>>>What Are You Tying Today? Part V

[Fly-Swatter]

I guess the rest of us should just not post then... Got it.

I was thinking that we should not expect post to reach that standard: manage expectations. There Re many benefits to posting flies.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Dumbell eyes underneath can’t be seen there

 

[bigjohn358]

Nice, is the popper balsa?

Foam...I just got new fly line for my 8wt to hopefully make casting these flies a little easier. I upped the grain weight to 240. We will see what it does but already just in the yard casting seems much better.

I guess I wouldn't mind WWKimba posts as much if he did it like once a week with maybe several flies in a single post. I think I could handle it like that.

 

[Flyty_ryguy]

Here are a couple of bass flies I shared on a couple of other posts on here. A lot of my trout flies I kind of keep to myself.

Haha yea cuz ur trout patterns are so unique and original, makes me wonder why the bass flies that u took the time to repost are as basic as it gets.

 

[Flyty_ryguy]

 

[hooker-of-men]

I'm just of the opinion that more posting is better than less, regardless of quality. Seems clear we don't have many stepping up to that gold standard (RIP nfrechet. Hope to see you resurrected again soon.)

However, I am a helluva lot more interested in flies that see the water. I'm as (if not more) excited to see someone's new crappy sucker spawn color variation (and a follow-up with the fish it caught) than I am in seeing a frameable work of art that won't get fished.

 

[WWKimba]

Check out nfrechet postings. His ties are the gold standard. It's not necessarily a realistic expectation, though.

Norm and I have met on other sites all the way back to FAOL and I've been lucky enough to have in some of the swaps I've hosted. The only thing I can't figure out is how he photoshopped the flies he sent in for those swaps! He is an excellent tyer of the highest caliber.

I just tie to have fun and maybe try to do some new things. I love mentoring newer tyers and youth tyers. That's where my strength is. As they say - Those who can, DO and those who can't, TEACH!" With that in mind I must be a wonderful teacher! 😉

Kim

 

[WWKimba]

Hex Para Spinner - First tied in 1999 by Mark lord from Kingsley, MI for the Hexagenia hatch. Feel free to experiment with any hackle or hackle combination for this pattern.

Hook - Mustad 9672,6
Thread - yellow
Tail - 2 stripped grizzly hackle stems or peccary hairs
Body - deer hair dyed yellow or natural deer hair
Wing - white calf tail, tied spent
Post - white poly yarn, cut short after hackle tied in
Hackle - badger or cree, tied parachute

 

[WWKimba]

Hex Trude - This simple and durable fly's pattern was developed by Jeff Bonni in 1987. Jeff is the owner of Steelhead Connection Custom Flies in North Muskegon, MI. It is a high floating and easily seen fly on the water.

Hook - Mustad 9671 or 9672, 6 (the 9672 used above)
Thread - tan 3/0 monochord
Tail - 8-10 lighter colored moose mane fibers
Body - pale yellow or tan poly, tied spread like floss
Wing - white calf tail, tied trude style
Hackle - grizzly and brown, mixed

 

[joebamboo]

Stimulator: Hook Firehole718 Tail and Wing, Puglisi Caddis Grey Trigger Point Fibers, Body, Puglisi Gold Sulphur Trigger Point Fibers. Tan and Grizzly Hackle.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Drunk and freestyling bulkheads. Kiss my ***, nfrechet.

 

[WWKimba]

Hexagenia Limbata - This pattern was first tied at the Backcast Fly Shop in Benzonia, MI in the late '70's/early '80's. Unfortunately, the shop owner could not remember the exact date the fly was designed or the shop's tyer that developed this pattern.

Hook - Mustad 94831, 4-8
Thread - black or brown
Tail - medium clump of moose mane
Rib - tying thread, crisscrossed
Body - golden deer hair under natural deer hair, tied parallel to the shank and extended about 1/3rd the tail length and flared at the tail
Wing - white calf tail, tied upright and divided
Hackle - grizzly, brown, or both

 

[WWKimba]

Isonychia Spinner - Mark Lord from Kingsley, MI designed this maroon drake pattern in 1998.

Hook - Daiichi 1180, 12
Thread - claret
Tail - 2 moose fibers, tied long
Body - mahogany dyed turkey biot, tied with segmentation
Wing - grey Z-lon or poly. tied spent
Hackle - cree or brown and grizzly, mixed

 

[JerryC]

Thought I was finished with my flies for Ontario. I went through one of my boxes and removed some colors that haven't worked in a while. Tied these up to fill up the spaces.
Three supersized floating mop flies. Tied on 1/0 Gamakatsu stinger hooks. I can use them as poppers or sub-surface.


Messing with a couple of articulate flies. Basically Wooly Bugger bodies on articulated shanks with a Daiichi 2461 size 1. Head is a reversed soft foam popper body. I can fish them either on the surface or subsurface of a sinking or intermediate line.


Flies are done and packed.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

View attachment 1641226943
Drunk and freestyling bulkheads. Kiss my ***, nfrechet.

See? Even when he stops posting, he still inspires! 🤣🤣😎

 

[Fish Sticks]

Thought I was finished with my flies for Ontario. I went through one of my boxes and removed some colors that haven't worked in a while. Tied these up to fill up the spaces.
Three supersized floating mop flies. Tied on 1/0 Gamakatsu stinger hooks. I can use them as poppers or sub-surface.


Messing with a couple of articulate flies. Basically Wooly Bugger bodies on articulated shanks with a Daiichi 2461 size 1. Head is a reversed soft foam popper body. I can fish them either on the surface or subsurface of a sinking or intermediate line.


Flies are done and packed.

I make a similar night time wet fly its a size 10 hook a long mop tail and a “boobie fly” style head.

 

[WWKimba]

Jeff's Spiny Midge - Designed by Jeff Bonnin when he first encountered this invasive species, the Spiney Water Flea, while fishing on the Muskegon River in 1995. This small crustation has spread throughout the Great Lakes watershed hitching a ride on cargo ships in the ballast water. This species prefers deep, clear water but has been found in trout rivers/streams as well.

Hook - Mustad 94838, 18 or Mustad 94840, 20-22
Thread - cream
Tail - 2 calf tail hairs
Body - clear antron dubbing, tied on top of the hook just behind the eye, egg yarn pulled up and cut short
Hackle - 1 turn of grizzly and cut short on top

 

[WWKimba]

Killer Diller - There are at least 3 other fly patterns using this same name! This pattern was developed by C. L. Batchelder from Kalamazoo, MI sometime after 1970. C. L. was known as a fine fly tyer and fly fisherman. This is a great pattern if you have a lot of badger dry fly hackle on hand as it the only material used to tie this pattern! There is also a version of this fly that substitutes furnace hackle - again, a one material fly. This is best fished at night by skittering it across the water's surface as it is taken as a large stonefly or moth imitation.

Hook - Mustad 94840, 6-8
Thread - black
Tail - 2 badger hackle tips, tied split
Body - badger hackle heavily palmered then trimmed
Hackle - badger hackle, untrimmed

 

[JerryC]

I make a similar night time wet fly its a size 10 hook a long mop tail and a “boobie fly” style head.

I tie a smaller version of it on size 12 hooks but I fish them as dries. Tied on size 6 hooks it's one of my best panfish flies.
This is the first version of the size 12's before I switched over to the dumbbell/boobie style eyes.

The green one worked well the the green inch worms were dropping on the water.

 

[Tigereye]

There is something to be learned in every fly. Whether it is tied by a master or by a beginner. We can all improve.

I compare it to teaching martial arts. Sometimes you have a student that is just not getting a technique. It makes you dig deeper into the finer points and that inturn makes you a better martial artist.

As with martial arts, yes you can learn much from a master, but he learned much of his art by teaching novices. A master becomes his own student. ( yin/yang)

When you stop learning, your art is dead.