by Johan Put
looks good, huh ? if you want learn how to make one,
click the pic to find this super-duper fly’s step by step !
Tag Archives: fly tying tips and tricks
“flakes of dust”
the Dead Caddis by Davie McPhail
now, as far as i know (little), imitating dead caddis is a rather uncommon practice and that’s what makes this pattern quite interesting.
i’ve seen trout rising to the dead naturals and have fished them successfully with a standard sedge imitation but i’ll admit i didn’t seriously examine the dead naturals to see if there was any changes from the live ones.
of course there will be a total lack of movement and i’m reasonably sure that there isn’t a body/wing posture change so i’m thinking it might be a slight change of color that really sets these apart.
for whatever the reasons, this big bushy, well floating thing is worth having in the box for an occasion where the fish might key in on the dead ones drifting by. enjoy !
Like this:
Sparkle Dun variant
it’s hard not to like this one. the deer hair will keep it afloat in fast waters and it’s smaller sunken body and shuck will get a lot of attention in calmer currents. relatively easy to tie and chock full of key emerger elements, this low sitting fly is just the ticket for any salmonid. vary sizes and colors to suit your water. enjoy !
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the squonker
by Hans Weilenmann
squonker = squirrel zonker !
thanks to our friends Vangelis & Marzipan we’ve already seen how exciting squirrel fishing can be and here’s the perfect zonker pattern for this new and soon to be fashionable target species.
like they say: ‘squirrels of a feather flock together’ 
so here’s a few squirrly tunes to increase your tying pleasure. enjoy !
a wet history
by Davie Wotton
here’s some absolutely wonderful insights, invaluable material information and groovy historical aspects for all those desiring to increase their knowledge of both traditional and contemporary wet flies by probably the most knowledgeable and talented person in the fly tying world. ’nuff said, enjoy !
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Grannomses !
Grannoms- Brachycentrus Caddis fly
often neglected in favor of the various ‘mythic‘ mayfly species, the Grannom is an early season and widely distributed caddis who’s imitation in different sizes and colors is well worth having in your fly box. Grannom hatches can be massive and will usually have the fish in a debilitating frenzy, excluding every other bug that might be around. i’ve been in the middle of one of these hatches on a Scottish river and was literally covered from head to water level and had to quickly pull up my buff to be able to breathe without eating at the same time…
“This prolific genus includes the popular eastern US early-season Apple Caddis and Grannom hatches. Their life cycles are ideal for the fly angler, and every stage is frequent trout prey. This species changes color dramatically after it emerges, and imitations of egg-laying adults should be a different color from imitations of emergers. Emergers have pale blonde, almost off-white wings and bright green bodies, while the egg-laying adults have light brownish gray wings and medium green bodies.”
these two aren’t grannomses, they’re Mark and Terry.
Mark is a super friend, Terry is some guy Mark and i found in the parking lot while we where gearing up for some fishing on a lovely little river in northern England. don’t get the wrong impression, Terry doesn’t just hang out in parking lots, he’s a passionate entomologist and charming man full of stories and a great enthusiasm for sharing his buggy knowledge.
when we all got to the water, Terry did a quick scan of the river-bed rocks, turned towards us and proudly announced: “That one”.
he quickly waded in, picked up the “That one” rock and showed us a gelatinous mass stuck to it’s bottom. at first i thought it was just some yucky slime hidden under the rock by some alien with a nasty head cold but after further explanation it turned out to be a ‘nest’ of Grannom eggs. weird and geeky entomologists would probably have some way of counting them on a square cm average or something but my little mind quickly realized that i was looking at thousands and thousands of future caddis all under just this one rock. and there where countless rocks everywhere one looked…
every little dot on this out of focus image is an egg. (sorry for the out of focus image, this was an exciting moment)
here’s an adult Grannom courtesy of Jim Williams.
judging by the size of the finger holding it we’ll notice that it’s very small, my guess between a size 16 and 18.
in the two videos below the flies are tied in 16 and 14 and a little research will tell you of the size to expect and tie for your area.
here are two fly variations of the same egg-laying female. as noted in Matt ‘s video, for the male version, tie the same fly but without the eggs !
by their construction and materials they both seem to be great floaters but my experience tells me Matt’s will probably be the better choice in slower waters and Davie’s in faster.
- Egg-Laying Grannom tied by Matt Grovert
- CDC Bubble Grannom by Davie McPhail
Like this:
Sawyer’s Pheasant Tail Nymph
tied by Hans Weilenmann
we’ve already seen the construction of this seminal nymph pattern by it’s creator Frank Sawyer and then by Davie McPhail in the ‘Two Pheasant’s Tail’ and it’s hackled ‘Cruncher’ variant ‘Where’s there’s munching there’s crunching!’ posts but i thought it would be nice to see another perspective since it’s always enriching to see how different people achieve the same result, specially by world-class tiers.
as a bonus Hans gives us a bit of the fly’s history , what it was originally intended to imitate (a Baetis nymph) and a nice variant that makes the fly more durable, something quite non-negligable since pheasant tail fibers are notoriously fragile and fall apart when they’re munched on by trout !
on a personal note, if there where only one type of nymph pattern in my boxes, the traditional pattern and it’s varied variants in different colors and sizes of the PTN would be it.
it’s just that good…
Like this:
a Multi-Feather Flatwing
tied by Joe Cordeiro, courtesy of Tightline Productions
there’s an enormous amount of well thought out and well explained details on the making of this type of fly here, something for all of us to take back to the bench whether we tie these bigguns or not.
“And there you go. One beautiful and extremely effective multi-wing flat-wing fly… “
enjoy !
Like this:
Sweeney’s Todd
by Davie McPhail
not the Deppified one… 
but a revamped ‘sexier-moderner‘ version of the original classic Sweeney Todd streamer that’s been a hot one for trout, seatrout, steelhead and salmon.
it’s funny how some flies just speak up and say: “who wants to go swinging with me ?… “
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popper shaping
by Mario Meraz
making sleek, sexy and professional looking popper bodies isn’t as difficult as might seem. all you need is a Dremmel-type tool, various grades of sandpaper, a place where you can make a mess, some imagination and please don’t forget: ‘foam vision‘ and ‘foam phlegm‘ suck ! so wear a mask and eye protection !
Like this:
drowned fiery midge
as promised, here’s a little experiment with adding colors to the Micro-Chenille extended body with a permanent marker. the original color was a very bright pale yellow.
this pattern will just barely hang below the water’s surface, just as a drowned emerger that got stuck in the gluey water surface tension would.
after repeatedly dunking the bug the ink hasn’t changed a bit. this is a nice and easy way to customize this material and will lead to some interesting patterns in the future.
Like this:
Matt’s Gnat
i can’t get enough of the wonderful Duff erm… stuff over at Tightline Productions !
this time we’re treated with Matt Grobert’s awesome alternative to the already awesome must-have, all time favorite fish catcher: the Griffith’s Gnat.
we’ve already seen Andreas Lestander’s great version, here’s another with a twist that looks just as promising.
Like this:
The DNA Livebait Fly
for those who believe that larger flies are difficult to tie and very expensive to make, here’s a super-nice, easy to tie, easy to cast and very effective eel imitation for you to enjoy at today’s brunch break.
the pre-tie fiber preparation tip at the end is a real gem and the same idea can be used for many other types of patterns. lets your creative juices flow !
the F-Fly
is one of those general imitations very apt at imitating either a mayfly, a sedge or a midge. originally designed for grayling, it will do and do equally well for just about any species of fish that eats insects. it’s very simple design and construction are what makes it work and it’s a great fly to start off in fly tying.
as with most flies, this is one to have in different sizes and colors to suit the moment. there is nevertheless one inconvenience to the cdc feathers and that’s residual fish slime after a catch. it annihilates all the flotation qualities of these feathers, making them sink immediately and to continue fishing means either changing flies while the first dries off completely or thoroughly washing it in the water and then drying it off with something like amadou or my favorite, a piece of chamois skin before fishing again.
finally, what this means is it’s best to tie each model in good numbers to be able to deal with slime and continue catching fish. they’re easy to tie and inexpensive so it isn’t a big deal.
first, let’s have a look at the original F-Fly, scrupulously tied as per directed by it’s creator in this lovely Parkinsonized video by Oliver Edwards.
and now, the improved version tied by Hans Weilenmann.
sure enough, we can trust Hans to come up with a way to improve something that’s already quite perfect.
note: for the longest time i thought that this fly was named after me (Fauvet) but a little research shows that the ‘F’ is in fact there for it’s Slovenian creator’s name, Marjan Fratnik.
yet another example that while vanity, ignorance and wishful thinking may make for a seemingly pleasant life, it’s just plain dumb.
Like this:
how trout perceive flies
- another gem and some fly-tying food for thought from Alan Bithell
“Many years ago Peter McKenzie Philips wrote about how trout perceive the fly. He said that there are “keys” to identification. He likened the way we recognize this cartoon as being a Chinaman to the way that trout recognise food.
Of course it looks nothing like a Chinaman, in just the same way our flies look nothing like nymphs. However it has enough of the key points, the coolie hat the, slanted eyes and wide face, that we can identify it. If we can get enough “keys” like that into a fly then the trout may just eat it. They will always see the hook, the rest of the dressing must contain enough of the keys that the hook will be ignored.
I once asked Marc Petitjean why he took the thread half way round the bend, creating a long tag when tying his very effective duns. He used a neutral coloured thread of a different colour to the body. He said, “It disassociates the hook from the fly in the trouts mind.” I have no idea how many trout he interviewed to find this out. I’ve used his flies and fished with him. I can assure you that they work very, very well.
Like casting models I don’t think these are the complete answers, but they are useful things to bear in mind when tying. “
