What Are You Tying Today?
- Thread starter DaveKile
- Start date
MJMFlyfisher
Well-known member
My recommendation would actually be to ditch that style hook for that style fly.
It's overpowering for that style tie and really kinda detracts from the delicate nature of the whole thing. LOL
😁
nfrechet
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Ibis White
Tip - Gold tinsel
Tail - Scarlet hackle
Body - White chenille
Hackle - Scarlet hackle
Wing - Scarlet duck or goose quill segments
Author's Note
Also made with silver tinsel rib and white floss
Ameteur Tyers Fly Dictionary - J E Willmarth
Ibis Yellow
Tail - Scarlet hackle
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow floss
Hackle - Scarlet hackle
Wing - Scarlet duck or goose quill segments
Amateur Tyerts Fly Dictionary - J E Willmarth
Jennie Lind
Tail - Blue hackle
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow floss
Hackle - Scarlet
Wing - Blue duck or goose quill segments
Amateur Tyers Fly Dictionary - J E Willmarth
mt_flyfisher
Well-known member
I haven’t fished Green Drakes around here for many years. Mostly because my wife and I were already in Montana for the summer by the time they hatched. I hope to change that this year.
Back when I fished Green Drakes I had a handful of patterns that were popular at the time, even some extended body flies that used porcupine quills. Most of them worked to some extent, more or less, but they took a fair amount of time and materials to tie.
That changed late one evening when I ran into a guy coming back to his vehicle on Penns Creek who was toting an honest to goodness 20” brown. (That was back when it was more common to keep those big fish than it is today.). I asked him what he caught it on and he showed me his fly, still attached to his leader. I was surprised because I’d never heard of anyone using that fly for the Green Drakes but he said that’s what he always used and it caught plenty of trout.
I subsequently tied a few of those flies used them with quite a bit of success. I’ll probably have a few other patterns available to fish when the Green Drakes are around this year, but this will be my go to pattern.
Tied on a Tiemco 300 #8 streamer hook, with a dubbed muskrat fur body and Grizzly hackle, it doesn’t look much like a Green Drake. Greased with an abundance of floatant, it’s an abomination to cast, but it will float and can be fished like a dry fly. With a little less grease, or when it gets wet, it can be fished in the film, or sunk and fished subsurface.
Back when I fished Green Drakes I had a handful of patterns that were popular at the time, even some extended body flies that used porcupine quills. Most of them worked to some extent, more or less, but they took a fair amount of time and materials to tie.
That changed late one evening when I ran into a guy coming back to his vehicle on Penns Creek who was toting an honest to goodness 20” brown. (That was back when it was more common to keep those big fish than it is today.). I asked him what he caught it on and he showed me his fly, still attached to his leader. I was surprised because I’d never heard of anyone using that fly for the Green Drakes but he said that’s what he always used and it caught plenty of trout.
I subsequently tied a few of those flies used them with quite a bit of success. I’ll probably have a few other patterns available to fish when the Green Drakes are around this year, but this will be my go to pattern.
Tied on a Tiemco 300 #8 streamer hook, with a dubbed muskrat fur body and Grizzly hackle, it doesn’t look much like a Green Drake. Greased with an abundance of floatant, it’s an abomination to cast, but it will float and can be fished like a dry fly. With a little less grease, or when it gets wet, it can be fished in the film, or sunk and fished subsurface.
BruceC2C
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lprudente
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- 132
MJMFlyfisher
Well-known member
Holy Moly......that thing is like the mothership of all Griffiths Gnats!
How on earth would anyone think to try something like that as a green drake imitation!?
Maybe we should be tying them in sizes to match all the common mayfly hatches!??? 😁
mt_flyfisher
Well-known member
I hadn’t thought of it as the mothership of all Griffiths Gnats, but it just might be!
I doubt there are many guys who would think of that as a green drake imitation. But it has worked for me, so why not?
On a related subject, I recently acquired a box of flies from an 86 year old fellow, who had a very large collection of fly fishing gear and tying materials. The box contained dozens of beautifully tied flies that he had tied in several different sizes (#12-#18) that were comprised of just mixed grizzly and light or medium brown palmered hackle. I didn’t ask him why he had so many files in that same pattern, but I’m sure it was because they worked well for him. I never saw a hatch of something like those flies in (say) a size #12, but if they worked, why not?
That also reminds me of an old guy I ran into several times on the upper reaches of Slate Run years back who only used Royal Coachman dry flies, that he fished down stream. His fly boxes only had Royal Coachman flies in them, and whenever I asked how he was doing, he always showed me his wicker creel than had several trout in it - more than I was catching at the time. Whoever would have thought that a Royal Coachman ever imitated anything specifically? But if it works, why not?
