Fall 2012
www.hatchesmagazine.com
Display until Sept.1, 2013 $6.95 US / $7.95 CDN
Practical & Artistic Fly Tying WYOMING’S
Wind River MOUNTAIN RANGE
TYING
Flies
CASTING IN THE SHADOWS OF THE SUNDANCE KID
ROCK ON WITH THE
THE
HAIR WING
CROWD STONE SURFER
GHETTO BOOTY
PLUS: Dots and the Painted Popper, Glen’s Giant Crayfish, The Only, Irish Wet Flies, 5 Loopy Ways to Tie Wings, Tying Dry Flies-Purist Style, Stalcup Style, The Clapping Crab, and more...
From the Editors Al & Gretchen Beatty
We hate to admit it, but there are parts of the “Hatches family” of websites that we tend to avoid. Why? Because they make us jealous! Jealous that we don’t have the time to enjoy tying the classic or artistic patterns illustrated therein. We do pop into those sites from time to time just to get our “artistic fix” but then we have to get back to the vise so we can finish whatever order is at the top of our work list. It’s kind of a double-edged sword. Do we have fun and tie flies, OR do we also have fun and get our work done? It’s tough when your passion is also your business; most of the time we opt to take care of orders over having fun tying something artistic. Once in a while something will stimulate us, though, and we just say the heck with tying “work flies” and tie a few “fun flies.” Today was one of those days. Why was today different enough to cause us to play hooky from work? Today is the day we received our advance copy of Hatches magazine. Those 96 pages of great ideas were just more than we could stand; the patterns called to us. We could almost hear them crying, “Try me! No, I’m better! Mom, they are ignoring me!” We immediately sat down at our vises to try some of the great ideas. Yes, we understand we are sick, but wait until you turn the page. You’ll see. The first stop we made in our quick tour through the magazine is the same section we usually often visit first called “Tiers From Across The Pond.” In years past we found the information there thought-provoking and this year was no different. What really struck us is one of the authors, Sasa Stocic, who is paying tribute to Shane Stalcup, an American tier who recently passed away. Shane was a long time friend of ours -- a fly tier with superb skills who could share those skills via the written word as few other tying authors we have known. It was most rewarding to see the tribute to our friend. That article starts on page 64. Wyoming receives a lot of coverage in this issue, and we are pleased. After all, it is a neighbor of ours, and in fact we are headed there tomorrow to tour Yellowstone Park and fish a couple of spring creeks in the Jackson area. Russ Forney from the eastern part of the state continues on page 86 to do what he does so well: share effective but simple pattern ideas. Try them. We don’t think you’ll be disappointed. An aside on his piece: We don’t know if the heart shape made from two scud hooks positioned in the scissor loop was an accident or not but it carries a really cool, subtle message that he really does love the tying tips that he shares in his article. Still on the subject of Wyoming, our publisher, Will Mullis, has an incredible fly-fishing photo essay of the Wind River Mountain Range starting on page 46. The Winds cover a remote part of Wyoming and definitely are not for the angler who doesn’t have the time to spend several days or more getting to and enjoying their beauty and bounty. Good job, Will! Your article took us back a few years when we were lucky enough to spend several days in the Winds. Those mountains are beautiful and volatile with ever-changing weather patterns. They are most rewarding, but not for the faint of heart. A telephone call from a customer interrupted our tour of the magazine so upon our return it was open to page 26 and the article about Clint Goodman’s Crowd Surfer Stone. Two things really got our attention about this article. The pattern is really intriguing and appears to be unsinkable. But the other thing we noticed was Goodman is a young man with a real talent for sharing a story via the written word and photographs. We assume he is part of what we often refer to as the “Online Fly Fishing Crowd.” Hatches magazine and its related websites are also filled with people who fly fish, tie flies and communicate online with each other about their love of the sport. The key word in that last sentence is “online.” We are proud to be part of this crowd via the websites and the magazine. Our association with Hatches and its websites has provided us a broader perspective on today’s fly fishing community. At a recent fly fishing meeting, a fellow (and older) angler commented to us that the sport “is dying.” He based his statement on the fact that most of the people at this particular meeting were older. We respectfully disagreed with him. You see, we know about all of you, readers of this magazine and www.flytyingforum.com. All of you are the reason we are no longer concerned about the fly fishing industry. We are confident the sport is in good hands -- your hands. Now turn the page and read on! •
Take care & tight lines…Gretchen & Al Beatty
Practical & Artistic Fly Tying Executive Editors Al & Gretchen Beatty Managing Editor Will Mullis III Associate Editor Nick Pujic Editorial Director John McCoy Contributing Writers Greg Senyo, Ronald Braud, Will Mullis, Bob Petti. Russ Forney, Nick Granato, Clint Goodman, Glen Dayton, John McCoy, John Terje Refsahl, Sasa Stosic, Barry Ord Clarke, Al & Gretchen Beatty, Bob White Mailing Address Hatches Magazine 909 Meadow Ridge Dr. Cincinnati, OH 45245 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. ©2012 Hatches Magazine
Practical & Artistic Fly Tying
2
haring with you all the “stuff” needed to S successfully tire hair-wing flies. By Al & Grechen Beatty
Sundance Kid
ishing for Brown trout in Wyoming’s truly F exceptional waters. By Greg Senyo
26 The Rio Grande Cichlid
Dots and the painted popper.
By Ronald Braud
50 Wyoming’s Wind River
Mountain Range
photo essay of Wyoming’s fly fishing paradise. A By Will Mullis
80 Irish Wet Flies
Rumour has it that wet flies are enjoying a resurgence in America. By Bob Petti
86 5 Loopy Ways to Tie Wings
Volume 6, No. 1
Tying Hair-Wing Flies
20 Casting in the Shadow of the
Fall 2012
ne of the most creative tools at the bench is also O one of the simplest: a loop. By Russ Forney
Cover photo by Barry Ord Clarke
10 The Ghetto Booty
By Nick Granato
32 Rock On with the Crowd Surfer Stone
By Clint Goodman
39 Glen’s Giant Crayfish
By Glen Dayton
By John McCoy
44 The Only
60 Tying Dry Flies Purist Style
By John Terje Refsahl
66 Stalcup-Style Flies
By Sasa Stosic
74 The Clapping Crab
By Barry Ord Clarke
96 The Lasty
Perfect Fly
By Bob White
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
1
Tying Hair-Wing
Flies By Al & Gretchen Beatty
Over the years here in Hatches we’ve touched on a range of topics focused on tiers with beginning to intermediate-level skills. In today’s presentation we’ll push the envelope a bit further by sharing with all of you some of the “stuff” needed to successfully tie hair-wing dry flies.
N
otice we used the word “stuff” in the last sentence and that we’ve boldfaced the type. It’s one of the methods we often use in an attempt to grab everyone’s attention. Why? Because often more skilled tiers will “read the pictures and captions” and only skim over the text. Unfortunately for those tiers, they’ll actually have to read some of the words in this article if they hope to gain the skills we’ll share through the rest of today’s lesson. Let’s get back to that word “stuff.” We use it rather than other normal fly tying words commonly used to teach a fly tying discipline because they describe fly tying procedures. When you successfully dress a hair-wing dry fly, normal tying procedures are only 25 percent of the process. That’s right, we said 25 percent! The other 75 percent focuses on the materials used, how you prepare those materials, and the quantity of them you select before tying them on a hook. That means the next few paragraphs are the most important part of today’s lesson. If you skip ahead to the fly tying steps and the pictures that go with them then you’ll likely miss the purpose of the entire tutorial.
Deer Hair Selection Hair isn’t just hair when we are talking about tying flies. Unfortunately many fly tiers don’t realize that fact when they are at a local fly shop picking through the packages of hair. What they often purchase looks good in the package, but isn’t right for the task at hand. If you have access to a complete animal hide (we prefer a white-tailed deer hide if possible) the
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
best hair for tying dry flies is located in a one-foot wide strip along the backbone area that extends into the neck and rump areas. Hair from the rib area often looks very much the same but tends to flare much more than the hair in the backbone area. If you hunt, know someone who hunts, or have access to a taxidermist, you can easily obtain hair from the correct part of the hide. Unfortunately many people do not fall into that category, and when they are standing in a fly shop surrounded by 3- by 5-inch Ziploc bags of hair they don’t have a clue as to what came from where on the animal’s hide. We suggest all of you read the next paragraphs closely while we share the method we use to select hair after it’s already packaged. Here’s a hint: It’s all in the color! When you study a package of hair, look at the individual fibers; each hair should have a nice black point and the fibers should be fairly straight. Later we’ll illustrate how to straighten the fibers but for now let’s select patches of hair with fibers that are as straight as possible like those in Figure 1. Now let’s look at hair color. We’ll start our tour of a single hair fiber at its tip. It should come to a nice black point that is not broken. Next is a band of tan that is followed by a dark gray middle section. The dark gray middle section then blends into a lighter gray segment that continues to the base of the hair where it is attached to the hide. The length of the section of dark gray determines if a patch of hair is good for tying hair-wing flies or not. We want a patch of hair containing fibers with a tip section and dark gray middle section that covers at least 50 percent
Figure 1
Figure 3
Select a hair patch with straight fibers and unbroken tips
Moose Body Hair
of the strand. We call this comparison Light-to-Dark Color Ratio (LDCR) illustrated in Figure 2 and always use it when we select deer hair. Our simple rule of thumb when reviewing packages of deer hair is select hair with a 50-percent (or more) LDCR for hair-wing dry flies, and when it is less than that we set it aside for spun-hair flies like bass bugs or Muddler Minnows (Figure 2).
make the mistake of buying moose mane instead of moose body hair. If you have a moose mane hair patch, it is best used for tying projects other than a hair-wing dry flies. Set the mane patch aside and purchase a patch of body hair; you will save yourself a lot of frustration.
Figure 2
Hackle Selection With the really great genetic hackle available today, a tier seldom has to determine which feather is good and which is bad; most all of them are quite good. If on the off chance you end up with feathers that do have some web in their centers then use Figure 4 to help determine what part of the feather will best serve your dry-fly needs.
Figure 4
Light-to-Dark Color Ratio Illustration Here is a question you might want to ponder: Have you ever tried to tie a Muddler Minnow (or other spun-hair fly) only to have the hair refuse to spin around the hook? We wonder what the LDCR might have been for that patch of deer hair. What do you think?
Moose Hair Selection We call moose hair the fly-tiers friend because it is a denser hair and doesn’t flare as much when tied to a hook. As a tailing material it is unequaled, and it is also an excellent wing material in some applications. For our purposes today we are only concerned with it as a tailing material. For the most part when selecting moose hair, you only need concern yourself with a couple of items. It should be straight with no broken tips and come from the body area of the animal as illustrated in Figure 3. Notice in the illustration how the lighter colored hair (which actually is dark gray) is located closest to the hide? Some tiers
Hackle Feather In most cases you can just grab a feather sized to fit the hook (more on sizing later) and wrap it around the shank. If you end up with a webby feather, we find it best to discard the base end of the feather where the webby section in the center is more than one-third of the hackle-fiber length.
Material Preparation Where you obtain your patch of hair can have a lot to do with the amount of preparation required to ready it for tying. Let’s assume the patch is not from a fresh hide and it is in fact clean and bug free. Let’s further assume the patch was purchased at a fly shop and it is almost ready to go on the hook.
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
3
Flies
Tying Hair-Wing Figure 5
Figure 7
Straightened Hair Curved Hair A common problem with patches of hair displayed in Ziploc bags is that the hair fibers often aren’t as straight as they first appeared in the package. This happens often with patches of hair with tanned hides. We’re not sure what in the tanning process causes the problem, but often the hair has a slight curve near the tip of the fibers. One of the sad fly tying truths we’ve learned over the years is that hair that isn’t straight doesn’t stack well and looks really bad on the hook. That’s not a problem, because in the next couple of sentences we’re going to share with you how we straighten the hair fibers. We start by clipping a clump of fibers from the hide while maintaining control of the bundle as illustrated in Figure 5. While holding the fibers securely with the right hand, use the left thumbnail and forefinger to place a series of crimps along the outside of the curve, as Al is doing in Figure 6.
If the hair you are working with tends to stick to your fingers, the tips don’t align well in the stacker, or the fibers tend to cling to the tube of the stacker, then the chances are very good you have static electricity messing with your hair. If you live in a dry climate like we do, then expect the problem and prepare for it. If on the other hand you live in a humid climate, it might only happen intermittently. No matter where you live, we suggest you assume static electricity is a reality and deal with it accordingly. How does one do that? Go to the laundry section of your local supermarket and pick up a product called Static Guard, which is used to remove “static cling” from clothing (see Figure 8).
Figure 8
Figure 6
Using Static Guard
Using Your Thumbnail to Crimp the Hair Fibers Apply several crimps to straighten the fibers; three or four usually do the job just fine. If you execute the procedure correctly you’ll end up with a straightened clump of hair like the one illustrated in Figure 7. Now clean out the under fur and short fibers and place the newly straightened fibers (tips down) in a hair stacker to prepare them for tying. Static electricity is one of the biggest road blocks to tying flies with hair, but it’s also the easiest to eliminate. Before we share with you the trick to eliminate it, let’s talk about some of the indicators that you have the problem in the first place.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
I’ll bet most of you have seen this product at one time or another and didn’t realize it was the solution to your hair-wing tying problems. If you find the smell of Static Guard offensive, you can also use a Bounce dryer sheet to remove static cling.
Fly Proportions There are many different methods used to determine the correct amount of hair for constructing a tail or a set of wings. Some people we know use homemade gauges, some count fibers, and many just tie bundles of hair on the hook only to discover no two flies end up looking the same. We use a simple gauge that is in front us as we tie — the hook that’s in our vise. Let’s take a look at Figure 9, which illustrates the hook parts and outlines the terminology for those parts.
Figure 9
Figure 11
Hook Parts Illustration
The Tail On a hair-wing dry fly, a properly proportioned tail has two specific properties -- its diameter and its length. We use the hook eye to help us make a determination how many fibers we need in a bundle of hair destined to be a tail. Start by clipping a bundle of hair from the hide, cleaning out the under fur and evening the tips in a hair stacker. Remove the hair from the stacker, hold the butt ends with the right thumb and forefinger, and the tips with the left thumb and forefinger. Rotate the right and left hands in opposite directions twisting the fibers into a tight bundle as illustrated in Figure 10.
Figure 10
Measure the Length of a Hair Tail To keep the fly balanced, each wing post diameter must equal the diameter of the tail. In other words, we need a bundle of hair that is twice as big as the tail to form a set of wings. Some tiers like to make this determination using the same twist-over method we used for the tail, and that technique works just fine. On the other hand, we prefer to hold the bundle of stacked wing fibers adjacent to the tail and “guesstimate” the volume of hair we are holding and then add or discard as needed. You’ll have to decide which method works for you but your incomplete pattern should look like Figure 12.
Figure 12
Hair Tail Diameter
Each Wing Post Equals the Tail
Now compare the diameter of the hair bundle at the twistover point with the diameter of the outside of the hook eye. Add or throw away hair fibers until the two appear equal. Once you successfully determine the correct quantity of hair the length is really easy; it is equal to the length of the hook shank as illustrated in Figure 11.
The Body, Hackle and Head
The Wings
Like the tail, the wings are usually equal to the length of the hook shank. However on some patterns the length can vary. The quantity of hair in the wings is very important to the overall balance of the fly and affects how the fly will land on the water.
The body on a posted-wing fly covers the rear two-thirds of the hook shank with room left just behind the wings for several turns of hackle. One exception is the parachute, which has a body covering the complete shank minus the head of the fly. Parachute patterns, though, are a topic for another lesson. The hackle is really easy to gauge by simply comparing the feather-fiber length with the hook gape. A standard dry fly hackle is equal to one and one-half times the span of the hook gape as illustrated in Figure 13.
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
5
Flies
Tying Hair-Wing Figure 13
Figure 15
Body and Hackle Size Illustration
A Flared Hair Wing
Last in this section is the size of a fly-pattern’s head. A dry fly should never have a head that is longer than the width of the hook eye illustrated in Figure 14.
The really tight wraps do a great job of holding the hair bundle in place, but often we do not want the hair to be flared. Case in point is the Gray Wulff we’ll soon be tying. On that pattern we don’t want the tail hair fibers to flare, and that requires us to use softer (less tight) thread wraps. We call them holding
Figure 14
Figure 16
Head Size
Hair Flare Control
Also, the diameter of the head itself should be about the size of the hole in the hook eye. Because hair has more bulk that many other materials, new hair-wing tiers often overdress the head. A little practice should quickly correct that problem.
wraps, but they have one problem; they don’t bind the material securely to the hook. In this situation, we attach our hair to the center of the hook using very tight anchor wraps. Then, once the material is bound in place, we bring the flared hair under control using several holding wraps like those illustrated in Figure 16. In the illustration we used hair flare control on the clump of hair on the left while the identical bundle of hair on the right was not controlled. They certainly don’t appear to be the same size, do they?
Hair Flare Control Even though we use the denser hair fibers described in previous paragraphs, the bundle will still flare (puff up) to some extent when it is held in place with the really tight thread wraps we call anchor wraps. We’ve used them to anchor the wing in place on the Elk Hair Caddis illustrated in Figure 15.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Tying the Gray Wulff Now we get to tie an actual fly! The whole series of postedwing Wulff patterns use the same basic design presented here. The only difference between each is material color and type.
Step 2: Select, clean and stack a clump of deer hair that is twice as big as the tail. Measure this clump of hair so it will be as long as the shank and bind it to the hook (tips forward) using tight anchor wraps only. Trim the waste end of the hair by placing the scissors flat along the shank from the side of the hook opposite the tier. This produces an angled cut that will blend the tail and wing hair into a smooth underbody.
Step 3
Materials Hook: Size 8 to 20, dry-fly style Thread: Gray Tail: Deer body hair Wing: Deer body hair Body: Gray dubbing Hackle: Grizzly (or blue dun)
Step 3: Fan the hair to facilitate dividing the bundle into Step 1
equal parts. Crisscross wrap the thread through the bundle to permanently separate the two clumps of hair.
Step 4
Step 1: Apply a thread base that covers the back two-
thirds of the hook shank. Leave the thread in the middle of the thread application. Select, clean and stack a clump of deer hair. Attach it to the hook to form a tail that is as long as the hook shank. Use anchor wraps in the hook center and holding wraps toward the back of the shank. Leave the thread hanging at the front of the thread application about one-third back from the hook eye.
Step 4: Wrap several thread turns around each bundle to form two wing posts. We refer to this process as “posting the wings.”
Step 5
Step 2
Step 5: Apply a dubbed body that covers much of the
area behind the wings. Attach the hackle in preparation for the next step. Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
7
Flies
Tying Hair-Wing Step 6
Finished Fly
Step 6: Wrap the hackle, tie it off, trim the waste end
and apply a whip finish. Trim the thread from the hook and use head cement to complete the fly. Wow! It sure takes a lot less text to tie the fly than it does to select and prepare the materials!
Tying The Compara Dun
Step 1
This pattern is a good alternative to the Wulff series of flies because it often represents many of the same insects and doesn’t require hackle. One problem many tiers experience is keeping the wing standing up after the fly is complete. We’ll ask this question, “Do your Compara Dun patterns look great when they come out of the vise but after they’ve been in a fly box for a few days many of the wings tilt forward?” If you’ve experienced this problem then we have the solution for you. Also we’ll share our method of splitting the tail in case you happen to struggle with that function.
Step 2
Materials Hook: Thread: Tail: Wing: Body: Hackle:
Size 8 to 20, dry-fly style Gray Moose body hair Deer body hair Gray dubbing None
Step 1: Apply a thread base that covers the back two-
thirds of the hook shank. Keep and set aside the waste tag of thread left over from applying the thread base. Leave the bobbin hanging in the middle of the thread application. Select, clean and stack a clump of moose hair. Attach it to the hook to form a tail that is as long as the hook shank. Notice the anchor wraps we used in the center of the hook really mash down the hair and the holding wraps further back on the shank don’t compress the fibers as much.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Step 2: Select, clean and stack a clump of hair twice as large as the tail. Tie this bundle of fibers to the hook (tips forward) with several anchors wraps. Clip off the waste ends of hair placing the scissors on the off-side of the hook and prepare to cover wrap over the trimmed ends.
Step 3
Step 5 1
Step 3: Wrap over the trimmed ends while wrapping
the thread forward to a position directly behind the base of the wing hair. Here is where we’ll FIX the tilting-wing problem. Don’t try to stand up the complete bundle of hair at one time. Break the process down in to several parts. Pull about one-third of the bundle up and take a tight anchor wrap between the main bundle and the one in your fingers. Repeat the process two or three more times until the complete bundle is standing. If you use this method your wings will never tilt forward again. We like this system so much we even use it on our Wulff style flies before we divide and post the wings. We bet you were wondering how we made them stand up so well in the last fly. Now you know!
Step 6
Step 4
Step 6: Apply a dubbed body that covers the complete shank. Tie off, whip-finish and trim the thread. Apply a coat of head cement to complete the fly. Don’t forget to fan the wings if you haven’t already done so.
Finished Fly
Step 4: Wrap a cone of thread in front and tight
against the last of the wing fibers to make them remain standing. Many fly tiers will fan the wing fibers at this point. Personally we wait to do it until after putting on the dubbing. Waiting keeps the wing fibers from accidentally snagging the dub-covered thread while wrapping the body.
Step 5: Retrieve the tag-end of thread remaining from
the first step. Place it in the gape of the hook and pull the two ends back using your left hand. Maintain tension on the thread while bringing the tight strands up AND through the tail fibers to form the divided tail. Tie the strands to the hook shank. You can “adjust the spread of the tail” by pulling gently on one or both of the thread strands.
We hope the information here proves helpful to all of you. If would like more hair-wing information the patterns here are two included in our spiral-bound book, Tying HairWing Flies. It’s available at our website www.btsflyfishing. com if any of you are interested. Good tying!
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
9
Ghetto Booty
The
By Nick Granato
Matthew Warner Photo
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
The Ghetto Booty
The Ghetto Booty is a spin-off from my Ghetto Tramp. Like many patterns, it was born of necessity while on the water. Over the last few years, I’ve found a need for a slightly smaller fly that could be presented well to laid-up tiger muskies, to search structure, and to work the transition areas where tigers tend to lurk.
of lead. I found that tying the rattle in on the bottom of the shank, the slight weight of the skirt and the Clear Cure Goo all helped to right the jig hook while still keeping it castable and giving it a slow sink rate. I swapped the Tramp’s Flash N Slinky tail with ultra-supple and ultra-flowing Icelandic sheep hair, and replaced the Tramp’s Flashabou with Pearl Web or Polar Flash -- both of which have better movement, less bulk and superior UV qualities. Greg Pearson Photo
Since I often fish all types of cover within minutes of one other, changing the fly or picking up another rod is not an ideal option. I needed to develop a do-it-all kind of pattern. But instead of starting from scratch, I chose to tweak the Ghetto Tramp, a pattern that was oh-so-close but fell short in some areas. The overall style of the fly didn’t change a ton. It still has a rattle, a bass skirt and a generous amount of flash. It also maintains all the important triggers,
and yet only three of the Tramp’s original materials ended up being transferred to the Ghetto Booty. All the others have been tweaked and refined. For starters, I exchanged the Tramp’s standard hook for a 4/0 60-degree jig hook. That seems simple enough, but it wasn’t easy to invert a pattern that was originally designed to ride point-down. Further complicating the matter was that the conventional-tackle hook was designed to be turned over with 3/8 oz.
I got rid of the Tramp’s glass rattles because they often blew out while casting, got banged off against structure or crushed by fish. I replaced the glass rattles with large plastic skirt rattles that not only are louder but hold up extremely well over multiple fish and days. The Tramp’s ostrich Spey plumes were not only expensive, but they had a tendency to be extremely inconsistent in length and quality. They also didn’t hold up very well and didn’t push enough
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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The Ghetto
Booty
Greg Pearson Photo
water. The Getto Booty’s Mega Dub clump head pushes a ton of water, is quicker and easier to tie, and has limitless color options. It also gives the pattern a truly erratic action, is much more affordable, and is an extremely versatile material to have around one’s tying desk. The Ghetto Booty’s Clear Cure Goo head not only makes the fly bombproof, it also allows for a deadly pause-and-
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
sink action and ensures that the fly never loses its eyes. In the Ghetto Tramp, the skirt is mainly there for bulk, color and sink rate. By comparison, the Ghetto Booty was designed around the skirt, and is carefully designed to enhance the movement and pulsing action of the skirt instead of hindering it. It’s extremely easy to add lots of material and put bulky heads on skirt
flies, but those features tend to clump all the legs together so that the skirt is rendered almost useless. Keeping those legs free and pulsing with life is the key to getting a bruiser smallmouth or an inquisitive Esox to eat when the lure pauses. Bass skirts come in every color combination imaginable and are relatively inexpensive. They’re even cheaper if you make your own. After making all those modifications, I had a fly that no longer would snag structure, had a slow but steady sink rate, pulsed with life on the pause, pushed water, had an erratic action and -- last but not least -- was bombproof and held up after multiple fish. So next time you find that you just don’t have quite the correct fly for a certain problem you encounter on the water, sit back, take some time, sip on a beer and ask yourself a few questions. Start with a good pattern that has a solid platform and start making some changes to materials, proportions and color. There are always improvements to be made, and the ways to evolve a pattern seem to be endless.
The Ghetto Booty Materials Hook: Mustad #32798BLN, Size 4/0 Rattle: Large plastic bass skirt rattle Eyes: Hareline 3/8’’ Oval Pupil Eyes Thread: Danville Flymaster Plus 210 Head: Mega Dub, Clear Cure Goo Thick and Sally Hansen’s Hard as Nails Tail Flash: Fly Tyers Dungeon Pearl Flash or Polar Flash Tail: Icelandic sheep hair Overwing: Larva Lace Angel Hair Body Wrap: Wapsi Palmer Chenille, medium Body: Jann’s Netcraft Turbo Flare Skirt Adhesive: Loctite Super Glue
Preparing the Mega Dub
Step 3
Step 3: Select and set aside the Ice Dub or Ice Wing fiber.
Step 4
Step 1
Step 4: Roughly work the wool onto the dog brushes with your hand
Step 5 Step 1: Select a section of wool. Step 2
Step 5: Work the brushes together against the grain until the wool is thoroughly mixed
Step 2: Cut the wool to the desired length, usually 1-3 inches.
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Tying the Ghetto Booty Preparing the Mega Dub Step 6
Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5 with the flash material Step 7
Step 7: Roughly in your hands mix the wool and flash together and separate into smaller batches if needed
Step 8
Step 8: Again roughly work the mix of wool and flash onto the brushes and work them together until adequately mixed
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Tying Instructions Step 1
Step 1: Start the thread one-fourth of the way down the hook shank.
Step 2
Step 2: Tie in some Icelandic sheep hair. Step 3
Step 3: Tie in the flash so it’s slightly longer than the
sheep; fold the tag ends over and wrap them into place.
The Ghetto Booty Step 4
Step 7
Step 4: Flip the hook over and tie in the flash. Step 5
Step 7: Clip the tip
off the rattle. Wrap it in place firmly but not so tightly that the rattle gets crushed.
Step 8
Step 5: Tie in your top color of Icelandic sheep. Step 6
Step 8: Tie in the Palmer Chenille and advance the thread forward.
Step 9
Step 6: Repeat with
the top color of flash.
Step 9: Coat the rattle
in glue and wrap the Palmer Chenille forward; build up a thread base and whip finish. Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
15
Tying the Ghetto Booty Step 13
Step 10
Step 10: Coat the thread with glue. Step 11
Step 13: Tie in the Angel Hair overwing. Step 11: Slide
the skirt on until it snugs up against the rattle.
Step 14
Step 14: Select some Mega Dub and stack and roll it in your hands to align the fibers.
Step 12
Step 12: Wrap the skirt with some wire to keep the legs out of your way for the rest of the fly.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Step 15
Step 15: Fold the
Mega Dub in half around the thread and secure it in place in front of the skirt.
The Ghetto Booty
Step 16
Step 16: Rotate the hook and repeat for the top side of the fly.
Step 17
Step 17a: Brush out the Mega Dub and whip finish the head.
Step 18
Step 18: Coat the thread head with a base coat of CCG.
Step 19
Step 19: Place the eyes on the fly.
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Tying the Ghetto Booty Step 20a
Step 20d
Step 20: Fill the top and bottom gaps of the eyes with Step 20b
CCG.
Step 21
Step 20c
Step 21: Coat the whole head, including the eyes, with Sally Hansen’s Hard as Nails and let dry.
Variations
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
The Ghetto Booty
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Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Casting in the Shadow of the Sundance Kid By Greg Senyo
I’ve always wanted to be a trout bum with the freedom to explore distant waters. I want to catch trout that are unmolested, truly beautiful, and grossly obese. I should have grown my hair long, consumed more alcohol and learned to play the guitar, so I could blend in with the few lucky dudes actually living my dream. The truth is I’m like most other anglers — a wannabe with way too many responsibilities and not nearly enough time.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Casting in the Shadow of the Sundance Kid
A few years ago, I finally came to realize that being a wannabe was good enough. I was grateful for all the personal fishing opportunities I did get. When I wasn’t fishing, I would stay tuned in by purchasing the latest fly fishing DVDs and magazines available on the market. I would spend countless hours tying flies as if they were going out of style! I still frequented all the fishy blogs on the Web each day, and still don’t think I could make it through a single workday if there wasn’t Moldy Chum! The past two years I’ve had the opportunity to visit Wyoming, fishing for brown trout in what would be considered truly exceptional waters by any angler’s standards. To this day I still can’t get over the fact that the state boasts higher populations of trout, sheep and cattle than it does people. The scenery and rivers are absolutely breathtaking, and on par with many of the famous overseas trout fishing destinations we have been brainwashed to love. The area of Wyoming I experienced was the very definition of no-man’s
land, between and around the towns of Sheridan, Kay-Cee, and Buffalo. It was here in these red hills and canyons that the infamous Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made their escape from deputy marshals and local law enforcement after repeated robberies of the town’s local banks and businesses. Just by looking at the terrain, I could visualize their flight through
the countryside and understand why they were so successful at getting away. I found myself wondering how much gold, money and treasure were lost forever under red rock and sand. The thought of casting dry flies to rising brown trout in the shadow of the Sundance Kid still haunts me long after I have left these waters.
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Casting in the Shadow of the Sundance Kid of human interference along the river. When I fished there I felt as if I were the first and only angler to have visited, even though I knew it wasn’t true. The watershed and the surrounding lands are fertile and provide an insect haven. It’s hard to take a step without kicking up hundreds of grasshoppers. Yellow Sallys, mayflies and caddis flutter across the river every day. The trees buzz with the sound of cicadas. Ants, beetles and damselflies cling, crawl and fly about. The water is nutrient-rich and runs cold, constantly fed by the snow pack from nearby mountain ranges. A visitor here can be truly inspired by what God had created. As for the trout, the majority of the fish are browns, with a few very nice rainbow and cuttbow hybrids in the mix. The brown trout range from 12 to 24 inches in length, and bigger fish knocking on the 30-inch mark can be spotThe rivers and streams run through vast parcels of ranch land, grassy plains, foothills and small canyons. The majority of the streams range from 20 to 40 feet across, and are consistently 3 to 6 feet in depth. Almost every section of the stream has habitat suitable for trout to feel safe and to grow large. The riverbanks here are undercut for miles, and consist of high grass, hay, sagebrush and small willow trees. The bottom of the river creates a natural camouflage of golden brown and tan rock. Every bend in the stream is littered with layers of woody debris. Aside from a few fence posts, old storage buildings and grazing cattle, there is no sign
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Casting in the Shadow of the Sundance Kid ted each day while you’re fishing. You could come here and fish however you like. If you like to strip streamers, small rainbow trout and sculpin imitations are very successful. We had absolutely no problem catching numerous trout with nymph rigs, or just by trailing a Copper John as a dropper off a dry fly. I can remember making my way upstream to a nice pool formed by a bend in the river. I watched a grasshopper jump off the high grass, fly across the stream and fall short of the far bank. It landed with a splash at the edge of the pool and fluttered desperately to free itself. It struggled only for a moment when a large brown burst through surface like a great white shark slamming a seal. It was but two casts later that the same fish took my dry fly, and I got to see the pool erupt for a second time. The truth is the trout were always looking up, and were more than willing to take big bushy dry flies. The visual experience of a large brown tracking a Chubby Chernobyl, and gulping the fly down from behind, made it almost impossible to want to try anything else. Foam-bodied dry flies such as the Chernobyl Ant, Cartoon Hopper, Fat Albert, Morrish Hopper, and Chubby Chernobyl were our flies of choice. I find it reassuring that there are still places “off the grid” in the lower 48 states. My experiences in Wyoming have helped quench my obsession with fly-fishing and have strengthened my passion for the sport. I am positive there are still places with profound history and superb trout fishing. My hope in sharing this is that, if you are anything like me or seek a similar experience, this will point you in the right direction. For more information on trout fishing in Wyoming or to set up a trip lifetime, please visit www.rockcreekanglers.com
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Tying the Double Chubby
Materials (front part)
Materials (rear part)
Thread: Orange Uni-Thread, 6/0 Hook: Owner Mosquito, size 2 Butt: Hareline orange Ice Dub Tail: Copper Krystal Flash Foam: 1/8-inch tan Wing: Hareline white Para Wing Underbody: Hareline orange Ice Dub Hackle: Furnace hen feather Rubber legs: Tan/gold flecked
Shank: Flymen Fishing Co. 20mm articulated Flash: Copper Krystal Flash Butt: Hareline orange Ice Dub Tail: Copper Krystal Flash Foam: 1/8-inch tan Wing: Hareline white Para Wing Underbody: Hareline orange Ice Dub Hackle: Furnace hen feather Rubber legs: Tan/gold flecked
Step 1
Step 1: Secure a size 2 Owner Mosquito hook in your vise. Attach orange 6/0 Uni-Thread and wind back to the bend of the hook. Create a small dubbing ball with Hareline orange Ice Dubbing.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Step 2
Step 2: Tie in 6 strands of copper Crystal Flash over the
dubbing ball, and tie in a quarter-inch wide piece of tan foam, with half an inch sticking out the rear and an inch remaining over the top. Secure a single furnace hackle and dub the body with orange Ice Dubbing. Palmer the hackle around the body and secure with several thread wraps.
Tying the Double Chubby Step 3
Step 3: Bring the foam over the top of the body and
secure with several thread wraps. Tie in a 1 ½-inch piece of Hareline white Para Post Wing, and a strand of tan/ gold Rubber Legs to each side of the hook.
Step 4
Step 4: Dub your thread with orange Ice Dub and wrap
between the rubber legs and over the Para Post Wing. Dub a small thorax under the foam and tie off. Next attach a 25mm articulated Shank from Flymen Fishing Company to the hook.
Step 5
Step 5: Secure the shank to your vise by the rear loop,
and close the loop with several thread wraps. Tie in six to eight strands of copper Crystal Flash to each side of the loop, and trim to the length of the loop.
Step 6
Step 6: Dub a small ball of orange Ice Dubbing at the base of the loop. Attach a piece of 1 inch long and quarter-inch wide tan foam over the dubbing ball. Cut a small “V” out of the rear to allow motion between the shank and hook. Tie in a Furnace hackle feather and let it lay behind the foam.
Step 7
Step 7: Dub the body forward with orange Ice Dubbing, palmer the hackle over the body and secure. Pull the foam over the top of the body and secure it with several thread wraps.
Step 8
Step 8: Tie in a 1 ½-inch piece of Hareline white Para
Post Wing, and a strand of tan/gold Rubber Legs to each side of the hook. Dub your thread with orange Ice Dub and wrap between the rubber legs and over the Para Post Wing. Dub a small thorax under the foam and tie off. Trim the front of the foam and whip finish the fly! Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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The Rio Grande Cichlid Dots And The Painted Popper By Ronald Braud
My fly fishing club holds a monthly fly tying session. One of the first ones I attended covered the construction of balsa pencil poppers. The session leader provided class members three metal rods to paint eyes on the poppers made during the class. The rods worked well for the No. 4 and larger cupped poppers I made, but they proved too large for any size smaller than that. So I took a few needles of differing diameters and fashioned an array of smaller eye-painting tools. To add other details to the poppers, I first tried the India ink I used for pen-and-ink drawings. It proved less than satisfactory; when epoxied, the ink tended to smear. So I tried using my smaller eye painting tools using acrylic paint. This worked much better, so much so that I determined to see how far I could take the idea. This is an introduction to the simple tools and quirky methods I have developed to make and paint popping bugs with brushes and hand made tools.
consistency is too buttery or as it naturally begins to thicken, thus extending the life of the bottle. There is no reason not to use good quality brushes. They apply colors more smoothly and will last for years if cleaned promptly after use. Metal rods and needles should last a lifetime or more.
Working with Paint Water-based acrylic craft paint is the most suitable and inexpensive choice I have found for the way I work. Delta Ceramcoat, Anita’s All Purpose Acrylic Craft Paint, Folk Art and Deco Art are some of the available brands. It is much easier to control how much paint gets transferred to the brush or tool by dipping it in the cap than trying to access it directly from the bottle or by pouring it into something else. Shaking the bottle transfers fresh paint to the inside of the cap. The process should be repeated as needed to refresh the paint. Over time, a dry crust develops in the cap. When the crust becomes bothersome, I remove it with a bodkin and rinse the cap in tap water. Water may be added to thin the paint if the
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Fashioning a Set of Tools
My own set of painting tools consists of five metal rods Âź inch, 3/16 inch, 5/32 inch, 1/8 inch and 3/32 inch in diameter, and a set of 15 needles. For handling ease and comfort, I inserted the needles into 2-inch long balsa cylinders and sealed them with epoxy for permanence. The needles are numbered by size for ease of identification when several are in use at a time.
Dots And The Painted Popper Yarn darners, tapestry needles, cotton darners, soft sculpture doll and sharps are among the variety of needles I’ve used, and they provide a range of diameters that handily complements the rods. Some of the needles get blunted from the point and others get cut off near the eye of the needle. Other tiers have assembled their own painting tools by repurposing wooden dowels and the butt ends of old drill bits. Pictured below are the yarn darners and tapestry needles I use. A black mark has been placed to the right of where the cut was made for those needles cut near the eye. The other needles may be ground down and sanded smooth from the point to make tools of other diameters. Try to keep the length of the tools as close to the same length as the needle length permits.
Tying the Rio Grande Cichlid Popper Materials Hook: Mustad CK52S, size 4 Thread: Black Uni-Thread, 6/0 or 8/0 Head: Cupped hard foam, size 4 Hackle: Black Paint: Black, turquoise, red, gray, white Tail: Black marabou or other fibers, black hackle, electric blue Flashabou, black/ blue silicone legs
Preparing the Popper Head for Painting The hook slot in the No. 4 head is too narrow for the No. 4 CK52S hook. Forcing can crack the head. A few strokes of a fingernail file usually improve the fit. I use Danville Spiderweb to add additional tooth for the glue to bind the hook to the popper body. Some hooks are too narrow for the slot and a larger thread is more appropriate. Thread wraps tend to slide down the kink of such hooks as the CK52S. If you have a rotary vise, turning the hook on its side while wrapping provides better wrap control. Gel Superglue (CA) is my preference to secure the hook in the slot because it tends not to run. First, I run a bead of CA along the open popper slot and use a small bodkin to spread it throughout the slot. After inserting and positioning the hook, I run another bead of CA along the slot, and pass the bodkin along the slot to smooth more CA into the opening. Last, I use a small strip of paper towel to wipe away any excess CA to minimize sanding later on in the process. I also use it to wipe the bodkin.
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Dots And The Painted Popper Elmers’s Carpenter’s Wood Filler is my choice to fill the length of the hook slot and the small opening above where the hook eye emerges from the popper body. I use a bodkin to apply the wood filler and fingers to smooth it. Above the hook eye, where there isn’t enough room for a finger, I use a bodkin to apply the wood filler. I use a small rounded object to even out the filler, and I scrape away the excess with the bodkin point. Once opened, a container of wood filler can harden in its container. One way to deal with this problem is to transfer it to a glass jar and add a bit of water to from time to time to keep it moist. This greatly extends its useful life. I use a mediumgrit sandpaper to gently remove the roughness around the slot and any excess wood filler not removed earlier. Many hard-foam cupped poppers have a ridge that runs around the body near the cup. This is where the two pieces of the mold came together. Reducing the ridge makes any painting step easier. When the eye is being painted over the ridge, reducing it becomes even more important. I use fine-grit sandpaper for this step, again using a gentle touch. This isn’t an issue for soft foam popper bodies. Completely removing the ridge is optional in my opinion.
Beginning Painting Brush at least two coats of black paint over the entire popper head. Use a 3/16-inch diameter tool to paint a red dot on either side of the popper head. I place the eye slightly back from the front edge and midway between the top and bottom of the body. Using this method, in order to see the edge of the popper near where the eye is being placed a right-handed person should position the cup to the left. This requires flipping the body to place each dot. Wiping the tool after each eye placement helps to create eyes that are as close as possible in size to each other. Center a black dot inside the red dot using a 5/32- or 1/8inch diameter metal rod. Slow and easy does it, particularly if you use the 5/32-inch rod; there is little room for error. Add a tiny white dot to the inner black dot to add a “gleam.” For maximum steadiness, it helps to rest both arms against a desk when painting eyes. For all the other painting steps, I hold the hook with a pair of forceps in my non-dominant hand. For painting other details, holding both arms against the body seems to help. One thing to realize about this type of painting is that you are painting on a more-or-less round surface with a flat-ended
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tool. The larger the tool’s diameter, the more a rocking motion becomes necessary to achieve a round dot. When rocking the tool, it becomes more likely that part of the tool and the paint on it will not make contact with the surface. If the angle of approach is not perpendicular to the body, achieving a perfectly round dot becomes difficult. Fortunately, the more dots you place on an object, the less importance there is in circular perfection. Except under magnification, imperfections will only be noticeable when a few large dots are placed on the body.
When viewed in full color, a real Rio Grande Cichlid has turquoise spots. In the popper version, I alternate both white and turquoise spots around the top half of the body. I make the turquoise dots slightly larger than the white dots. I paint a small white dot inside each turquoise dot, and a small turquoise dot inside each white dot. Here’s why: Natural creatures do not have large areas of one single color. Breaking up these areas of color helps to duplicate this natural characteristic. Notice the variety in the size of dots of the same color. The final step of painting the top half of the popper is to add smaller gray dots into the black areas between the turquoise and white dots.
Dots And The Painted Popper Painting the Cup
Painting the Bottom
Turquoise, white, and gray dots then should be painted into the cup, each in their turn.
The bottom should be painted using the same steps and pattern as the cup.
Practical & Artistic Fly Tying Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Dots And The Painted Popper Protecting the Paint
Keeping Track of Tools Used
Acrylic Craft paint is not made to withstand the harsh treatment a popper receives, so a clear protective coating is a must. For popper bodies of hard foam, cork, and balsa, my preference is Devcon Two Ton Epoxy. It is self leveling, which helps hide any slight irregularities in the shape of the body, including the hook slot if filled and sanded. Longer-curing epoxies such as Devcon don’t crack as easy as the 5-minute varieties, and resist yellowing far longer. Pre-shaped soft foam bodies such as those sold by Wapsi and Rainy’s may be painted with acrylic paint and protected using a polyurethane finish such as Loon Hard Head. In my experience, Hard Head retains some flexibility and will withstand abuse longer than epoxy. Add the tailing materials you wish to use and you are done.
Because there is little difference in the diameter of my painting tools, I’ve begun keeping a 3- by 5-inch index card for each of my designs, with notes as to which stippling tools were used and other information for each size popper I’ve painted using that pattern. This brings some standardization to the appearance of poppers created at different times.
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Dots And The Painted Popper Other Thoughts on Popper Painting Since many creatures found in and on the water are lighter on the bottom than on the sides and top, most of my poppers employ similar color schemes. Markings on the popper bottoms should have fewer markings, and those marking should be smaller in size.
Shading from One Color to Another Below is the same design expressed as a #12 popper, and as a tie clip. On the small popper, I used the same background color for the entire body and added white dots to the bottom to create a lighter color effect. For the larger tie clip, I brushed a darker color on the top and painted the bottom white. I added dots of the upper background color to the boundary line of the two background colors, and continued them below the line while gradually diminishing their number and increasing their spacing. I also decreased the size of the darker green dots to imitate the gradual top-to-bottom change from darker to lighter.
Working Time and Other Thoughts on Epoxy The documentation that comes with Devcon Two Ton Epoxy states the working time is 30 minutes. However, the epoxy becomes thicker as the 30 minutes elapse. This can lead to haste in applying the epoxy, and that leads to some parts of the body not being coated. It also can lead to thicker coats on the last few poppers coated in a batch. Adding 70 percent rubbing alcohol to the epoxy is a way to add to the number of bodies that can be clear-coated in a single batch. Another way to deal with the problem is to cool the epoxy, which makes it thicker but slows the cure rate. Once a bit of epoxy gets removed from the container where it is being kept cool, it soon thins and becomes easier to spread smoothly. My epoxy wheel can only handle ten bodies. Prior to trying the cooling method, it was rare to be able to coat five bodies before it became too thick to continue. Now I can fill the wheel with a single batch, and can take more time to ensure the entire body is completely covered. Below is an image of a metal artist’s watercolor palette, which I use to hold the aluminum foil into which my epoxy batches are placed. It rests in a bowl of ice. The working temperature range of the epoxy is -40°F to 200°F, so cooling with ice should not cause any ill effects to the epoxy’s integrity. According to the product directions, the epoxy may be touched after 2 hours, but I try to avoid touching the finish for at least 8 hours.
Dealing with Rubber Legs Many popper makers tie in rubber legs so the strands start at the back and continue to make the front leg. I like to form the rear and front legs from separate pieces of equal length. I cut a rubber ribbon to length, select the desired number of strands, and tie in the separate groups with 8/0 thread using the following pattern: Rear legs on one side, rear on the opposite side, front on one side and front on the opposite side. Tying the strands in one above the other leads to the fan shape usually seen on the front legs of my poppers.
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Jason Morrison Photo
ROCK ON
With The Crowd Surfer Stone By Clint Goodman
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
I
had in the previous days captured a few very large salmon flies and had placed them in a box for future study and experimentation. I set out to perfect an extended- body salmon fly before I moved on to smaller stones. With coffee at hand, some music on and a few friends around the table, I started tying. And although this happened several years ago, I still haven’t seen any pattern that resembles the product of that tying session, the Crowd Surfer Stone. Coming up with a new pattern isn’t as easy as it might sound. Sometimes attempts to whip up something fresh and effective don’t come together at all. Sometimes, though, it goes like a wicked good game of Tetris and everything just falls into place.
This was one of those times.
For three days it rained,
Jason Morrison Photo
I had live insects on hand as models. With pliers and a T-pin, I fashioned an extended-body tool. I cut up some foam and started tying. It took only a few flies to get the proportions correct. Over the following weeks I tweaked the materials until I had it dialed in. That year and the following summer were excellent years for myself, and friends, as we fished the stonefly hatches and did very well even on heavily pressured fish. The Crowd Surfer Stone is tied now by Rainy’s Flies and comes in Golden Stone, Skwala and Salmon Fly variations. I hope this article might inspire you to innovate, use your imagination and create fresh, new patterns of your own. But if you simply stick to this pattern, I know you won’t go wrong.
with constant clouds and freezing temps at night. Days were muggy and warm, and I swore nothing was going to dry in time for the drive home. OK, so it wasn’t like I was camping under the open sky being drenched by tears of the gods. But, cabin or no cabin, everything that I had was wet and adorning the furniture in an attempt to dry. As I tried to warm my bones beside the fire I decided that my last couple of days in Montana’s early summer would be spent inside, at the tying table, designing flies that might improve my odds against heavily fished trout that endure World War II-like carpet bombings from dry fly fishermen. Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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, Clint Goodman s
Crowd surfer stone Recipe Hook: Gamakatsu S10, size 6-10 Thread: UTC 140 denier, color of choice Tail: Ginger goose biots Body: Golden yellow 2mm closed-cell foam Underwing: Mottled tan Web Wing and clear packaging tape Wing: Golden brown primo deer hair Overwing: Hareline McFlylon or MFC Widows Web Legs: Rear, dark golden stone Hareline medium round rubber; front, natural or cream small round rubber Markers: Brown and marigold Sharpies (if you don’t have a marigold Sharpie, they have been discontinued. The best replacement I have found is a Prismacolor goldenrod) Coatings /fixatives: Brushable Super Glue, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails
Step 2
Step 2a
Step 1
Step 2: Attach thread to hook and tie in two biots, curving together, close to the end of the tool. This length will be the finished tail length.
Step 3
Step 1: Prepare your goose biots, place the extended body tool in the vise, and cut a ¼-inch wide piece of foam about 4 inches long.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
ROCK ON WITH THE CROWD SURFER STONE Step 3a
Step 3: Fold a little more than a third of the foam over and cut both sides to taper the body. Leave about 3/16 inch at the tapered end and trim down about 5/16 inch. 3a - showing forward progress of the thread under the foam.
Step 4b
Step 4b: After a couple of segments, rotate the vise
and examine the body. It should look something like this. Proceed until you have 5 segments.
Step 4
Step 5
Step 4: With the thread close to the end of the tool,
gently separate the biots. Fold the foam again and slide it between the biots. A few securing wraps is all that is needed. Wrap the thread forward on the tool and under the foam and make another segment.
Step 5: Whip finish or apply a little Super Glue to the
thread to finish off this portion of the fly. To remove it from the tool, trim the starting thread and pinch the top and bottom firmly between thumb and finger and slide the body off the tool.
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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, Clint Goodman s Crowd surfer stone Step 6
Step 6: Insert the hook into the body with the longest
portion of foam on the bottom side of the hook shank. The hook should pierce the foam close to the last thread wraps. Wrap a thread base on the entire hook shank, bring the thread forward to the hook point, and secure the bottom side of the foam.
Step 7
Step 8a
Step 8: Tie in the back legs and dub over the thread
wraps. Keep the dubbing to a minimum; this will improve the finished flies’ performance. Advance the thread and repeat step 7. You should now be very close to the middle of the hook shank. Trim the top foam off and tidy it up with thread.
Step 9
Step 7: Apply a very small amount of glue over the
thread wraps and foam of the lower segment you have just created. Pull the foam forward and tie in the top, pressing it down on the glue to prevent rolling.
Step 8
Step 9: Apply the packag-
ing tape to a sheet of web wing and cut off the strip you want. The width should be anywhere from 3/8 inch to ½ inch. Fold it lengthwise in the middle, trim it into a heart shape, and tie it in.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
ROCK ON WITH THE CROWD SURFER STONE Step 10
Step 10: Cut, clean and stack a small bunch of deer hair
and tie it in. Trim the butt ends short. Keep it all cleaned up with the thread and keep bulk to a minimum. Advance the thread to the midpoint of the remaining hook shank and secure in the foam to start another segment.
Step 13
Step 13: Double some parapost material over your
thread and tie in. On this version I used a small amount of pink as a hi viz post for shady banks.
Step 14
Step 11
Step 11. Leaving the thread in place, poke a hole in the
middle of the foam where it touches the eye of the hook. Carefully fold the foam over the eye and secure it in. This creates the head.
Step 12
Step 14: Trim the post and tie in the front legs. Dub over Step 12: Advance the thread back to the wing and add a very small amount of glue to the wing butts. Tie down the foam and trim it off.
the thread and whip finish. Apply a drop of glue to the top of the whip finish only. I leave all the legs long as it helps with the marking process and I can also hook them in the material tender so that they are out of the way.
Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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, Clint Goodman s Crowd surfer stone Jason Morrison Photo
Step 15
Step 15: Color, stripe and trim the legs. Next is the best part of my series of dirty flies, the markers and nail polish. The goal here is to get a dirty-looking , non-uniform colored body. First apply the marigold color over most of the foam. Next apply the brown Sharpie in random small dots. Before the brown Sharpie dries, smear a thin coat of nail polish over the colored portion. The more you smear, the more it blends and works into the thread wraps. Let dry for a moment and you are done.
Finished Fly - Top
Variation
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Finished Fly - Bottom
Glen’s Giant Crayfish By Glen Dayton
For more than a century, the deepest-rooted tradition in fly fishing has been anglers’ pursuit of trout. Today there are no limits as to which fish species are considered fair game for fly anglers. Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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A
t long last, fly fishers can pursue any number of species without suffering the scorn of fellow enthusiasts. Freshwater species from panfish to gar and even catfish are not only pursued, they are preferred by many anglers. Saltwater fly fishing has exploded in popularity, opening up entire new worlds of possibilities. Inshore anglers target redfish, snook, tarpon and even sharks. Advances in sinking-line technology
chances are you’ll find patterns that are simply scaled-up versions of flies found in their trout boxes. While such flies can and do work for some species in certain situations, I believe anglers need to “think outside the trout box” for flies that better imitate a species’ food sources. Take bass, for example. Gear fishermen who target bass use buzzbaits with spinners the size of your fist, and plugs that look like submarines. Yet fly anglers fish for bass with sparsely tied, traditional bucktail patterns such as Mickey Finns.
Consider the Clouser Minnow, which aside from the Woolly Bugger is probably the most-used streamer pattern in the history of fly fishing. I wouldn’t dare tell anyone not to use a Clouser because they work. Heck, I use them myself. Still, a Clouser is little more than a trout fly with barbell eyes -- influenced, no doubt, by the jigs used by lure fishermen. Clouser’s classic pattern is a good first step; with the proper mindset, we can do much better. Glen’s Giant Crayfish is the perfect example of a fly that has no hint of a traditional trout pattern. Its con-
have made it possible to fish deep offshore waters. Maybe someday someone will develop a krill pattern so we can fish for whales; if that happens, we will truly know fly fishing has gone as far as it can go. Still, largely due to the pastime’s everpersistent “trout mentality,” fly patterns have yet to catch up with the interest fly fishermen have toward new species. Look in the fly boxes of any angler that fishes for “alternative species” and
The trout’s monopoly on our creativity persuades us to place silly rules on the features a fly pattern can or cannot have. Elitists tell us, for example, that using a fly that has a diving lip “really isn’t fly fishing.” Who says so? Certainly not hardware fishermen, whose bass boats are filled to their gunwales with lures that move, dance, sparkle, wiggle, buzz and any other verb you might throw at America’s most popular game fish.
struction is more Mike Iaconelli than Izaak Walton. It is big and nasty. It is realistic and impressionistic. It moves and appears alive -- not only when it’s retrieved, but also when it sits motionless on the bottom. Through the creative use of commonly found tying materials, it offers bass a tantalizing meal they simply can’t refuse.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Tying Glen’s Giant Crayfish Recipe Hook: Partridge CS45BN, size 4/0 Thread: Olive Uni Big Fly “B” Weight: .035 lead wire Weed guard: 40-pound monofilament Eyes: Monofilament, melted, painted and epoxied Rib: Olive Uni Big Fly “B” Antennae: Olive pheasant tail, olive & natural bronze mallard flank, moose mane, 4 black and 6 blue Krystal Flash fibers Claws: Fire Tiger olive barred rabbit strips Legs: Olive rabbit strips Abdomen: Olive rabbit dubbing Back: (On top) Olive Thin Skin Mottled Oak; (Underneath) Olive Furry Foam.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 2: Add the three feathers that form the antennae.
Start by tying in 15 to 18 olive ring-necked pheasant tail fibers. The fibers should be the length of the hook shank. Cut the center out of the natural bronze mallard flank feather, leaving only the longest fibers. Tie the clipped feather in over the pheasant tail fibers so that equal amounts of mallard fibers fall on either side of the pheasant tail. Repeat the step for the olive mallard flank feather.
Step 3
Step 1: Place a hook in the vise, leaving a 3/4-inch gap
between the vise jaws and the hook’s shaft. Start your tying thread with four strong wraps at the end of the hook shank. Tie in a 4-inch piece of 40-pound mono so that the mono extends rearward over the vise jaws. Using tight, edge-to-edge wraps, bind the monofilament to the hook bend. Go almost all the way to the vise. Wrap back to the tie-in point and put in three half-hitches.
Step 3: Add four pieces of dark moose mane, each
twice the length of the hook shank. Tie them in so two are on each side of the shank. Add the black Krystal Flash the same way, two fibers to a side. Now add the blue Krystal flash, three fibers to a side.
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Tying Glen’s Giant Crayfish Step 4
Step 6
Step 4, Part 1: Now it’s time to make the eyes. Take a
length of 40-pound mono and melt the end to form a round ball two to three times the thickness of the mono. Dip the ball in silver ceramic paint and put it on a rotisserie fly dryer so it dries nice and round. When it’s halfway dry, put a small dot of black ceramic paint on the end. After the paint dries, roll it in epoxy to get an even round ball. Put the coated eye on the rotisserie so it stays round until the epoxy cures. Repeat the process for the other eye.
Step 4, Part 2: Tie in the eyes at the end of the hook shank, one at a time. Make sure both eyes protrude at least one eyeball’s diameter beyond the tie-in point.
Step 6, Part 1: Now add the dubbing for the head
area. I like to use a dubbing-twist tool for this. Cut a 2-inch clump of rabbit hair and clip it into a 3-inch metal clip. Make a loop with the thread with the twist tool at the bottom of the loop. Insert the hair into the middle of the loop, spread it evenly, and give it a good twist. Wrap the dubbing evenly throughout the thorax area and tie off the dubbing loop.
Step 6, Part 2: Wrap a layer of lead wire over the abdomen area of the hook shank as shown.
Step 7
Step 5
Step 7: The claws should be the same length as the Step 5: Cut a strip of Thin Skin, ½ inch wide by 1 ½
times the length of the hook shank. Tie it in, face side down. Cut a strip of Furry Foam, 5/8 inch wide by 1 ½ times the hook shank. Tie the Furry Foam in on top of the Thin Skin.
antennae. Tie the claws in, one to each side, with the fur strips’ fibers facing forward.
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Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Tying Glen’s Giant Crayfish Step 10
Step 8
Step 8: Tie in the rabbit strip that will form the legs. Tie it in upside-down (leather side up) and wrap it five times around the shank. Stroke the fur toward the head of the fly after each wrap. Tie the strip off on top of the hook shank and trim the excess.
Step 9
Step 10: Bend the weed-guard monofilament so that it
extends 1/8 inch in front of the hook point. Mark with your fingers the spot where it intersects the hook shank. Flatten the mono with pliers at that spot, and tie it in behind the legs. Continue wrapping over the butt of the weed guard until you reach the hook-eye end of the lead wire.
Step 11
Step 9: To make the front section of the shell, bring the
thread one-fourth of the way back through the rabbit-hair legs. Pull the Furry Foam and the Thin Skin toward the eye of the hook. Hold them taut and wrap them down tightly with the tying thread. Return the thread to the hook-eye side of the rabbit-hair legs.
Step 11: Now dub the rest of the underbody. Apply the
rabbit fur directly to the thread (no dubbing loop this time) and wrap the dubbing over the lead and all the way to the rabbit-strip legs.
Step 12 Step 12, Part 1: With the thread still back by the legs,
pull the Furry Foam and Thin Skin toward the eye. Make four evenly spaced wraps of tying thread over the abdomen, ending just behind the hook eye. Pull back the Furry Foam and Thin Skin and whip-finish.
Step 12: Part 2: Cut a slit in the Furry Foam and Thin Skin just large enough to squeeze the hook eye through. Then cut a V-shaped notch in the end of the tail and round off the edges just a bit.
You’re done. Go catch a bass! Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
43
The Only By John McCoy
Lewis routinely has enjoyed days when the Only has brought more than 50 trout to net.
Most fly anglers have favorite patterns. Joe Lewis takes the concept to an extreme. 44
Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
The Only
Joe Lewis, the Only’s inventor, has used the pattern to land trophy trout for himself and for clients he has guided in both the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains.
W
hen Lewis fishes for trout, chances are he has a nymph tied to his tippet. Nine times out of 10, it will be a particular nymph, a pattern he developed more than nine years ago. Lewis uses the nymph so often his father nicknamed it “the Only,” short for “the only nymph Joe will use.” Lewis uses the Only for one overarching reason: It catches trout. It has taken trout from the big-name rivers of Montana to the little-known freestone creeks of West Virginia. It has caught big trout. It has caught small trout. It has caught them for Lewis, it has caught them for Lewis’ father, and it has caught them for people who hired Lewis to help guide them. Like many successful flies, the Only was created to combine the fish-catching characteristics of one pattern with the fish-catching characteristics of another.
Dressed in both light and dark versions, and on hooks from size 8 to 18, the Only approximates the shading and size of many subsurface insects. “I had always fished Hare’s Ear Nymphs a lot, but I also liked flies with rubber legs,” Lewis says. “I wanted a general searching pattern like a Hare’s Ear, but with a little more flash and action.”
He started to experiment. “I tried several types of dubbing, and ultimately settled on a couple of shades of squirrel-colored Dave Whitlock SLF as my base,” he said. “SLF had a spikier, buggier look than the others. I dubbed
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The Only
Several of Lewis’ guided clients have used the Only to take the largest trout they ever caught. some with a single thread, and some with a dubbing loop. “I also experimented with different kinds of rubber legs, and I found that banded or speckled silicone legs seemed to give more illusion of movement. As I played around with beaded and un-beaded versions of the pattern, I discovered that the beaded flies worked best because the bead helps kick the legs away from the body and gives them a better action.” To counterbalance the length of the silicone legs, Lewis tied his prototypes on hooks with longer shanks. He ultimately settled on 2X-long nymph hooks. He also experimented with wing-case materials. “I tried synthetics, but I didn’t like the overall look they gave,” he said. “In the end, peacock herl turned out to be the most effective material for the cases.” Armed with his early prototypes, Lewis went fishing. He caught trout, oodles of them. The fly turned out to be exactly what he had been yearning for -- an all-around searching pattern effective in just about any angling scenario. “I fished them in tandem with Hare’s Ears. It outfished them as the tail fly or as the dropper. It did the same thing
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with Prince Nymphs and Copper Johns,” he said. Lewis shared the pattern with his father, who also began using it. The two often fished together, and the elder Lewis became bemused with his son’s penchant for tying on one or two of the prototype nymphs and fishing all day with them. “That’s when he started calling it the Only,” Lewis said. Lewis developed the fly during his tenure as fly fishing manager and fishing guide for an outfitter in his home state of West Virginia. The clients he guided went bonkers over the pattern. “People would show up with their own flies and do OK, but for certain places on the stream I’d put an Only on and they’d end up catching several fish. They would ask why they weren’t able to buy those flies at the store, and I would explain that I tied them. One of my clients ordered six dozen there on the spot.” Lewis took a job as a fishing guide in Montana in 2004, and the Only played a significant role in helping him catch on with an outfitter. “A year or so before that, I took my first trip to Montana -- a fishing trip with my dad,” he recalled. “We were floating
the West Fork of the Bitterroot with our guide, and the guide recommended a dry-and-dropper rig. I told him I planned to fish two nymphs under an indicator. We hit the first riffle and I started catching fish. The guide kept us there quite some time because he wanted to see just how many fish we could catch out of that riffle. I can’t recall how many it turned out to be, but it was a butt load.” His success with the Only helped land Lewis a guiding job with the same outfitter who witnessed his success on the West Fork of the Bitterroot. “After I went out west, I used the Only a lot on the Big Hole, the Bitterroot and the Beaverhead. It caught fish everywhere I used it,” Lewis said. “One guy called it ‘Cutthroat Candy’ because ‘they wouldn’t leave the damned thing alone.’” The fly earned Lewis a multitude of big tips and nice dinners. “I had a client who had an annual big fish contest with his buddies. He had never won the contest. He promised me any amount of money if he won,” Lewis said. “I happened to know where one really big fish was. I put an Only on the guy’s line. He drifted it through the run, and BAM! He ended up catching a 24-inch brown that won him the contest. At the end of the day, he gave me a $100 tip.” One of the unique things about the pattern was that it worked so well in large sizes. “I used to tie them exclusively in size 8, 10 and 12,” Lewis said. “Any smaller than that and the silicone legs looked out of proportion. After Centipede Legs came out, I started tying the pattern in size 14, 16 and 18.” Though he’s had success with the Only in all water types, Lewis believes it fishes best in moving water -- riffles, pockets and deep runs. “I usually fish it under an indicator, not so much for strike detection as for depth control,” he said. “Every few feet during the fly’s drift, I like to throw a little stack mend at the indicator. It causes the fly to bob and its legs to wiggle. A lot of times, the strike comes immediately after that.” Such familiarity with a fly’s effectiveness comes only after long hours of experience. Lewis has put in the time; after all, the fly has been at the end of his leader 90 percent of the time for close to a decade. The Only. Seldom has a more fitting name been bestowed on a fly.
Designed as a searching pattern that resembles nothing in Âparticular but everything in general, the Only has proved effective on trout from Virginia to Montana.
Tying the Only Step 1
Step 1: Thread a bead onto the hook and clamp the hook into a vise.
Recipe Hook: 2XL nymph Tails: Speckled hen back Abdomen: Dave Whitlock SLF dubbing, Red Fox Squirrel Nymph abdomen color for the light version; Golden Stone Nymph color for dark) Rib: Gold oval tinsel, small Legs: Pumpkin-colored Sili Legs (Centipede Legs for sizes 14-18) Thorax: Dave Whitlock SLF dubbing, Red Fox Squirrel Nymph abdomen color for the light version; Golden Stone Nymph color for dark) Wing case: Peacock herl Bead: Gold for light version, copper or gold for dark
Step 2 Step 3
Step 2: Wrap a thread base back to the tailing area; trim excess.
Step 3: Tie in a bunch of speckled hen back fibers. Tails should be half as long as the hook shank. Wrap forward over the fibers all the way to the bead. Return the tying thread to the base of the tail. Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Tying The Only Step 4
Step 4: Tie in a 3-inch length of small oval gold tinsel
just in front of the tails. Wrap forward over the butts of the tinsel to the bead. Trim the excess tinsel and return the thread to the tail.
Step 7
Step 7: Rib the abdomen with four to five evenly spaced turns of tinsel. Secure with tying thread.
Step 8
Step 5
Step 8: Depending on hook size, tie in four to six flues of Step 5: Using well waxed thread, dub a 3-inch sec-
tion of thread with Dave Whitlock SLF in the appropriate color. Taper the dubbing noodle so the abdomen will get larger as the dubbing is wrapped forward.
peacock herl. The herl butts should project over the fly’s back toward the tail. Wrap forward over the herl tips to the bead and return the thread to the midpoint of the hook.
Step 9
Step 6
Step 9: Depending on hook size, tie in a piece of .015 Step 6: Wrap the dubbed thread forward to the hook’s midpoint.
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or .020 lead wire. Wrap the wire forward to the bead and trim the excess. There is no need to over-wrap the lead with the tying thread.
Tying The Only Step 10
Step 12: Pull the peacock herl flues forward to form the wing case. Secure with the tying thread.
Step 13
Step 10: Tie in one Sili Leg strand on each side of the
hook shank. The thread wraps should fall into the notch between the dubbed abdomen and the beginning of the wraps of lead. Use thread tension to splay the legs. Leave the legs long for the time being.
Step 11
Step 13: Trim the herl butts and apply a tight whip finish just behind the bead. Trim the legs to size. Your Only is ready to catch trout!
Step 11: Using well waxed thread, dub a section of
thread with more of the SLF dubbing. For the thorax section, it’s better to have too much dubbing than too little. Make three turns of the dubbed thread between the Sili Legs, sweep the legs back, and continue dubbing forward to the bead.
Step 12
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WYOMING’S
Wind River MOUNTAIN RANGE A Photo Essay by Will Mullis
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Tt
he Wind River Mountain Range of Wyoming is a fly fishing paradise that rivals any fabled
water on earth, yet is relatively devoid of fly fishermen.
“The Winds,” as this area is affectionately nicknamed, encompasses more than 2,800 square miles, has more than 800 lakes teeming brook, brown, rainbow, cutthroat and even golden trout. The reason relatively few fly fishermen venture there is simple: It is an isolated and brutal wilderness that does not give up its bounty without a fight. Several obstacles make The Winds as much an adventure of endurance and perseverance as a fishing trip. Anglers who consider fishing there should consider carefully these factors. If you want roadside pull-offs, or an effortless stroll through a meadow to reach the water, look elsewhere. The Winds’ obstacles, each devised by the trout gods to as a mechanism for attrition, ensure that only adventurous anglers willing to sacrifice their bodies to the mountains are given access to a paradise filled with hungry trout amid some of the most beautiful vistas on the planet. Keep in mind this is not a place for day or even weekend excursions, and even the weeklong trip I went on last fall seemed a few days too short. Consider a day of air travel each way and a full day of backpacking to and from base camp each way, and that leaves just three full days of fishing. I have read stories of anglers spending 10 days to twoplus weeks in the wilderness, exploring some of the most remote regions, finding waters virtually untouched by anglers, and coming away with the fish stories of their lifetimes.
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Planning a fly fishing trip to The Winds is a test of angling fortitude, one that requires you to consider the region’s many obstacles – none of which should be taken lightly. For example:
Altitude If you are a flatlander like me, then you will soon realize how daunting even menial tasks can be when you’re standing 11,000 feet above sea level. Every step seems more labored. When you’re hiking into the range with a 50-pound pack on your back, catching your breath sometimes seems impossible. The need to stop for breaks comes frustratingly more frequently than you could ever anticipate, so allow more time to hike in than you might otherwise have planned.
Mileage If you find yourself planning a trip to The Winds, accept that you are going to spend a great deal more time in hiking boots than in wading boots. The wilderness is enormous, and like all great
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fly fishing destinations, the best water is the most remote. That trait is even more pronounced here. My personal recommendation would be to backpack in as far as possible on the first day, set up a base camp, and simply take day hikes from there to fish. The advantage is that you only carry your full pack when backpacking in and out, and your hikes to and from your fishing destinations will be easier, and you get to spend more time on productive water. The disadvantages are that you end up traveling twice as far each day because you have to double back to return to camp, and because you are limited to waters you hike to and back in a day’s time you’re limited on how deep into the range you can get. We backpacked in 10 miles to set up camp and day-hiked as much as 10 miles round-trip during our fishing days.
WYOMING’S
Wind River MOUNTAIN RANGE
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WYOMING’S
Wind River MOUNTAIN RANGE The Winds is certainly not a place for everyone, but compared to other great fly fishing destinations is a
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the relative solitude powerful lure.
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WYOMING’S
Wind River MOUNTAIN RANGE
Weather The most limiting factor is the brief backpacking/fishing window of “decent” weather The Winds provides each year. Too early and you’re likely to find frozen lakes and impassable snow pack on the trails. Too late and you might find yourself in the midst of a dangerously unexpected snowstorm. The safest time of the year to go is from mid-July to late August, though we did push those boundaries somewhat by making our trip during the first week of September. Always plan on some type of foul weather because it can snow on any day of the year, and even on the best weather days temperatures can fluctuate from below freezing in the mornings to more than 80 degrees in the afternoons.
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Mosquitoes If the altitude, mileage or weather hasn’t scared you off yet, then know that this is the most mosquito-infested area I have ever set foot on in my life. I was personally skeptical after reading the horror stories about the mosquito problem, and figured any problem that actually existed would be alleviated by the fact we were going a week later than most normal people. Wrong. When the temperature drops the mosquitoes seem to disappear, but when the air warms up the ferocious and unrelenting bloodsuckers descend upon you like a plague, literally covering you from head to toe any time you stop moving. If there’s one bit of attire that could be considered commonplace in The Winds, it would be the head nets anglers use to keep ‘skeeters out of their faces and ears. The mosquitoes are easily the most unfortunate aspect to The Winds. They are absolutely unbearable, and at times when we weren’t fishing I crawled into the tent to get a few minutes’ reprieve from their incessant torment. The Winds is certainly not a place for everyone, but the relative solitude compared to other great fly fishing destinations is a powerful lure. I could give you maps, lists of lakes I fished and trails I hiked to get there, but planning your own trip is part of the magic of this place. The hike-in possibilities are endless, and it is almost impossible to end up in an area devoid of trout. If you consider yourself adventurous and are looking for something with more scenic grandeur than an ordinary fishing trip, then a trip to The Winds should be at the top of your list. It is one of the few true remote trout-filled paradises that you could explore for a lifetime and still have plenty left to discover. The Winds will test your endurance, your fortitude and your physical abilities, but a trip there is unlike anything you have ever experienced and something you will never forget.
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WYOMING’S
Wind River MOUNTAIN RANGE
P.S. I forgot to mention this is grizzly bear country as well. Don’t leave home without bear spray.
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Tiers from across the pond
By John Terje Refsahl
T
he first time I saw a trout rise to a mayfly I was sold. The brown trout’s head-and-tail rise was beautiful to behold. The fish took the mayfly from the surface and left lots of nice rings on the water’s surface. It is fair to say that this, combined with the beauty and delicate presentation of the fly cast, turned me into a dry fly purist. I’m also fortunate to live close to one of Norway’s best dry fly rivers, where trout rise more or less from late May until our season ends in mid-September. For me, fly fishing is all about using artificial flies that imitate species of insect the trout are rising to. In my home river, that essentially means mayflies and caddis flies in different colors and sizes. I’ve been tying for more than 14 years now, and almost all my tying has been dedicated to tying dries. If you look into my fly boxes, you will not find a single nymph or streamer. We fly tiers are lucky nowadays. There are thousands of great fly tying books, DVDs, Internet sites, etc., where we can
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find great-looking patterns to copy or modify. In my opinion it is almost impossible for anyone to claim that he or she has invented a new pattern. Anything “new” will more or less be a modification of something that already exists. Having said that, there is an ocean of new materials that fly tiers 15 to 30 years ago did not have access to, and every year more new materials get introduced. New materials open up more possibilities for us tiers to be creative and make flies that look slightly different, with different triggering characteristics and maybe even improved floating abilities There are also some old materials, such as CDC, that have enjoyed a real comeback within the fly tying arena. This amazing material is getting more and more used in dry flies and is now used for bodies, wings, legs and thoraxes in mayfly, midge, caddis fly and other aquatic and terrestrial imitations. If you want to, you can do as I do and dye your own CDC and use it in ways limited only by your own creativity and imagination.
Woven Emerger with CDC Parachute Hackle
Materials
In my fly tying, there are some materials I simply can’t live without. Following is a list of materials most often found in my dry flies:
Hook: Knapek P, size 12 Tail: Ostrich herl Body: Woven Stretch Tubing, brown and amber Thorax: CDC dubbing, dyed olive and mixed with Ice Dub and polyamid dubbing in a coffee blender Wing post: White foam Hackle: CDC fibers spun in a dubbing loop.
• CDC: This is by far my favorite fly tying material, and I use it for wings in mayflies, thoraxes in mayfly duns and mayfly emergers, legs, bodies in caddis flies -- the list goes on. If CDC were to suddenly disappear from the market, I would have a nervous breakdown for sure. • Stretch tubing: This body material is found in more or less all my woven mayfly emergers. The woven body was something I learned from Toril Kolbu, the famous Norwegian fly tier. She used Antron yarn to make her woven bodies. When I first came across Stretch Tubing, I instantly saw that this material would be fantastic woven bodies as it is transparent and extremely elastic. It turned out to be a great success. • Kapok dubbing: This short-fibered dubbing material is fantastic. It’s applied by waxing the tying thread and touch-dubbing the kapok to the thread. Kapok was introduced to me by my good friend and Norwegian fly tying legend Staffan Lindstrøm. Staffan has inspired my fly tying more than anyone else. • Polyamid dubbing: This material is also something that Staffan introduced me to. It is an amazing synthetic material that floats really well. I use it for thoraxes in mayfly emergers, mayfly duns and bodies for caddis flies. • Poly chenille: Another material Staffan introduced me to. It can be used as extended bodies for mayflies, daddy longlegs and many other flies. • Poly yarn: I use poly yarn for wings in caddis flies such as the Renacaddis, and also for bodies in a few caddis pupa patterns such as the Puristpupa. Poly yarn can also be used for mayfly wings.
This fly is a killer when the trout feed on emergers. The CDC parachute hackle makes the emerger look lively on the surface. I have had lots of great times with emergers like this. It is important to fish this pattern dead drift.
The flies that I have chosen for this article are mainly made with materials on this list.
I love the CDC loop wing emergers. There is something about them that makes them really look like true imitations of the insect. Let this emerger dead drift and you will have a really exciting time ahead of you. The Krystal Flash underneath the woven body creates the illusion of air bubbles and creates a feeding trigger that makes trout want to eat the fly.
Of course, other materials can be used as well—quality hackle, foam, Microfibetts, coq de leon, Aero Dry Wing, goose biots, different types of dubbing and different types of body materials.
Woven CDC Loop Wing Emerger
Materials Hook: Knapek P, size14 Tail: Ostrich herl Body: Woven Stretch Tubing, with Krystal Flash rib underneath the woven body Thorax: Polyamid dubbing Wing: Two CDC feathers made into loop wings Front hackle: Ostrich herl Legs: Barred ginger hackle
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Tying Dry Flies, Purist Style Polychenille Mayfly
The CDC No-hackle
Materials
Materials
Hook: Knapek P, size 14 Body: Polychenille melted with a lighter to make the body the right shape Thorax: Tying Thread (no dubbing in this fly) Wing: Aero Dry Wing, tied as a split wing Hackle: Barred ginger rooster hackle
Hook: Tail: Body: Thorax: Wing:
This has become one of my favorite mayfly patterns. I used to tie it using hot-melt glue to split the wing, a trick learned from a skilled tier named Preben Anker. The last few years, after seeing a different technique from skilled fly tier named Gunnar Bingen, I have tied it as pictured. In my opinion the fly should have a large hackle to make a solid print on the surface. I also make the wings quite long. This fly has caught lots of nice trout in my home river in Norway.
I love the simplicity of no-hackle mayflies. The way they look, and the way they appear on the surface, help them fool more than their share of trout. They are easy to tie, and can be tied quite quickly. No-hackles are among the flies I use most, and I mainly use them for smaller mayflies in the size 16-18 range. Sometimes I also use them for the Baetis rhodani hatches, and in my river that means a size 14 hook.
The Rena Caddis
The Spent Kapok Spinner
Materials Hook: Tail: Body: Wing: Thorax: Rib:
Materials Hends 404, size 12 Coq de leon fibers Kapok dubbing Tied up blue dun rooster hackle Brown Polyamid dubbing Krystal Flash
I can´t tell you just how much I love this spent spinner. The technique of tying the wings was something I picked up from a DVD by a famous Norwegian fly tier named Pål Krogvold. The technique changed my fishing with spent spinners. Pål used some other materials for body but I just love the kapok and the way this dubbing makes it possible to fashion thin mayfly bodies. The fly floats like a cork and the trout love it. Can it be any better than that?
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Hends 404 size16 Coq de leon fibers Hends Body Quill, olive CDC dubbing CDC fibers
Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Hook: Body: Wing: Wingpost: Hackle:
Hends 404, size 12 Polyamid dubbing Brown poly yarn Hot melt glue Brown rooster hackle
This is my good friend Staffan Lindstrøms pattern from years ago, and it is still one of my absolute favorite caddis patterns. I usually start to fish this fly dead drift, but if it doesn’t work I will start to speed it up. It can be fished really fast across the current or by using the rod tip to impart shivering movements. I can really recommend this caddis fly to every fly fisherman out there.
Tiers from across the pond Kapok and CDC Parachute Mayfly
The Puristpupa
Materials Hook: Knapek P, size 14 Body: Poly yarn melted in the tip section to make a narrow point; poly yarn also as a hood and as a head in front Thorax: CDC dubbing or Polyamid dubbing Hackle: Brown rooster hackle trimmed top and bottom This is my “own” pattern, in the sense that I created this caddis pupa after being inspired by some other patterns that I have seen such as the Superpupa, the Animal, the Antronpupa, etc. I had great success when I tried out this fly for the first time, so I just had to name it the Puristpupa. To my great joy, the fly delivered right away and now it’s always with me when caddis pupae are struggling toward shore.
Step 1
Step 1: Tie in a few Coq de leon fibers and make a V-shaped tail.
Materials Hook: Hends 404, size 12 Tail: Coq de leon fibers Body: Kapok dubbing Rib: Krystal Flash Wing: Aero Dry Wing Hackle: CDC fibers spun in a loop and tied parachute. This is the fly I refer to as “The Lethal Weapon.” It is a fantastic pattern that looks really alive on the surface and catches lots of nice trout. The CDC parachute hackle is a major trigger. Even when the fly is dead-drifted, the CDC makes the fly come to life without me doing anything other than making sure it’s presented properly.
Step 2
Step 2: Tie in a piece of Krystal Flash for the rib.
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Tying the Kapok and CDC Parachute Mayfly Step 3
Step 7
Step 3: Make a loop with the tying thread at the back, and then wrap the working thread forward to taper the body.
Step 7: Use a dubbing twister to spin the thread, and
then wrap the dubbed thread forward to form the body.
Step 4: Wax both
Step 4
legs of thread in the loop.
Step 5
Step 8
Step 8: Wind the Krystal Flash forward to create a ribbed effect.
Step 5: Touch
dub the two legs of the loop with kapok dubbing. If desired, you can touch dub each with different colors to create a variegated body.
Step 9
Step 6
another loop with the thread. This loop will be used for the CDC parachute hackle.
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time to make a wing.
Step 10
Step 10: Make
Step 6: The loop dubbed with different colors.
Step 9: Now it’s
Tiers from across the pond Step 11
Step 11: Dub the fly’s thorax. In this example, I have used CDC dubbing.
Step 14
Step 14: Wrap the twisted CDC around the wing. Each
wrap should go under the preceding one. It will look quite busy, but don’t be afraid; that will soon change.
Step 12 Step 15
Step 12: Find some long CDC fibers and prepare them in a Petitjean Magic Tool. The CDC fibers should not be too dark.
Step 13
Step 13: Insert the CDC fibers inside the thread loop and spin it with a dubbing twister.
Step 15: Trim the CDC with your fingers or with scissors to get the look you prefer.
Step 16
Step 16: Your “Lethal Weapon” is ready for a hungry trout!
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By Sasa Stocic
H
e was very young when he had his first fly fishing experience, and he quickly expanded his interest into creating flies to fish with. Blessed with exceptional talent, enormous powers of observation and a refined sense of color, he soon began to create innovative patterns that solved many of the problems he encountered with standard-issue flies. Along the way, he cooperated with some of the big names in American fly fishing and fly tying -- A.K. Best, Mike Lawson, Tim England, John Betts, Rene Harrop, Dennis Black, Ken Shimazaki and many others. The fly tying industry noticed, and Shane’s flies were marketed by several companies.
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Shane’s experimentation with new and unusual materials led to the creation of such popular patterns such as the Ultra Damsel, the Adult Damsel, the CDC Biot Comparadun and many, many others. He popularized his work through the new medium of instructional videos and the old medium of books. His book, Mayflies — Top to Bottom, was to have been followed by a book on caddis flies, but his premature death in 2011 halted work on what was sure to have been a remarkable and creative work. Fly tiers the world over respectfully remember Shane and his contributions to tying and fishing
Cripples are injured insects. Like all predators, trout pick out injured individuals from the surrounding herd, and for that reason they will take a cripple before they take a healthy insect. The Stalcup Crippled Emerger perfectly imitates a crippled hatching mayfly.
Materials
Step 3
Hook: TMC 101, size 14 Thread: Dun 14/0 Tail: Microfibetts (broken) Underbody: PMD olive dun Stalcup Microfine Body: Light olive Micro Tubing Underwing: UV gray Ice Dubbing, light dun Swiss CDC Wing: Mottled gray Medallion sheeting Thorax: PMD olive dun Stalcup Microfine Hackle: Dun cock (bottom soft feathers)
Step 3: Wrap the Micro Tubing to form the fly’s body. Step 1
Step 1: At the hook bend, mount a tail of Microfibbets that are a little broken at the tips
Step 2
Step 4
Step 4: Tie in the Ice Dubbing and CDC for the under-
wing. At the same place, tie in the hackle feather. Tie in a strip of Medallion sheeting crosswise near the eye.
Step 5
Step 2: Attach Micro Tubing and dub the underbody,
making sure to leave one-third of the hook shank bare for the thorax and head.
Step 5: Dub the thorax as shown. Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Tying the Stalcup Crippled Emerger Step 6
Step 6: Palmer the hackle forward through the thorax area. Pull the Medallion strip upright
Step 7
Step 8
Step 8: Spiral the tying thread back to the junction
of the thorax and abdomen, continuing to trap the Medallion strip as in Step 7. Spiral the tying thread back to the hook eye. The thread should splay the hackle in places.
Step 9
Step 7: Form a head with the tying thread in such a way that it traps one side of the Medallion strip on the same plane as the hook shank and the other strip upright over the fly’s back.
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Step 9: Whip finish and coat the head with cement. Trim the wings to size with scissors.
Materials Hook: TMC 2312, size 14 Thread: Claret 14/0 Trailing shuck: White Z-Lon Underbody: Claret 14/0 thread Abdomen: March brown colored biot Wing: Yellowish-tan Medallion sheeting Thorax: Rusty brown SLF mix Hackle: Brown
Step 1
Step 1: Tie the Z-Lon in using the front one-third of the hook shank.
Step 2
Step 2: Wrap the thread to the hook bend, binding down the Z-Lon as you go.
An emerging dun represents the transition of a mayfly from nymph to adult. Just before the adult finally sheds its nymphal shuck and flies off, it floats on the surface and struggles to escape the shuck. Here’s how the transition happens: As the nymph floats to the surface and drifts with the current, the exoskeleton on its thorax splits. The adult’s legs come out first, followed by the head and the wings. The freshly hatched dun them floats along with its exoskeleton, which forms what fly anglers have come to call the “trailing shuck.” This stage can be imitated two ways, with a high-floating or low-riding pattern. The former uses rooster-hackle legs, and the latter uses Z-Lon or a soft feather.
Step 3
Step 3: Tie in the biot by its tip. Wrap an underbody of tying thread.
Step 4
Step 4: Wrap the biot forward over the underbody. Tie
in the hackle feather where the newly formed abdomen ends. Dub the thorax and leave room behind the eye for the head and wing. Install a strip of Medallion sheeting behind the head.
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Tying the Stalcup Emerging Dun Step 5
Step 6
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Step 5: Pull the
Medallion strip back to form the wing.
Step 6: Secure the
Medallion strip with a few turns of thread.
Hatches Magazine • Fall 2012
Step 7
Finished Fly
Step 7: Dub a small
head over the wing butt. Whip-finish and cement the head. Trim the wings to size with scissors.
When we anglers venture out, whether to a known place or a new destination, we face the same dilemma: Which fly do we choose? Artificial flies today are so good that there are few patterns that do not catch fish if used in the right place at the right time. The trick is in knowing which one will imitate the insect trout are feeding upon. To choose wisely, one must know how to distinguish a caddis fly from a mayfly from a stonefly, and must be able to distinguish a larva from a pupa from an adult. Mayflies introduce yet another choice. The adults appear in two forms, the subimago (dun) and imago (spinner) stages. Because this article deals specifically with mayflies, we’re going to pay particular attention to the imago stage. The differences between duns and spinners aren’t easy to see at a distance, but are quite clear upon close inspection. In the dun stage, the mayfly’s wings appear dull and smoky, almost as if they have a matte finish. In the spinner, the wings become glassy and transparent. When we sit at our tying vises, then, we encounter the same dilemma we face while fishing: Which materials will help us imitate the spinner’s distinctive characteristics? Which will allow the finished fly to be as exact an imitation as pos-
Materials Hook: TMC 5212, size 14 Thread: Primrose 14/0 Body: Yellow stripped peacock quill Tail: Coq de Leon Thorax: Mixed dun Argentinian hare with natural and a touch of red Arctic fox fur Wing: Violet and yellow Coq de Leon and Swiss CDC Hackle: Blue dun Swiss CDC and dun cock
sible, yet impressionistic enough to cover a variety of angling situations? These are among the questions Shane Stalcup no doubt asked himself any time he worked up a new pattern. Now, for the answers: Peacock quills do an admirable job of imitating the slender abdomens seen in so many mayfly species. Their only drawback is that they aren’t terribly resistant to trout teeth. The durability problem can be addressed by covering the quill abdomen with lacquer, varnish, epoxy or UV-cured acrylic. Ribbing the quill with tying thread, wire or oval tinsel can help, too. Quills can be dyed to cover the entire spectrum of mayfly colors. My favorites are cream, pale yellow, olive-yellow, light olive, BWO, rust, ginger and claret. In the Yellow Mayfly, I use two colors of CDC and coq de Leon in the wing. Why? If we look closely, we see that mayfly wings are combinations of light and dark areas. Those shades are a prominent spinner characteristic, and I attempt to imitate them using neon Swiss CDC in combination with natural-colored feathers. Coq de Leon perfectly mimics the structure of the wing, although partridge or mallard could also be used. The two-tone wing has proved much more effective than conventional single-color CDC wings.
Step 1
Step 1: Wrap a thread base along the hook shank. Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Tying the Yellow Mayfly Step 2
Step 2: Tie in several barbs of coq de Leon at the hook’s bend, leaving the butts long.
Step 3
Step 5
Step 5: Wind the peacock quill forward. Tie off and coat the quill for durability.
Step 6
Step 6: At the transition
point between abdomen and thorax, tie in several barbs of coq de Leon. The barbs’ tips should point toward the eye and should be proportioned to be the same length as the wing when stood up. Splay the barbs a bit on the same plane as the hook shank as shown.
Step 3: Tie in the dyed peacock quill so that its darker
side is toward the tail. Wrap forward over the butt of the quill and the coq de Leon with tying thread to form a tapered underbody.
Step 4
Step 7
Step 4: Run a bead of head cement along the tapered underbody.
Step 7: Tie the darker-colored CDC in, directly on top of the coq de Leon. Use a little less CDC than you will find on one side of a Swiss CDC feather.
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Step 8
Step 8: Tie in the lighter CDC color, using a few more barbs than you did with the darker shade.
Step 9
Step 11
Step 11: Wrap the dubbed thread to form the fly’s thorax. Wind the CDC feather forward around the dubbed thorax.
Step 12
Step 9: Using your left hand, pull all the wing materials
upright and prop them upright with thread wraps behind and in front of the wing root.
Step 10
Step 12: Wind the hackle forward, just as you did the
CDC. Form a head with the tying thread and whip finish.
Step 10: Return the tying thread to the end of the abdomen and tie in the hackle feather and the natural-colored CDC feather as shown. Dub the thorax fur onto the tying thread.
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The Clapping Crab By Barry Ord Clarke
No matter which saltwater fish species you target, crabs are almost always on the menu. Most fish — and not just the bottom-feeders -- will pick up a swimming crab given the opportunity!
When I designed my Clapping Crab, the first thing I considered was the basic shape of the creature -- two large protruding claws and a flat, oval-shaped body.
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To match these traits, I used what I call the “LCD” design method. Those of you unfamiliar with this method need only draw a circle and a curved line to understand it. Voila! You have a simple,
but totally recognizable depiction of a sombrero, using its Lowest Common Denominators. I used the LCD method to design my Clapping Crab – two claws, two eyes
There are many species of swimming crabs – green crabs, mud crabs, blue fiddler crabs – and people have created many detailed, imitative patterns to cover them. I have found that the Clapping Crab can cover just about all of them simply by modifying the size and color of the materials. and a flat oval body. I went a little over the top with the claws, purely for the sake of fly tying aesthetics, but the theory remains the same – namely, to focus on dominant prevailing features. I also experimented with various natural and synthetic materials for both the body and the claws. Some were too stiff and had too little movement, an important attractor factor in most salt water patterns! More important, stiff materials dramatically reduced the hook’s ability to penetrate. Other materials were too supple and collapsed when retrieved, making the pattern look more like a streamer than a swimming crab. Once I corrected those problems, the Bee Cee Clapping Crab was ready to catch fish. The technique I originally developed for the claws of smaller crab patterns used epoxy. I found, though, that epoxy can be fussy to work with. When mixing, you need to use a slow figure-of-eight motion with the mixing tool in order to avoid air bubbles and get a clear cure. You also must use a rotating dryer when you put epoxy on several patterns at a time. A chance meeting at the Dutch Fly Fair a couple of years ago changed all that. From my tying station, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a somewhat suspicious character standing on the corner of the tiers’ podium selling small baggies to passersby. A
drug pusher? No. But what he was selling was just as addictive. Once I started using, I couldn’t stop! The man was David Edwards, and his baggies contained the first production batch of Bug Bond UV fly tying resin. Unlike epoxy, Bug Bond requires no mixing, and for most applications it needs only a 10-second cure under the correct frequency UV light. Flies could be fixed, finished and dried in just a few seconds! The body materials I use also were not chosen haphazardly. The stiff but flexible Siberian squirrel-tail hair for the beard works perfectly to keep the clapping claws from crossing. I suppose that if you’d like to add an extra attractor factor to your Clapping Crabs, you could
replace the squirrel hair with a flashy synthetic material. The kangaroo-fur underbody is stiff and dense, which helps retain the crab’s distinctive body shape. If you find kangaroo difficult to obtain, you could substitute spun and clipped deer hair and achieve the same effect. For the overbody I chose muskrat fur, which has dense underfur and long guard hairs. For larger flies, I substitute coypu, which is a little longer and stiffer than muskrat and yields a nice swimmingleg effect. For the claws on larger, tarpon-sized patterns, I prefer to use Zonker strips, which are far more durable, easier and quicker to tie in large sizes than the hackle feathers I use for smaller flies. There are many species of swimming crabs – green crabs, mud crabs, blue fiddler crabs – and people have created many detailed, imitative patterns to cover them. I have found that the Clapping Crab can cover just about all of them simply by modifying the size and color of the materials. If you prefer to fish your crab as a bottom-crawler instead of a swimmer, I would suggest tying it upside-down so the hook doesn’t snag. Remember, though, that upside-down patterns need to be weighted on top of the hook, either with lead or dumbbell eyes, to turn the hook right way up when fished.
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Tying the Bee Cee Clapping Crab Materials Hook: Mustad CS71, size 1/0 Thread: Dyneema Beard: Siberian squirrel tail hair Claws: Two Whiting American furnace cock hackles, cut and coated with Bug Bond Eyes: Fly eyes Collar: Sand-colored hen hackle Underbody: Natural kangaroo body hair spun in a dubbing loop Overbody: Natural muskrat body hair spun in a dubbing loop
Step 1
Step 1: Secure your circle hook in the vise and attach
your tying thread about half way down the hook shank. Run the tying thread foundation back along the shank until it hangs just behind the hook barb. I use Dyneema tying thread for all my saltwater patterns. This is a superstrong multifilament that has huge strength and low weight, and is also saltwater and UV resistant.
Step 3
Step 3: Once you have cleaned and stacked the hair, tie it in to form the beard. Make sure the beard is approximately the same length as the hook shank.
Step 4
Step 4: Take two large furnace cock hackles with thick stems; again, select those with good vivid markings because the lighter section of the hackle fibers become transparent when coated with Bug Bond.
Step 5
Step 2
Step 5: Strip away the unneeded hackle fibers and cut out the feather tip to form the basic crab-claw shape.
Step 2: Cut a good bunch of natural Siberian squirrel
tail hair. Make sure the bunch looks like a little more than you seem to need, as squirrel has a tendency to lose considerable volume when wet. Select a bunch that has well-defined markings and remove the underhair with a dubbing comb or an old toothbrush.
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Step 5a
Step 6a Step 5a: Using the
Begin the cure by holding the light about a foot away for a few seconds, andthen move the light close to the coating until it is cured and dry. It only takes a few seconds. For extra strength, you can also coat the hackle stems with Bug Bond.
fine nozzle on a Bug Bond bottle, carefully coat the claws one at a time on both sides.
Step 6a: Trim off the long fine points of the claws.
Step 5b
Step 5b: If you
apply too much Bug Bond, it is helpful to have at hand a small clean sheet of white cardstock. I use white because a white backdrop makes it much easier to see stray hairs and other unwanted particles that might attach themselves to the Bug Bond. Holding the over-coated hackle by the stem, stroke the feather like a paint brush across the white card to remove the excess Bug Bond.
Step 7
Step 7: Tie the claws in on each side of the beard as shown. Afterward, secure the claws and beard with a drop of CA glue on the wrappings.
Step 8
Step 6
Step 8: Take two fly eyes, and with tweezers or pliers
prepare them by bending the stems to the correct length and angle.
Step 6: Once a claws are satisfactorily coated, give
them a blast with the Bug Bond UV light. When using a thick coating of Bug Bond, make sure to begin the curing process with the light held at a distance. If you begin with the light too near the coating, the cure will happen too quickly and the coat may remain tacky to the touch. Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Tying the Bee Cee Clapping Crab Step 9
Step 9: Flatten the ends of the fly eyes with pliers. This will help secure them to the hook shank correctly.
Step 10
Step 12
Step 12: Wind the hen hackle in traditional wet-fly style to act as a collar. Tie off and remove the excess hackle.
Step 13
Step 10: Tie in the fly eyes with the flattened end to the hook shank, pointing upward and out to the sides.
Step 13: Make a dubbing loop and spin in a length of Step 11
natural kangaroo body hair. You can substitute for the kangaroo with another natural brown hair if necessary.
Step 14
Step 11: Take a sand-colored hen hackle and tie it in at the point of the hackle just behind the fly eyes.
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Step 14: Wind the kangaroo-hair dubbing loop around the shank, again using wet-fly style. Comb the hairs towards the crab’s eyes with your fingers as you wind. Tie off and brush the hairs out with a toothbrush.
Step 15
Step 17
Step 17: Using the toothbrush, again brush out the
fibers of the muskrat fur and press the crab body flat between your finger and thumb.
Step 15: Now make another dubbing loop, but this time use natural muskrat complete with guard hairs. (Some muskrat hair has the guard hairs removed.)
Step 18
Step 16
Step 18: Color the Dyneema tying thread with a waterStep 16: Wind on the dubbing loop directly behind the
last dubbing loop and tie off. Whip finish and remove the tying thread.
proof felt pen and varnish. Your Clapping Crab is finished. Remove it from the vise and you will quickly see why it is called the Clapping Crab.
Practical & Artistic Fly Tying
www.hatchesmagazine.com Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Irish Wet Flies By Bob Petti
Since I started fishing and tying flies, there has been a constant rumor that wet flies are enjoying a resurgence in America. There have been magazine articles, of course, but there have also been a few quite popular and influential books, particularly those by Dave Hughes and Sylvester Nemes. In 2000, Paul Schmookler dropped a bomb on the fly tying community with his mega book “Forgotten Flies,” which featured a chapter on Ray Bergman and the wonderful wet flies described in his book Trout. Don Bastian tied the wet flies in Schmookler’s book, and I firmly believe the quality of Don’s tying sparked a renewed interest in wet flies. The photos of his beautiful flies jumped off the page. Unlike the tiny wet-fly images painted by Dr. Burke in the color plates of Bergman’s book, in Don’s flies we could see every single detail of every fly in perfect clarity. Soon fly tiers were tying flies just like Don, complete with flared wings, quillslip tails and bunched schlappen throats. People studied his technique for coating the heads, and even took up the challenge of tying a “plate” of wet flies from Bergman’s book just like he does. Don has had an impact on fly tiers in much the same way Poul Jorgensen did when he published his book on salmon flies. Mark my word – in 20 to 30 years, many
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of the big shots in fly tying will list Don’s work as their main inspiration. The funny thing is, the interest in wet flies has not grown much beyond that niche of hard core fly tiers. Fly fishing is a business, and fly shops and catalogs are eager to sell what their customers want to buy. The fact is that fly shops do not stock an inventory of wet flies, nor do they line their pegboards with duck and goose quills and other wetfly materials. Sure, you might find an occasional Leadwing Coachman or a dog chewed pair of mallard wings, but for every winged wet fly there will be a couple dozen different dry flies or emergers, and hundreds of bead head nymph variations. Fly anglers still drive the industry more so than fly tiers – and the anglers who vote with their credit cards are interested in nymphs and dries and little else.
What is there after Bergman?
Meanwhile, even as American fly tiers are trying to connect with their angling heritage, eager to tie exact imitations of century-old flies, their peers in the
British Isles have no need for wet flies to make a comeback. For them, the use and evolution of wet flies has never slowed! In fact, it may be safe to say that the wet fly is seeing an increased pace in development and experimentation as modern and synthetic materials are introduced into classic patterns. Maybe a bit of holographic tinsel rather than floss for a tag? Maybe some sparkly chenille “fritz” type material in place of a tinsel body and rib? Did you ever think you would see dyed jungle cock? Me either, but I’ve seen it used on wet flies, and I must say it’s a little shocking. The wet fly is alive and thriving across the pond from the U.S., and if American anglers are looking for their next inspiration after they’ve tied all the plates in Ray Bergman’s book, Great Britain is the place to look. This article’s purpose is to introduce tiers to the classic patterns of the British Isles – particularly those of Ireland and Scotland – and to the materials and methods used to tie them. The style is markedly different from what American’s now casually call the “Bergman” style of wet flies (probably
More Information It is only possible to scratch the surface of the wet-fly culture in Ireland and the UK. In addition to the classic winged wet flies shown here, there many other wet fly forms such as bumbles, dabblers, crunchers, and a host of others that we did not have time or space to show. Fortunately for us, there have been several excellent books published on the wet flies of the British Isles. If you want more information, or are just a junkie for more patterns, here is a good list to get you started: Peter O’Reilley, Trout and Salmon Flies of Ireland Malone, E. J., Tying Flies in the Irish Style Roger Fogg, Wet Fly Tying and Fishing Taff Price, Fly Patterns: An International Guide Stan Headley, Trout and Salmon Flies of Scotland Moc Morgan, Trout and Salmon Flies of Wales John Roberts, Collins Illustrated Dictionary of Trout Flies T.C. Kingsmill Moore, A Man May Fish John Veniard, Fly Dresser’s Guide Courtney Williams, A Dictionary of Trout Flies
more appropriately termed the Bastian style, since Don is the modern driving force). You will not find flared wings on an Irish wet fly. Nor will you find bunched schlappen throats or quill-slip tails. What you will see in these flies are translucence, movement, color blending, and a reliance on a light hand when applying materials.
Color If you flip through the plates in Ray Bergman’s book, you’ll see a rainbow of colors in use, which might lead you to believe that color is critically important for these flies. But is it really? If color was important, wouldn’t a few colors prove more effective over time and have a greater influence on other patterns? The Bergman flies are almost a uniform rainbow, lots of yellows, reds, oranges, greens, grays, and whites. You would think that over time a particular color would prove more effective and lead to more variations. If yellow was a great color for trout wet flies, wouldn’t you expect to see a bunch of different yellow flies? If you try the same with a book on Irish wet flies, you will quickly see that a few colors dominate. You will see lots of clarets, olives, browns, and blacks – mostly colors that are “of nature,” not the gaudy colors of Bergman. If you look closer still, you will see that these colors are further refined into subtle shades.
Olive, for examples, runs the gamut from a very bright and brassy “West of Ireland” golden olive to the drab and subdued sooty olive, with a great deal of gradations in between. Colors can also have a strong connection to a particular body of water to the point where location becomes part of the name – Melvin Olive, Ballinderry Black, Machair Claret, Orkney Peach, Donegal Blue, as well as the afore mentioned West of Ireland Golden Olive. Many of the colors of Irish and Scottish wet flies are derived from color blending, whether mixing different shades of dubbing or even over-dyeing hackles. This is in stark contrast to the Bergman flies where the desire is to dye the brightest colors on top of pure white. A true golden olive, in fact, is best dyed on top of a ginger hackle. The recipe for Donegal Olive, for example, comprises six different shades of seal fur. Ballinderry Black is black only until you hold it up to the light, at which time you can see the deep blue hues. The results are flies that have a vibrancy and life unmatched by simple solid-color materials.
Translucence Very few aspects of Irish flies are solid and opaque. The tails are wisps of
hackle, strands of golden pheasant tippet or crest, or occasionally brown mallard flank feathers. You will never find a solid section of wing quill as found on some Bergman style wet flies. Similarly, the bodies are usually composed of seal fur which has a natural sheen and translucency which is accentuated by an old-fashioned scrubbing after the ribbing has been wound. The front hackles are never solid segments of a heavily webbed feather like schlappen, but are wound from a few turns of hen or “henny cock” to provide a very subtle illusion of movement. Bulk and heaviness are unwelcome. The two most often-used materials for wings are bronze mallard and slips of quills taken from wild birds, especially hen pheasant and mallard duck (or starling). Unlike the Bastian-style flies, the slips are tied concave side in, creating a tented wing to mimic a sedge (caddis) wing.
Style Casual observers might not observe much of a difference between the Don Bastian wet flies in Forgotten Flies and those shown in Peter O’Reilley’s Trout and Salmon Flies of Ireland. They all have tails, bodies, ribs, hackles, and wings. They’re tied on relatively small hooks, usually with Sproat or Limerick bends, and are somewhat small in size.
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Irish Wet Flies Fly tiers, especially the hardcore types who go after the Bergman “tie a plate” challenges, are definitely not casuall observers and quickly will notice some stylistic changes. The two main differences are in the hackles and the wings. The front hackles on Irish wet flies are always wound full, folded as they are wound so the fibers slant toward the rear of the fly, rather than the false beard pinch of schlappen. Body (palmer) hackles on Irish flies are tied in at the head and wound to the bend, secured with the ribbing wire or tinsel as it is wound forward. Bergman flies tend to adopt the same techniques as their salmon-fly big brothers where the hackle is tied by the tip at the bend and follows after the tinsel, folding as you go. Those who follow Don Bastian’s style of flies will notice wings where the good side is “out” (concave out) which causes the wings to flare to each side like a snow plow. Where quill wings are called for on Irish flies, they are good side (concave) in, cupping together to form a tented wing on top of the fly, often trapping some of the hackle fibers between the wings. Don will use opposing pairs of “slips” from duck flank when a fly calls for such, much like slips from duck quills, but Irish flies use a folded wing technique creating a solid one-piece wing tied between the hackle barbs. None of these differences mark one style of fly as better than another. Trout like them both just fine, although I might give my approval to the Irish since they fish their wet flies far more often than we do here in the States. Still – Don has certainly caught his fair share of beautiful fish with his flared winged, schlappen-throated wet flies. Just be sure to understand that if your intention is to tie Irish or Scottish wet flies, it helps to pay attention to these details.
Ballinderry Black
Dunkeld
Tag: Golden yellow floss Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Rib: Flat gold tinsel Body: Black (w/ dark blue highlights) seal fur Hackle: Black Wing: Bronze mallard
Tail: Golden pheasant crest Rib: Oval gold tinsel (or gold wire) Body: Flat gold tinsel Body Hackle: Orange, palmered Throat: Eurasian blue jay Wing: Bronze mallard Cheek: Jungle cock
Blae and Black
Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Rib: Oval silver tinsel Body: Black floss Hackle: Black Wing: Starling
Rogan’s Extractor
Raymond
Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Rib: Oval gold tinsel (or gold wire) Body: Golden olive seal Hackle: Red, palmered Throat: Eurasian blue jay Wing: Hen pheasant Head: Brown
Teal, Blue, and Silver
The Patterns It is impossible to select a set of flies that will satisfy everyone. Most of you reading this will immediately say, “Yeah – but what about?” This is but the tip of the iceberg. I chose flies that have historical significance, are still recognized as popular patterns today, and highlight the stylistic differences discussed above. Most of all, I chose flies that capture my imagination.
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Tail: Golden pheasant red body feather Rib: Oval gold tinsel (or gold wire) Body: Flat gold tinsel Hackle: Long lemon yellow Throat: Golden pheasant red body feather Wing: Bronze mallard
Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Rib: Oval silver tinsel Body: Flat silver tinsel Hackle: Kingfisher blue Wing: Teal flank
Connemara Black
Silver Invicta
Melvin Olive
Tip: Oval silver tinsel Tag: Yellow floss Tail: Golden pheasant crest Rib: Oval silver tinsel Body: Black seal fur Hackle: Black Throat: Eurasian blue jay Wing: Bronze mallard
Tail: Golden pheasant crest Rib: Oval silver tinsel (or silver wire) Body: Flat silver tinsel Hackle: Natural red game, palmered Throat: Eurasian blue jay Wing: Hen pheasant
Tail: Gray mallard Rib: Oval gold tinsel Body: Mixed seal fur (see note) Hackle: Dark claret Wing: Bronze mallard Head: Primrose yellow
Silver March Brown
Fiery Brown
NOTE: The dubbing blend for Melvin Olive is equal parts emerald green, bright yellow, scarlet, light blue, golden olive, and red-orange seal’s fur. See photo for close-up of dubbing blend from Frankie McPhillips.
Golden Olive
Tail: Brown partridge Rib: Oval silver tinsel Body: Flat silver tinsel Hackle: Brown partridge Wing: Hen pheasant
Sooty Olive
Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Rib: Oval gold tinsel Body: Fiery brown seal fur Hackle: Natural red game Wing: Bronze mallard Head: Brown
Cinnamon and Gold
Tag: Orange floss Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Body: Golden olive seal Rib: Oval gold tinsel Hackle: Golden olive Wing: Bronze mallard Head: Primrose yellow This version of the Golden Olive was tied using the Irish shade of golden olive, which is a very bright brassy color.
Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Rib: Oval gold tinsel Body: Sooty (dark grayish) olive seal fur Hackle: Dark olive Wing: Bronze mallard
Tail: Golden pheasant tippet Rib: Oval gold tinsel Body: Flat gold tinsel Hackle: Red game or ginger Wing: Natural cinnamon (from chicken hen) wing quill Fall 2012 • Hatches Magazine
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Tying the Mallard and Claret Materials Tail: Rib: Body: Hackle: Wing:
Step 5 Golden pheasant tippet Oval silver tinsel Claret seal fur Claret (or black) Bronze mallard
Step 5: Wind the
thread forward, binding down the ribbing tinsel as you go.
Step 6 Step 1 Step 6: Select a nicely blended claret dubbing for the body, something with texture like this Frankie McPhillips blend.
Step 7 Step 1: Select a tippet feather in which the black bars are separated by approximately the length of the hook shank. In the finished fly, the inner black bar should be above the tag of the fly, if there is one.
Step 2
Step 3
Step 8
Step 7: Grab a very
small pinch of dubbing, just a few hairs. Trying to dub too much material onto the thread will be the cause of major problems, both in getting the dubbing to adhere to the thread and also in preventing bulk in the finished fly. Less is more. You can always add more.
Step 8: Build a nicely shaped body of dubbing, leaving space behind the eye for the wing.
Step 2: Tie in the tail
fibers as you wind the thread to the end of the hook shank.
Step 3: The tail, finished. Step 9
Step 4 Step 9: Spiral wrap
the tinsel forward and give the body a good scrubbing with a Velcro stick.
Step 4: Tie in the ribbing tinsel on the far underside of the hook.
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Step 15
Step 10
Step 15: Form
Step 10: Tie in
the wing by folding the wide section of bronze mallard two or three times, depending on the size of the fly and the density of wing you prefer.
a claret hackle. Choose a hackle size that allows the tips of the hackle to reach the hook point when wrapped.
Step 11: Begin
Step 16: Measure
Step 11
the wing for length. It should extend past the back of the hook, midway into the tail or thereabouts.
to wrap the hackle, folding the fibers backward as you wrap to ensure a rearward slanting hackle collar.
Step 16
Step 17
Step 12
Step 17: Use a “soft
loop” technique to tie in the wing. Three or four soft loops before removing your fingers will help form a peak in the wing.
Step 18 Step 12: Tie off the hackle. Notice the length of the
hackle, just touching the hook point. Also notice there is some room left for tying in the wing.
Step 18: The wing tied in.
Step 13: Stroke
Step 13
the fibers of a bronze mallard feather away from the stem until the tips are aligned.
Step 19 Step 14 Step 14: Pull the
barbs off the stem, which will leave a little skin of feather at the bottom helping to hold everything together. If you trim the barbs from the stem, you risk losing control of the fibers as they are not tightly married on a bronze mallard feather.
Step 19: The finished fly, waiting for some head cement.
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5 Loopy
Even the most elegant patterns have humble beginnings. A bare metal hook and a few wraps of thread are foundations from which most flies emerge. So, too, one of the most
Ways to Tie Wings A
creative tools at the tying bench is also one of the simplest: a loop.
By Russ Forney
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s tying tools, loops a re e x t re m e l y versatile and are re a d i l y t r a n s formed into a variety of anatomic features. A loop of thread laced with dubbing and tightly spun becomes the body of a scraggly nymph destined for the creek bottom, or of a frenetic caddis eager to take wing. Rubber legs tied as loops mimic the twitching of a water-bound terrestrial, and a loop of translucent yarn mimics a discarded shuck trailing from an emerging mayfly. Beyond bodies, legs, and shucks, loops can also be used to make wings and wing-like appendages on flies. A small loop of yarn or CDC can become an emerging wing bud, adding structure and floatation to a drifting fly. Adding a second or third layer of material in concentric loops alters the signature of a fly and sets it apart from hundreds of similar flies cast on heavily fished waters. A loop of yarn split by an intervening strand of thread or piece of foam parti-
from nymph to winged adult. A wing bud can also help position a fly in the water column; buoyant material over the thorax places a fly in a more upright posture, suggesting the upward orientation of an emerging nymph toward the surface. Wing material can be selected to alter the appearance and behavior of the finished fly. The active fibers of CDC respond to the current and animate a drifting fly. Metallic flash or opalescent thread beneath a sparse wing bud adds reflected light to the structure, creating visual contrast that further sells the illusions of movement and activity. The color and texture of loop-making material can be varied to create either a sharply contrasting wing bud or one with a more muted appearance. The loop can balance the subtle shades found in a natural insect or be a beacon to prowling trout.
Concentric loop wings
tions the wing into two distinct parts, imitating the developing wings of an emerging insect. Loop wings are new tier-friendly. A little practice at the tying bench is enough to master the techniques that follow, and each technique can be expanded in endless variety. For example, mixing colored yarn fibers and reflective materials increase visual contrast and alter the appearance of a wing and, ultimately, of the finished fly. The only limit for a loop wing is a tier’s lack of imagination. The loop wing techniques presented in the accompanying recipes progress from simple buds to more elaborate wings and, as with the natural counterpart, each successive modification results in proportionally larger and more visually complex structures. The tying sequences show how loops can modify the appearance of a fly, either to make the wing more prominent or to subdue the feature. Each technique and pattern can readily be adapted to match local conditions or to complement your tying style.
The last loop-based wing technique demonstrated in the accompanying patterns is a paraloop hackle. When constructed with stiff saddle hackle, a paraloop adds an explosive tuft of hackle atop the thorax, becoming the wing and legs of an emerging insect. Alternatively, the soft fibers of ostrich herl can be substituted for hackle in a paraloop and produce a smaller wing the moves in the current. Whether conspicuous or subtle, each begins with a loop and significantly influences the behavior of the finished fly. If you are not familiar with loop-wing designs, the following five techniques will introduce you to the basics and get you started on your own loopy flies.
Wing buds A wing bud is a popular feature in emerger patterns. A small bundle of yarn stretched loosely over the thorax imitates the early emergence of wings, an effective method of tailoring the silhouette of a fly to the earliest transition
Multi-layer wings made from concentric loops add to the visual complexity to a fly, suggesting a more developed insect. A two- or three- layer wing is a distinguishing feature of some emerging fly patterns and is another opportunity to adapt color and reflective properties to an emerging wing. The two biot-body emergers shown in the accompanying photographs illustrate a common method of constructing concentric loop wings. The wings consist of successive loops of slightly larger size to make a loop-within-aloop design. The effect can be achieved by selectively pulling small bunches of fibers into smaller diameter loops before anchoring a strand of yarn to the hook. The tighter bunches form the innermost loops and are dispersed within the larger, outer edge of the yarn. If you enjoy a more creative approach, you can use different materials for each loop in the wing to produce a more elaborate wing. As with wing buds, active materials like CDC and ostrich herl further animate a drifting fly. Consider keeping these softer materials in the outermost loop so they are not bound by an overlying layer. Each loop of the wing is tied independently and sized accordingly; just take care not to constrain the movement of the softer fibers.
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5 Loopy Ways to Tie Wings Split loop wings Another variation on the loop-wing design is made by splitting a loop to spread the wing out from the centerline of the hook shank, creating the impression of larger, more developed wings. The split loop technique is useful when representing an emerging insect further along in its transition to winged adult. Floating yarn helps hold the fly in the surface film and orients the body posture similar to that of a surface-emerging insect. The accompanying split-wing emerger patterns illustrate a method of partitioning a single loop into two wings. The wing is tied with a reflective material, GlissenGloss Braid, to give the emergent wings shimmer, a quality intended to imitate the light patterns of newly emerged wings on a natural insect. GlissenGloss Braid is woven with a blend of opalescent and nylon fibers to produce a reflective material. A section of the braid can be brushed out to free the individual strands and the splayed fibers are an excellent material to amplify the amount of light reflected from a wing. Splitting a loop wing with a smaller loop of closed cell foam does double duty, creating the appearance of a wider wing spread and enhancing floatation in the finished fly. The quill emerger also shows how combining techniques, a split wing with and a smaller concentric loop in this case, adds another dimension to your loopy tying repertoire. The foam orients the fly in the surface film and exposes the reflective braid material to the sunlight. As with other loop-wing techniques, materials can be mixed to create colors, hues and textures to satisfy specific needs.
Comparadun-style loop wings A loop of yarn can be fanned over the thorax in the same way that deer hair is fanned in the famous comparadun patterns introduced by Caucci and Nastasi. The comparadun-like loop wing offers many of the same characteristics as the original design: floatation, realistic posture on the water, and durable construction. As with the comparadun, fanning the loop wing across the hook shank in a semi-circle is important to the look and behavior of the finished fly.
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Polypropylene yarn is a favorite of Materials mine for tying looped comparadun wings, Hook: Curved emerger or scud hook, sizes both for its buoyancy 14-20 and for the variety of Thread: 6/0 Danville flat-waxed nylon, color colors available. The of choice yarn is slippery; be Trailing shuck: Two strands of Rainbow Blending sure to firmly anchor Thread, color of choice the fibers before pullAbdomen: Quill wrapped over thread base ing on the loop to Thorax: Dubbing, color and texture of choice spread it over the fly body. Wing: GlissenGloss Braid, combed out and If you like the idea tied as a loop, split with a smaller of using floating yarn loop of closed cell foam or thread on in a comparadunsmaller sizes style fly, but prefer a more traditional appearance, the loop can be clipped to produce a cut-edged and adds movement to a small wing. wing. As shown in the accompanying A pheasant-tail emerger is shown to photographs, clipping the looped yarn demonstrate another option for incorproduces a double-layered wing that porating a foam strip to improve floatacan be trimmed and shaped with scistion. The yellow foam is split down its sors. In this case, the loop of yarn is an centerline and the ostrich-herl paraloop intermediate stage in the dressing and is positioned in the split. The resulting not part of the final pattern. hot-dog-in-a-bun (it’s getting close to lunch time) is an effective method of combining a small split loop (foam) and Paraloop hackle paraloop (ostrich) to get a specific look Paraloop hackle, also called pullover and behavior in the finished fly. hackle or Hackle Stacker, creates a tuft of hackle on top of the thorax area Time to get loopy of a fly. The tuft of hackle represents the legs, wings, and generally chaotic Loop wings can be as subtle or as promappearance of an emerging insect. It inent a feature on a fly as you want to is an effective style for tying emerger make them. Size, shape, color, and posipatterns and is easily modified to satisfy tion are at your command and each can local conditions and hatches. be exploited to match your concepts Paraloops are a loop wing of an entireof vitality, proportion, and appearance. ly different character. Built on a loop of thread, the radially splayed hackle domiThe techniques and patterns shown nates the structure and obscures the here are simply a starting point, there are underlying loop. As the accompanying so many variations to explore you could tying sequence shows, the end of the easily devote a winter tying season to loop gets trimmed after the paraloop is loop-winged patterns. If you have not positioned -- another example of loops tried loop wings before, I encourage as tying tools that do not appear on the you to clear a spot next to your vise finished fly. for a few cards of yarn, some saddle The paraloop emerger is an excephackle, and an ostrich feather. Make a tionally adaptable platform for designsandwich, plug in the coffee pot, and ing your own patterns. The thread loop settle in for an evening of loopy tying. supports stiff hackle as well as softer ostrich herl, each contributing a distinct look and behavior to a fly. A paraloop emerger tied with saddle hackle is fished in the surface film, imitating an insect ready to leave the water or perhaps a cripple hung up in its shuck. An ostrichherl paraloop favors a lower riding fly
Tying the Triple Loop Quill (a split loop) Step 1
Step 4
Step 4: Next fasten a strip of closed cell foam to the top Step 1: Start the tying thread and wrap a smooth thread
base, covering about two-thirds of the body area. Make a trailing shuck from two strands of Rainbow Blending Thread; leave the shuck long so you can tuck it out of the way. You can trim it to length when the fly is finished.
of the thorax area. The foam is 2mm thick and cut to a width, about one and a half times the width of the hook eye. I use a sharp craft knife and straight edge to cut a sheet of thin foam into usable strips.
Step 5 Step 2
Step 5: This is a section of GlisensGloss Braid being Step 2: Tie in a quill and wrap it in loose spirals to form an
abdomen about half the body area in length. Leaving a slight gap between adjacent quill wraps and allow the underbody to show through, enhancing contrast and sharply defining the segmented appearance of the abdomen.
prepared for a loop wing. The material comes as a braided ribbon as shown in the portion extending to the left of the photography; to the right is a segment of the braid that has been brushed out to free the individual fibers so that it resembles a small bundle of yarn.
Step 6
Step 3
Step 6: Mount the braid fibers over the strip of foam. Step 3: Securely anchor the quill and trim off the
excess; a half-hitch or whip knot over the cut end of the quill helps hold it firmly in place.
Once you have trimmed away the excess braid and securely fastened the material to the hook, you can use your thumbnail to spread the fibers from side to side over the thorax area
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Tying the Triple Loop Quill (a split loop) Step 7
Step 7: Now use a couple of figure-eight wraps to separate the braid fibers, distributing the opalescent strands and nylon fibers of the braid into roughly equal parts.
Step 8
Step 8: Dub the thorax and taper the body toward the hook eye, leaving a hook eye’s worth of space for tying off the loops.
Step 9
Step 10
Step 10: Pull the foam forward through the split loop
to form a left and right wing. Secure the foam to form a smaller loop between the two new wings.
Step 11
Step 11: Complete the head with a whip finish and then
trim away excess foam. Now you can trim the blending thread to make a trailing shuck the length of the hook gape. Note that the blending thread is also a combination of flash and nylon.
Step 11
Step 9: Pull the braid fibers forward to form a loop
slightly longer than the length of the hook. The length of the loop is subjective, and you can adjust the loop size to fit your sense of proportion. I find a longer loop splits more easily than shorter strands, and increases the amount of reflective material in the wing.
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Step 12: The split wings are clearly visible from this
angle; the opalescent strands in the braid make a shimmering wing on the water.
Tying the Loop-wing Olive (a comparadun-style loop) Materials
Step 3
Hook: Dry fly hook, sizes 16-20 Thread: Dark olive, 6/0 Danville waxed nylon Trailing shuck: Sparse bundle of tailing fibers, light dun Body: Olive dubbing Wing: Polypropylene yarn, light dun
Step 1
Step 3: Fold the yarn back over the hook and form a
loop the length of the hook (the straight shank and eye combined). Anchor the loop firmly to the hook and trim away the excess yarn. Now taper the underbody over the cut end of the yarn and work the tying thread back toward the tail end of the hook. This is a good time to spread the yarn loop evenly across the hook shank to form a fan shape.
Step 4 Step 1: Start the tying thread and cover about three-
fourths of the body area with a thread underbody. Secure a small bundle of tailing fibers to the hook shank to make a tail the length of the body.
Step 2
Step 4: Now you can dub the body, working toward the
head of the fly. Wrap the dubbing up to the wing, then pull the wing back and wrap several turns of dubbing in front of the loop to position the wing in an upright fashion.
Step 5 Step 2: Secure a strand of polypropylene yarn to the
shank about two eye-lengths behind the hook eye. Now trim the tag end of the yarn at the point you tied it to the hook and secure the fibers firmly.
Step 5: Complete the fly with a thread head, whip finish, and cut off the tying thread.
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Tying the Loop-wing Olive (a comparadun-style loop) Step 6
, Tying the Hare s Ear Emerger (a paraloop) Materials
Step 6: If the yarn has bunched together, you can splay the yarn to form a fan-shaped loop wing over the body.
Step 7
Hook: Fine wire emerger or scud hook, size 10-20 Thread: Black Danville waxed nylon Trailing shuck: Sparse bundle of cream Antron fibers, one-fourth the body length Body and thorax: Hare’s ear dubbing Wing: Stiff saddle hackle tied paraloopstyle over the thorax
Step 1
Step 7: If you prefer a more traditional comparadun-style wing, insert one sharp scissor blade into the loop and snip the yarn to make a double-layer wing with a cut edge.
Step 8
Step 1: Start the tying thread on the hook and cover the
body area with a smooth thread underbody. Tie a sparse bundle of Antron yarn to the hook shank and secure firmly at the tail end of the fly. You can leave the yarn long and trim the fibers to length after the fly is finished.
Step 2
Step 8: The trimmed yarn forms a dense, fan-shaped
wing. In this case the loop of yarn is an intermediate step in the fly and not part of the finished dressing.
Step 2: Dub the rear half of the body area and leave the tying thread at a mid-body position.
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Tying the Hare,s Ear Emerger (a paraloop) Step 3
Step 3: Now make a 3- to 4-inch loop with the tying
thread at the forward end of the dubbed area. Secure the loop firmly to the hook shank.
Step 4
Step 6
Step 6: Place each turn of hackle adjacent to the previ-
ous wrap, avoid catching hackle fibers with successive wraps as you work down the thread loop. You will end up with a dense paraloop hackle brush about as long as the thorax area. This may take a dozen or more hackle wraps depending upon the size of the fly you are tying. After completing the hackle brush, bind the hackle to the hook at the base of the loop and cut off any excess feather.
Step 7
Step 4: Strip enough hackle barbules from a dry-fly
hackle to leave a short segment of bare stem on the end of the hackle. Tie in the hackle at the base of the thread loop, leaving a section of bare stem about the length of the abdomen at the base of the loop. Suspend the thread loop from your right pointer finger (right-handed tiers), applying enough upward tension to hold the loop steady.
Step 5
Step 5: Wrap the bare hackle stem up the suspended
thread loop, passing the hackle from hand to hand as it spirals up the loop. Space the spiral wraps such that the bare stem is consumed at a point up the thread loop roughly equal to the length of the thorax. As the hackle starts to fan around the thread loop, begin wrapping the hackle back down the loop toward the hook.
Step 7: Pull the paraloop hackle brush toward the rear of the fly while dubbing the thorax. Taper the thorax slightly toward the hook eye. Leave space to tie off the paraloop hackle and finish the thread head. An eyelength of space between the dubbed thorax and the hook eye will be plenty of working room.
Practical & Artistic Fly Tying
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93
Tying the Hare,s Ear Emerger (a paraloop) Step 8
Step 8: Suspend the paraloop above the hook with your left pointer finger, place your right pointer finger inside the thread loop and gently tap down the hackle brush. Using the fingers on your left hand, sweep the hackle back toward the rear of the fly, effectively doubling the density of the hackle brush.
Step 9
Step 9: Fold the paraloop forward over the thorax and secure the thread loop firmly behind the hook eye. Trim away the excess thread loop and make a thread head. Complete the fly with a whip finish and cut off the tying thread. You can preen the hackle to free any fibers that might have been trapped when tying off the paraloop.
Other Recipes Pheasant and Foam Emerger
Bird Skirt
Hook: Emerger or scud hook, size 12-18 Thread: Black Danville waxed nylon Trailing shuck and lower body: Pheasant tail fibers and yarn wrapped as a twisted bundle Upper body: Dark brown, coarse dubbing Back: Closed-cell foam, yellow or white, slit at the centerline Wing: Ostrich herl tied paraloop-style over the thorax Note: This fly is tied in much the same way as Hare’s Ear Paraloop Emerger, with the addition of a foam back to improve floatation. Ostrich herl is substituted for saddle hackle, making a softer, more animated wing bud on the subsurface fly; the paraloop fits in a slit along the centerline of the foam.
Hook: Emerger or scud hook, size 12-18 Bead: Black metal in proportion to hook size Thread: Black Danville waxed nylon Trailing shuck: Ostrich herl tips, one-fourth the body length Lower body: Ostrich herl and thread wrapped into a bundle Upper body: Coarse dubbing Wing bud: Polypropylene yarn loop tied as a short wing bud over the upper body Note: Ostrich herl make a great shuck and lower body on an emerging pattern and the wing bud adds to the impression of emergence. In sizes 12-16, I use a strand of reflective thread to the twisted bundle of ostrich herl. This strengthens the bundle and adds a muted flash to the lower body. Smaller sizes, such as 20-22, can be tied with pheasant tail instead of ostrich.
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Cream Biot Emerger
Woven Split Loop
Hook: Emerger or scud hook, size 12-18 Thread: Brown or tan Danville waxed nylon Trailing shuck: Sparse bundle of Antron, 1/4 of the body length Body: Cream biot Thorax: Fine dubbing, cream or tan Wing: Polypropylene yarn loop tied as concentric rings over the upper body Note: Concentric wings can be made from successive loops of the same material or with different materials to increase the visual complexity of the fly. Notice how the outermost loop defines the size of the wing, while the inner loop adds structure.
Hook: Curved emerger or scud hook, sizes 14-20 Thread: 6/0 Danville waxed nylon, color of choice Trailing shuck: Two strands of Rainbow Blending Thread, color of choice Abdomen: Overhand weave made from 3/0 tying thread (sizes 14-18) or 6/0 (size 20) Thorax: Dubbing, color and texture of choice Wing: GlissenGloss Braid, combed out and tied as a loop, split with a double strand of blending thread Note: A woven body gives a distinct segmented appearance to the abdomen and is very durable when tied with nylon thread. Blending thread is used to make both the trailing shuck and to split the wings on smaller hooks. Glass beads, like the reflective blending thread, enhance the amount of light reflected from the pattern.
Practical & Artistic Fly Tying
www.hatchesmagazine.com
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The Last Perfect Fly By Bob White
T
There’s no doubt that the Internet has changed our lives. It has changed my fishing and it has certainly changed my fly tying. I have an entire library of fly tying books which these days, I’m ashamed to say, I rarely use.
here are walls of biographies and historical references, studies in entomology and prey, hatch charts, maps of rivers, manuals of techniques and materials, and countless recipe books of fly patterns. Lately, they gather dust and serve only to further insulate the studio from our frosty Minnesota winters. Now when I have a question about any aspect of fly tying, I jump onto my computer, go to Google, and the search engine directs me to any number of thoroughly comprehensive and heartbreakingly beautiful websites. Answers to all of my questions are merely a keystroke away. I’ve often thought that it would be nice to have a second monitor on my fly tying bench just for the sake of convenience. Perhaps my friends and I could Skype while we tie flies instead of meeting every Thursday night in a room over some bar in St. Paul. I’m nostalgic by nature, and I look suspiciously upon any change. Still, I have to admit that certain aspects of this brave new world have been positive — enjoyable, even. It’s been a delight to meet so many talented fly fishermen and kindred spirits on the Internet, and I’ve become friends with many them. My wife thought it odd, at first, that I’d invite complete strangers over to the house for dinner, or that I’d drive four hours to camp and fish with people I’d never met. Now, she hardly blinks an eye when packages arrive from unknown places with a stranger’s name as the return. One of these Internet friends taught our daughter to ride her bike without training wheels; others remember my wife’s birthday and send cards. One young man in particular, though we’ve never met faceto-face, has become a very close friend. He is an extraordinarily gifted fly tier, and creates some of the most exquisite balsa popping bugs I’ve ever seen. As a favor, I painted a watercolor for his business logo. In return, I received a season’s supply of bugs, each one as perfect as the truffles in an expensive box of chocolates. One day last year I received an e-mail message from my friend in which he told me that he’d started a batch of six poppers, but that five of the six flies had failed to meet his standard of perfection: Bob, There is a small gap between the back of my tying desk and the wall, a nook created by the overhanging windowsill, which prevents a flush fit. The space is small enough to be hidden from the uniformed eye, but large enough to serve as a makeshift graveyard for imperfect flies -- a purgatory of sorts, where flies deemed flawed and lacking go to linger,
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somewhere between the fly box and the trashcan. Out of sight and out of mind, these flies find refuge in numbers. A family of orphans, destined never to be finished or fished. But why excommunicate a fly because it’s not perfect? What is perfect, anyway?” I’ve let go of my idea of “perfection,” and tomorrow the outcast flies will be freed from limbo. Each and every one will be nursed back to health with feathers and fur, their blemishes turned into “character.” Will they be perfect? No, but they will be finished, and they will be fished. Tomorrow I’ll mail you one fly, one fly that carries the weight of many. When the fly leaves me I hope it takes with it my old outlook of perfection. I realize now that perfection is something we aim for, not something we always attain. I’ll no longer use the space behind my desk as a burial ground for imperfect flies. I hope you can find a place in your home for my LAST perfect fly. ~Thomas After considerable thought about the matter, I responded with this message: Thomas, I’m very torn about the one popper in six that was perfect enough for you to send me -- your last perfect fly. It seems far too important to fish, and being nostalgic by nature, I’m tempted to put it away and save it with all of my other special flies. After thinking it over, though, this is what I’ve decided to do: I’ll let our daughter, Tommy, fish the fly hard for an entire day, and give it some “time on the water.” Afterwards, I’ll tuck it away in a safe place, and every once in awhile, I’ll get it out to remember you and this lesson: While it’s important to strive for excellence in all we do... it’s essential to find something of value in the lessthan-perfect we create. Thanks for this, Thomas. Warmly, Bob Yes, our lives have been altered because of the Internet, and I think it’s safe to say that most of our fishing and fly tying experiences are different because of it. Maybe a little change isn’t so bad after all.
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