Tying with Odd Materials

While the season/weather conspires against me actually doing any flyfishing, I continue to tie a fly or two.

This past week, I went to a Michael's craft store to pick up some items for a project my son wanted to do.  While there, I walked through the yarn section.  They had the usual great selection of wool yarns...but the yarn skeins that caught my eye on this trip was their excellent color selection of Patons Bohemian Yarns and Martha Stewart Glitter Eyelash yarns.

The Bohemian yarns are a really thick, heavy chenille-type yarn.  Some really great patterns that use this material are Rich McElligott's Wonder Worms and Shannon's Streamer.  I have some white already, so although I turned an appreciative eye towards the other colors I saw, I didn't buy any.  I think I might go back and remedy that this week, though.

I've never been a fan of Eyelash Yarns.  I personally don't think their action is that good in the water for what I would use them for.  On the other hand, I did see some pretty cool "bass jig flies" tied with the stuff, and it looks like that would be a perfect fit for this material.  The GLITTER Eyelash yarn has a lot of mylar flash built right into it, and it started some ideas in my head, so I bought 4 colors:

I've only tied up a few flies with it so far.  Here's what they look like dry:

...and here's what they look like AFTER getting wet:

I like the wet look on these.  I think they will be especially good fished quickly in still water...or in the river, since the current will help them keep a streamlined shape.

In the clearance yarn rack, I saw a single skein of a HUGE yarn called Loops and Threads "Festive Fur"....in an excellent chartreuse color.  (To quote Left Kreh...."If it ain't Chartreuse, it ain't no use!").  This is a super-thick yarn that makes Bohemian Yarn look malnourished. I measured the Festive Fur...and it is 1/2" diameter when dry.  I wasn't sure how best to show scale of this yarn, so I stuck a pair of my fly-tying scissors in the skein:

Its so thick...I envision using this for heads on baitfish patterns.  It should really push a lot of water.  I also tied up a furled-tail pattern that I hope fishes similar to a Senko.  One problem is this pattern might be pretty heavy to cast once it gets soaked with water!  We shall see.  I'm hoping the bass will LOVE it!  The smaller fly below...I hope is small enough to attract Crappies.  It should work great after dark, when the fly pushes a lot of water making it easy for the fish to find at night.

The color is perfect..it definitely lights up under a UV light!

I'm open to suggestions anyone might have on patterns to tie with ANY of these materials.  For example, I think the orange-colored Glitter Chenille might make a decent body on a crayfish pattern...it already has built-in legs!

Crayfish Fly Patterns

Confession....I have only used crayfish fly patterns a couple of times.  The first time, a large fish broke me off just a few seconds after the hook-set.  Crayfish are a great food source when fish can find them, so I keep looking for better patterns to tie...with plans of eventually fishing them.

Last week I was searching the web for fly patterns for Largemouth Bass, and I ran across a pattern that REALLY caught my eye.  Although the colors are different, as near as I could determine that pattern is called May's Clearwater Crayfish.  I couldn't find a recipe or tying instructions, only pictures on the Orvis website, where they are sold.  Here's a screen capture of the one that I saw in a video that originally caught my eye (its the one on the far right):

The Orvis website shows this:

I did the best I could with trying to figure out how to tie the pattern, and made some material substitutions.

Although the pictures appeared to use a 60-degree jig hook, I used Mustad 32756 90-degree jig hooks.  The first one I tied on a #4 hook.  I made my own eyes for these.  On this one, I used Turkey as the carapace.

Really doesn't look much like the original.  Hey, it was a first attempt!  :)

Next, I tied one on a #1 Mustad 32756 90-degree jig hooks (#4 and #1 were the only sizes I had).  For this one, I used brown Furry Foam for the carapace:

I tied up a 3rd one, also on the #1 hook, and once again I used Turkey for the carapace:

I compared the last two:

I like them both.  The Fuzzy Fur is easier to work with, and a softer feel for the fish.  But I like the mottled color of the Turkey carapace.

Here's a comparison of those crayfish (which as you may have noticed do NOT have claws, but are still unmistakably crayfish), and some of Missouriflies.com "Rough Dub Crayfish" that I tied (if they don't look good, its my fault).  My Rough Dub's are smaller in overall size than my May's Clearwater's.  The Rough Dubs also have claws, and are MUCH quicker to tie.  I like them, too.

I'd still like to figure out how to tie them so they look like the one on the right side of the 3rd picture in this post.  For now, I like the May's Clearwater AND the Rough Dub crayfish patterns....so I guess I will keep tying a few of both.  And then hopefully I can try them out on the fish later this year!

Teal Blue Silver....sort of

I'm still re-perusing The Fly-Tying Bible by Peter Gathercole.
Another streamer pattern caught my eye, the "Teal Blue Silver".

My main problem is I don't have any teal feathers.  Mallard is SORT of similar, but without the nice barring. I tried it anyway.
Would this be considered a "Mallard Blue Silver"?

I'd never tried the "folded wing" before, and it turned out much smaller in profile than I wanted.  Something to remember and improve upon for next time.

Next, I tried using grizzly hackle feathers for the wing.  ("Grizzly Blue Silver"?) This turned out ok.  I did coat the heads with Clear Cure Goo.

End of Open Water Season, 2011

I think its official.  A major warm spell  could turn this around, but at this time of year in central Iowa, you just aren't going to avoid the inevitable for long.

Ice-up.

On the way to work this morning, every pond I passed appeared to be 100% ice-covered, and our temperatures in the 10-day forecast appear to be those that will build MORE ice, rather than melt it away.  So...I believe I will call this the END of my open-water fishing for the year, and will now wait for the ice to get thick enough to safely stand on (3"-4"+), so the ice-fishing season can begin.

I will have more to say about my 2011 fishing season in a future blog entry.

For now...I will tie up some fly-fishing patterns that I feel will be useful in my pursuit of next year's fish.

Below are some examples of what I've been tying over the past week or two.

Flashback Scud/Sowbug:

Deer Hair Popper...I tied this for Smallmouth Bass, but it could see some use for other species as well:

Below is a size 14 Shad Fry I created to imitate that phase of a shad's life when nearly every other fish finds it to be an EASY meal.  Not much as nutrition, but they can't swim very fast at this size, so even fish like Common Carp will hound these pods of tiny fish.  The color of this artificial is nearly identical to the shad fry I've seen.  I always thought to myself, "If only I had something that was tiny enough and looked like these shad fry!"  Now I do:

This next pattern is my first attempt in YEARS at tying a Muddler Minnow.  It isn't perfect...the proportions aren't the best, the head could be a bit larger...but I think it'll catch some fish:

Rick Zieger recently sent me, at my request, some of his Goldie Jr wet flies.  There have been some notable instances this year when a super-flashy patterns caught fish while more subdued offerings were being ignored.
I tried to tie some of them myself.  I tied one with gold Flashabou, one with gold Krystal Flash, and one with some pearl Flashabou that was mixed with the gold Flashabou hank I have.  They turned out well, I thought, and I look forward to trying them out in the coming year:

I've always liked the look of the Thunder Creek Minnows.  Here's one I tied with Craft Fur, and coated the head with Clear Cure Goo (a UV-cured epoxy alternative), then added eyes with fingernail polish.

Below is a trio of rather generic Beadhead Nymphs I tied up:

Below is a Morrish Anato-May Peacock I varied slightly by adding a flashback, and used brown goose biots for the tail instead of 3 feather fibers.  Its a great-looking pattern:

Below is a group of my "Somethings" and variants I've tied up, which trout especially have fallen for:

And lastly (for now), here are some "Booby" style patterns in an Electric Chicken color scheme.  My thought was that these might do well on White Bass in the Spring.  White Bass seem to really like this color combination.  With a sinking line or sink-tip fly line and a short leader, I should be able to fish these close to the bottom in the river next Spring, without getting snagged up too much (since the foam "eyes" will keep the pattern from sinking to the bottom).



Weekend of Fly Tying, 11/2011

I didn't get out fishing this weekend, so instead of a REPORT, I will post some fly-fishing fly patterns I tied up over the weekend.

 Above is a #10 or #12 Black & Olive Woolly Bugger, with a glass bead head.  This thing definitely catches trout, and I imagine bluegills will find it worth a bite as well.

 Above is a couple of Mylar/Epoxy Minnows.  I tied these larger than usual...on #4 streamer hooks.  The top one has a body of medium-sized silver mylar tubing, while the bottom one has a body of medium-sized pearl mylar tubing (over a base of chartreuse yarn).  Both are then coated with Clear Cure Goo epoxy-alternative.

 The above nymph looks like a real fish-getter!  It is Ian James' "The Muncher" nymph.


Below is a series of shad/minnow imitator streamers I plan to use on the local river during the colder months.  Last Friday I caught a small walleye and a crappie there on Clousers, but lost a handful of the Clousers to the underwater rocks/snags.

Lefty's Deceiver

Gray-over-White Clouser Deep Minnow

Clouser with a wool overwing.

Just something easy I threw together that looked like it'll catch fish in the river...

Above is a streamer with a calftail belly and a white fox fur overwing.

 Above is a Furled Tail Mohair Leech tied on a 1/80th oz microjig.  Bluegills especially, and maybe trout, should go NUTS over this!

 Above is a pair of Chironomid patterns using olive (above) and red Larva Lace.  I tied these on a #10 Scud hook.  I tried them once last year, and had a nice carp take a red one, then it broke my line.

I don't really know what to call the pattern above...its a marabou tail, gold mylar tubing body, and dark ostrich herl head.  It isn't the prettiest thing, but I've done really well with it on trout on several occasions when they seemed otherwise very finicky.  This was the only thing that REALLY get their attention and drew strikes.

Iowa Lakes "Trout Stocking Day" Fly Pattern Selections

Just a quick blog today to show you what I tied up last week for the Trout Stocking Day here in Iowa last Friday.  I will be taking these same patterns with me to another central Iowa lake next month when it gets its first batch of trout for this Fall season.

The photo above...that's IT!  Now, this selection may change/grow as I gain more experience with fooling trout on "stocking day" around here....but for now, this will do it.  The column of flies on the left side of the picture are simple patterns consisting of 3 feather fibers from a peacock sword for the tail, olive dubbing for the body, with brown or grizzly hackle palmered over it, and a small glass bead for a head.  Not sure what the name of this pattern is.  A kind gentleman at a trout stocking last year gave me one to try, and it worked AWESOME!  Actually, first he gave me one without a bead, and it caught so many fish that the hackle was starting to unravel, so then he gave me the beadhead version.  I sort of like the beadhead version better, it sank just a bit faster to get down to the trout sooner.  Below is another picture of some of that pattern.

The second column of the top picture has some "experimental's" included in it, several of which use ginger-colored ostrich plumes for the body.  Let's face it, we are targeting fish that are fresh from the hatchery.  The only food they've known for most (or all) of their lives is manmade fish pellets.  The ginger (tan, brown, or gray might also work) ostrich looks similar to a pellet, with just a bit of movement and a soft texture when the fish tastes it.

Something sort of similar to that, for those that would rather use/tie a pattern that looks like a trout's NATURAL food item (but could also pass for a pellet in a pinch) is to use some sort of scud pattern like those at the bottom of the 4th column of flies in the top picture, also shown below:

The third column of patterns in the top picture are microjigs.  Now, technically the "microjig" pattern has rubber legs, but I rarely use them on my own microjigs.  I've caught a LOT of fish, including trout, on them without legs.  I prefer to use some color of grizzly marabou/chickabou for the tail.  For the body of microjig, I like to use a sparkle chenille, with gold being my personal favorite.  I've also done well with an olive mylar chenille.  Other colors may also work well.

I've been told a Beadhead Prince Nymph under an indicator can work well for these stocked trout.  I haven't tested that yet.  If using an indicator, it would seem that a pattern that has more inherent movement to it would work better...like maybe something using rabbit fur, marabou, or soft hackle.

If you have some patterns that have worked well for you at these "stocking day" events, I'm always glad to hear about them.  I think I will also throw some brown or black Boa Yarn Leeches into my kit for one particular lake where the trout like to hang out in the shallows for the first day after being stocked...I think it might get their attention!

Fly Patterns, 9-13-2011

Here's some patterns I've tied recently.

#10 Chernobyl Ant/Hopper.  This has been great for bluegills and crappies this summer.

I don't know if this on has a name....basically a biot-bodied dry fly.

This is an example of the Jumpin' Catfish Nymph.  Normally it doesn't have a "shell back" over the abdomen.  I tied it without reviewing the pattern first...Still works fine this way.

Birds Nest

This is a bucktail/calftail streamer...this is the sort of streamer that I have been catching nice catfish on this Summer/Fall.  I've used Craft Fur on some examples.

A generic EP minnow.  I haven't got this one wet yet.

Smaller Jointed Minnows

Last Summer/Fall, I had tied up some of Ward Bean's "Jointed Minnow" fly-fishing patterns.  You can search for the tying instructions on his website here:
http://warmwaterflytyer.com/welcome.asp

I tied up some smaller Jointed Minnows this weekend. The ones I had tied previously, I used #2 streamer hooks. Those shad imitors looked great, and ended up 3.5"-4" long.


The ones I tied up this weekend used mainly #8 hooks front and back (back hooks cut off at the bend). I also tried #10 front and #12 for the rear hook. Regardless of hook sizes I used, overall length still came out to about 2", so for weight purposes on future ties I think I will stick with the #8 front, and maybe #10 for the rear hook. Also, I used the "small" size Wapsi Palmer Chenille on these small versions, instead of the "medium" used on the larger versions.

For size comparison, here's 2 of the smaller ones compared to the 4" version:

 

Then I tied up a couple in a chartreuse color. Here's one of them beneath the "pearl" colored ones:

 

UV light spectrum penetrates water better/further than other colors, so I wanted to see what the fish might see under water. Here's those same Jointed Minnows under UV light:

The Chartreuse really lights up!  How cool is that?? :)