Winter's Vise
Hope ya’ll are wintering better than the old Ford here. You who live in the northern tier may be suffering snow & cold, but in the lush coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest it is rain, rain, & more rain. Jeff Cottrell sent us this photo from the Olympic Peninsula, taken in the vicinity of the Quinalt River. Incidentally, an area with not only the most precipitation, but also one of the highest suicide rates in America. A paradise for writers, steelheaders (in good years), & fly tyers. The great Syd Glasso comes immediately to mind. But whoever you are & wherever you live in trout country, if you are a fly tyer February is a fly tying month &, chances are, a lot of you are at the vise stocking up for the coming season. For that reason, I’m devoting this month to highlighting what I’ve been tying lately.
Hope ya’ll are wintering better than the old Ford here. You who live in the northern tier may be suffering snow & cold, but in the lush coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest it is rain, rain, & more rain. Jeff Cottrell sent us this photo from the Olympic Peninsula, taken in the vicinity of the Quinalt River. Incidentally, an area with not only the most precipitation, but also one of the highest suicide rates in America. A paradise for writers, steelheaders (in good years), & fly tyers. The great Syd Glasso comes immediately to mind. But whoever you are & wherever you live in trout country, if you are a fly tyer February is a fly tying month &, chances are, a lot of you are at the vise stocking up for the coming season. For that reason, I’m devoting this month to highlighting what I’ve been tying lately.
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| #8 Mustad 3366 ~ black hen hackle ~ black rooster hackle barbs & asian jay tailing ~ fine silver wire rib ~ silver tinsel body ~ black saddle palmer ~ pinch of asian jay as a sparse half-wing (blue guinea substitutes) |
Irish Flies For Winter
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| #6 TMC 200R ~ rust-brown UNI 8/0 thread ~ ringnech pheasant church window hackle ~ copper tinsel tag ~ golden pheasant tippet tailing ~ copper wire rib ~ dark olive hares mask body ~ rust-brown grizzly pakmer ~ jungle cock cheeks |
As stream flies the traditional Irish flies are generally tied on standard wetfly hooks, however, for swinging, I sometimes like a bit of iron hanging back in the tail area for dealing with noncommittal tail-grabbers. I usually tie these on #6-#10 TMC 200R or salmon/steelhead style hooks, but also standard wetfly in those sizes. These make great lures to fill the gap between large streamers & wee flies.
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| #8 TMC 200R ~ brown UNI 8/0 thread ~ pheasant church window hackle ~ green tinsel tag ~ copper wire rib ~ sulfur dubbing body ~ rust-brown grizzly palmer ~ brown pheasant rump rear hackle collar |
The basic design frame of the
Irish wetflies is thus: One to three collar hackles (many patterns use pheasant church
window as the front hackle collar); sometimes a clump wing; a body of tinsel or dubbing; palmer hackle
over the body; sometimes without tailing, though most often tailed, & often
with more than one tailing material. Jungle cock or biots are often added as
cheeks. Forgive me for not including the dressings for these. For anybody interested in tying the Irish flies, I'd suggest the Frankie McPhilips videos available on youtube. And if you'd like the dressing for any featured here, let me know in the comment box below & I'll be glad to write it out.
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| #6 TMC 200R ~ yellow UNI 8/0 thread ~ ginger front collar ~ copper tinsel tag ~ yellow marabou/pheasant tail swords tailing ~ gold tinsel body ~ yellow shlappen palmer ~ brown pheasant rump rear hackle collar ~ bronze mallard wing |
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| # 8 TMC 200R ~ rust-brown UNI 8/0 ~ red guinea front hackle collar ~ copper tinsel tag ~ red guinea hackle fibers/golden pheasant tippet tailing ~ copper wire rib ~ golden orange dubbing ~ orange saddle palmer ~ golden pheasant tippet half-wing ~ orange hen rear hackle collar |
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| #4 TMC 200R ~ olive UNI 8/0 ~ olive grizzly front hackle collar ~ copper tinsel tag ~ peacock herl/olive marabou tailing ~ silver wire rib ~ green tinsel body ~ brown saddle palmer ~ olive guinea rear hackle collar |
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| #6 TMC 200R ~ wine UNI 8/0 ~ black hen front collar ~ orange tinsel tag ~ peacock herl/red saddle tailing ~ silver wire rib ~ orange tinsel body ~ red saddle palmer ~ golden pheasant tippet half-wing ~ red guinea rear hackle collar |
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| #8 TMC 200R ~ wine UNI 8/0 ~ pheasant church window hackle collar ~ copper tinsel tag ~ silver wire rib ~ peacock herl body ~ brown saddle palmer |
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| #8 TMC 200R ~ yellow UNI 8/0 thread ~ golden plover front hackle collar ~ gold tinsel tag ~ turkey tail swords tailing ~ gold french oval rib ~ hares mask body with squirrel thorax ~ brown partridge rear hackle collar |
Partridge & Yellow
Drifting the river, we
encounter back-eddies that, in summer, accumulate organic slicks composed, mostly,
of the oil & debris of decayed & decaying insects from past nights
hatches. Mixed with that dusty miasma are a number of still-living & edible
wee insects. There are usually some trouts cruising the back-eddy slicks,
tipping & sipping. The other guides, with their bobbers & beadheads,
generally avoid these fish because they know they are difficult & won't eat
that gear. We call these fish "scum suckers," & I love them. I
carry a 10', 5wt rigged with a DT & 15' leader tipped with a single
Partridge & Yellow, especially for scum suckers. Thread bodies fish cleaner
in the scum, as dubbing tends to gather it.
I can't think of anything
more zen simple than this fly, nor as difficult to tie. It is buck naked &
there's no hiding in the details. I think the trick with this, or any fly, is
to get it 'right' without resorting to primness. When tying, making bait, I
don't think about a rigid metric of correctness while I work. I've seen it. I'm
visualizing perfect-circle grabs under lowering skies, on those summer scummed
seam-lines. Trying to put that mojo into the fly in my vise. Constantly washing
my hands while handling the yellow silk, it still colors with my doings.
The Reel News
Strange visitor?
Is Donald Trump really a
self-made man?
World’s largest gathering of
humans.
California sea rise.
Contrast
In the book, Art of the Wet Fly, Leisenring & Hidy introduce the concept of ‘translucence’
as a desirable quality in an artificial fly. This is meant as the fly having a
look of semi-transparency, this usually accomplished with a contrasting silk
providing an undertone to sparsely dubbed bodies twisted on the silk. This
ambiguous quality works very well in designs meant to simulate fairly drab
colored stream-born insects like caddis & mayflies.
But what of ‘contrast’ alone,
without veiling dubbing? Not all insects exhibit translucency. Many present a
hard outline, exhibiting a more plastique quality in which contrast may be
stark & immediately apparent as a triggering/keying characteristic. A good
example of contrast is the color banding we see on some stream-born bugs, &
more often on terrestrials often found around trout streams – wasps, sweat
bees, false bees & deer flies come immediately to mind – & these are
often found in trout stomachs during the warmer months. Those deer flies
orbiting our heads while we try to fish, waiting for a lapse in our attention, may
actually be good bait.
Deer Fly/Sweat Bee
I tyed a couple versions of this, using UNI spooled yarn for one, & 'C' rod wrapping thread for a smaller version.
Hook: #10-#14
Thread: Rust-brown or olive UNI 8/0
Hackle: English grouse
Body: Yarn or thread wound together to create alternating bands
Head: Peacock herl
