Category Archives: Fly Tying

Blogs related to tying flies

Ultra Zug Bug – 11/29/2025

Ultra Zug Bug 11/29/2025 Photo Album

Turn back the clock and check out my post from 01/31/2012 for the story of the ultra zug bug and a materials table. Over the years this fly has been one of my most productive. It does not crash the upper echelon of nymphs, which is populated by the hares ear nymph, salvation nymph and olive perdigon, but it is among the next tier.

Reburbished UZB

Left Side

For some reason I failed to deploy the UZB very much in 2025. and this fact was confirmed by minimal shrinkage of my supply. After I counted all my ultra zug bugs, I determined that I only needed to tie two to improve my stock to previously established season opening levels. In fact, I have so many, that I probably could have skipped them, but I like to stay in practice. I discovered two damaged UZB,s in my restore canister, so they became my two replacement flies.

Materials and New Flies

One of the things I love about this fly is the ease of tying. It only requires three materials besides the hook, bead and thread. Originally I viewed this fly as a surrogate for the prince nymph, and I used it during caddis egg laying activity, but I have found it to be effective throughout the year. I suspect the peacock dubbing is an attractor element, and in some cases I have used it in lieu of a salvation nymph, when I experience the loss of an excessive quantity of salvations. For some reason, I seem to lose salvation nymphs at a rapid clip, so the UZB substitution prevails more than one might expect.

 

Salvation Nymph – 11/27/2025

Salvation Nymph – 11/27/2025 Photo Album

What a discovery this fly has been. If you are interested in how I became acquainted with it, click on this link to my earliest post on the salvation nymph. This post contains a materials table and a description of the tying steps. The only modification that I implemented was to substitute UV resin over the wing case instead of clear nail polish. The salvation nymph continues to be a mainstay in my fly fishing arsenal. 2025 was not an exception, and I found it to be particularly effective when paired with an olive perdigon.

Refurbished Nymph

The originator of this fly named it the tungsten salvation nymph. Given my success when combined with a tungsten bead perdigon, I wonder if I should tie a few with tungsten copper beads to copy the original design. Certainly they would sink faster, and I could avoid the need for two nymphs which heightens the risk of tangles. Well, I did not implement this idea, and I completed my salvation tying, so I will revisit it next year.

Side View

Love This Shot

Unlike the hares ear nymph, the olive perdigon did not cut into my usage of the salvation nymph. Evidence of this was my shrinkage. I counted seventy-five in my various storage containers, so I approached the vise and churned out an additional twenty-five. The first seven were refurbishments of flies that lost legs or unraveled. In most cases I was able to salvage the abdomen construction and only needed to redo the thorax, legs and wing case.

Twenty-Five Salvations

I am ready for another season of casting the salvation nymph in western waters.

Hares Ear Nymph – 11/18/2025

Hares Ear Nymph 11/18/2025 Photo Album

This fly is a perennial workhorse fly among my collection. It is a classic for a reason; it produces. Here is a link to last year’s post, as I have little to add. You can also search on hares ear nymph for historical posts, and if you go back far enough, I am certain you will find a materials table.

Left Side View

There are tons of fly tying videos and materials lists online for the hares ear nymph. I am sure my version is a variation, but I suspect they all work equally well. I use actual fur from the mask of a rabbit that a friend shot many years ago. In spite of tying hundreds of these flies, I suspect that I have a supply of hares mask that will last my lifetime. I like using the real hares mask because it contains a dense amount of guard hairs, and I suspect that the stiff protruding hairs account for much of the fly’s effectiveness. The combination of the soft fur and the spikey guard hairs creates an irresistible buggyness.Sixteen New Hares Ear Nymphs and Necessary Materials

I felt like I utilized the hares ear less in 2025, than I did in previous years. This suspicion was supported by a reduced shrinkage in flies compared to normal. I counted eighty-four flies in my storage containers; and, therefore, I tied sixteen additional versions to bring my total to one hundred for entering the new year. One explanation for the reduced usage may be the ascent of the olive perdigon in popularity as a weighted top nymph that also attracts trout in a major way.

Olive Perdigon – 11/08/2025

Olive Perdigon 11/08/2025 Photo Album

The olive perdigon is a relatively new addition to my fly box, but what a weapon it has become! Two years ago I possessed none, and I just finished building my supply from thirteen to thirty for the 2026 season. How did this happen?

On 10/03/2023 my friend, Dave G., invited me to join him on a private stretch of the Eagle River. Within the first hour, Dave G. was landing nice fish after nice fish, and I managed a couple dinks. I asked to borrow one of his productive flies, and it happened to be an olive perdigon with a tungsten copper-colored bead. My fortunes reversed, and I experienced a twelve fish day that included some very respectable fish.

Fast forward to the spring of 2025, and for some reason I began to experiment with the olive perdigon. I tied around ten of them over the winter of 2024-2025, and I was amazed with their productivity in the early season. They produced quantities of fish on all the Colorado rivers that I visited prior to run off. Their fish catching ability faded a bit in the post run off time frame, but when I returned to the large river valleys in the fall, their effectiveness resumed.

Side View

I attribute much of their success to the tungsten bead, I theorize that the very dense bead sinks the fly rapidly to the bottom of the river and provides a longer drift within the feeding range of the trout. When I combine it with another nymph in a three fly dry/dropper, it also sinks the paired nymph to the eye level of the trout. Although the density of the nymph is a positive for achieving long deep drifts, it also offers the disadvantage of snagging more frequently, and consequently I lost quite a few flies. The beads are quite a bit more expensive than the typical brass bead, so each lost fly is mourned by this frugal angler. The loss of flies forced me to approach my vise to tie additional perdigons during the fishing season; a task I normally try to avoid.

Opposite Side

The olive perdigon has climbed from absent to a top five mainstay in my fly box. I tie an olive perdigon to my line more frequently than my revered hares ear nymphs and salvation nymphs, so that is saying something. Given this new status as the top dog of my fly inventory, I kicked off my fly tying season yesterday by augmenting my olive perdigon supply. I counted thirteen among my fly boxes, and I decided to target a starting inventory of thirty. I can report that seventeen flies were added to my count.

Although more expensive than most nymphs due to the cost of the tungsten bead, these flies are relatively straightforward to tie. All that is required is a copper colored slotted tungsten bead, a jig hook, medium olive thread, spade hackles from a rooster neck, a black permanent marker, and UV resin and lamp.

Thread, Feather and Finished Product

Place the bead on the hook with the slot facing upward and toward the rear. Start your thread behind the bead and make tight wraps to lock the bead in place on the angled portion of the jig hook. Wrap the thread to the rear and then wrap forward to one hook eye behind the bead. Tie in six barbules from the grizzly feather to form a tail approximately three-fourths of the length of the hook shank and then wrap the thread to the bend. Wrap the thread forward to the bead and snip off the ends of the hackle. Now repeatedly wrap the thread to the rear and back to the bead to form a nice tapered body. Once you create the taper that flows nicely into the bead without leaving a gap, whip finish and cut off the thread. Grab your permanent black marker and carefully place a black spot on top of the body, where it meets the bead and then on the top of the bead. Get out your UV resin and apply a coat to the point where the bead meets the body of the fly and then coat and cover the entire thread body. Try to make the UV resin at the junction a bit thicker than the body coat. Fire up your lamp and cure the resin. You now have a new sleek olive perdigon.

Hopefully thirty will suffice for the 2026 season. If not, it probably means that the olive perdigon demanded a lot of time on my line, and running out and having to tie more in season is a good problem to have.

 

 

Olive Perdigon – 03/05/2025

Olive Perdigon 03/05/2025 Photo Album

I tied a few of these simple flies in 2020 during Covid to kill time while quarantined. I used them infrequently, and like many new patterns they lingered in my fly box, as I opted for tried and true patterns that I had confidence in.

Slender Nymph

Fast forward to 11/04/2023. If you read this post, you learn that I had an outstanding fall day on the Eagle River, when the olive perdigon delivered superior results for my friend, Dave G. and me. Needless to say, this prompted me to tie a batch, but I must confess that I did not test them to any great extent during 2024. I plan to make amends for this oversight, and as a result I approached my vise and produced five additional olive perdigons. I am confident that if I give them a chance, they will become a new favored fly from my fleece wallet.

A Batch of Five and Associated Materials

This fly is quite easy to tie, although I am not a fan of messing around with UV resin application. I have squeeze tubes, and the caps become a gooey mess. I plan to switch over to product with applicators, but being a frugal fly tier, I am attempting to use up the resin in my tubes. These olive perdigons require only six materials if you count the hook, bead and a black marker. Otherwise, all you need is some grizzly spade hackle fibers, olive thread and UV resin. The result is a very slender heavy fly that rapidly sinks to the bottom. If I can discipline myself, I would like to test these in pocket water, where it is necessary to get the fly to the bottom quickly. Doesn’t it seem like this is a perfect application for the olive perdigon?

Griffiths Gnat – 03/03/2025

Griffiths Gnat 03/03/2025 Photo Album

I searched back in time across this blog, and I found no posts on the Griffiths gnat. I know I have tied some, so I suppose I neglected to write a report on this diminutive fly. It requires only two materials aside from the hook and thread, and those two are peacock herl and grizzly hackle. The aspect of this fly that makes it challenging to tie is its small size.

A Model Griffiths Gnat

I expanded my efforts to fish in lakes over the past several years, and midges comprise a huge portion of the biomass in stillwaters. A Griffiths gnat is purported to be a solid imitation of an adult midge, so adequate quantities in my fly box are highly recommended. I have tied a griffiths gnat to my line from time to time on lakes, but I would characterize my success as sporadic. Unfortunately I knot one of these on my line, when the fish are rising sporadically, and I am not certain what they are eating, so I may be misjudging the source of the trout protein.

A Clump of Four

Apparently I had not tied these in a while, so I counted my supply and concluded that I could use another four, so I settled at my tying station and generated them. I am ready for stillwater action in 2025.

Tricos – 03/01/2025

Tricos 03/01/2025 Photo Album

For an excellent description of my introduction to trico spinners along with a materials table and other information, click on my post of 01/15/2012. After a particularly frustrating day on the South Platte River I created trico spinners using CDC for the spent wing. My post on 02/27/2019 describes this effort to imitate the tiny but abundant mayflies. My post of 12/05/2011 describes my history with sunken tricos. This is also worth a read.

Trico Spinner

I failed to encounter a trico hatch in 2024; however, in an effort to cover all my bases, I counted my supply of spinners in size 20, 22, and 24 and sunken tricos in size 22. I concluded that I needed to tie five additional spinners in size 24, one size 20, and five sunken tricos. I experimented with various materials for tricos over the years, but for this iteration, I used white microfibbet tails, black thread bodies, white antron for the wing, and fine black dubbing for the thorax. For the sunken tricos I added a strand of super hair wound around the hook shank for the abdomen.

Sunk Trico

Hopefully I will encounter a trico hatch and spinner fall in 2025. I need to make a point of visiting the South Platte River in Eleven Mile Canyon, as the trico event is a regular occurence there. As I have learned in the past, it can be an exercise in frustration, but an experienced fly angler needs challenges from time to time.Trico Assortment

 

Wiggle Damsel – 02/19/2025

Wiggle Damsel 02/19/2025 Photo Album

More background on the wiggle damsel is available in my post of 01/06/2020. These flies are mainly reserved for stillwater fly fishing. I often read about damsel emergences on lakes, which motivate trout to gorge on the migrating nymphs, as they move toward reeds and weeds along the shoreline. I have never encountered this situation, but I have tried.

Last year in early June I fished Beaver Lake in the town of Marble, CO, and an abundant quantity of damsel flies were present including some nymphs in the process of emerging on the shoreline rocks. I switched to a wiggle nymph, but I was unable to tap into the action. A reader of this blog commented that damsel nymphs should be fished just below the surface, and I think I was using weight, so that may explain my lack of success. It was a lesson learned, and I will surely try one without using weight should I encounter another promising damsel emergence situation.

Wiggle Damsels from My Storage Container

This fly was designed by Charlie Craven, and it features an articulated body. I love the way the rear section undulates, as I slowly hand twist my retrieve.

I counted my wiggle damsels, and I learned that I had adequate quantities for the new season, so I bypassed additional tying. Last winter I also tied some olive mini leeches, and these could also serve as damsel nymphs. It is always good to have backup.

Purple Haze – 02/18/2025

Purple Haze 02/18/2025 Photo Album

You may begin familiarizing yourself with the purple haze by accessing my 02/15/2021 post. Here I describe my introduction to the purple-bodied attractor, and a materials table is presented. I use purple dubbing for the body, but I believe the original fly uses a purple floss thread.

This fly is a relative newcomer to my winter fly tying progression. I attempted to incorporate its usage into my seasonal fishing routine, but I must admit that it tends to lag my usage of the hippie stomper, stimulators and deer hair caddis. Nevertheless, I have allocated some time to the purple haze over the past several summers, and it has produced a few nice fish.

Flies from Storage

I opened my fly storage containers and counted my purple haze population, and I concluded that I was adequately stocked with eighteen size fourteens present. I decided to skip tying the purple haze this year, but I am prepared to tie more should they suddenly be in high demand and require replenishment.

Yellow Sally – 02/18/2025

Yellow Sally 02/18/2025 Photo Album

My earliest post on the yellow sally was on 02/02/2016, and the latest was 02/26/2020. I read both of these, and they are informative, if you have an interest in yellow sallies. Both describe the circumstances that provoke the usage of a yellow sally dry fly.

It has been a few years since I encountered a dense yellow sally hatch like that which amazed me on the Eagle River. Nevertheless, I spy these small stoneflies fluttering over the water quite often during July, August and early September. They are quite prevalent, so it is a good idea to carry some in your fly box. If you read my earlier posts, you will learn that I experimented with several different styles of yellow sally, but I returned to the basic deer hair version. It is tied in the same way as a deer hair caddis, albeit with yellow deer hair for the wing, a yellow dubbed body and ginger hackle.

From My Storage Box

Although I have not tied additional yellow sallies in several years, when I counted my supply, I concluded that I retained sufficient numbers to get me through the 2025 season. Thinking about yellow sallies makes me anxious for summer, and that is not a good thing, since it is only the middle of February.