for the love of water
chironomid pupae detached
by Davie McPhail
there’s about fifteen gazillion midge/buzzer/chironomid patterns out there and just about all of them severely lack what’s probably in my opinion the most important trigger that might attract fish to an emerging midge: movement of the fly’s body itself.
as we easily see in this video midges continuously wiggle-squiggle in the same manner that squirmy spermies squiggle when they’re homing in !
even if most buzzer patterns are tied on a curve hook shank that shank is rigid. basically, they look like dead and stiff bugs. that in itself isn’t so bad because fish love to eat stillborn or spent bugs but it seems pretty obvious that anything moving is going to attract more attention than something being still.
so, as you’ve guessed, the micro-chenille extended body is what’s going to make this pattern more lively than others as this material gets all limp and wimpy when wet just as the marabou breathers will. Limp is good !!!
this limp goodness should be specially good when the fly is fished either static or with a very slow retrieve but then, the originals squirm no mater what kind of water they’re in.
i’m not sure how the coloured tag of Davie’s pattern fits in with the natural (it doesn’t) so, even though it may add yet another exciter-trigger its probably a good idea to skip this step on some flies and have a mix of both versions in the box ready to go.
note that as explained in the video, the junglecock gills can be replaced by biots, a strip of flash or whatever else that looks like a bump. enjoy !
pocket rainbows
more great underwater footage from River Snorkel, this time some feisty and and oh-so cute rainbows busily feeding on subsurface bugs while doing their river dance. enjoy !
half french, half italian
with a nice twist: narrated by a woman, which is, as far as i know, a first.
Luca Montanari demonstrates here how to tie a still very big classic dry in Europe’s Latin countries: Aimé Devaux’s Olive
although only slightly accentuated in Luca’s vid, Devaux’s dries typically have a distinctive pushed-forward, sorta ‘funnelled’ palmered hackle. his idea in this design was the fly would twist less whilst being cast (in this aspect, ‘traditionally’ palmered hackles have a corkscrew/helix profile in line with the leader), would give a more pronounced parachute effect thus alighting gentler on the water and maybe mostly because the lower half of the hackle facing forward visible to the fish is more realistic because real mayfly legs point forward.
smart guy and quite a looker as well ! 
explained in italian, its ok if you don’t capisce, the visuals are solid. enjoy !
gotta love that face…
Fly Fishing Literature- G E M Skues The Man of the Nymph
‘The Man of the Nymph”. if the title alone isn’t just the sexiest thing ever than i don’t know what is !
piscatorial lasciviousness aside, check out the video. Hayter’s enthusiasm gives me the idea that this book’s a winner.
“The long awaited definitive biography of a fly fishing icon. Written with a rare authority by Tony Hayter one of our foremost angling historians, and published by Robert Hale Ltd. We had the honour to film the book launch at the Grosvenor Hotel, Stockbridge, Hampshire, and conduct an interview with the author.
This video contains clips from the launch and excerpts from the interview” enjoy !
a Wind Knot in the making
always fun, inspiring yet somewhat whimsical at least at first viewing, Takashi’s drawings are also often food for thought.
outside of being a delightful drawing, today’s image shows us a caster that has multiple problems, the least being that he’ll most likely end up with knot(s) in his leader and a messy presentation because there’s slack from the line hand all the way to the fly but more importantly because this is a serious safety issue, his casting plane is still on his right shoulder even though there’s a hard wind blowing onto it. this is one of the best ways to wear a hook.
hopefully it’s a barbless hook and this guy will work on the Five Essentials of Fly Casting in the near future…
“Sometimes things goes a way you did’nt expect them to do.”
wonderfully unpolluted by intense music and images of big fish, this aesthetic short from Stefan Agren ends in a smile and its a really nice one. enjoy !
