Flies

[Glen]

What patterns will you be tying this winter? I’m going to start on some cdc dries for the rivers. I got the petitjean magic tool which should make my ties more consistent. After the dries some Stillwater nymphs and against my better judgment some hornbergs. I’ve got a bunch of jungle cock capes from years ago. Might as well use them.

[Pauly D.]

I'm going to work on getting better at tying deer hair patterns. Muddlers and sedges. I also want to try and tie some tadpoles with deer hair. I see them rising to the surface and I'm trying to come up with a fly that mimics the vertical motion with their tails wiggling. Not sure I'll catch anything but it will be fun to experiment with.

Enjoy the Petitjean magic tool.

[Glen]

I’ve always wondered if Brook trout eat tadpoles. They sure have a lot of protein in them. I was surprised to find out some years ago that they ignore newts for some reason. They generally like black leech and woolly bugger patterns. Are they taking them as leeches, crayfish, or tadpoles?

[EagleCrag]

I'm currently in San Diego for the winter but have a couple trips planned for Pyramid Lake, NV to fish for Lahontan Cutthroats so that is where my current fly tying is focused. Once I'm happy with the flies I have for there which includes midges, balanced leeches, beetles, and streamers, I am going to go through the hatch list for the Adirondacks and start building an inventory for all the major hatches there. I fish primarily nymphs but will add some dries this year to round out my selection. One of the flies they use extensively at Pyramid is a beetle imitation in a variety of colors (the fish don't seem to always want a natural color) these beetle imitations are tied with a foam back to give them buoyancy but are fished on a sinking line and stripped in when fished. The stripping action with the sinking line pulls the beetle down but then it starts popping back up which (hopefully) triggers the fish. I'm thinking a modification of the beetle fly would work well for Pauly's desire to create a tadpole imitation. Different thicknesses of foam will keep your fly closer or further from the bottom.

https://imgur.com/0ihLr0C

[bluequill]

Originally Posted by Glen

I’ve always wondered if Brook trout eat tadpoles. They sure have a lot of protein in them. I was surprised to find out some years ago that they ignore newts for some reason. They generally like black leech and woolly bugger patterns. Are they taking them as leeches, crayfish, or tadpoles?

Years (decades) ago, small salamanders were deadly on brook trout on some of the Taconic streams that I fished.

[Klinkhamer]

I've actually started tying steelhead patterns even though I never fish them myself. My niece works with DEC and SUNY ESF on the Salmon River runs, so she gets some fishing time in there, and I'll give them to her along with the 8 wt fly rod and reel I gave her last fall. I filled all my boxes for last season with dries, emergers, and nymphs and then never got out hardly at all because I was building a new house. Now that's all done and I have to make up for lost fishing time this coming season!

[vtflyfish]

Flies? Oh yeah, those things. Guess I've got to get started.

I'm waylaid by another project: building a replica Gibson ES-335 arch-top guitar. Actually, two of them. Plus a bass version. All for my kids. With luck they'll be done around... the beginning of brookie season.

So my first order of fly tying business is to replace the damage done by my Montana trip last June. Those big boys made off with a few lip rings and lacerated an awful lot of my collection. The fall brookies made short work of what was left.

Along the tadpole/salamander theme, I have a friend who swears the brookies massacre anything that looks like a yellow spotted salamander when they're migrating. So I guess some experimental models are in order. There's also a tiny, very thin leech pattern of which I only had one example of. A brookie this fall removed it from my possession. Might be a good thing to replicate that while I can still somewhat remember what it looked like.

Then there's dries. I had a great couple of days this summer fishing small streams with my dad's old Sharpe's bamboo rod. I'm thinking a few classic Catskill patterns might suit that setup nicely.

So much to do, so little time!!!

[ADKpikebuster]

Been hard at work tying Mepps musky killer hooked to ugly stick preferred method for Brookies, boat loaded down with lattes

[Glen]

Originally Posted by ADKpikebuster

Been hard at work tying Mepps musky killer hooked to ugly stick preferred method for Brookies, boat loaded down with lattes

Don’t forget the dynamite! :

[vtflyfish]

Originally Posted by ADKpikebuster

Been hard at work tying Mepps musky killer hooked to ugly stick preferred method for Brookies, boat loaded down with lattes

Pikebuster, I always thought you trolled a full can of Busch Lite.

[Glen]

Tying some isonychia dries. Hoping to get some time on the Ausable this season. I have a bad tying habit in that I never tie a pattern the same way twice. Both flies have a quill body with resin over and wings of cdc. The top fly has an overwing of partridge. The bottom one has a deer hair cover. They are dressed heavy for the faster water I'd be fishing. It's been a while since I've tied. Each fly gets a little better. I won't post pics of the first few failures. They've been cut up.

[adkfishing]

Nice looking Iso's - I have mainly been tying variations of caddis and mayfly nymphs, but will be switching over to klinkhammers, caddis, sulphers, and a bunch of big dries for a trip out west next summer!

[DuctTape]

"There ain't no flies on me,
there ain't no flies on me,
there might be flies on some of you guys,
but there ain't no flies on me."

/threadjack
sorry