As I said in my last post activities have been restricted to fly tying recently though I had a spot of treatment this week that hopefully might allow me to get out for a wee while at the weekend, especially Saturday being the last day of the official season. It would be nice to get a last Brownie of the year.
My tying though has continued apace and I have been stocking up on materials, taking advantage of any offers I can find. I recently bought a ton of flashabou and tinsely stuff half price at tungsten-beads-plus.com, so have every conceivable type of this that I will need for some time. I also got some nice bleach dyed quills, coloured micro wire, micro straggle and holographic from Ian Christie at Flybox which is seeing inventive use. Finally I have been getting some better feathers as this has always been a bit of a problem for me, most I felt were too expensive to justify the cost with my rubbish fly tying skills. Now that I feel I am improving a little I don’t feel as much in fear of trying to use dearer capes and saddles. So started off with a nice Metz Hen Neck in Furnace I intend to use for Crunchers. Would have preferred Ginger but could not find one locally.
So whats been on the menu? Well lots, tied a lot of bushy wet flies as you may have seen in my previous post, I have added to these with a few Kate McLaren’s.
I have always wanted to try my hand at dabbler type flies with the lovely bronze mallard cloak. I decided to watch a Davie McPhail demo video of a tying and followed the method and produced these using the flybox straggle as a body. It’s hard to see in a photo but it has a cracking multi facet UV look under sunlight. I used the Fulling Mill artificial Jungle cock with some of these and it looks fine at a distance but close up in the camera you can see the “grain” in the plasticky material used. The jury is out for me on this stuff. Relative to real JC its cheap and looks OK at a distance. Tying it in though is a wee bit tricky as its pretty stiff. For me, it needs a fine stalk that you can bury under the head wraps. I have taken the plunge and ordered a hopefully respectable genuine JC cape suitable for trout size flies so fingers crossed there.
I also tried my hand at tying a few “Sandford’s Bullets”. TV presenter and writer Chris Sandford seems to take every available opportunity to tell anglers about this fly. He showed them again on Sky Sports Tight Lines recently. It’s a bit of a sedge/muddler cross in my eyes but I have tied a number of these too. Might be worth a chuck before it gets too cold.
Anyway onto the flies. Hope you like these and any comments positive or negative that’s fine: fire them over. For each pattern I am doing, I make a few extra and am making up a box of flies for disposal via charitable means. Will report back on that later.
The Bullet
My tying of the Chris Sandford’s Bullet
In many respects a bit of a cross between a muddler, and a CDC and Elk type fly. You can fish it static or twitched if the fish are in chasing mode. I think I need long but finer deer hair to do this better. You can choose to bug bond the “head” or not- this one has been bugbonded.
Materials:
Size 10 dry fly hook.
Uni 6/0 Black thread.
“Fine” deer hair for the head and “wing”.
One CDC feather for the body wrap and “hackle”.
The original pattern calls for hares ear/ice dubbing. i felt that Hends Spectra dubbing seemed a suitable substitute.
The head can be finished with Bug bond rendering the fly practically “bullet-proof” as it has been here.
Kate McLaren
A very popular fly especially up here north of the border, a bushy fly that can really be fished wet or dry, ideally in a little bit of a wave where it dibbles through the surface. You can choose to gink it up if you want to keep it on top or leave it as is where it will fish in or under the surface. A note on my tying: The tail is supposed to turn up at the back- mines does though the fibres kept splitting when I tried to photograph it in the breeze so it looks like it’s all over the place- it’s fairly ok really.
Kate McLaren wet fly
Materials:
Size 10 Wet fly hook
Black 6/0 Uni thread
Black seals fur : body dubbing
Oval Tinsel : rib
Golden pheasant topping : tail
Black cock : Body Hackle
Fiery Brown : Collar hackle
Black Straggle Dabbler
The very first cloaked dabbler style fly I have ever tried. I followed Davie McPhails video for the methodology though not the pattern, and I have to be honest I am glad I did as I would never have guessed how to get the Mallard hackle tied- the way I did it, isn’t what I would have thought had I not seen Davie’s video. I love this fly though I think the artificial JC cheeks did not come out so well in the photo, they look fine in real life. In the light of day the body looks amazing with a purpley translucence.
Black Straggle Dabbler with micro straggle body
Materials:
Size 10 Wet fly hook
Black 6/0 Uni thread
Black Micro Straggle from Flybox : Body
Flybox Silver Micro wire : rib
Red cock and Bronze Mallard fibres : tail
Black cock : Body Hackle
Bronze Mallard : Collar hackle
Fulling Mill artificial Jungle Cock : Cheeks
Fiery Straggle Dabbler
My fiery Straggle dabbler
A wee bit brighter and probably more suitable for the Irish Lough style of fishing at Mayfly time, fished through a wave, but a fun fly to tie.
Materials:
Size 10 Wet fly hook
Black 6/0 Uni thread
Blood red Micro Straggle from Flybox : Body
Gold tinsel : rib
Golden Pheasant topping : tail
Furnace cock : Body Hackle
Bronze Mallard : Collar hackle
Fulling Mill artificial Jungle Cock : Cheeks
Olive Popper Hopper
I seen flies a bit like this in a catalogue and having a load of black booby cord kicking around decided to use some of it to make this, its a bit of a Booby/Hopper/Dry cross. Did some in Olive and Red. Might be good for places that ban boobies and you want something to skeet over the surface.
Olive Popper hopper- a bit of an experiment
Materials:
Size 10 Dry fly hook
Black 6/0 Uni thread
Olive antron dubbing : Body
Flybox silver micro wire : rib
Red holographic : Butt
Furnace cock : Hackle
Semperfli Pheasant tail Hopper legs : legs
