Category Archives: Fly Tying

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November Fly Tying – 11/27/2013

November Fly Tying 11/27/2013 Photo Album

It’s 9:30AM on November 27 and I’m killing time waiting to depart for the airport and our long flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. High temperatures in Buenos Aires are around 80 degrees and highs in Bariloche are upper 60’s and low 70’s. I can’t wait, even though highs in Denver for Thanksgiving are projected at 55 degrees. My bags are packed, my checklists are marked, and in an hour Jane and I will depart for the RTD terminal where we will board the Skyride shuttle that will transport us to DIA.

Size 14 Black Caddis Tied for Argentina

Size 14 Black Caddis Tied for Argentina

In preparation for the fishing in Argentina I purchased some flies and allocated some of my inventory to an Argentina fly box. In addition Taylor Edrington advised that I should be prepared with some large caddis as Patagonia has a heavy population of these insects. I have quite a few caddis that I tie for Colorado, but they are mainly size 16, so I sat down at my vice and produced some size 14 caddis. I made three with a medium olive body, three Adams gray, three black and three tan. I already possessed three yellow versions that I purchased. I tied these flies with a deer hair tail, brown hackle palmered over the body, a deer hair wing and a grizzly hackle in front of the wing. These flies should float well and present a very bushy image on the lakes and streams of Argentina.

Nice Scraggly Hares Ear

Nice Scraggly Hares Ear

Another phase of my preparation was to take an inventory of all my go to nymphs and attractors. I created a list with a count of the flies I had and then also noted how many I planned to tie this winter for the 2014 season. My top producer year in and year out has been Dave’s beadhead hares ear nymph and I like to enter each season with 100 of these in stock. My count revealed to me that I needed to tie 44 to rebuild my inventory to 100, so I’ve been busy working on this goal over the last two weeks. In addition I tied 15 for a fishing buddy and packaged them up and put them in the U.S. mail. I tied my beadhead hares ears in the same manner as I’ve used historically, however, I initiated the practice of applying head cement at three critical junctures in the process to improve durability. I noticed that my hares ears tend to unravel just in front of the tail and also just behind the bead, so I dab head cement on the thread wraps just in front of the tail before dubbing the abdomen. Once I’ve tied in the wing case I apply more head cement to the wraps in the thorax area before wrapping the dubbing. Finally I apply clear nail polish to the final wraps behind the bead. Hopefully all these improvements will enhance the durability of Dave’s hares ear nymph.

Lime Green Trude 2013

I first became aware of the lime green trude during a trip to Jackson, WY in the 90’s. I arranged for a day of float fishing on the Snake River and the fly shop where I booked the trip forced me to pre-buy a quantity of flies. I was not pleased with this as I only paid for the flies I used in all my other guided fishing trips, but I went along with the policy and of course at the end of the day I possessed quite a few new unused flies. Among this residual inventory of flies were several lime green trudes.

Lime Green Trude 2013 Photo Album

Being the frugal fly fisherman that I am, I rotated a few on to my active fly patch and on occasion tied one on to my line to experiment with their effectiveness. I remember one of my early lime green trude successes was catching some fish on a lake in the Flat Top Wilderness. As time progressed I gained more confidence in the fly and had some nice action on the Roaring River in Rocky Mountain National Park and also caught some decent fish late in the afternoon on the Eagle River. One nice aspect of the lime green trude is the white calf tail wing which creates good visibility in many difficult lighting conditions.

Lime Green Trude

Lime Green Trude

Recently I’ve gone to the lime green trude when I spot yellow sallies, but I’ve had mixed results with this. I tend to tie them in size 14, so they may be a bit large for this application. Probably my favorite way to use a lime green trude is as the top fly on a dry/dropper setup generally in combination with a beadhead RS2 or beadhead pheasant tail. A size 14 trude can support these small nymphs but is probably not buoyant enough to stay afloat above a size 14 beadhead hares ear or larger nymph. I particularly like casting the trude and nymph combination in smooth relatively shallow pools where skittish fish are easily spooked by the increased surface disturbance caused by a larger fly.

Tilted at 45 Degrees

Tilted at 45 Degrees

The original trude pattern calls for a golden pheasant tippet as the tail; however, I’ve substituted a small clump of deer hair, and the fly seems to remain effective. In fact I believe that the deer hair supports the hook better and offers more buoyancy.

I tied enough additional lime green trudes so that I have around 20-25 as I get close to kicking off the 2013 season.

Green Drakes 2013

I love fishing green drake dry flies. I’ve encountered them on quite a few streams throughout Colorodao including the St. Vrain Creek, Roaring River, Clear Creek, the Conejos River, Fraser River, South Boulder Creek, Taylor River and the Frying Pan River. The most consistent for me has been the Frying Pan River and it is rare that I don’t encounter them on any trip in August through October. This summer I discovered South Boulder Creek and ran into green drakes on two or three visits to that pretty canyon stream below Gross Reservoir.

Green Drakes 2013 Photo Album

I was confident I had the green drake fly puzzle solved until this summer. I locked into making green drake comparaduns using microfibbet tails, medium olive dubbing with a maroon thread rib, and a dark deer hair wing. Mistake number one is locking into something and even worse was convincing myself that I had it figured out.

My problems began in July when I visited the Taylor River below Taylor Reservoir. According to the fly shop fishing report I was catching the tail end of the green drake hatch in the upper river near Lottis Creek Campground. Unfortunately my green drake comparaduns were not fooling the fish and in addition my flies became waterlogged and sank shortly after I tied them on to my tippet. I sorted out my flies at the campground that night and discovered that I had both size 14 and 12 comparaduns. The next day I managed to land a fair number of fish on the comparaduns, but I spent quite a bit of time blotting the abdomen and shaking flies in my dry shake cannister.

Green Drake Comparadun

Green Drake Comparadun

On another outing on South Boulder Creek I ran into the same problem; my flies were too large and they sank too easily. This prompted me to tie a few green drake parachute flies. I tied these on a Tiemco 200R size 12 hook and eagerly transported them along on a trip to the Frying Pan in August. These flies solved the flotation problem, but once again the fish did not show interest in them except for one gullible cutthroat trout. I switched back to the size 14 comparaduns, and these produced nicely during one overcast afternoon near the spring.

I was now at a stage in my winter fly tying where I needed to stock some green drake dry flies. I decided to do some research on the internet before beginning and discovered there are actually three species of western green drakes present in Colorado. One hatches earlier than the others and is imitated with a size 12 fly. The others hatch later in the season and are best matched with a size 14 hook. This probably explains my inconsistent success when I failed to pay close attention to the size of the comparadun I was using. I also watched a YouTube video of a tyer in Oregon making a parachute green drake and noticed that he used five or six moose mane fibers to create a tail that was much thicker than the split microfibbets I was using.

Size 14 Parachute Green Drake

Size 14 Parachute Green Drake

With these observations planted in my brain I sat down and tied eight size 14 parachute green drakes using a moose main bundle for the tail and grizzly saddle hackles dyed dark olive for the hackle. I purchased a nice olive Keough saddle hackle patch at the fly fishing show in January for this very purpose. I’m very pleased with these flies and hope that they will prove effective this summer. Since I already tied three of the larger size 12 paradrakes last year, I plan to produce three additional models so that I have six going into the new season.

Top View

Top View

Fishing large dry flies to feeding trout in a cold mountain stream in summer is one of the most enjoyable experiences I can think of. Hopefully I’ll have a few more days like this in my future.

 

 

Light Gray Comparadun 2013

I completed the deer hair caddis and yellow sallies and decided to take inventory of my light gray comparaduns also known as the money fly. I counted ten size 14’s and ten size 16’s and decided to tie an additional 10 size 16’s.

This fly has been a great producer for me over the last three or four years, particularly  when I encounter a pale morning dun hatch. I’m not sure why the light gray body fly works so well as pale morning duns tend to have a light yellow body in my opinion. The light gray poly dubbing that I use for the body has very slight yellow undertones so perhaps that explains the success.

New Light Gray Comparadun

New Light Gray Comparadun

Several years ago my friend Jeff Shafer was scheduled to visit me and fish in Colorado. He asked what flies he should tie before his trip, and I told him about my great success with the light gray comparadun on the Colorado River. He asked me to send a photo so he could tie a few. I was looking for a nice background to photograph the fly against and placed it on the margin of a page of the Wall Street Journal. I told Jeff this was an appropriate choice since the light gray comparadun was a money fly thus the alternative name, money fly.

Little Black Stonefly 2013

During two late fly fishing outings to South Boulder Creek I encountered a small black stonefly hatch. During the first meeting I was able to catch a few fish using a size 16 deer hair caddis that was tied sparsely; however, I felt I could have done better with a fly that more closely imitated the natural stoneflies.

South Boulder Creek 10/23/2012 Photo Album

Small Stonefly Rests on Photographer's Hand

Small Stonefly Rests on Photographer’s Hand

I returned to my vise and produced some decent size 18 black stonefly imitations that used a dark coastal deer hair wing and dark olvie brown dubbing for a body. On a return to South Boulder Creek on 10/23/2012 this fly produced nicely in the afternoon, but I felt it was still a bit large to match the naturals in South Boulder Creek. My friend Jeff Shafer has been tying stonefly adults using sculpin wool for wings and suggested I give this a try. Jeff had mailed me several chunks of this material so I produced three or four with sculpin wings. I never returned to South Boulder Creek to test this pattern, but I did try them out on the Big Thompson River late in the season, and landed several fish. The dark body and charcoal wool wing make this fly extremely difficult to follow on the river, but it is a very close reproduction of the natural insect. Not wanting to fall short on my inventory of small black stoneflies, I crafted ten size 20 flies using the sculpin wool for a wing.

From the Top

From the Top

There are probably addtional hatches of small caddisflies where this fly might produce as well, so I am armed with some small stonefly and caddis imitations for the coming season.

Yellow Sallies 2013

Yellow Sallies 2013 Photo Album

Yellow sallies are quite prevalent on Colorado Rivers during the summer months, and I probably don’t use them as often as I should. I’ve seen fairly steady emergences of yellow sallies on the upper Colorado River near Parshall and have experienced fair success there fishing a yellow sally imitation. I just finished tying quite a few deer hair caddis and the yellow sally pattern I like is essentially the same style fly so I moved right into producing ten size 16 yellow sallies.

Yellow Sally

Yellow Sally

The pattern only requires a hook and thread and three materials; yellow dubbing, yellow elk hair, and a ginger hackle. Similar to the deer hair caddis, I applied head cement to the thread wraps in front of the body before attaching the elk hair wing. I hope to use this fly as a prospecting dry fly during the summer of 2013.

Deer Hair Caddis

A stalwart consistent reliable fly in my arsenal has always been the deer hair caddis. I tie these flies with dark olive brown bodies and light gray bodies. The dark olive brown body versions are matched with darker wings; whereas, the light gray body model is paired with light tan wings. I add grizzly hackles on the front of both colors.

Deer Hair Caddis Photo Album

Entering the 2013 season I plan to have 15 of each color in size 16 and an equal number in size 14 and I’ve completed all the dark olive brown versions and have five more size 14 light gray flies to complete.

Light Gray Deer Hair Caddis

Light Gray Deer Hair Caddis

I’ve been tying these flies almost since the beginning, but this winter I’ve added a couple improvements to the process. To improve the durability of the fly I’ve begun adding a small drop of head cement to the thread wraps in front of the body before attaching the deer hair wing. This improves durability and helps prevent the deer hair from rolling around the hook shank. The second change is using long size 16 or 14 grizzly saddle hackles. I can tie approximately ten flies from one long saddle hackle and with my rotary vise, it is easy to grip the long hackle while spinning the vise to put three or four nice wraps in front of the wing.

Dark Olive Deer Hair Caddis

Dark Olive Deer Hair Caddis

Another plus this year was using the two deer hair patches that my friend Jeff Shafer mailed to me. The hair on these patches is so even that I skip the hair stacking step, and that’s another huge time saver.

Parachute Hopper 2013

My late summer hopper of choice in the last couple seasons has been the parachute hopper. The parachute style enables this fly to land right side up on every cast and the prominent knotted pheasant tail legs along with the oversized hackle seem to appeal to trout looking for a substantial meal. For some reason the gray body parachute hopper seems to appeal more to August and September feeding trout than the yellow hopper imitations that shine in June and July.

Parachute Hopper 2013 Photo Album

Imitates Struggling Hopper from Above

Imitates Struggling Hopper from Above

The parachute hopper has also become a favorite of my son. On several occasions Dan has fished lakes and streams when his father was not accompanying. When he tells me about the outing later I always ask what fly he used as I am curious to see what he selects when I am not present to influence his decision. Quite often his answer is a parachute hopper, and typically the fly generates positive results.

Trout Love the Scraggly Hares Ear Body

Trout Love the Scraggly Hares Ear Body

During the summer of 2012 I made another interesting discovery, primarily on the Taylor River where the parachute hopper was extremely productive. Near the end of the 2011 season I tied some gray parachute hoppers using a gray poly dubbing with a visible rib and these looked quite realistic compared to the undersides of naturals that I plucked from the grasses along the river. In addition to these sleek gray poly hoppers, I also tied some using natural hares mask, and these were extremely scraggly with numerous guard hairs protruding in odd angles from the rough body of the fly. My amazing discovery on the Taylor as well as other Colorado Rivers was that the trout preferred the scraggly disheveled hares ear hopper.

With this discovery I am tying twenty hares ear parachute hoppers for the 2013 season. Hopefully the fish don’t change their preferences over the winter.

After tying 20 new parachute hoppers, I decided to go through my cache of discarded flies that are unraveling or too damaged for continued service. I discovered six parachute hoppers in need of repair and refurbished them and, therefore, I have 26 as I enter the 2013 fishing season.

Chernobyl Ant 2013

The Chernobyl ant is another of my favorite large attractor flies that I use as a top fly indicator when using the dry/dropper approach. The large foam ant is very buoyant and the bright indicator foam makes it visible in most situations. There are also times when the fish go for this clump of foam as if it represents the last meal. Unfortunately there are other times when the Chernobyl ant draws refusals and in this case it serves as a distraction from the trailing nymph.

Chernobyl Ant Photo Album

I needed to replenish my stock of this frequently used fly so I decided to take some lessons from the pool toy construction. First I went to YouTube and viewed several video demonstrations of tying the Chernobyl ant. They all seemed to use two layers of foam, but I prefer one layer with pearl chenille wrapped around the hook beneath the first layer. The irridescent pearl chenille imitates the underside of many natural beetles that I’ve observed, and I feel this is a triggering characteristic. I could probably wrap the pearl chenille beneath two layers of foam, but I view two layers as making this fly unnecessarily difficult to tie.

Lots of Radiation Here

Lots of Radiation Here

Two aspects of the fly that I attempted to improve upon in my latest tying efforts are the legs and the tendency of the foam to spin around the hook after several catches. I learned from the pool toy the importance of having a base on the hook shank to attach the foam to, so I made sure to wrap the pearl chenille over the hook shank at the points where I tied the foam to the hook. In addition I used a stronger and heavier thread that allowed me to apply significantly more pressure on my downward locking wraps on the foam. And the last step I took was to apply Sally Hanson teflon clear nail polish to the front and rear wraps. The teflon product is quite thin and soaks into the thread wraps. On the flies I’ve completed I’ve tested the contact of the body to the hook, and they seem to be much more solid than my previous efforts.

For the legs I experimented with finer more flexible materials and left the legs longer. My theory is that the longer flexibile legs will create more movement and thus attract more fish. I can always cut back the legs on the stream if I feel they are a deterrent to fish. My favorite leg material so far is a product called Sili Legs, and I’ve made several versions with barred legs and more with black legs. Another pool toy lesson that I’ve applied to my new Chernobyl ants is the usage of bright pink foam as an indicator in addition to the bright yellow I used on the past.

Pink Indicator on This One

Pink Indicator on This One

I plan to create at least 20 new and improved Chernobyl ants as we head into the 2013 season. Stay tuned to this blog to find out how this experiment plays out.

 

Yellow Letort Hopper

It’s simple to tie and is probably my best large top fly producer, so why do I keep trying to find a replacement? Every year I experiment with a new foam hopper concoction, but I continue returning to the simple classic Letort hopper. This year I’m trying the Grillos pool toy. Last year it was the Charlie Boy hopper.

The problem with the Letort hopper is buoyancy. The large deer hair wing is very visible and it supports beadhead nymphs up to size 14 rather well; however, after fishing a couple pockets or runs it requires drying. This usually involves sopping up excess moisture using my shirt and then dipping in the white dry shake powder. It works, and I’ve been known to spend whole days following this routine, but I continue to seek an imitation that fools trout as well as the Letort hopper, but offers superior buoyancy.

In spite of my efforts to phase the Letort hopper out, I rely on it heavily so I tied twenty size 10 models with nice full wings. I viewed a YouTube video and adopted the clipped deer hair head refinement that the tier demonstrated. The ones I made recently look great, and I applied head cement to the wraps before tying down the deer hair, so these should be extremely durable.

Classic Letort Hopper

Classic Letort Hopper

I’m convinced that the narrow body profile and yellow body color of this fly enable it to serve double duty as a hopper imitation as well as a golden stonefly adult. I’ve had great success with this fly in late June and early July when golden stoneflies are prevalent on western streams. The Letort hopper remains in a prominent position in my fly box.