on the extended body and makes wrapping the dubbing loop much easier. Once you are through dubbing between the beads on the extended body, cut this extra loop free from the terminal seed bead.

Step 7 Step 7: Dub in front of the body bead, between the

split wings, and add a wrap over the ends of the elk hair.

You can now finish the fly with a thread head and whip finish. If you like a scruffy look to your caddis patterns, tease out the dubbing and brush it back over the glass beads.

Tying a Twisted-bugle Caddis Hook: Thread: Extended Body:

Step 5 Step 5: Add several wraps of the dubbing loop to the

hook shank, anchor it securely with tying thread, and trim off any excess loop. Cut off the threaded bobbin, slide the remaining glass bead back against the dubbing, and restart the tying thread ahead of the bead.

Step 6: Clean and stack a clump of elk hair and

mount over the shank-mounted glass bead. Split the wing with a figure-eight wrap and add a couple of thread wraps around the base of each wing.

24

Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

Thorax: Wing:

urved emerger hook, sizes 14-18 Tiemco C 2487 or similar 6/0 Danville nylon monocord, color of choice wisted bugle bead extended beyond the T hook bend, color of choice Coarse dubbing, color to complement bead Elk hair, down-wing style

Step 1: Start your tying thread at mid-shank and cover one-third of the body area with a smooth thread base.

Step 2: Take a 10-inch piece of tippet (size 2x is used

in this example), fold it at the midpoint, and tie an overhand knot in the doubled strand where you have folded it in half.

Now string the free ends through a twisted glass bugle bead. Carefully heat the knotted tippet material to form a small ‘bump’ of material at the end of the doubled strand.

Beads: Tying with Light

Step 1

Step 4 body. A wrap at this position hides the exposed tippet, but allows the mounted bead to animate during the fly’s drift.

Step 2 Once the mono cools, color the melted knot with a permanent maker. (The threaded bead is shown in a tying vise to illustrate the size of the melted knot; it is not necessary to mount the tippet in the vise)

Step 5 Step 5: Add a clean and stacked elk hair wing, trim the excess hair from over the eye, whip finish, and trim the tying thread from the fly. Brush the dubbing back toward the bugle bead to emphasis the contrasting textures.

Step 3 Step 3: Securely mount the strung bugle bead to the

hook at the midpoint of the body area. Tippet material is hard and slick and can easily slip around the shank; flatten a short section of the tippet with tying pliers to make a more stable tying base. Anchor the tippet to the hook with snug wraps. Leave a short segment of tippet, about the length of the hook eye, exposed from the tie-in point.

Step 4: Build a body with coarse dubbing. Include a

wrap of dubbed thread behind the tippet extending from the

Step 6 Step 6: Bugle beads are available in a variety of

colors and lengths, with both straight and twisted styles.

Shown here are caddis patterns tied with a clear, unlined bead (left) and a translucent brown bead (right). Notice how the strand of brown metallic tinsel passing through the bead shines within the clear glass.

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

25

Traditional

Wet Flies

Notes on Materials, Procedures, Proportions, and Techniques Story, flies and photos by Don Bastian While making public fly tying appearances over the past twelve years, I have focused primarily on tying traditional wet flies.

he patterns I tie are mostly selected from Ray Bergman’s Trout (1938), How to Tie Flies (1940) by E. C. Gregg, a n d Flies for Fish and Fishermen: The Wet Flies, (1989)

by Helen Shaw.

I was strongly influenced in traditional fly tying by the first two books because my dad gave his copies of them to my brother and me in 1965 after giving us a single fly tying lesson.

Hooks: Any standard wet-fly hook

will do; I prefer hooks with a standard shank and a Sproat bend. The Mustad #3399 has become a favorite, because Mustad has been in business for many

redesigned many of their historic hooks, discontinuing some models. If available, historic wet-fly hooks such as Partridge, Allcock, Herter’s, or in particular the Ray Bergman Nyack Brand are highly desirable for classic wet flies.

Thread: My preferred thread is 6/0 Danville F l y m a s t e r p re waxed in black and white. UniThread in 8/0 can be used on flies size 14 and smaller. I use white as an underbody for all colors of floss except black, and on lighter colors of Conversations dubbing, chenille, with fellow tiers and yar n. Tiers have indicated to should use only me that there are enough wraps of several problem thread to secure a areas commonly material in place, encountered in keeping the tighttying classic wets: est possible quill wings, floss thread tension.

Four different butt materials - clockwise from upper left: Riley with floss; Imbrie with chenille; Golden bodies, proporEvery fly should Spinner with Peacock Herl; and Parmachene Belle with Ostrich Herl. tions, and unibegin by starting formity. My intent here is to alleviate years and their hooks are of a traditional the tying thread at the hook eye. The some of those difficulties, beginning style. Another acceptable wet-fly hook is thread should then be wound over the with hook selection. the Mustad #3906. Mustad has recently shank in even edge-to-edge wraps to

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

Traditional Wet Flies

Two kinds of tips: Tinsel on Last Chance and floss on Bouncer.

the end of the body. The proper location for the end of the wet-fly body is directly above the cut of the hook barb, give or take a wee bit.

Tips: Tips are usually made of tinsel

or floss, and occasionally dubbing. I use the smallest size obtainable of flat French tinsel or #16-18 Mylar for tinsel tips on wet flies. Some patterns call for a floss tip which requires a white tying-thread underbody, and should be secured with a separate tag of single-strand floss pulled over the tip to hold the back end in place and prevent unraveling. Tips should start at the end of the body and occupy a short section of the hook shank behind the body and below the tail. A typical tip on a #6 hook should be about 1/8 inch in length. Tinsel tips should be tied in and wound back behind the barb a short distance and then forward over the first layer, creating a durable double layer.

Tails: Wet-fly tails are made of hen

hackle and assorted bird feather fibers, sections of duck wing quill, duck flank feather fibers, short wool tufts, sections of floss, or any combination thereof.

Quill tails may be a single color or may two or three strips married together.

Whether single-colored or married, quill tails should be tied as a pair using slips of barbs from matched pairs (one

Hemlock wet fly with four styles of hackles: clockwise from upper left – Beard or false hackle; Palmer; Under-wing collar; and Over-wing Collar. The last three are all folded.

each, left and right) of wing quills. Tail length should equal the entire hook length from the head of the shank to the bend.

Butt: Occasionally wet flies have a

butt, usually of peacock herl, ostrich herl, chenille, dubbing, floss, or wool.

Butts are positioned at the rear of the body at the base of the tail and occupy a very short space on the hook shank.

Palmered hackle:

Palmered hackles are tied in at the rear of the body by their tips and are wound forward five turns to the head. Normal fiber length is twice the hook gap distance. If the dressing doesn’t have a throat hackle, make two additional wraps of the palmered hackle at the front of the body. Rooster hackles and hen hackles are suitable; soft barbs are desirable. Depending on the pattern’s desired fullness, it is sometimes desirable to strip the barbs from one side of the hackle feather.

Hackles: Besides palmered, hack-

les can be applied in three ways: 1) As a beard, false hackle, or throat; 2)

wound as a collar before application of the wing, or 3) wound as a finishing collar after the application of the wing.

A beard hackle is made from soft barbs and is merely a pinch of fibers secured at the front of the body, bottom-lashed to the hook shank. Schlappen and henback barbs are very suitable for this. A hackle collar applied before the wing is tied on and wound two to three turns in front of the body, then fibers are divided and pulled down and back to allow for wing placement. A hackle collar applied after the wing is tied on is wound on a built-up thread base from the back edge of the head with two wraps of the feather, occupying onehalf to two-thirds the distance toward the eye of the hook. Length of fibers should be at least twice but no more than 2 1/2 times the hook gape. Hackle can be any soft, webby feathers; the bottom portion of some saddle hackles, schlappen, and hen-back or hen-neck feathers are most commonly used. In all cases a clean smooth head should finish the fly.

A few patterns with palmered hackles, such as the Pope, Tycoon and Rangeley, feature a separate throat tied immediately in front of the palmered feather.

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

27

Traditional Wet Flies

Helen Shaw’s list of seven different body types. From upper left: Chenille - Bog Pond; Dubbing - Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear; Floss - Heckham Red; Herl - Sassy Cat; Quill - Black Quill; Tinsel - Cupsuptic; and Yarn - Armstrong Fontinalis.

Ribbing: Ribbing can be tinsel, wire,

floss, or stout thread. The smallest size of flat Mylar tinsel or French tinsel used on tips should be used for all but the largest wet flies. I use #14 Mylar only on size 4 and size 2 hooks. Five turns of ribbing material should be made on the body regardless of ribbing type.

Ribbing should be equally spaced; the third turn should be in the middle of the body, with the sixth turn coming along the side of the head where it is tied off. It is not only traditional but very important to maintain this count for sake of uniformity across the full range of hook sizes. When a palmered hackle is contained in a dressing, it follows exactly the number of turns of ribbing; the stem is wound immediately behind and touching the rear edge

28

Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

of the ribbing. On the smallest hook sizes, #14 or #16 gold or silver wire makes better ribbing than flat tinsel.

Few if any wet flies in Bergman’s Trout specify oval tinsel ribbing; virtually all wet flies call for flat tinsel ribs. Floss ribs are made with one or two strands and are twisted prior to wrapping. A two-stranded floss rib is desirable on bulky bodies of chenille, dubbing, herl or yarn.

Bodies: According to Helen Shaw’s book, seven kinds of materials can be used for wet-fly bodies: Dubbing, chenille, floss, herl, quills, tinsel, or yarn.

Each is unique in its application and finished appearance. A fly’s body type can also affect its performance when fished. My suggestion is to strive for

optimum balance between the body material and the hook size. For example, do not use the largest size of chenille on a size 14 hook.

Floss is the most challenging wet-fly body material, so this writing is devoted accordingly. Normally I use Danville fourstrand rayon floss, and also silk floss of similarly sized strands. I use two strands on size 6 to size 8 hooks, and one strand on size 10 and smaller.

An entire chapter could be written on floss bodies; for the sake of brevity I’ll condense the most important information. The trick to winding floss is to make sure as you begin that all strands are uniformly tight. At the start of the initial wrap, you must stand the floss perpendicular to the hook shank and slowly draw all the fibers taut. To

Traditional Wet Flies t

Silver Black Gnat displaying the four styles of wet fly wings. Clockwise from upper left: Closed Wing – Tip Up; Divided Wing – Tip Up; Divided Wing – Tip Down; and Closed Wing -Tip Down.

ingredients. Most floss bodies are tied with white thread anyway, so this is a perfect time to whip finish the white thread and change to black. This step safeguards against accidental loosening of the floss. Failure to do this teaches the following lesson: An unraveled floss body can only be salvaged with a razor blade!

Wings:

accomplish this, before the first wrap is started, stroke the strands between your thumbs and fingertips, alternating between the left hand and the right hand, several times. This tightens each strand.

Start the first turn of floss, employing the aforementioned hand-over-hand action to keep the floss taut. Wait until all the floss fibers have passed the leading edge of the tie-in point before beginning to wrap the floss over the hook shank (This is usually after three-quarters of a full wrap is completed). At this stage, prior to actually starting to wind and form the body, all the floss fibers should be uniformly taut against the hook shank and thread underbody.

After this is accomplished, you should keep taut, uniform tension on the floss -- on each fiber of floss -- as you wind the body. Keep the tautness consistent throughout the wrapping sequence. This requires a specialized sort of dexterity that can only be learned through repetition. Winding too tight can break fibers, so use caution.

When floss fibers separate during winding, it is always the result of unbalanced and uneven tension on every individual fiber of floss within the larger strand(s). Recognize and master that, and your problem is solved.

Finally, secure the floss at the front of the body and always apply a two-turn

Wet fly wings can be made from the wing quills of domestic and wild ducks or geese, waterfowl flank feathers, bunches of peacock herl or peacock sword fibers, and in some cases whole feathers (as on the Saranac and Volunteer, where paired Golden Pheasant tippet feathers are used). Mary Orvis Marbury-era patterns such as the Tomah Joe, Romeyn, and Wood Duck in

whip finish to lock the floss in place before proceeding with the rest of the

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Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

29

Traditional Wet Flies

Four Wet Fly Wing Mounting methods One question I often get is exactly what a wet-fly wing should look like.

Many years ago I learned to tie wet flies using the winging technique that is arguably the most traditional. Ray Bergman outlined the technique in his classic book, Trout. In the chapter “On Tying Flies,” Bergman wrote: “For wet flies, place the two even and concave edges together, with the tips pointing inward and touching each other.” This method places the top, or dull side, of the quill slips together.

Subsequent studies of historic sources indicate that the barb sections that form the wings are ordinarily tied in with the tips pointing up. The line drawings and Dr. Edgar Burke’s accurate color wet-fly paintings in Trout clearly confirm the tip-up style. In the 1950 book Flies, by J. Edson Leonard, the author refers to this technique as the “closed-wing” method and he also states this is the most traditional and most accepted way to position wet-fly wings.

Over the years, I’ve concluded that wet-fly wings can actually be tied in any of four different ways. The styles begin with two methods: The aforementioned closed wing, and the divided wing -- an alternative method discussed by Leonard in Flies. The divided wing faces the concave sides outward, producing a slightly flared attitude that varies from fly to fly depending on the curvature of the quill sections used. It is important for fly tiers to understand whether using the closed-wing or divided-wing method that the actual attitude of the wings will vary from one fly to the next, even when multiple flies are made from the same pair of wing quills.

This is due to the fact that feather barbs do not retain uniformity of curvature along the usable portion of a feather’s stem.

There are two additional methods that position the wings with the tips pointing down. Consequently, the four methods to mount wet fly quill wings are: 1) closed wing – tip up; 2) divided wing – tip up; 3) closed wing – tip down; and 4) divided wing – tip down.

Leonard stated in Flies that his preferred wing style was the divided wing. He believed as I do, that the divided-wing method, with its outward-flaring feather tips, creates more action when fished. As the wing opens, closes, and pulses in the water, its movement arguably increases the effectiveness of the fly. By comparison, the action of wet flies with closed wings is somewhat dampened. The divided-wing method also produces better balance because it eliminates a misalignment inherent to the closed-wing style -- a misalignment that inevitably results when two feather slips’ slightly mismatched concave curves oppose each other.

Additionally I believe that the divided-wing style, facing the dull side of the feather outward, produces the best appearance because the color and texture of the top side of the barbs is more attractive and more vivid.

Visual impact is significant, though probably more so to fly tiers than to fish.

While I clearly prefer the divided-wing, tip-up style, I do not believe that any one of these styles is the only acceptable one. A well-known proponent of the closed wing, tip-down style is prolific fly fishing and fly tying author Dave Hughes. He espouses and promotes the tip-down method. In the end it is a matter of personal preference.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

This head-on view of a Trout Fin indicates proper wing posture. The centerline of the wing follows the hook shank and there is uniform shape and balance on both sides.

Note the equal spread of the false hackle and the “polished onyx” finish on the head. This is achieved with four coats of lacquer base head cement including a final coat of Black Pro Lak.

larger sizes used entire tips of matched pairs of barred wood duck flank feathers. Wing feathers from other birds such as turkey, guinea fowl, starling, woodcock, grouse, pheasant, chicken, and others may be used. Wings may also be made with combinations of these materials as on the McAlpin, Ross, St. Regis, Thistle, or Golden Doctor.

Our discussion of wings in this writing will focus on quills.

Many contemporary tiers have taken to using goose shoulder for wings on traditional wet flies. Technically there is nothing wrong with this, though historically, duck and goose wing quills and quills from other birds such as starling, snipe, grouse, and coot were the prominent materials used.

If you think about matching materials to the hook, it makes little sense to employ the long, thin barbs of goose shoulder -- which can be used to tie salmon flies up to size 5/0 and larger -for comparatively small trout flies. Two- to three-inch goose shoulder fibers seem

Traditional Wet Flies

Various wing materials, top row: St. Patrick - Peacock Sword; Blue Bottle - slate Mallard quill; Ausable - barred Wood Duck feather tips. Middle row: Babcock - Married duck quill; Silver Doctor - Golden Pheasant Crest topping barred Wood Duck, turkey, Guinea Fowl, yellow, blue, & red goose shoulder; Volunteer – Golden Pheasant tippet sections. Bottom row: Beauty - Guinea Fowl wing quill; Canada – Gray turkey; and Kiffe – yellow-dyed mallard flank.

grossly mismatched to trout flies, even big size 4 or size 6 patterns. Reduce the hook to size 10 or 12 and the difference becomes even more exaggerated. Good-quality, average-sized duck and goose wing quills can be used on any wet from size 4 to size 16.

The proper length of a wet-fly wing is the same as the tail; like tails, wings can be sized on the hook in the vise. When tied in, the longer-pointed tip of the wing should protrude slightly past the hook bend. And if a fly has a tail and the tail is properly sized, the longest tip of the wing should reach to the exact mid-point of the tail.

The proper wet-fly wing width should be two-thirds to threefourths the hook gape width. One-half is too narrow and a full gape is too wide. Always make an effort to keep both sides of the wing, left and right, equal in width.

Finally, tying in wings begins with proper placement. The following description might seem to focus too heavily on head space, but that is where the wing will be tied in. If you mess up the head space, problems will begin immediately and will compound as you proceed.

Prior to setting the wing, all materials employed thus far should be tied off and secured no more than two to three thread wraps’ width away from the front edge of the body. This joint, or ‘neck’ of the fly, is where all materials -- body, rib,

palmered hackle, throat hackle, wing and in some cases, cheeks -- are tied off in a narrow slice of space against the back edge of the head.

I explained it deliberately that way to emphasize a very important point: Except on larger salt-water flies, streamers, and bucktails, the rule of thumb for head space is that heads should always be equal in size to the outside diameter of the hook eye, and tiers should never intrude into this space for any reason other than to finish and tie off the head itself.

If you’re using white tying thread for a floss body, switch to black thread once the rib and floss are secured. Use the head space to make the first layer of a thread base, and wrap the black thread to the very back of the head, i.e., the front edge of the body or “neck.” Tie in the hackle, the wings and the cheeks in that narrow area of the neck. After all the components have been tied off, wind the tying thread to the eye on the head space and back to the front edge of the body. This triple-layering of thread effectively secures all the components, covers the butt ends of the body materials and the hackle, and further builds a foundation upon which to set the wing.

Thread wraps for each item should be kept to a minimum, and performed at maximum tension. As you prepare to set the wing, the tying thread must be positioned exactly at the back edge of the head.

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Traditional Wet Flies

Gravel Bed – schlappen fiber beard or false hackle tied in with three wraps prior to trimming.

Gravel Bed – illustrating a flat thumb and middle finger wing pinch. This grasp increases flesh pad contact maximizing coverage and provided for better control of the wing material. Note end of thumb is just ahead of hanging thread, this is the exact tie-in point.

Gravel Bed – trimmed false hackle; thread wrapped to eye and back creating thread base in preparation for setting the wing.

Gravel Bed – thumb and middle finger rolled slightly forward, preparing to raise thread up between them to make first wrap setting the wing in place.

Setting quill wings: This is actually easy, once you learn

how. There are two key factors, material handling and thread tension. Failure to do either or both correctly will yield results that range from less than satisfactory to utter disaster. The following directions, for right-handed tiers, begin after the wing quill slips have been cut and are ready for mounting.

• Hold the wing, tips exposed and evenly aligned, in your right hand. The tips of the wing should point left above the hook shank. Bring the wing into place, resting atop the hook shank, and size the wing thusly: The tip of the wing should extend slightly beyond the hook bend, and the shorter bottom corner of the wing’s sloping rear edge should be directly above the hook bend. Hold the correctly-sized wing in this position and proceed.

• Grasp the wing between your left thumb and middle finger, employing a flat, not pointed, pinch. Using the middle finger instead of the index finger provides increased and more efficient surface coverage of the wing with your fingertip

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flesh pads. The tie-in spot on the wing should be just ahead of the tips of your thumb and finger.

• Maintain perfect vertical alignment of the wing within your finger grasp.

• Elevate the tying thread vertically. Hold the bobbin tip at the 12 o’clock position and pinch the thread in the finger-andthumb grasp of your left hand by rolling forward slightly with your flat fingertip pinch. (A pointed pinch wouldn’t allow the necessary freedom of movement). Pinch both the wing and the tying thread fairly tight.

• Next, move the tying thread down the opposite side of the wing at the tie-in point. Keeping the thread vertical, retain a tight pinch and lower the bobbin. Complete the wrap but don’t tighten it just yet. Before you tighten, make sure you feel the hook shank at the bottom edge of your thumb and finger flesh pads with a fairly tight pinch. Once you accomplish that feel, allow the thread to slip down into your thumb and fingertip

Traditional Wet Flies • Then, maintaining a tight fingertip pinch, make a second complete thread wrap, again while sustaining maximum tension. No soft wraps! At this stage, while still grasping the wing, open your fingertip pinch just enough to expose the tie-in point, then make five additional tight thread wraps, all in place. Do not advance the thread! All wraps must be performed at maximum tension! The wing should now be secured with seven wraps of thread.

Gravel Bed – revealing two tight wraps on wing. Maximum thread tension should be used during the first and all subsequent thread wraps when setting wet fly wings. The wings are held in place on top of the hook shank, balanced against thread torque with a tight finger pinch.

• Remove your left hand and check the wing position. It should be in perfect vertical alignment and of the proper length. When viewed from the front, looking to the hook eye, both sides should have a uniform slight concave shape. The centerline of the wing should be aligned with the hook shank. If the wing is slightly out of parallel, sometimes a slight fingernail nudge or pinch will coax it back to the proper attitude. Now check thread tension. With your hand still removed from the wing, pull (do not jerk) on the bobbin, tugging at near maximum tension several times. The wing should not move at all. If the wing moves or shifts position even slightly, untie it and try again, because the initial thread tension was inadequate.

• Once the wing is tightly set, clip the butt ends off. Be sure to maintain a fingertip pinch of the wing as you cut. This step stabilizes the wing against the severe torque of the scissor blades.

Gravel Bed – trimmed butt ends of wings with nearly finished head.

pinch and gradually apply thread tension to compress the butt ends of the wing, creating a kink in the fibers. The kink should be located precisely at the junction of the body and head. Do not allow the thread to slip forward toward the hook eye; the first wrap must be at the neck of the fly, at the exact front edge of the body. The wing will tend to twist in response to thread torque. Tilting the wing very slightly toward you, in the opposite direction of thread rotation, helps counteract that torque. Your grasp should be tight enough that the wing will not slide away from you as you begin to wrap the thread.

Both sides of the wing should remain on the top one-third of the hook shank with the bottom edge of the wing between ten and two o’clock, equally positioned on both sides of the hook. Ideally, the wing is compressed in place at the tie-in point with no slippage or rotational movement.

• Once the first wrap is completed, and before making the second wrap, slowly increase the thread tension to maximum.

With practice this can be performed without thread breakage.

• With the butt ends cut off, finish setting the wing and begin the head building process: Make a half-dozen or so tight wraps over the clipped butt ends, then advance tying thread to the hook eye and build bulk with the tying thread in front of the butt ends of the wing. As the head begins to take shape, gradually walk the thread onto the butt ends of the wing. This technique eliminates forward thread slippage and undesired “pop-off” of the wing. You may prefer to flatten the tying thread with counterclockwise spinning as you complete the head. This is the first step to obtain a smooth head.

• Shape the finished head of the fly, making sure to cover all butt ends of the wing material while maintaining an even taper from the front edge of the body to the hook eye.

• I use Griff’s Thin cement for the first coat, and then follow this with two coats of clear lacquer cement such as Griff’s Thick. The fourth and final coat is finished with black ProLak head cement.

These individual instructions, relating to each specific component result from years of specialty wet-fly tying experience.

There are certainly more details concerning other materials and procedures, but this information should enable any struggling wet-fly tier to improve their efforts and obtain more desirable results. Many of these techniques and directives have resulted from students’ and observers’ questions, difficulties and frustrations, forcing my exploration and experimentation for alternate and improved methods.

My final words: I simply urge fly tiers to keep an open mind and never close the door to any opportunity to learn. As the late Poul Jorgensen once observed, “Fly tying is a school from which no one ever graduates.”

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Traditional Wet Fly Patterns

Female Beaverkill

Fletcher

Tail: Butt: Body: Wing: Hackle:

Tip: Tail: Hackle: Body: Wing:

Gray mallard Yellow chenille Gray floss Slate Brown

Silver tinsel Scarlet, yellow, and Guinea fowl; married Grizzly tied palmer Black floss Brown mottled turkey

Silver Doctor

Major

Tip: Tail: Butt: Rib: Body: Hackle: Wing:

Tip: Tail: Hackle: Rib: Body: Throat: Wing:

Silver tinsel and yellow floss Golden pheasant crest Red floss Oval silver tinsel Flat silver tinsel Guinea fowl and blue Barred wood duck, Florican bustard (or turkey), teal (or Guinea fowl), yellow, blue and red, married Topping: Golden pheasant crest Head: Red

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Gold tinsel Golden pheasant crest and blue floss Scarlet tied palmer Gold tinsel Purple wool or dubbing Blue Mottled brown turkey with strip of gray mallard

Traditional Wet Fly Patterns

Fontinalis Fin

Governor Alvord

Tail: Rib: Body: Wing:

Tail: Body: Wing: Hackle:

Hackle:

White hackle fibers Gold tinsel Orange wool White and gray stripe married to and topping orange Furnace

Scarlet Peacock herl Slate married to cinnamon Brown

Pink Lady

Dolly Varden

Tip: Tail: Rib: Body: Wing: Hackle:

Tip: Tail: Rib: Body: Hackle: Wing:

Gold tinsel Golden pheasant tippet Gold tinsel Pink floss Light slate Ginger

Gold tinsel Cinnamon brown Gold tinsel White floss Brown Cinnamon brown

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Blending Your Own Dubbing Story, flies and photos by Keith Barton It can be coarse or fine. It may sparkle or move fetchingly and resist ­saliva, head cement, finger pressure and harsh language. It’s brightly ­colored and drab. It’s cheap and plentiful. You have far too much already and I’m going to make you want more.

d

“It,” of course, is dubbing.

ubbing might be the most common task in fly tying. Most books, however, give it only a casual mention -- illuminating a quality or two, mentioning a dubbed loop or a dubbing brush, and closing with a quick reference to a couple of desirable qualities while moving on to more glamorous subjects.

Beginning tiers are left asking unanswered questions, and accomplished tiers wonder why so many encounter difficulty, mainly because dubbing techniques appear self-explanatory.

Fly shops devote walls to artfully displayed glassine packets in a riot of colors. Most contain an animal fur dyed a single color. Those of us unhappy with the traditional vendor offerings -- monotone colors of rabbit complete

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with guard hair, sparkly synthetics more eye-catching than useful -- learned the physics of dubbing the hard way, while cursing our way through flies needed for the next day’s fishing. We lost precious sleep as we learned the ins and outs of dubbing construction, components, qualities and colors.

We use dabs of dubbing mainly to simulate insects’ bodies. Natural insects possess light bellies and dark backs, and are mixtures of colors rather than monotones. In failing light we might call an insect’s color “olive.”

Under brighter light we might call it “brownish olive.” Bathed in the fluorescent lights of our tying bench, it might simply be “brown.” Regardless of the needed hue, the ability to create highlights and complex colors with fur and yarn can be quite useful, and if you’ve

the luxury of known water and known insects, it gives you yet another tool in crafting pleasing and precise imitations.

I personally like the randomness that blended fur provides. Once combed, the fur may resemble other parts of the insect such as legs or antennae, qualities I keep in mind when I create a precise blend of guard hair and fiber designed to provide both texture and color to a finished fly.

A good dubbing is like a fine cigar Dubbing is constructed like a fine cigar. It contains a binder, a filler and a wrapper -- and occasionally a few special effects.

coloration. Since guard hairs have much better markings than body fur, they introduce more colors into the base mixture. Even if you dye them, their colors will break up into distinct shades in the final product.

Special effects describe enhancements such as glitter, shine, or contrasting colors. With dozens of synthetics available -- especially pearlescent and opalescent materials -- special effects are now more popular than ever.

The binder is usually the fur of an aquatic mammal – a beaver, a muskrat or an otter, for example. Such furs have the smallest filament sizes and are densely packed on the hide to help the animal retain warmth despite constant exposure to cold water. Binders are finer than either filler or wrapper fur, and assist in taming and trapping coarse fibers once you attempt to dub the result on thread.

Fillers are composed of inexpensive coarse hair such as Australian opossum, wool or mohair. Fillers can contain guard hair, but they’re usually typified by curly fur resistant to mat-

ting. A filler’s precious bends and kinks will be preserved in the final product and add air and bulk to the blend.

Wrappers are used on blends for large flies and can be omitted from fine dry-fly dubbings. Wrappers are usually from animals that have pronounced guard hairs, often with light bands that can absorb dyes. Examples include hare’s mask fur, red fox squirrel body fur and woodchuck body fur. Such hairs provide “spike” to the blend and break up the uniform texture of the other two furs. Wrappers are often chosen strictly for their guard hairs -- their length, their spike and their

Size matters: Why color shouldn’t be the first reason to grab In the rush to fill our fly boxes with The Next Great Pattern, chances are we ransack our collections of packaged dubbing looking for a perfect color match and ignore qualities of the original that our substitute can’t address.

For example, choosing a fine-fibered dry-fly mixture to dress a giant stonefly nymph won’t yield the desired result.

Fine-fibered dubbing lacks the texture of coarse dubbing and will result in a fly that doesn’t come close to the

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Blending Your Own Dubbing

Traumatizing pets and spouses with a coffee grinder

bulk of the original, let alone the spiky guard hairs needed to simulate legs.

By building your own fur blends, you have the luxury of choosing your fly’s optimum hook size and select-

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ing which binder or wrapper creates the necessary effect. Color might be important, but texture completes the appearance of the final fly.

Almost all the components used in “homemade” dubbing come cheaply, including some special tools that aid us in rendering fur from sources other than animals. Experimentation and mistakes cost mere pennies.

Many homemade dubbing components come from yarn, which can be shredded to make loose fur. A standard $15 kitchen coffee grinder (large-capacity models can be had for about $20) and a pair of $7 dog-grooming combs are the only necessary tools. Choosing a grinder color that contrasts markedly with your kitchen’s coffee mill will help you avoid the wrath of your significant other.

To reduce yarn-base fur, cut the yarn into 1-inch segments before grinding.

The center spindle will trap longer fibers and jam the assembly, so don’t let your yarn fibers get too long. Guard hairs from animals are stiff and will not wind around a grinder’s spindle, so natural fur can be left any length.

Keep in mind that grinders can be overloaded. When that happens, their blades will engage only the bottom of a plug of dubbing, leaving the top untouched. Make sure you see all the grinder’s contents start spinning when

the motor is engaged. If they don’t, remove dubbing until they do.

It takes only 10 to 15 seconds to completely blend what’s inside the housing.

Add a bit of this and a touch of that until you obtain the desired color and texture.

Reproducing colors will require you to remember both what was added and its relative quantity, so if you intend on making more you’ll need to write down the components and quantities used.

“One part red and one part yellow” is good enough, as visually sizing what was added will get you close to the color (or texture) and you’ll be able to manipulate the exact match based on the original sample.

Small amounts of dubbing -- single packets -- are best made with doggrooming brushes. Make sure to hide the brushes from any pets in the house.

They’re instantly recognizable to large canines that want their butts scratched, and are the only acceptable way of harvesting blue dun dubbing off your Maltese without raising eyebrows.

Dog brushes mix fur as quickly as coffee grinders. Simply place one component on one brush, place the second component on the other and scrub them together. Brushes have a “grain” that’s denoted by the slant of the wire teeth.

Pulling the two brushes in opposite directions mixes the components, and pulling the second brush in the same direction as the first brush’s teeth removes all the fur onto the second brush’s teeth.

Component materials can also be mixed in a mayonnaise jar half-filled with water. Grinders have a tough time blending soft-filament furs. Shaking a fur-and-water mix will blend any texture of fur quickly and efficiently. The downside is the drying time -- and felting, which happens when the dried fur blend consolidates into felt and must be combed apart to regain its loft and body.

in proper amounts to obtain the desired final color. Most fly tiers’ interests are limited to drab earth tones that match living insects, so it’s important to know how to make olives, browns, yellows and grays.

Olive, for example, is equal parts yellow and green and a half a part black. Adding more yellow warms the color and adding more green makes it colder. Adding black makes it darker.

The Artist’s Color Wheel, and why you’ll want to learn more

You’re quite the commodity in the yarn aisle, dearest

Artists in formal training must study the Artist’s Color Wheel, the Rosetta Stone of color construction and usage. The wheel’s basic rule is that just three colors are needed to make every other color -- discounting white and black, of course (The debate over whether they are colors depends on whether your background is in art or physics).

The three primary colors are scarlet, cyan (light blue), and yellow. Secondary colors are equal mixtures of the three primaries – orange (yellow and scarlet), purple (scarlet and cyan), and green (yellow and cyan). They’re also important to know.

Since furs are our “pigments” for making dubbing, it’s important to add them

Start with cheap materials and furs to learn the rudiments of blend construction. I recommend starting with common yarns and some hare’s mask or red fox squirrel body fur. Entire squirrel skins are usually less than $5, and their coloration and markings are similar to those of a hare’s mask.

Red fox squirrel fur can be taken off the skin with either a razor blade or scissors.

It consists of barred guard hairs and neutral gray component, both of which will assist in transforming bright yarn colors into more acceptable earth tones.

Yarn is widely available; most of us live near a yarn or craft store. Beware, though: Yarn stores are matrimonial meat markets, and you’re the main course. Guys don’t visit yarn stores very much, and the ladies know a catch

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Blending Your Own Dubbing when they see one. Take a chaperon if need be.

Look for loosely woven yarns made up of synthetics, mohair, or Angora. Avoid anything containing cotton, as it will rot after being dampened and stored in your fly box.

One skein of yarn is a lifetime supply of color for an average tier, so purchase accordingly. Some fancy weaves cannot be ground apart, so stick with loosely woven filaments that you can unravel with your fingers.

The hardest part is writing it down Pick four colors of yarn to start; a warm olive, a medium brown, a golden yellow, and another light color common to the insects in your watershed. Counting the squirrel’s gray, you’ll be able to create nearly 20 distinct colors simply by mixing equal parts of each yarn color with another. More shades are possible if you change the mixture from 50-50 to 20-80 or 75-25.

The hardest part is having the discipline to write down your mixtures’ components. Making a color is easy; making the same color a second time is difficult unless you wrote down the mixture.

Rather than use weight, which requires a scale of some sort, I use the number of yarn coils wound around my forearm -- the same basic move used to coil an extension cord. As the distance is consistent, just count the number of turns. It ensures the amount of each yarn used is identical. 30 turns of a single color yarn makes one blend, 15 turns each of two colors makes a second, and 10 turns each of three colors makes a third.

A Reference Nymph Blend I’ve prepared the red fox squirrel body in advance, shearing the fur off the hide and running it through the coffee grinder to mix the fibers and break their affinity for one another. Untanned hides often have oils, blood, or mud that clump the fur together. A quick run through the grinder breaks that up.

I’ve taken two colors of an Angoramohair yarn and ensured they were the

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same length by wrapping them around a box, 15 turns each. Each coil gets collapsed into a bundle and trimmed into 1-inch segments.

Now I run each yarn through the grinder in small batches, their sizes determined by the capacity of the grinder basin.

In this example I want to retain the individual colors to show how a single blend can generate five or six colors for tying. If I was making more of an existing blend I could save a step by mixing the yarns when I cut them into pieces.

Now I examine the shredded fibers to ensure there aren’t any partially intact fragments. Any batches that have that ailment are returned to the grinder for another pass.

Once the yarn has been rendered to fur, I take the “brightness” off the color by adding some neutral gray blend to mute the yarn (If you wish to save some of each yarn un-muted, set it aside. These will be the first of many colors we’ll generate from making a single olive blend.).

To mute the yarn, I add about 30% of the red fox squirrel to each color. The squirrel/yarn mixtures go back through the grinder to blend them.

Set some of these aside if you’d like.

They make the third and fourth colors generated.

To make a more complex dubbing with additional colors of yarn to add, repeat the process for all the colors.

If you set some of each aside, you’ll wind up with a solid color and an earth tone for each yarn used.

If you start to get ambitious, remember you can make a new color by mixing any two together. This will generate a shade exactly between the two starting colors.

You can fiddle with proportions to make even more. Changing the mix to 75/25 will generate even more shades.

Remember to add the squirrel to take the “edge” off the color.

The result of the process on four colors of yarn: The above was constructed using claret, yellow, olive and salmon pink as the base colors. These are two-, three-, and four-color blends – each mixed with equal parts of each color (Two-color: 50/50, Three-color: 33/33/33, and four-color: 25/25/25/25). This is a mixture of Angora (filler), beaver (binder), red fox squirrel (filler), woodchuck body (wrapper), and Ice Dub (special effects).

Total cost for enough of the base components to make one pound of each color? Ten bucks. Watching the fly shop proprietor’s face as you avoid his gaily colored rack of commercial offerings?

Priceless.

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In Pursuit of

Perfection Story by Capt. John Meskauskas

As fly fishermen we are always in search of perfection — the perfect drift, the perfect presentation or the perfect fly. That search for something better helped inspire my new pattern.

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In Pursuit of Perfection

W

hen most of us picture a tarpon fly, we imagine Stu Apte-style or Keys-style patterns. But here Florida’s east coast, our migrating tarpon feed mostly on baitfish -- mainly scaled sardines, or to use the local term, pilchards.

Pilchards are high-protein baitfish found on the menus of most gamefish, especially snook and tarpon. For as long as I have fished for tarpon in the Stuart, Fla., area, we have always thrown baitfish patterns. The colors vary from time to time, but the patterns always imitate baitfish.

A few years ago I caught wind that some guys on the west coast of Florida were throwing black and purple Puglisi Peanut Butter flies and were having great success. I was skeptical at first, but after giving it a try I was sold. There was no doubt that tarpon reacted well to the fly, but as with most things there was a drawback: The Peanut Butter had

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a very high fouling rate, and there is nothing more frustrating then trying to comb out a rat’s nest while tarpon are laid up within range There had to be a better fly. So last winter I decided to try and create what I believed would be the perfect tarpon fly for my area.

Full-time Florida fishing guides don’t really have an off-season. Ninety-nine percent of the time there is something to be done outside, which makes it difficult to sit inside and tie flies. So I have two principal rules when creating a pattern: It must be easy to tie, and it must work.

In addition, this fly needed to have a lot of movement and it needed to have that movement without fouling.

For inspiration, I looked to The Toad, a pattern that has gotten a ton of attention the last few years.

The Toad is productive because it has marabou, which moves well even when the fly is stripped at a snail’s pace --

and also doesn’t foul a lot. So marabou became a must for the new pattern.

Next I needed to make the fly look like a baitfish while still keeping it simple. It needed a profile. So I took another component from a classic fly, the Seaducer, and used palmered hackle for the body.

So far, so good. But then I needed a collar for added body, as well as a place to glue a large pilchard-like eye. This is where things got tricky -- or so I thought, until I came across Steve Farrar’s flash blend.

Now I know that some of you are asking why I didn’t blend my own collar material. Long story short, blending materials is too time-consuming for me.

Steve’s blend made my pattern look like a baitfish, and it did it simply and easily.

The finished fly had just the attributes I wanted. It was easy to tie, it didn’t foul, it had a lot of movement and could be tied in a variety of colors to cover a variety of situations and species. Perfect!

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Tying the Perfect Pilchard Materials List Hook: Tail: Body: Collar: Eyes: Head:

Gamakatsu SC17 size 2/0 or 3/0 Purple marabou Black hackle Steve Farrar’s Midnight Blitz Flash Blend 5/16-inch Mirage eyes Epoxy

Step 3: Form a collar using Steve Farrar’s Midnight Blitz flash blend.

Step 1: Tie in a clump of purple marabou for the tail.

Step 4: Glue on a pair of 5/16-inch Mirage eyes.

Step 2: Palmer a black hackle to give the body added bulk.

Step 5: Epoxy the gap between the eyes to form the head.

Practical & Artistic Fly Tying

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

43

e h t n O “

Ulf Hagström y b s to o h p d Story, flies an

… y a D h t n ” Te long ­shadow e h t m o r f m a tre t pass by e CDC fly ups i h t e e e s c a I l p e m I i t xth h time another good d for the si n For the sixt h a c t , a m c o t s t i o r b h e C r the ne fly that pstream I se o u hovering ove e r h e t h t o r t u F e s . i ut sh r action tration, I p won’t this fi s without a re u y r h f w y , m t i n m I m a d day? ng. D he bushes an yone else to t r sized grayli e s v g e a n r s o f y fl g n The worki he backcast. t seems to be n i e c r o f much a little too naps off. the tippet s

her and get anot s i r h C o t k bac onder I should go else. As I p g n i h t e m o I wonder if s ry r and f I should t from its lai e r o m e c n CDC fly, or i o then I had fish rises o t e h p t U , . a e m c m a e f l r he su the di ore just below t g n i h rise looks m t e s m i o h s t t u b takes , s un e as e fish take d hands trembl y M . h p m y only seen th n emerging rger. Two e n m a E o M t R S e s 8 i 1 r e siz like a fect tippet and a h s e r f … yes! A per a d n n a o t s a c k I tie c a he fish. In y on the b t s a m e o r , f s t m s a a e c r upst false l, floats to ers straight i t a e t m s 2 t i , t s n k e c m i f, fl place Oh, fish backs of e h t n YES! Strike! o i t o m d n a , slow h t u opens its mo o! the surface, good one, to a d n a … t u o r my, it’s a t

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

orld around the w s w o h s g n i y give ly t tterns, and invited to f a p n e g e n b i h e s v i a f h nate to I tie is, realistic e r t e u h o w b a r e n t o t I feel fortu a e bl o m ?” y flies, ram always get n I n o i normal flies t s h e t u i q to exhibit m w e n n a O h t . g s n lie fly tyi with those f h s i my views on f e r o m h ly catc “Do you real

N

ormally this question comes either from an elderly gentleman who would never dream of fishing any fly pattern younger than 100 years or so, or from some young sturdy-looking guy with long hair and a baseball cap who fishes 99% of the time with a Woolly Bugger. I think you know both types. I love these guys because they give me another opportunity to ramble still further about my views on realistic fly tying.

I would say that on nine days out of ten you would gain no -- or at least very little -- benefit from using a realistic pattern over a traditional pattern. Then again, you probably wouldn’t catch fewer fish either. But on the tenth day -- that’s when you would see a difference!

When fish are selective for a specific hatch, and when nothing else seems to succeed, then these flies really can make a difference! And once you experience such a day and see what I mean -- well, once you go realistic you won’t go back!

The SRM Emerger is the very essence of what I love doing, and it’s one of the flies I fish the most. I use it often as a searching pattern, especially when I see fish rising occasionally and don’t know what they are rising to. Most of my patterns come from playing around at the vise with only a rough idea of what I want to do, but not the SRM Emerger. I had a plan when I devised it.

About six years ago, I got a fly order from a guy who was going to New Zealand to fish. He requested a lot of different

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” … y a D h t n e T e h “On t s for tying a e n li e id u g l Genera Emerger: ­better SRM uality hackle. equal the hook • Use good-q wound, should n he w , th ng • Barb le three turns of gape. the last two to d in ake all w to re su one, this will m • Make us io ev pr e th d. eath slightly upwar hackle undern out and angle d you an fly st s of rb ze ba si hackle am to the fo e th of s es ickn • Adjust the th it with the . tie want to and securing n ki S ph ym N the whip er Glue to the • After winding up S of op dr a d fore front thread, ad Nymph Skin be ss ce ex e th f of t finishes and cu ad. so all re th e th g cuttin the underside on ht ig ra st ts gmen • Keep the se in line. of the ay st irs leg pa the underside on ed er nt ce t e no the seg• If the legs ar g the edge of on al em th sh pu ing needle. hook, you can ger nail or dubb s and have fin ur yo ith w ment ing water a regular hing faster-flow up a few with • If you are fis tie st ju , fly e th g trouble spottin g. tyle white win -s er m am Klinkh

semi-realistic patterns, but he also wrote the following: “I want you to tie me a realistic-looking mayfly emerger.” Since I was a big fan of the Klinkhammer Special pattern, I replied, “What do you need that for?

You will never need any other emerger pattern than the Klinkhammer anyway.” He was persistent, though, and asked again that I fulfill his request.

Two year earlier, I had experienced one of the biggest mayfly hatches I had ever witnessed. We had come to fish the Ephemera vulgata hatch, but were fortunate enough to have three or four other mayfly species hatching at the same time. After fishing a big Ephemera drake imitation with some success, I started watching the fish feed. I found that every fifth take or so was to a dun on the surface; the others were to something just under the surface -- the emerger.

When a mayfly nymph reaches the underside of the water’s surface, it pauses there for a time before it attempts to wriggle free of its nymphal shuck and crawl out onto the water’s surface.

Sometimes the pause lasts only a second or two. Sometimes it’s much longer. The longer it hangs there, the easier it becomes for a trout to catch. What I observed that day was that emerging Leptophlebia nymphs were being taken much more often than the already-emerged Ephemera drakes.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

Here’s why: The Ephemera drakes broke free of their nymphal shucks almost as soon as they reached the surface. The Leptophlebia nymphs hung under the surface for several seconds before emerging. The SRM Emerger was designed with this behavior clearly in mind.

I borrowed from the Klinkhammer’s unique look, added in some of the nymphal attributes I had observed from watching that hatch two years earlier, and tossed in a dash of technical inspiration from renowned realistic tier Oliver Edwards. The SRM Emerger was born!

Would I call this fly an advanced fly to tie? Yes. The main thing to remember is to be patient; patterns like these take longer to tie than traditional flies. If you stay patient and don’t rush, you should be able to follow the steps listed here. And if you need any more motivation, just try and imagine the look of your fishing friends when they open the box and see a row of SRM Emergers there!

•

Tying the SRM Emerger Materials List Hook:

atridge BNX16B or equivalent, P sizes 10-20 Thread: Sheer 14/0 Tails: Microfibbets, synthetic quills or other synthetic tail material Body: VN Nymph Skin Hackle post: Yellow foam Hackle: Good quality rooster Legs: Golden pheasant tail, “Veli auti style”

Even though I like to tie the SRM Emerger in different sizes and colors to match different mayflies that might be hatching, I often find myself using a size 16 generic emerger as a searching pattern.

The fly depicted in these photos is a generic pattern that can fit a lot of different hatches.

Keep winding the foam. Eventually you can rotate the vise back up. Keep winding until you have created a nice slot to wind the hackle in. It doesn’t have to be super neat; the hackle will wind nicely in it anyway and the Nymph Skin will partly cover it anyway.

Step 1

Tie in at the hook eye and just cover the obvious thorax area with tying thread.

Step 2

Cut a strip of foam the same width as the thorax area.

Match the thickness of the foam to the size of fly you wish to tie. Here I have used 1mm foam. Rotate the your vise half a turn so that the fly is now upside down, and fold the foam in the middle over the hook as in the photo with the thread hanging to the side.

Step 3

Now take a long hackle feather and strip off the fluff close to the butt. Tie the hackle in on top of the hook just behind the foam post.

Now hold the foam down folded over the hook with one hand and start winding the thread around the base of the foam just under the hook shank.

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Tying the SRM Emerger Now raise the feather up and tie it in alongside the post.

Step 6

Cut the end of the Nymph Skin at an angle and tie it in at the corner.

Cut off the waste hackle.

Step 4

Choose three tails. Make sure they are the same length and then measure them to the right length against the hook. Tie them in just behind the hackle tie-down point and wind over them toward the bend. Stop when the tails are at a 45-degree angle to the hook. Split the tails with your thread, or wait and split them the “lazy way” described in the final step. Wind your thread up to the foam post again.

Stretch it hard and wrap it down to the tails. Hang the tying thread to the side and tie in another thread at the hook eye. Wind a few thread wraps toward the foam to smooth out the step-down towards the hook eye. The whole idea here is to use the second thread to accentuate the segments and trap in the legs -- Oliver Edwardsstyle tying!

Step 5

Now we have a “bump” of foam on the underside of the thorax that’s much too steep. To create a smooth underbody to wind the Nymph Skin over, we must dub the hook. Simply just dub your thread to the same thickness as the foam and taper it thinner and thinner until you reach a spot about midway to the tails.

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Step 7

Now wind the Nymph Skin forward. The first two to three turns hide the small tag from the corner of the Nymph Skin where it was tied in. Stretch the Nymph Skin fully during these wraps.

Keeping the tension uniform, wrap the Nymph Skin the rest of the way in smooth turns. Each succeeding turn should overlap the previous by about 50 percent. Wrap so that the segments appear straight on the underside; this will give you straight pairs of legs when you tie them in.

This next technique is difficult to put into words. It takes a certain “feel” to do it correctly, and that’s best obtained after tying a few to get the hang of it. So instead of trying to explain how to stretch the Nymph Skin to get the right result, I will explain what we want to achieve.

When you have wound the Nymph Skin all the way up to the foam post, you should have placed one turn of the Nymph Skin just behind the post as in the photo. Don’t worry if you have it just slightly over the foam.

sit in. So take the Nymph Skin under the hook and half way over the foam thorax and back again, covering half the previous segment. This will cause the Nymph Skin to partly fold up over the post. This is not a problem.

Now go around the hook again and come down on the underside and cover the previous segment once more — again by about half -- and come back up on the other side of the foam post. If this is done correctly you will now have covered the foam thorax and still have room to do one more turn of the Nymph Skin behind the eye.

If you are out of place, try winding back and use more or less stretch until you get it right. After you get that turn just behind the post, you need to lock down the foam as well as hide it and create good segments for the legs to Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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Tying the SRM Emerger Now you can tie it off with the thread at the hook eye.

To cut the Nymph Skin without leaving any bulk, simply stretch it hard and cut it close to the thread.

Step 8

So now we have a nice tapered segmented body and some tails. Time to start adding some realistic touches!

Grab a dark brown marker and stroke the back of the body with it, front to back. You should end up with a typical mayfly-nymph look – dark on top, light underneath.

Use different colors to imitate specific mayfly species (i.e., dark olive for Baetis, etc.).

Step 9

Now go back to the thread left hanging at the rear and start winding it forward, tracing each segment as you go.

Use a light tension and the thread will almost follow the segments by itself. Be careful not to break your thread at this point! As you wind forward, the segments will become more accentuated. Stop when you have three segments left, just behind the foam post.

To do Veli Auti style legs you need to pluck a few fibers from a Golden Pheasant tail feather in a special way. It’s dead easy once you know how. Use the fibers from the middle of the quill upward, but not too close to the tip. The “third quarter” of the feather seems to work best. Separate six to seven fibers from the rest, hold them at a 90-degree angle from the quill, and pull the fibers straight out. You should be left with some nice looking “feet” at the roots of the fibers.

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Now cut of the fibers close to the body.

Now rotate your vise so the fly is upside-down, then open up your thread wrap half a turn. Pair two legs together so they are the same length. When you tie them in, they will rotate slightly away from you, so angle them slightly toward you at the edge of the segment. Trap them with a loose turn of thread and tighten. As thread tension increases, the fibers will rotate into place and rise up.

Move one segment forward while keeping the legs in place and prepare another pair. Open the last thread wrap by half a turn, but make sure to keep pressure on the thread or the pair of legs tied in previously could come loose. Repeat as before. You should end up just in front of the foam post. Make each pair of legs is slightly shorter than the previous one, a fine detail that makes the fly more realistic.

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Tying the SRM Emerger The last pair of legs is dead easy; open up half a turn, keep tension, slide in the legs on your side, make a loose wrap and tighten. Now wind the last turn forward to the hook eye and half-hitch the thread to secure it.

Step 10

Now we have something that really looks like the bent shape of a mayfly nymph, don’t we? So let’s finish up.

Wind the hackle around the foam post. I usually wind it three turns down first, then three turns up and then down again. Depending on your preferences, you might want the fibers to curve down towards the surface or away from it. Regardless, what you want is for the “nymph” part of the fly to be totally submerged without any hackle fibers sticking downwards through the surface film. So for the last two to three turns of hackle, lift the whole hackle bundle upwards and force these last turns under the previous ones to make sure no fibers are trapped down. Tie off the hackle on top of the hook, whip finish, varnish the tie-in point and cut your thread.

Step 11

Three small steps left.

First, cut down the foam to leave only a good “spot” of yellow when viewed from the top Next, remove the fly from the vise and look at it from the front to see if any hackle fibers are sticking downward. If any are, don’t cut them; pluck them with fine tweezers. The final step is optional, depending on whether you split the tails with thread in Step 4. If you didn’t, simply heat your tweezers for three or four seconds and slide them along the middle tail, pressing the other two to each side. Now you are done!

Once you see it sit on (or rather hang underneath) the water, you really see why this pattern is so good!

F Powerful, flawless performance in a vise that will last forever.

www.hmhvises.com 14 maine st., box 18, brunswick, me 04011

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I M P R OV I N G

YourTying

Skills Story, flies and photos by Al & Gretchen Beatty

Fly tying is like a journey; you can go as far as you wish or make as much of it as time and i­nclination permit. In other words, you can stop at the gas station in Tyingtown, U.S.A., and continue on your trip, or you can stay a while and learn about the area by visiting the local museum, library or Chamber of Commerce. In either case, you can say you’ve been to Tyingtown; whether you learn much about the community is up to you.

F

Fly tying is a discipline that allows you to take what you want from it. We have a friend who ties only one fly pattern in a range of sizes for all of his fishing needs. His single fly is a few clumps of muskrat fur tied to the shank. He doesn’t even apply a whip finish; he uses a drop of Krazy Glue to finish the fly’s head. He’s used this fly all over the world, in salt and fresh water, and he is like a vacuum cleaner; he out-fishes almost everyone who fishes with him, including us.

Another friend is an incredible fly tier (and fly fisher) who has won tying contests in the United States and beyond.

Despite his obvious skills, he doesn’t know how to do a hand whip-finish; he learned to apply that part of a fly using a tool to complete the function and never saw a reason to learn the manual way to do it.

In both cases our friends can be called fly tiers, but their skills are at opposite ends of the tying spectrum -- though even the more accomplished one still has opportunities to learn more about the craft. Many readers of Hatches are tiers who, like our two friends, fall into the beginner-to-very-advanced range.

Our purpose here is to offer tips and tricks that can help tiers of all skill levels learn more about the pastime. We’ll offer

ideas for tiers all across the fly-tying spectrum. We understand there is a time in a person’s learning curve when they progress beyond the advanced stage; this article may not have much information they can use. On the other hand, if you consider yourself an advanced tier but still do not know how to construct a hand-tied whip-finish, you might want to read on The first item we will address is how to get thread on a hook with some semblance of uniformity. Let’s take a look at what can go wrong and how to fix it!

One of the first mistakes we often see new tiers make happens to be a skill we were forced to learn when we started tying flies in the 1950s. We didn’t have access to some of the tools readily available today, bobbins and whip-finish tools chief among them. With no bobbins, we learned to tie using just the spool of thread (figure 1) held in our hands. If you elect to not use a bobbin at all then that is your choice. In today’s fly-tying environment, however, it really is a mistake to attach a spool of thread to a bobbin and tie as if the bobbin is not even part of the equation. Yet it happens. Almost all new tiers who have not had the luxury of observing an experienced tier will invariably try to wrap the thread around the hook using

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I M P R OV I N G

YourTying

Figure 1

Figure 4

Figure 2

Figure 5

Figure 3

Figure 6

the forefinger and thumb (figure 2) to hold the thread, letting the bobbin swing to and fro. The fix to this problem is fairly simple; hold the bobbin in the hand so the tying thread can be placed using it (figure 3) rather than the fingertips; it’s a lot less cumbersome.

Once this same tier learns to hold the bobbin in hand, another problem will quite likely appear. A novice tier seldom “adjusts” a new bobbin to fit a spool; therefore the bobbin will not feed the thread very well. This results in a frustrated tier who has to continually stop tying and hand-twist the

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S K I L L S

spool to lengthen the thread or repair a broken strand. The fix is not difficult but does require a bit of caution. The tier needs to bend the bobbin arms slightly so the feet don’t restrict the rotation of the spool, but not spread them so far that the bobbin no longer keeps the thread taut. Over the years we’ve developed a formula for this adjustment that has served us well. Usually the feet/arms are so tight on a new bobbin they cross over each other, much like the top bobbin in the illustration (figure 4). We like to bend the arms to spread the feet so they are far enough apart that

their outside edge lines up with the inside of the spool, as illustrated on the bottom bobbin in the illustration. Sometimes a bobbin will still be a little tight after this adjustment. We find that a little lubrication from the side of our nose (or a bath soap bar) placed on one foot at a time can really smooth out the tension on the spool.

If you happen to over-adjust the arms or over-lubricate the feet, the thread spool can become loose enough that the tier’s hand drifts too far from the hook shank (figure 5) to accurately place the thread on the hook. The solution -again -- is really easy. Rather than hold the bobbin by your fingertips like Al has in figure 5, hold it in the palm of the hand. In so doing you can adjust the tension on the bobbin/ spool (figure 6) by squeezing or relaxing the grip with your hand while your fingers hold the barrel end of the tool. With

Streamer The Fan Wing Step 1

a little practice you’ll soon be feeding thread like a pro, or at least a lot better than the tier in figure 5.

We understand that it has taken some time to get to the point where we’ll actually apply thread to the hook shank, but being prepared to do the job right is more important than just jumping into the tying process and hoping it turns out well.

A properly adjusted bobbin can make a lot of difference in laying down a tight, smooth thread base rather than a lumpy one that slips on the hook. Those of you who have read our previous articles in Hatches know we seldom provide instruction without actually tying a functioning fly straight from our personal fly boxes. Today is no different, so let’s tie a simple streamer pattern so we can put that newly adjusted bobbin through its paces and start developing skills that will serve you well.

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Materials List Hook: Thread: Tail:

Size 2/0 to 12, 3XL streamer-style Gray and black Chartreuse (color of choice) ­marabou, clipped Back body: Chartreuse yarn strand Rib: Heavy thread, wire or tinsel Front body: Peacock and copper dubbing brush Wings: Calf tail fibers, mixed colors, stacked, length of choice Hackle: Black or brown collar Head: Thread, Aqua Tuff Note: These instructions assume a right-handed tier.

Step 2 Step 1: With a hook mounted in the vise we’ll take a

few minutes to share with you the most important tying lesson we can offer, thread control. It is critical to have a good, solid thread base under your fly if you want it to stay in place on the hook shank. If you don’t care whether your fly stays in place or not then skip this step and go to the next. Let’s start by identifying our working thread length, which is the distance between the tip of the bobbin barrel and the hook shank. We like this length to not exceed 1 ½ inches. To do so start like Al has in the illustration by holding the thread tight between the right and left hands a distance of no more than three inches. Make certain to leave about 6 inches of waste thread in the left hand.

Step 2:

Position this section of thread across the center of the hook shank to form an inverted “V” as illustrated.

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Streamer

The Fan Wing Step 3

Step 5: Our journey back over the shank has pro-

gressed far enough we run into our first snag (literally); it’s the hook point. We often observe tiers “weave around” the hook-point as Al is illustrating. This system works but can create a change in the amount of tension on the two strands of thread, making the base wrap at the back of the hook looser than the turns toward the front. Do any of you have trouble with the tails on your flies not wanting to stay on top of the hook? If this happens to you, the solution may be in the next step.

Step 6 Step 3:

Now place two thread turns in front of the point of the “V” then wrap over them several times winding toward the back of the hook. Do not clip off the waste thread; we’ll need that to complete the thread base.

Step 4

Step 6:

Step 4: Now pull straight back and up on the waste

thread at an angle of about 45 degrees with enough strength to keep the strand tight but not break it. Apply an equal amount of tension to the working length of thread between the bobbin and the shank, then start wrapping toward the back of the hook. The tension applied to both sections of thread work with each other to evenly place a series of tight turns (called a base wrap) around the hook shank.

Rather than use the weave-around method to avoid the hook point we prefer raising our right elbow to change the angle we apply the thread to the shank.

This move changes the thread from a 90-degree angle in relation to the hook shank to one similar to what Al demonstrates here. The technique makes it quite easy to dodge the hook point without changing the tension of the two thread strands. As a result, the last (back) part of the thread base will be as tight and smooth as the front. Off camera, Al will trim off the waste piece of thread then wrap back forward to his starting point in the center of the hook to finish the application of the thread base.

Step 7

Step 5

Step 7: The next part of the fly we want to apply is

the tail, and we quickly learn about another phenomenon called “thread torque.” This frustrating item is the

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process where the thread pushes softer materials out of its way making it difficult to anchor that material where we want it on the hook shank. Here Al is trying to tie the marabou on top of the shank and the under-tension thread is pushing it out of the way.

T Y I N G

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Step 10

Step 8

Step 10: Now when Al pulls down on the bobbin, the

Step 8: We like to use a process we call the finger-

thumb tuck to keep the marabou on top of the hook while anchoring it in place with the thread. We’ll start by positioning the chartreuse marabou on top then using our finger and thumb to hold it (and the hook shank) between them. Notice the thread is hanging slightly inside the pinch of the two fingers.

loop tightens around the material to anchor it in place. In the illustration he pulled the loop almost tight then moved his thumb back slightly so you could see the process before it was completed. Off camera he will anchor the marabou to the hook while wrapping back to the end of the shank then forward to the starting location.

Step 11

Step 9

Step 11: Here Al has trimmed off the waste end of

the marabou in the center of the hook and is preparing to trim the tail to length. It should be clipped even with the end of the hook bend.

Step 9: Keeping the two fingers pressed snugly (but

Step 12

not tightly) together, Al forces the thread UP between them, forms a loose loop above, goes back between them and down the opposite side of the hook. Here he is using the point of his scissors to keep the loop from slipping between his fingers so you can readily see it before he pulls it through his fingers.

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Streamer

The Fan Wing

Step 12: Another way to control the phenomenon and

use thread torque to our advantage is to position the material so the torque ends up placing it where you want it to be. In this case we are placing the heavy thread for the rib on the underside and off side of the hook at an angle. Once Al places a couple of thread turns and pulls them tight, the thread torque will reposition the rib material to the bottom of the shank where it can be further bound into place.

Step 15

Step 13

Step 15: Tie off and trim the waste materials then

Step 13: Now pull straight back and down slightly

while wrapping to the end of the shank, thus positioning it on the bottom; don’t forget to raise the right arm to keep from snagging the hook point. Off camera, Al will use the same process to place a strand of chartreuse yarn on the bottom of the shank along with the rib material.

Step 14

wrap the thread forward almost all the way to the hook eye. Leave a section of bare hook directly at the front of the shank that is equal in distance to the span of the diameter of the eye. This is another important item to learn; never crowd the hook eye or there will not be enough room to finish the fly. Back off from this location a distance equaling two thread turns, then tie on several peacock herls and a loop of copper wire. Notice the trimmed materials DO NOT stick forward into the bare part of the hook. Had we tied them on the hook at the front of the thread area (rather than backing up) their waste ends would have moved into the bare area and we would have started crowding the hook eye. By the time we got near the end of this fly we may very well not have had room to properly complete it.

Step 16

Step 14: In this step we’ll wrap the body material

AND the rib at the same time. The resulting body is very durable and quite good looking. We like to place the yarn strand directly in front of the rib then wrap the two together as if they were one to get the desired effect.

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Step 16: Place the peacock herls inside the copper

loop and grasp the two materials with a hackle pliers or an electronics test clip. Twist the tool to form a section of peacock dubbing-brush chenille with a wire core. Take one turn of chenille around the hook and tie it off, but do not trim it from the hook. Pull the excess back out of the way; the wire core will help keep it there.

I M P R O V I N G

Y O U R

Step 17

Step 17: When using a clipped-from-the-hide clump

of calf-tail hair, an important part of tying any hair-wing fly is applying only the part of the bundle that serves your needs. In almost all cases we want to use the first two layers of hair and discard the rest. Unfortunately many tiers are hesitant to discard as much of the bundle as we suggest and they run into trouble. Here Al illustrates how to identify the first two layers of hair in a clump of calf-tail fibers. He is grasping the first layer of hair with the tips of the second layer pointing out of the bundle. EVERY fiber below the first two layers (just forward of his right thumbnail) should be discarded (except when tying spun-hair flies). This is an important bit of information if successfully tying hair-wing flies, wet or dry, is your goal.

T Y I N G

S K I L L S

Step 19

Step 19: After attaching and trimming the hair bun-

dle, bring the peacock chenille forward, take one wrap around the hook, tie it off and again pull it back out of the way. Even the hair fibers that are stored in the stacker, then apply them the hook to form the next part of the wing. Trim the waste ends, place another wrap of body material then again pull the chenille back out of the way.

Step 20

Step 18

Step 20: This is a good point to add a different hair

Step 18: Once we’ve discarded the waste part of the

hair bundle, even the tips in a hair stacker. We want our clump of hair to be VERY sparse, so divide the stacked hair into two clumps and temporarily store one of them back in the stacker. Tie the other to the hook to form the first part of a hair wing that is long enough to reach the end of the hook. Notice Al places the hair on the side of the hook so thread torque will move the bundle to the top of the shank when he tightens the tying thread.

color so it shows in the center area of the wing. Select a color you like and apply a very sparse clump of it just as we did in the previous wing segments, then top this bundle with another small bunch of white fibers. Don’t forget to discard all the fibers in each hair bundle except layers one and two, following the guidelines established in step 17. Make one more turn of peacock chenille, tie it off and trim the excess.

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Streamer

The Fan Wing

way. Select a sparse clump of black calf-tail hair, prepare it following our established guidelines, and tie it to the hook to form the last part of the wing. Trim as needed.

Step 21

Step 23: Take two or three more wraps of hackle, tie

off the feather and trim it from the hook. Place a couple of half hitches of thread in front of the hackle to tie off the gray thread and trim it from the hook.

Step 21: Select a neck-hackle feather, anchor the

tip in a set of hackle pliers, and prepare to fold back the hackle fibers. Loop the pliers around a stationary object, stroke back the hackle fibers to stand them up, and then use the handle from a pair of tweezers to finish folding them back. Stroke the fibers back on one side of the stem and then on the other. Once folded, the hackle will form a nice, swept-back collar. Tie the feather to the bottom of the hook like the second feather in the illustration.

Trim any waste material.

Step 22

Step 24 Step 24: Attach black thread and apply as many turns of thread as needed to build a thread head. Now we are going to learn how to tie a hand-over-hand whip finish.

Pull about 8 inches of thread from the bobbin, form a loop beside the hook eye, and store the bobbin in a material spring at the back of the vise. The leading strand of the loop should cross over the part of the thread that goes back to the bobbin stored at the back of the vise.

Step 25

Step 22: Take two turns of hackle around the hook/ wing base, tie off the feather and pull it back out of the

Step 23

Strea Step 25: Wrap the thread about half way around the hook using the right hand then grasp the loop with the left and bring it back to the starting position.

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Step 26

T Y I N G

S K I L L S

Step 28: An important feature of this fly is the multi-

stage wing. The way it was constructed produces a wing of fanned-out fibers that really expands and contracts in the water during the strip and pause parts of the retrieve; we oversize the hackle so it undulates in the water. It is a deadly pattern; try it in a range of colors, different wing lengths and sizes. Also, let us know how it works for you; we sure have fun with it!

Finished Fly Step 26: Pass the strand of thread off to the right

hand again and complete the process again. Repeat the wrap/hand off process until you have completed several turns around the hook. Place a bodkin in the loop of thread then pull the slack out of the loop, thus completing the whip finish.

Step 27

Step 27: Apply several coats of Aqua Tuff or other head cement to finish the fly.

Step 28

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Story, flies and photos by Mark Dysinger

Of all the species I fish for, saltwater and fresh, pike are my favorite.

They excite me.

They intimidate me.

They’re primitivelooking, Jurassic in appearance and nature. Their appetites are enormous.

Their strikes are savage. My hands shake with adrenaline when I release them.

Predatory fish -especially those better measured in feet than in inches -- require big flies. Not only must a pike fly be big, it must also be durable and have good movement in the water. Rabbit strips combine those attributes just about perfectly.

After experiencing s o m e s u c cess with patterns that incorporate rabbit strips, I came to the conclusion that more rabbit in a fly might help catch more pike. I also concluded that more rabbit might foul the hook as the flies were cast and retrieved.

There are few things more frustrating than seeing a huge fish turn away from a tangled fly at the last moment. It can rip your heart out.

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I don’t like having my heart ripped out. That’s why I developed the Bunny Split.

Scott Sanchez’s famous pattern, the Double Bunny, helped inspire the pattern. Scott’s fly uses two rabbit strips, glued together by their hides, for a wing.

After fishing the pattern for a while, I found that the glued hide unnecessarily impaired the rabbit strips’ natural mobility. The only real movement occurred at the very tips of the strips and in the

individual hairs along the strips’ length.

This might work well for flies meant to imitate small baitfish and the like, but pike flies require a great deal m o re m o b i l i t y a n d action, with sizable lengths of material that are free to undulate and swirl during a retrieve. The Bunny Split uses two Magnum Zonker strips for the tail, with flash material sandwiched between the two. The strips are not glued together, and thus are able to swing and wiggle independent of one other. A wire loop guard tied in below the bottom strip helps prevent tangling, as does securing the materials well back on the hook shank. Even if the bottom strip happens to foul, the top strip continues to provide action.

The fly’s hydrodynamics tend to keep the two strips fairly close together during a retrieve. If you want more separation between them, you can incorporate a second wire loop. Simply tie the second loop on top of the first strip and the Krystal Flash, complete the fly as

usual, and then bend the additional loop upward. As a general rule I tend to keep the upward angle of the second loop less than 45 degrees, as bending it too far can cause the top strip to foul. Keeping the incline of the second loop modest seems to create more flutter.

Does the extra loop make a difference to the fish? I have noticed an appreciable difference on heavily fished waters; if nothing else, the double-loop version provides a slightly different acoustic footprint.

The Bunny Split’s collar is composed of layers of marabou. Some pike patterns (i.e., Reynolds’ Pike Fly) use crosscut rabbit strips, but I prefer the more fluid movement of marabou. I find that it’s also easier to alternate or blend colors with marabou than it is with crosscut rabbit. As a bonus, the marabou does a nice job of hiding the wire loop guard.

I tie this fly with bright color combinations, mixing and matching the top and bottom tail components and sometimes alternating layers of color in the marabou collar. White, yellow and chartreuse are good starting colors, and accents of red are always a nice touch. Olive, brown, black and other muted tones have their place, but I have yet to use them very much with this pattern simply because the brighter colors have always been so effective. If certain colors work

better in your specific area, by all means try them.

Casting the Bunny Split requires a heavy rod. The Zonker strips and epoxy-coated head create bulk. A weight-forward line and a stout leader help the fly “turn over” and go where you aim it. I use a 10-weight outfit and (usually) a floating weight-forward line.

Even when a Bunny Split becomes wet, it has a slow sink rate. That’s great for shallow water, but depths of more than 5 to 6 feet require a sink-tip or intermediate line -- especially if the pike are holding near bottom.

There are two approaches to retrieving the fly, and I have enjoyed success with both: When fish are fairly active, a single hand-strip retrieve seems to work best. Let the activity level of the

fish dictate how long and fast each strip should be, and how long you should pause between strips to let the fly sink a little. When fish are less active or are just plain neutral, try a steady two-hand retrieve that pulls the fly through the water just fast enough to make the rabbit hairs and strips shimmy.

Although I tie the Bunny Split with pike in mind, I have also caught nice largemouth and smallmouth bass while fishing it. It has also proven effective for muskie fishing. Robert Tomes, in his book Muskie on the Fly, includes it in his “deadly dozen” set of patterns. Tomes refers to the pattern as the “Muskie Bunny Twin Tail” and underscores its success with difficult fish.

•

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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Tying instructions Step 2 2. Prepare a Magnum Zonker strip that is twice the

length of the hook shank by tapering the end of the hide to a point. Place the strip hide side up on the shank and about one-third of the shank back from the hook eye.

Secure the strip with a series of tight thread wraps, and finish with the thread back near the hook bend. Place a smooth layer of Flexament over the wraps that hold the strip to the hook.

Step 1 1. Fasten the hook in the vise and start the thread

about one-third of the hook shank behind the eye. Bend a short piece of wire to form a loop, and secure the loop to the top of the hook shank toward the bend with a series of thread wraps. I use 24-gauge wire because it’s pliable enough to bend, yet stiff enough to hold its finished shape. Place a smooth layer of Flexament or equivalent on the wraps that secure the loop guard.

Step 3 3. Tie in about a dozen strands of Krystal Flash on

top of the strip. Keep them long so that the ends of the strands extend a bit past the end of strip’s end. (If tying a double-looped version of the pattern, prepare a wire loop as in Step 1 and tie it in on top of the Krystal Flash and the bottom Zonker strip. Wait until the rest of the tying steps are finished before bending the loop upward.)

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Step 4 4. Prepare a second strip as in Step 2. Tie this one hide

side down on top of the Krystal Flash so that its length is identical to that of the lower strip. Secure as in Step 2.

Step 6 6. To complete the fly, build up thread ahead of the Step 5 5. Start layering the collar by tying in four bunches of

marabou; one on top of the hook shank, one underneath, and one on each side. Tie them in at the farthest rearward thread wrap that holds the tail components in place, and place each subsequent layer a bit farther in front than the previous. This method will not give a perfectly rounded collar at each individual layer, but as layers are added the gaps will be filled. The collar is complete after three or four layers are tied in. (As an alternative to tying the marabou in bunches, it can also be done by wrapping an entire feather while sweeping the plumes toward the rear of the fly .This method is particularly effective and convenient when the collar will be one uniform color with no blending.)

collar and add the eyes. Lightly coat the head area with five-minute epoxy. Use the epoxy to taper the head as necessary.

Materials List Hook: Thread: Tail guard(s): Lower Tail: Tail flash: Upper Tail: Collar: Eyes: Head:

Dai-Riki #810 or equivalent, size 3/0 3/0 24-gauge wire loop Magnum Zonker strip Krystal Flash Magnum Zonker strip Three to four layers of marabou Doll eyes, prismatic eyes, etc.

Five-minute epoxy

Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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Covering the

Hendrickson Hatch Story, flies and photos by Nick Pionessa

“I know what those are!”

I thought to myself as the pool came alive with rising fish.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

HENDRICKSON NYMPH

MALE HENDRICKSON DUN

FEMALE HENDRICKSON DUN

FEMALE HENDRICKSON DUN

M

y mind leafed through the pages of a crumbling paperback to drawings made by a master with whom I was barely familiar. “This must be a Quill Gordon,” I said. “No, I think it’s a Hendrickson.”

I remember the day as if it were yesterday because it was my birthday and that Hendrickson was one of the best gifts I ever received. I’ve now spent 20-some years fishing this hatch. Twentysome years of wrapping feathers on hooks. Twenty-some years of casting the same flies into the same pools. Twenty-some years of looking for new runs -- examining duns, flipping rocks, devising new patterns. I hope I have many more years left, because the Hendrickson hatch is a many-pieced puzzle.

No hatch brings Northeastern anglers out like the Hendrickson.

It’s our first reliable hatch of good-sized bugs, bugs we can see.

Midges and the odd Blue-Winged Olive hatch get us some casting practice, but the Hendrickson is something altogether different.

Parking lots become as full as the streams. The abundance of anglers and the seasonal abundance of water compound the difficulties of the hatch. When the water is colder than usual, Hendrickson Time becomes a spectator sport. The key to success is diversification, and it should start long before the first dun floats by.

Up here in western New York, the hatch begins about the middle of April. Water temperatures in the low 50s activate

the nymphs, which begin to position themselves near the edges of their rocks. Their wing cases darken and begin to bulge. The fish take notice. This is where anglers come in.

There is probably a good week when trout feed subsurface on migrating nymphs.

For the angler, this can be highly productive time -- and less crowded than the hatch itself. The ticket for working this preemergent period is to dead-drift realistic or suggestive nymph patterns along the bottom. Riffled areas, especially at transitions into deeper water, are the spots to concentrate on since this species hatches from fast-water gravel. The trout will set up along the downstream edge of the drop-offs and wait for clumsy or unfortunate nymphs.

Hendrickson nymphs propel themselves through slow currents by wriggling their abdomens. I like to use a curved hook to imitate these “wigglers.” The nymphs are not great swimmers, so once loose from the rocks they tend to tumble and struggle along as they inflate their exoskeletons with gases and rise toward the surface. This obviously makes them easy targets, and wild trout seldom let an easy morsel go by.

I use two patterns for this emergence. One is a suggestive nymph, the Turkey Tail Nymph. The other is a much more realistic pattern that has been refined a few times. The current version has been a great producer on fussy streams.

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Covering the Hendrickson Hatch

The Turkey Tail Nymph Hook: Daiichi 1150, size 14 Bead: Copper or copper-colored glass Thread: Olive 8/0 Tails: Wood duck flank Rib: Wine-colored wire Abdomen: Turkey tail fibers, twisted Thorax: SLF dubbing The next pattern is the Henderson Nymph. No, that is not a typo. It’s a little poke at people who mispronounce fly names.

Makes me giggle. I tie the fly with photos of real Hendrickson nymphs close at hand.

The Henderson Nymph Hook: Daiichi 1260, size 14 Thread: Uni 8/0, camel Tails: Wood duck flank Rib: Wine-colored wire Abdomen: SLF and natural fox squirrel Wing case: Tyvek strip colored brown Thorax/head: SLF and natural fox squirrel There are a few ways to fish the nymphs for the Hendrickson hatch, and all can be productive. Early on, when the duns are not yet seen, fishing along the bottom is usually the best bet.

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Use an indicator to set the depth, or simply high-stick the imitations along in a dead drift.

Once the hatch gets going and there are some duns on the water but no rises, the middle portion of the water column gains importance. The number of nymphs rising to the surface at this point is great enough that trout tend to hang and wait for nymphs rather than actively searching the bottom. Suspending a nymph at mid-depth under a small indicator can be deadly. I usually start by setting the nymph about two-thirds of the distance to the bottom and then raise it up as the hatch progresses and fish feed closer to the surface. You can also accomplish this with a dry-and-dropper rig, but it is harder to adjust the depth of the nymph. The mid-depth technique works well on days when the water is warm enough to get the hatch going, but not warm enough to get the trout feeding on the surface.

“Hey Jerry, anything?”

“No. lots of bugs and it’s still ­getting going. I saw one rise but he hasn’t come back. I’m gonna head back down to the old bridge pool to look around.”

“Good luck.”

The pool was already occupied. I was searching a little pocket and drop-off along a nearby bank when I saw a fish flash. I silently wondered how I missed this spot the day before. I waited a little longer.

More flashes. A splashy rise from a dink. A half hour passed.

“Screw it, I’m nymphing them.”

I tied a 2-foot piece of 6x fluorocarbon onto my leader and knotted a size 14 Turkey Tail Nymph to it. A dab of Biostrike on the leader and the trap was set. Two drifts into the flashes and I had a fat wild brown pulling drag on my 4-weight. Two drifts later, I hooked another. I kept that pace up for about an hour. My dry-fly ethic got trampled into the muddy bank, but I was happy as a clam. Lessons one through five: Catching fish is almost always better than not catching fish.

Once the early spring waters warm and fish begin to rise more readily, we Hendrickson aficionados can finally concentrate on fishing dry flies. I like to match the imitations I use to the nature of the stream I’m fishing -- its swiftness, its slowness and the selectivity of its fish.

Small, non-technical waters don’t usually require serious flies as much as they demand a stealthy approach. Thorax and parachute patterns work well, and are visible too.

On hard-fished waters, though, the hatch presents particular difficulties that must be dealt with. First are the color and size differences between male and female duns. The differences can be significant enough to make one think they are two altogether different insects. On most streams, the females are a good hook size larger and fatter-bodied, with a definitive golden tone to their abdomen and legs. If it’s noticeable to me on the stream, I’m sure the trout can tell. The reason it is important is that the two sexes often seem to hatch separately. I have

Covering the Hendrickson Hatch seen times when the only visible duns were males, and two hours later the hatch has morphed into an all-female affair. Tie two different versions just to be sure:

Female Hair Wing Emerger Hook: Thread: Tail: Rib: Body: Hackle: Wing:

Daiichi 1260, size 14 Camel 8/0 Brown Sparkle Yarn Olive thread Tan turkey biot Dark dun or grizzly dyed olive Gray deer or caribou hair

Male Hair Wing Emerger Hook: Thread: Tail: Rib: Body: Hackle: Wing:

Daiichi 1260, size 14 Pink 8/0 Brown Sparkle Yarn Gray thread Pink turkey biot Grizzly dyed olive Gray deer or caribou hair

The second difficulty Hendricksons present is that they hatch right in the surface film. Nymphs ascend to the surface and hold in place, trapped there by the water’s surface tension. The nymphs’ shucks split and the duns climb out, using the discarded husks

as portals to the top side of the film. This little trick takes a few seconds, and trout instinctively know the trapped emergers cannot get away. A trout might occasionally miss a dun after it hatches, but they never seem to miss a struggling emerger.

This can and should play a role in the design of emerger patterns. The two I most use represent the transition stage by being tied essentially in two parts, the body and the trailing shuck. One fly represents the emergent nymph and the other the half-emerged dun.

The former I call the Peacock Emerger. I originally tied the pattern to imitate emerging Sulphurs on a spring creek where the fish were seriously picky. I watched one fish back up as much as a foot or more and then rise to something I couldn’t see. He paid zero attention to the dun I presented, and he happily continued to rise.

I crossed to the other side of the creek and crept over to the edge to have a look. The next time he backed up and rose, I noticed a small white spot appear and then he ate it. Sure enough, he was backing up as nymphs reached the surface and waiting until they began to emerge before eating them. Pretty slick.

I went home and sat at the vise and came up with a few different versions of a half-and-half emerger. The next day I returned for a rematch with my selective buddy. Two of the patterns didn’t sit properly. The Peacock Emerger sat properly and, better yet, was easy to see. Mr. Selective took it readily. That was in 1998.

The pattern has worked well for me since.

A week later it did a tour of Pennsylvania’s famed spring-creek empire and quickly became the go-to pattern on those pressured waters. When it fooled a few fish on a small influential spring creek I knew it had real merit.

The Peacock Emerger Hook: Thread: Tail: Rib: Body: Thorax: Hackle: Wing:

Daiichi 1150, size12-14 Pink 8/0 Wood duck flank .004 monofilament Peacock herl Hendrickson Superfine Dark dun Gray deer or caribou hair

The next pattern is much newer but fits a slightly different niche and doesn’t require dry fly hackle. It does include the shiny, air-trapping properties of snowshoe rabbit foot fur, which I have really come to appreciate.

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Covering the Hendrickson Hatch Three seasons ago this pattern gave me a fine birthday present in the form of a nice fish from a difficult stream. A week later on one of the east’s most difficult tailwaters, it landed some damned tough flat-water fish that were picking off damaged specimens as the hatch wound down. That experience gave the fly its name, the Disabled Dun. When the water is cold and the air is damp, a lot of insects don’t make it out of their nymphal shucks properly. The result? Crippled bugs, drifting along and waiting to drown. Trout love those things.

This one is tied to imitate an unsuccessfully emerged Hendrickson.

a white post wing, but incorporates a few more turns of hackle that are then trimmed front and back to represent spent wings.

Throw in the correct, rusty-brown color and longer tails and voila!

Problem solved. This is another pattern that’s been in my box for more than 10 years, and it’s the one I try first every time.

The Parachute Spinner The Disabled Dun Hook: Daiichi 1260, size 14 Thread: 8/0 pink Tail: Wood duck flank fibers Rib: Fine copper wire Abdomen: Hare’s ear dubbing Wing: Caribou hair Thorax: Dun snowshoe rabbit, spun in a loop and trimmed on the bottom When it comes right down to it, I don’t fish many high-floating dry flies for this hatch any more. Emerger patters just seem to work better. So let’s skip matching the duns and move on to the last and possibly the trickiest piece of this puzzle, the imago or spinner stage of the Hendrickson’s life cycle. Hendrickson spinners often come down in a pile and are also fairly big. Both those characteristics add to the difficulty. Trout have a zillion flies to choose from, and you can’t tell your imitations from the naturals.

Throw in typical low-light conditions and fishing can get pretty frustrating. The water boils with rises and all you get are refusals.

For low light, we need a pattern that rides low in the surface, will fool picky trout and is easy to see. Enter the Parachute Spinner.

There are many versions of these around, but I feel this version offers some benefits some of the others don’t. The first is that for some reason, dry-fly hackle fibers do a hell of a job of representing spinner wings. To us they look merely OK, but to trout they reflect light and dimple the surface film in a way that makes them extremely effective.

Vince Marinaro’s divided hackle-wing spinners remain amazingly effective to this day but are hard to see on the water. The Parachute Spinner is tied like any other parachute pattern, with

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Hook: Thread: Tails: Wing: Rib: Body: Wings:

Daiichi 1180, size 12-14 Rusty brown Uni-Thread, 8/0 Beaver guard hairs White poly yarn Pink 6/0 thread Rusty brown Superfine Hackle wound parachute style and trimmed to spent-wing shape

Sometimes the Parachute Spinner’s white post can blow your cover. When that happens, the only alternative is to fish a low-riding spinner that’s tough to keep track of. A material that originally had nothing to do with dry flies has really helped solve this problem.

The material is a synthetic fiber for saltwater streamers called DNA. It is much stiffer than the old poly yarn we used to use for spinner wings. It’s also much more translucent, holds its shape better, and has a nice shimmer. The best part, though, is that it’s pretty visible most of the time. I mostly use white DNA, but for real tough fish the smoke color is a bit stealthier

“Let’s go look down in the no-kill by the road one last time and then the hell with it,” Rick said.

“Fine with me.”

A drift boat anchored in a good run with a guy asleep in the front seat was a bad sign. It was time to take off our waders for the long drive home. The Hendricksons hadn’t come off as expected, perhaps because of a blazing early-May heat wave.

I was just folding my waders when I saw a lone Hendrickson dun catch the breeze and sail across the road.

Covering the Hendrickson Hatch “Ah, there’s always one,” I thought. We got into the car and, just as we got to the pavement, I saw the first rise. Then another rise, then two fish working, three in a row side by side, then another rise down below.

“Pull over! Look at that!”

The wind blew some duns across in front of the car. We got out and saw five or six fish working steadily in the pool we had abandoned an hour before.

You could almost hear a calliope playing as, in a panic, we tried to string up rods and put our waders back on all at once.

We waded in. It took me three casts to hook a solid fish on the Peacock Emerger. It took Rick only slightly longer. For the next two hours we had a world of fun, all the while grinning like village idiots because we damn near drove off and missed it.

The mystique the Hendrickson hatch commands is welldeserved. Some of the world’s best and most well-known anglers have written extensively about it. It remains a strong, consistent hatch.

It gives us lesser beings a connection to that past, to the legendary dry-fly roots that first sank into Catskill soil. Some of dry-fly fishing’s seminal discoveries took place during the Hendrickson hatch. Famous pools on famous rivers have been named for it, and now one more article has been devoted to it.

Perhaps I have added a modern update to a long and storied history. I hope I’m far from the last to do so.

•

DNA Rusty Spinner Hook: Daiichi 1180, size 12-14 Thread: 8/0 rusty brown Tail: Beaver guard hairs Rib: 6/0 pink thread Body: Rusty brown Superfine Wing: DNA fibers (about 30 strands)

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Fall 2010 • Hatches Magazine

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Tying the Female Hair Wing Emerger Materials List Hook: Thread: Tail: Rib: Body: Hackle: Wing:

Daiichi 1260, size 14 Camel 8/0 Brown Sparkle Yarn Olive thread Tan turkey biot Dark dun or grizzly dyed olive Gray deer or caribou hair

Step 3: Wrap the tying thread over the yarn all the

way back to the hook bend, and then bring the thread back up to the eye.

Step 1: Start the thread at the bend and wind it forward to within one hook eye’s width of the eye.

Step 4: Fold the yarn butt back and wrap it down with thread.

Step 2: Start the yarn just behind the eye.

Step 5: Trim it off at and angle and smooth it with Practical & Artistic Fly Tying

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

more thread.

Step 6: Start the thread for the rib on the back side of the hook.

Step 7: Tie in the biot, fuzzy edge down.

Step 9: Follow the front edge of the biot as you wrap to keep the segmentation proportional.

Step 10: Bring the biot all the way up and bind it off with the tying thread.

Step 8: Wrap the biot forward, keeping the fuzzy edge toward the bend of the hook.

Step 11: Wind the rib forward, following the valleys between biot wraps.

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Tying the Female Hair Wing Emerger

Step 12: Tie off the rib.

Step 15: Tie the hackle off in front of the body.

Step 13: Prepare a hackle by trimming a few fibers

Step 16: Clip the hackle stem and bind it down well.

Step 14: Wind the hackle rearward for two turns then

Step 17: Stack a small clump of caribou or deer hair

from each side and tie it in.

come forward with the rest.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

and check it for length.

Step 18: Clip the butts off, leaving a little extra to

Step 21: Flare the butts and begin to wind forward

Step 19: Take two turns of thread over the butts.

Step 22: Take four turns to bring the thread in front

Step 20: Pull slowly and tightly straight down with

Step 23: Anchor-wrap the thread tightly just behind

flare with the thread.

the thread.

through the butt stubs.

of the hair butts.

the eye.

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Tying the Female Hair Wing Emerger

Step 24: Whip-finish the thread twice and clip it off.

Step 25: Trim a “V” in the hackle underneath to make the fly sit lower.

Step 26: Your Female Hendrickson Hair Wing Emerger is finished.

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Tying the Peacock Emerger Materials List Hook: Thread: Tail: Rib: Body: Thorax: Hackle: Wing:

Daiichi 1150, size12-14 Pink 8/0 Wood duck flank .004 monofilament Peacock herl Hendrickson Superfine Dark dun Gray deer or caribou hair

Step 3: Tie the wood duck fibers in at the bend and

wrap the thread over them. End the wraps behind the eye.

Step 1: Start the thread a hook eye’s width behind the eye and wind it back to the bend.

Step 4: Fold the tail fiber butts back and wrap the

thread over them toward the bend. Trim off the butts and smooth the resulting bump with wraps of tying thread.

Step 2: Take a small bunch of wood duck flank fibers and measure them for the length of the tail.

Step 5: Tie in the mono for the rib. Wind it down to

the bend and bring the thread forward to the two-thirds point.

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Tying the Peacock Emerger

Step 6: Tie in two peacock herls by their butts.

Step 9: Bring the rib forward, reverse-wrapped to

Step 7: Wind the thread over the herls toward the bend,

Step 10: Tie off the rib, clip off the tag and bind it

Step 8: Wrap the herls forward on edge so they’re as

Step 11: Clip some fibers from the base of a hackle

then advance the thread back up to the herls’ tie-in point.

fuzzy as possible.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

protect the peacock herls.

down well. Advance the thread forward.

and tie it in, in front of the herl abdomen.

Step 12: Start some dubbing on the thread.

Step 15: Wind the hackle forward with space be-

Step 13: Wind the dubbing forward covering the remaining thorax of the fly.

Step 16: Tie off the hackle stem in front of the tho-

Step 14: Cover the thorax evenly and preserve the space behind the eye for the wing.

Step 17: Stack a small clump of caribou or deer hair

tween the wraps to let the dubbing color show.

rax. Bind it down firmly and smoothly.

and check it for length.

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Tying the Peacock Emerger

Step 18: Clip the hair butts off, leaving a little extra

Step 21: Take four turns to bring the thread in front

Step 19: Pull slowly and tightly straight down with

Step 22: Anchor-wrap the thread tightly just behind

Step 20: Flare the butts and begin to wind forward

Step 23: Whip-finish the thread twice and clip it off.

to flare with the thread. Take two turns of thread over the butts.

the thread.

through the butt stubs.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

of the hair butts.

the eye.

Trim a “V” in the hackle underneath to make the fly sit lower. Your Peacock Emerger is finished.

Tying the Disabled Dun Materials List Hook: Daiichi 1260, size 14 Thread: 8/0 pink Tail: Wood duck flank fibers Rib: Fine copper wire Abdomen: Hare’s ear dubbing Wing: Caribou hair Thorax: Dun snowshoe rabbit, spun in a loop and trimmed on the bottom

Step 3: Fold the fibers over and wrap the thread back toward the bend.

Step 1: Start the thread a hook eye’s width behind

the eye and wind it to the bend. Measure a small bunch of wood duck flank fibers for the tail.

Step 4: Clip the fibers’ butts off and smooth any

bumps with tying thread. Tie in the wire rib and wrap it to the bend.

Step 2: Wind the thread over fibers up to the half way point.

Step 5: Start some dubbing on the thread.

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Tying the Disabled Dun

Step 6: Wind the dubbing forward, tapering it larger

Step 9: Trim the dubbing smooth with your scissor

Step 7: Finish the abdomen and bring the thread in

Step 10: Wind the thread forward to a point about

Step 8: Wind the rib forward evenly in four turns and

Step 11:

toward the front.

front of it.

tie it off in front of the abdomen.

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tips.

halfway up the remaining thorax.

Make a dubbing loop about 2 inches long.

Step 12: Wrap the loop back to the front of the ab-

Step 15: Tighten the thread to flare the butts.

Step 13: Select and stack a small bunch of hair and

Step 16: Wrap the thread through the butts to bind

Step 14: Clip the butts to length and take two turns

Step 17: Wrap the thread behind the wing to stand it

domen and bring the thread forward to the halfway point again.

check it for length.

of thread over them.

them down well.

up, and then bring the thread forward.

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Tying the Disabled Dun

Step 18: Put some mixed-up snowshoe rabbit foot

Step 21: Brush the dubbing out with some Velcro.

Step 19: Clip it off on both sides so it’s about half an

Step 22: Wrap the dubbing loop forward tightly, fill-

Step 20: Spin the dubbing loop up tightly.

Step 23: Bring the dubbing loop in front of the wing

dubbing in the loop and spread it evenly.

inch wide.

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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2010

ing in behind the wing.

and continue forward.

Step 24: Tie the loop off just behind the eye.

Step 25: Whip-finish twice and clip off the thread.

Step 26: Brush the dubbing out with the Velcro again.

Step 27: The brushed-out dubbing should look like

Step 29: Color the thorax lightly with a pink Sharpie

Step 28: Trim the dubbing flat on the bottom.

Step 30: The finished Disabled Dun should look like

this.

marker.

this from underneath.

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Flies and photos by Brent Drew • Story by Alex Cerveniak

TYING , THE DEVIL S REJECT

, , DEVIL S REJ DEVIL S R A deceptive calm fills the air. The river gurgles. A light breeze whispers like a witch’s spell, enticing the angler to take a nap at the water’s edge. But even as he dozes off, he senses that something isn’t quite right. A sixth sense has his subconscious on guard. He glances uneasily over his shoulder one last time and lapses into slumber.

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, EVIL S REJECT

As he rests, a sinister fog creeps through the forest, strangling the air from the midday breeze. Birds and insects that happily sang only moments before fall strangely silent. The change goes unnoticed by the slumbering angler. The river’s rush veils his ears from a danger, hidden below the water line, that now stalks him.

His eyes fly open as a rumble shakes the rocks beneath his legs.

His head snaps forward from its birch pillow. He frantically looks around, trying to figure out what is wrong. A low, ominous growl — a growl so evil it makes angels cry — pierces the heavy fog, and every hair on the angler’s body stands straight up. He wants to run, but his body is paralyzed by fear.

Witches cackle from the darkness behind the trees as the angler stands and sprints away. Then it hits him: He left his fly rod beside the stream! He retraces his steps and stoops to grab the forgotten wand. As his sweating hands grip the cork, the water at river’s edge erupts into spray, and a nightmarish beast drags him into the abyss.

The monster is the type that causes people to spend their lives going to church so they don’t have to face it in hell. It has spent its ­bloodthirsty life haunting the aquatic world. The monster — the ­hellgrammite -- kills for the pure joy of feeling things die between its fearsome jaws.

JECT REJECT Or at least it seemed that way in this (thankfully) fictitious angler’s nightmare. Still, ugly and scary as they are, hellgrammites and their imitations are some of the most effective baits used in fresh water.

This pattern, The Devil’s Reject, attempts to capture some of that sinister effectiveness. •

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, TYING THE DEVIL S REJECT Materials Hook: Weight: Tails: Ribbing: Gills: Dubbing: Shellback: Legs: Eyes: Pincers:

Size 2-6 Targus 200 2XL .030 lead wire Brown goose biots Gold UTC Brassie wire Small brown rubber strands Tan rabbit Brown Medallion sheeting Brown hen saddle Small bean chain Brown goose biots

Step 2 2. Wrap the tying thread up and down the hook shank to secure the lead wire. Move the thread back to where the shank begins its sharp curve. Add a small tuft of dubbing, which helps splay the tails. Tie in one goose biot to each side of the hook shank.

Secure the ribbing with several wraps of thread.

Step 1 1. Wrap the desired number of wraps of lead wire on the middle of the hook shank. Attach the bead-chain eyes just behind the eye of the hook.

Step 3 3. Tie in the Medallion sheeting. Apply a liberal amount of dubbing, giving the fly a tapered body.

Stop dubbing the body at roughly the midpoint of the hook.

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6. Tie in the hen saddle by the tip. Apply more dubbing, taking up roughly half the space from the thread to the eyes. Move the thread to the eye of the hook and attach the biot pincers, but without the tuft of dubbing used for the tail.

Step 4 4. Pull the Medallion sheet forward and secure with a few wraps of thread.

Step 7 7. Palmer the hen saddle forward, much as you would the hackle of a Woolly Bugger. Pull the Medallion sheet forward and secure with a few wraps of thread.

Step 5 5. Add the rubber-strand gills as you wrap the ribbing forward. With each wrap, slide small pieces of rubber strand under the wire on each side of the body. Position the rubber strands with the wire fairly loose, then pull the wire tight.

Step 8 8. Dub the rest of the head. Bring the Medallion sheet forward, again securing with a few wraps of thread. Trim the excess.

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Fly tying for Atlantic salmon in Norway

The Scandinavian tube fly Story, flies and photos by Sverre T.H. Solgård

During the last two decades, the flies used in Norwegian salmon rivers have changed.

I remember the first time I fished for Atlantic salmon as a small boy. The flies used back then were completely different than they are today.

i

think it was about 20 years ago that I first read an article written

by Swedish salmon-fly authority Mikael Frödin. The article was about a tube fly called The Gary. It was beautifully tied and looked much cooler that those in my older fly tying books. The materials were different and he used some sort of clear plastic tube I hadn`t seen before. The fly looked new and fresh. Since that day, I’ve closely followed the progress of what is now called the Scandinavian tube fly tying style.

Frödin hadn’t made all this up by himself. Håkan Norling also had a big influence on these flies, but many people have never heard of him. Norling is better known for being the father of the Temple Dog family of tube flies. These guys had a lot of influence on how we in Scandinavia tie tube flies today.

There are many others who have con-

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flies have always been about the fancy stuff. On cold, dark winter evenings, fancy materials make the flies more interesting to tie. Simpler flies are every bit as effective, but flashy and excessively intricate patterns are much cooler. If you want easy, yet effective flies, tie some mini marabou tubes.

The idea

tributed as well; almost every fly tier has his or her own style, but the patterns’ essence remains the same.

Some have argued that these flies are far more complicated than they need to be and use exotic and often hard-toget materials. Personally I agree. But they do follow a rich tradition; salmon

The basic idea behind the Scandinavian tube fly is to create flies that are light, balanced and have mobile materials that really wiggle in the current. Tube flies should look alive. The flies are tapered, which means they are wide in the front and gradually thinner toward the tip of the wing. Many tiers use flash materials in several colors to spice up their patterns -- being careful not to exaggerate the effect, of course.

It is normal to tie in some strands of Mirror Flash and Gliss`n`Glow before tying in the wing. The wing itself has several layers of hair, each layer a bit longer than the one underneath. Between each layer, it is normal to tie in a few strands of angel hair in a matching color.

Almost all Scandinavian style tube flies use fox or temple dog hair for wing materials. Such hairs are very soft and move much more freely than stiffer hairs such as bucktail. Temple dog hair has been very popular for the last five years or so, but personally I prefer fox hair.

With so many materials and tying steps in a single fly, it is easy to overdress it. It helps to be like Scrooge as you tie. When you feel like you need everything, spend next to nothing.

This tube fly, with its light colors, is perfect for nice sunny weather and green rivers.

Octopussy-style flies The Willie Gunn is good for early season, off-color or flooded rivers.

The theory

Atlantic salmon have keen eyesight.

Provided the water is clear, they can see objects far ahead. Part of Scandinavian tube fly theory is to partially camouflage the fly and surprise the fish. A camouflaged fly’s colors should match the hue of the water and the river bottom. That said, it shouldn`t be too camouflaged; it should retain enough flash and sharp coloration to trigger strikes once spotted.

The construction

The tube should be made from plastic. A plastic tube makes the fly light

enough to move more freely in the current. Brass and copper tubes are much heavier and do not move as freely.

Actually, the plastic tube in question is two tubes with different dimensions, fitted together. The smaller tube fits into the larger tube. The rear of the tube combination should be large enough to house the hook, and the front should be small enough to fit into a tungsten cone. The cone acts as counterweight for the hook; without sufficient weight in the front of a tube fly, it will sink butt first. The cone also creates turbulence, much like the heads of deer-hair divers and Muddler Minnows.

A couple of years ago, Frödin introduced The Octopussy. It is a regular Scandinavian tube fly, with a collar hackle of ostrich Spey plumes and soft mini-marabou or Chickabou in front.

It is nearly impossible to get decent Chickabou, but mini-marabou works just fine. Instead of a regular tungsten cones, Frödin uses a Turbo Cone to create turbulence.

Turbulence gives the collar hackle more life, but the collar and the odd shape of the cone visually take time to get used to. They just don`t look right at the beginning, but after a while you get used to them. I like these flies, even though they look weird. Frödin talks of the importance of flies that swim, and these things really do.

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Tying a Scandinavian tube fly: The Silver Wilkinson “Wait a minute!” I hear you cry. “This isn’t a Silver Wilkinson!”

You’re right, of course; this is far different from the pattern P.S. Wilkinson created in the middle of the 19th century.

Have you ever seen puppies playing around, with seemingly no other agenda than having fun? To me, the Silver Wilkinson is a perfect vehicle for playing around with colors and tying materials.

When they play, puppies explore their new world, building agility and learning behaviours they need to survive.

Playfulness becomes a learning tool, so to speak. I am quite sure many of the old classic salmon flies were created this way, by playing around.

This particular Silver Wilkinson is tied Scandinavian-style. It’s demanding to tie, but if you master it you have mastered the techniques you would need to tie any Scandinavian tube fly. Who knows, you might even hook a salmon on it; it has many of the attributes found in effective night or early-morning flies used in clear rivers.

Materials List One thing that makes this fly so demanding is that it has a lot of different materials that might be hard to find in local fly shops. Searching for proper, good-quality materials can turn tying a single salmon fly into a long-term project. Luckily, the Internet makes all the necessary materials available.

Tying Thread: Benecchi 12/0 Tubes: Medium clear F.I.T.S tube

Extra-small pink F.I.T.S tube Body: Lagartun Flatbraid holographic silver, Angler’s Choice Salmo Supreme hot pink dubbing Ribbing: UTC metallic blue Ultra Wire Body hackle: white and orange cock Wing: Blue Krinkle Mirror Flash, silver Krystal Flash, white fox hair, hot pink fox hair, fuchsia and holographic silver Angel Hair, silver fox hair dyed blue, and natural gray silver fox hair Sides: Jungle cock Collar hackle: Purple ring-necked pheasant rump or ostrich Spey plumes, blue and magenta Chickabou Cone: Silver Turbo Cone, small or medium

Step 1

1. Cut a 1-inch piece of clear medium F.I.T.S tube (or

shorter if you like). Then tread a piece of pink extra-small tube into the clear tube. Mount the combined tube onto the tube needle of your tying vise. Make sure to leave enough room for the hook inside the larger tube.

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Step 2

2. Tighten the tubes together with a few wraps.

The Silver Wilkinson Step 3

3. Tie in the Ultra Wire and Flatbraid. Wrap the Flatbraid on the back half of the body; dub the front half of the body with the pink dubbing. Leave about 3/16 of an inch of bare tube to tie in the wing and hackle.

Step 6

6. Tie in the white fox hair. The wing should reach to the end of where the hook bend will be.

Step 7

Step 4

7. Tie in the pink hair over the white hair. Make sure 4. Tie in a white and an orange cock feather and wrap

them 5 times backward around the body. Avoid overdressing the hackles by stripping the fibers off one side of each feather. Secure the hackle by counter-ribbing it with 5 turns of the Ultra Wire. Pulling hard on the wire will make the hackle durable. Brush out the dubbing.

to fold it evenly around the white wing, not on top of it, and make it slightly longer than the white. Remember Scrooge, though. Don’t use too much material! Now tie in 4 fuchsia Angel Hair fibres.

Step 8

Step 5

8. Tie in an even longer wing of silver fox, dyed blue.

5. Tie the Mirror Flash and Krystal Flash in on top of the body. Fold the fibers backward and secure them.

Silver fox hair is dark at the points and light at the base.

This creates a blue gradient when it is dyed. Now tie in some holographic silver Angel Hair.

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The Silver Wilkinson Step 9

9. Tie in some natural-colored silver fox hair.

Step 10

Step 12

12. Tie in two purple ring-necked pheasant feathers to

create a collar hackle. Then tie in one magenta and one blue Chickabou feather and wrap them together.

Step 13

10. If you have done everything correctly, the fly should

look like this. You can see through all the layers of evenly distributed hair and flash. The blue and pink should shine through the natural fox hair. The base should be neat and tight. If you like, tie in four or five strands of peacock herl on top of the wing.

Step 11

13. When everything is done, add a drop of Zap-a-

Gap glue to the base and cut the tying thread. Slide on a Turbo Cone and pull it tight toward the collar hackle while the glue is still wet. Cut the tube about 3/16 of an inch in front of the cone and melt it with a lighter. It should melt all the way down to the cone. Your Silver Wilkinson is finished; now stop playing around and do something useful!

11. Tie in two long jungle cock feathers so that they

reach to the end of the tube. At this point, I usually add a very small amount of Zap-a-Gap glue to the wrappings and the wing base. It makes the fly far more durable.

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Scandinavian tube flies often have a cone in the nose of the fly.

A Midwinter Reflection On Flies Story and artwork by Bob White

Each day provides its own gifts – American Proverb

I

t was my first season in Alaska, and I was one of several new fishing guides that had gathered around the bonfire to unwind, review the day, and listen to Rusty. The old guide was the consummate bush rat, and had forgotten more about living and working in the North Country

than many of us would ever learn. His flaming red hair stuck out from under his hat at odd angles, and he had a wild beard to match. Like a good parent, he encouraged us when we did well, admonished us when we needed it, and passed along the lessons he’d learned when we’d listen. “Fish are the world’s

greatest barometer of karma,” he cackled, as he pushed another spruce round into the dying fire. Sparks towered into the soft Alaskan dusk.

We all leaned in, tipped forward on our log seats, and waited for him to continue. He took a sip of whiskey from an old tin cup, smacked his lips, sat back

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A Midwinter Reflection On Flies and closed his eyes. Seconds later he opened them and watched the sparks trail off downwind toward the coast. I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer.

“What d’ya mean?” I asked.

“Well,” he said, slowly setting the tin cup down on the log next to him, “I had two guys in my boat today, and they couldn’t have been more different. One of them was new to fly fishing, and a real nice guy. If he wasn’t sure about something, he asked; and then, more important, he’d listen. If something needed doing, he offered to help; that sort of guy.”

“Yeah?”

“The other fella was a sport, a real pain in the ass. He knew something about everything. He knew where every fish in the river ought to be, and wasn’t bashful about saying so. He knew what side of the river we should drift, and then instructed me on how to hold the boat so’s he could cast. Hell, he even knew what flies to use.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, the new guy had tied a bunch of flies ‘specially for the trip. They weren’t much to look at, but I could tell that he was real proud, and he had faith in ‘em, you know? Sort o’ like a kid believes in Santy Claus.”

“And?” “The sport laughed at him and told him there was no Santa Claus. He even refused to take a few of them flies for later, jest in case they worked.”

“Jeez, that’s low,” someone said from across the campfire. “What happened?”

“Waugh!” Rusty laughed. “I reckon the price of those flies has gone way up. The expert couldn’t buy a fish all day, and his friend just caught the hell out of ‘em! “ Rusty took another sip of whiskey and waited for the laughter to die down before leaning in conspiratorially, as if he had a secret to tell us. We all leaned in even closer to listen. “If fish judge our karma,” he said in a whisper, his face aglow from the dancing flames, “Then the flies we throw at them are windows to our souls.”

The younger guides looked at each other in confusion, but Rusty met my gaze and held it. He had somehow come to understand my obsession with flies.

He smiled, winked, and finished his whiskey.

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My love of flies began long before I ever learned to cast one. When I found the old and yellowed box of flies in the recesses of our garage, and asked my father about them, I learned that he’d tied them. I looked upon his handiwork as something akin to alchemy, and upon him as a wizard.

He gave me a fly tying kit for my 10th birthday, and I added to the kit’s cheap and colorful materials with whatever money I could earn mowing the neighborhood lawns. I had thousands of trout flies tied long before I ever wet my feet in a stream.

I collect flies and tying materials like some people collect stamps, and clearly recall many of the early flies I created.

One, in particular, was tied when I was 13 years old. It was a standard Adams, but constructed with a long tail of moose mane. I wasn’t very good at tying dry flies at the time, but the proportions of this particular fly were perfect; it was a complete accident, perhaps even divine intervention. I tried to copy it and replicate the miracle, but in vain. I’ve never tied another dry fly as perfect.

For years, I kept it safely sequestered in a special compartment of my dry fly box, never daring to risk it to a snag, or even have it damaged in the mouth of a fish. It became clear to me at an early age that the flies I tied and collected were often more important to me than the fish I sought with them.

I was 20 years old and fishing with a mentor when I eventually found a fish that merited the risk of damage or loss to this particular fly. The 18-inch brown rose to the second drift, took the fly, and I landed it as my friend walked up behind me to watch. The fish was admired and released, and the fly went back into the box, where it is today, a slightly worn treasure.

Over the years, Lisa and I met a lot of fine people around that old fire ring in Alaska, and we remain good friends with many of them to this day. A week or so before Christmas, I was trying to decide what to send the three sons of our closest friends when it occurred to me that I rarely have the opportunity to tie flies anymore, and that there are boxes upon boxes of materials and tools that will probably never be used if they remain in my care. In a moment of clarity, I thought to send the boys

everything they’d need to start tying flies of their own. As soon as the decision had been made, I knew that it was the right thing to do, and I spent an entire day going through all of my materials, selecting boxes of hooks, assembling the necessary tools, and writing notes about how they might be used.

Sorting through those boxes was a nostalgic and powerful experience. Few casual fly tiers ever use up all of any one piece of material, so over the past 38 years I had collected hundreds of remnants that quite easily transported me back in time. I found myself not just surrounded by half-used gamecock necks, patches of deer hide, bucktails, moose manes and countless spools of floss, tinsel and silk, but also by my fly fishing past.

Eventually the materials were sorted and packed for shipping, but the box I took to the post office the next morning was filled with much more than just bags of feathers, bits of fur, hooks, and spools of shiny tinsel. What the Postal Service delivered to a cabin in Alaska

by Christmas morning were all the necessary ingredients for creating tiny and precious bits of hope.

I believe every fly represents a little seed of hope, the dream of a fish yet to be hooked and played on a distant and unknown river. I also believe that hope runs deeper when it’s created late in the night, at a fly tying bench, while remembering time spent on the water, in anticipation of another day.

Two days after sending the box of fly tying materials to my three young friends in Alaska, I received a confirmation of karmic balance. A package arrived from Canada. It had been sent to me as a bequest by an old friend.

Inside the box, carefully and lovingly wrapped, was a fly reservoir from the turn of the century. The large box was painted with japanned black lacquer on its outside, and was simply marked Salmon Flies. The interior of the box was lacquered in cream, and inside the lid was the marking, A. Carter & Co., 11 South Moulton St., London.

Nine tidy trays nested within, each one overflowing with fully-dressed salmon flies, streamers, wet flies and dries — a life’s collection of hopes and dreams, windows to a man’s soul.

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