What Are You Tying Today?

Changes to make in the future: To truly replicate what Poor Richard's calls a glass bugger, I probably need the large glass beads instead. If anyone has a smarter suggestion for tying in the tail and flash other than dropping a bead off of the full shaft and ending up with a strange looking bare spot in the middle, feel free to chime in.
I’d like to see the poor Richard’s version to see exactly the look you’re going for. Shorten the butt end of the tail, use just a few wraps of the thinnest thread you got on the shank and just a few material securing wraps followed by superglue. Possibly ream the last bead with a bead reamer.
 
Blow torch variation of Walt’s Worm on #16 jig hook and bead 4 each of various colors.
 

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Gray Squirrel

Hooks - Mustad R74, sizes 4-6-8
Thread - Black
Ribbing - Oval silver tinsel
Body - Flat silver tinsel
Throat - Crimson red hackle barbs
Wing - Gray squirrel tail tied over the body

Fish Flies: The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art - Terry Hellekson

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Stickleback

Roderick Haig-Brown

Hook - Single salmon
Thread - Black
Tail - Claret hackle fibers
Rib - Oval silver tinsel
Body - Pale green or blue silk or wool
Throat - Claret hackle
Wing - Polar bear* (or substitute), sparse, blended orange, blue, green, yellow, olive

*Polar bear in white is hard to find these days let alone dyed colors. I substituted with bucktail

Fly Patterns of Canada - Paul C Marriner

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Green Finn

Hook - Streamer style
Thread - Red
Tail - Red goose or duck quill
Ribbing - Chartreuse and oval silver tinsel
Body - Flat silver tinsel
Wing - Red and Chartreuse bucktail, mixed
 
Caddis larva tied on Daiichi 1120 - size 14. Kind of just playing around with the different looks of various micro stretch tubing over different colors of tying thread.

Materials used:
Micro stretch tubing - green, chartruese and clear
Underbody - UTC 70D - white, chartruese, olive and fire orange

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Caddis larva tied on Daiichi 1120 - size 14. Kind of just playing around with the different looks of various micro stretch tubing over different colors of tying thread.

Materials used:
Micro stretch tubing - green, chartruese and clear
Underbody - UTC 70D - white, chartruese, olive and fire orange

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Love it!
Was thinking of how to use some D-rib today and I think you solved my problem!!
 
Love it!
Was thinking of how to use some D-rib today and I think you solved my problem!!
Yep, you can absolutely do the same thing with D-rib. One of my favorites is olive D-rib over UTC 70 fluorescent fire orange thread. I love the look of that combo.
 
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Hammond's Adopted

Hook - Wet fly
Thread - Black
Tip - Gold tinsel
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Light brown
Hackle - Ginger
Wing - Mottled woodcock

How To Tie Flies - E C Gregg
 
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Turkey

Hook - Wet fly
Thread - Black
Tip - Gold tinsel
Tail - Scarlet
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow wool
Hackle - Brown
Wing - Brown Turkey

Trout - Ray Bergman
How To Tie Flies - E C Gregg
 
You might try using foam for the back and find it much more manageable/easier to tie. I went that route because the foam allows it to float better and is more durable after getting chewed repeatedly.
Thanks! I've never really fished them before, so I'm going to see how I / the fish like them and then experiment further. That's a good suggestion.

After that night of tying, I saw a video of Craven tying them by using the same clump of hair as the wings and the hump back. My recipe didn't do that, but it seems useful for eliminating a step. I also know that I want to get some 14s with a slightly longer shank...

Also, I've never lost a fish.
 
You might try using foam for the back and find it much more manageable/easier to tie. I went that route because the foam allows it to float better and is more durable after getting chewed repeatedly.
This is what I do. You can color the foam with a sharpie or use the native color of the foam. It gives you a lot of flexibility compared to hair.
 
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Scarlet Ibis

Hook - Wet fly
Thread - Red
Tip - Flat gold tinsel
Tail - Narrow section of red duck quill segments
Ribbing - Flat gold tinsel
Body - Red floss
Hackle - Scarlet red tied on as a collar and tied back and down
Wings - Red duck quill section tied on edge over the body

Authors Note

As far as I can determine, this is an American pattern, however, there are nine other patterns that belong to the Ibis family. The only other one of any significance is the Silver Ibis, which has a flat silver tinsel body and is otherwise tied the same as the Scarlet Ibis. Sometimes the Scarlet Ibis is referred to as the Red Ibis. There is a pattern called the Cardinal that is tied the same except with all fluorescent red materials.

Fish Flies: The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art - Terry Hellekson
Trout - Ray Bergman
 
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MK Baby Crayfish Variant. This was the fly I intended for the final Kimba swap, but, really regretfully, I got busy and never committed.

Last week, I finally sacrificed the last of the ties from my previous session to a tree, so I'm now varying the pattern with some zonker scraps I had on hand instead of Marabou. I had some carp eats on it and it seems like a Crayfish for all species

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Mini-Min (Badger)

Hook - Mustad 79580
Thread - White
Tail - A very short tuft of black floss
Underbody - Floss or embroidery cotton for bulk
Body - Medium flat silver tinsel
Throat - White calf tail, sparse
Wing - White calf tail, sparse covered with four badger (having black edge) neck hackles (two on each side)
Head - Rear portion a slash of red on each side forward three-quarters painted black with white iris and black pupil

The Dette's tied these only in size 10, in five variations.

A quote from Mary "Of all our streamer patterns the mini mins are the best producers. They seem to take their share of fish when nothing else will."

Dette's Mini-min | Paflyfish

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Modern Marabou Mini Min

Hook - Streamer
Thread -Black
Tail - Danville 4 strand rayon Floss
Body - Lagartun Mini flat braid silver
Wings - Hareline Woolly Bugger Marabou
Collar - Red thread
Eyes - Painted black over white

(10) Joe Fox Modern Marabou Mini Min Streamer - YouTube
 
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