What Are You Tying Today?

One of the more productive tying sessions I've had in a while.
Added a few fresh #16 sulphur sparkle compara duns and EP duns.
A few more #18 Baetis nymphs, and some #14-16 Grannom and Apple caddis dries.
I have a couple lazy fly mooching buddies so I need to tie a lot. LOL
They're gonna be shocked when these are $8.99 each on the water! 😂

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What body material do you use for the beatis nymphs?
 
Looks like some of your Caddis heads with the tips of the hair tied
Down. Isn’t that difficult? Is there a reason you do it that way?
They're tied "bullet head style" actually VERY easy to do.
Use comparadun hair.
Tie the abdomen then skip to the eye.
Tie the tips in as far forward as you can, facing forward.
(The trick is getting the correct length after you fold them back)
Then dub the head backwards to the point you stopped the abdomen.
Fold the wing back over and hold it evenly and tie it down securing the wing and creating the head at the same time.
I whip finish right at that point.
They float like a cork and the aerodynamics are cool.....they allow you to skitter the crap out of them, and they work great in flat water too.
They're basically indestructible.
I've caught fish from PA to the flat water of the Railroad ranch on the Henry's Fork with that style.
 
What body material do you use for the beatis nymphs?
There is a slight tapered underbody of olive thread, then the abdomen is wrapped with "midge" UTC olive vinyl.
Wingcase is medallion sheeting "dark dun"
Thorax is an olive/ brown dubbing mix
Legs and tail are wood duck flank.
Small bead of UV resin on the wingcase and drug back into the abdomen to create that long teardrop taper.
 
I've caught fish from PA to the flat water of the Railroad ranch on the Henry's Fork with that style.
I worked my butt off to catch two rainbows one afternoon on a caddis hatch on the flat water of the Railroad Ranch on the Henry’s Fork back in the summer of ‘21.

That can be some really technical fishing with all of those micro currents from the heavy aquatic vegetation. I kind of remember catching them on some kind of a cdc caddis emerger pattern after throwing practically everything I had in my caddis box at them! Great memories though!!
 
Red head parachute ant on #18 Mustad curved caddis hook.
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I posted one of my worm flies a couple days ago in the thread on Early Spring Confidence Flies and there seemed to be some interest in it there. (That fly actually works most any time.)

Here is my version of another related worm fly, the Wire Worm. The only difference between mine, as pictured here, is that I’ve put about 3-4 coats of Sally Hanson’s Hard as Nails (SHHN) coating over the wire, where the original does not.

Tied on a Mustad 37160-BL size #6 hook, using heavy red wire, UTC 280 Fl.Orange thread, and coated with SHHN.

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The Wire Worm is a very popular fly in the West, particularly in the higher water of the early spring when you need to get your flies down quickly. It’s often used as the upper fly on a 2 fly rig.

It is a very simple, effective, and quick fly to tie when using only the thread and bare wire wrapped on a hook. My version is equally simple to tie but takes a bit longer to apply, and let dry, the coats of SHHN.
 
White Tiger 1080.JPG


White Tiger

Hook - Mustad 3907 B #4 or substitute
Thread - White under floss, black head
Tag - Flat silver tinsel
Tail - Orange schlappen fibers
Body - Orange floss
Rib - Silver oval tinsel
Throat - Orange schlappen fibers
Wing: White hackle flanked by grizzly hackle
Eye - Jungle **** nail

Author's Note

While researching for the Streamers 365 project, Darren was unable to find Gray Wolf's website as it had been taken offline when he retired in 2009/2010. Darren was lucky enough to find a cache of images on an archive of Gray Wolf's site, and among the images was one for the White Tiger pattern. The pattern may not be 100% correct as he was going off of a small grainy image, but he believes he has caught the spirit of the pattern.

Originated by Gray Wolf

Streamers 365 - Vol 1 - Darren MacEachern
 
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I posted one of my worm flies a couple days ago in the thread on Early Spring Confidence Flies and there seemed to be some interest in it there. (That fly actually works most any time.)

Here is my version of another related worm fly, the Wire Worm. The only difference between mine, as pictured here, is that I’ve put about 3-4 coats of Sally Hanson’s Hard as Nails (SHHN) coating over the wire, where the original does not.

Tied on a Mustad 37160-BL size #6 hook, using heavy red wire, UTC 280 Fl.Orange thread, and coated with SHHN.

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The Wire Worm is a very popular fly in the West, particularly in the higher water of the early spring when you need to get your flies down quickly. It’s often used as the upper fly on a 2 fly rig.

It is a very simple, effective, and quick fly to tie when using only the thread and bare wire wrapped on a hook. My version is equally simple to tie but takes a bit longer to apply, and let dry, the coats of SHHN.
I cannot verify this, but this gives me some concern (found in another forum):

Dave Whitlock excerpt from
Trout and Their Food: A Compact Guide for Fly Fishers

"The first San Juan worm flies I saw were constructed on curved shank, size eight, six, and four English bait or caddis hooks and clear red vinyl jibbing material. These looked very wormy and were extremely effective but as deadly to trout as swallowed live bait on barbed hooks. Trout took them greedily and deep into their gill-throat areas and so they were nearly always lethally hooked. Another bad effect of the large English bait hook was that it often blinded one eye of the fish because the bend and gape was so large it passed through the roof of a trout's mouth and into one of its eyes. Most catch-and-release fly fishers, guides and fly shops stopped using them and some catch-and-release areas even outlawed them."
 
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