Tying small flies

I got frustrated very fast the first time I sat down to try and tie some size 24 and 26 tricos. I've started to get the hang of it though. Thoughts on the proportions? Yes, that's a beer bottle cap they are resting on. That's how small they are.

Mustad dry fly hook
Uni-Thread Black 8/0
Microfibbets tail (light dun)
Beaver dubbing (thorax)
White GloBug yarn (wing on top fly)
White Flouro Fiber (wings on bottom fly)

New goodies in the mail = new bugs

On Monday, I ordered over $50 worth of stuff from Performance Flies and I could not believe it was already here when I got home today. I picked up some dohiku nymph and jig hooks, some more UV quill body for Nick and myself, some glo-brite floss, and some Jan Siman dubbing in peacock bronze and UV bronze.


The stuff can get a little pricey because it's all imported from Europe, but it's fun to try some new material and I love using all of it. The dubbing really lives up to all the great stuff I've heard about it. I didn't get home until rather late tonight, but I had some time to knock out 3 bugs.

Dohiku barbless 1X nymph hook, size 14
Montana lucent tungsten bead, blue 7/64"
Glo Brite bright green floss (body)
Coq De Leon feathers (tail)
UV body quill- pearl (rib #1)
UTC ultra wire xsmall, gold (rib #2)
Jan Siman UV bronze dubbing

Patterns, patterns, patterns

It was 60 degrees today. It's going to be 65 tomorrow. I walked outside today around noon and just knew that I had to take a vacation day on Friday. Needless to say, I'll be in jeans and t-shirt, hunting for a BWO hatch. I love this weather.

So yeah, here's some new flies I've been toying around with.

I noticed when I looked at my fly box that I never quite messed with the color blue for any attractor patterns. I picked up some royal blue flashabou at Cabelas so I gave it a go on some size 18 nymphs.

Size 18 scud hook
Tungsten bead
Uni-thread 8/0 -black
Peacock herl died green, stripped (ribbing #1)
Flashabou, royal blue (ribbing #2)
Z-lon - grey (tail)
Senyo Laser Ice Dub, neon blue



I also acquired some olive quills recently. This stuff annoys me because it kept breaking, even after soaking it in water. I think my olives look better with just thread. This fly looks like hell but I'll post it anyway.
size 22 dry fly hook
olive quills
microfibbets - light dun
hen wing feathers - dun
14/0 olive thread



Here's my first attempt at a Hot Wire Prince. I changed it up a little bit and tied it on a 3xl nymph hook. I'll probably play with it some more. I think it's screaming "GIVE ME RUBBER LEGS!" I was quite happy with the yellow and olive wire combo.

size 18 3xl nymph hook
gold bead (avoided tung so it wasnt too heavy with the double wire)
goose biots - amber
UTC ultra-wire, sm, olive, and yellow
goose biots -white (wings)
peacock herl
hen saddle feathers (legs)


I took a shot at really small Copper Johns. I figured with the coloring it could double as a stonefly or as a small baetis nymph. This is a size 20. I'm not posting the recipe because it's readily available and my eyes are getting heavy.


And last but not least, I have a new egg. I was reminded that it was pre-spawn for the bows last weekend when a male bow soaked my net with the nasty stuff. I wanted to experiment with UV epoxy so I came up with this. I just take a bright tungsten bead, glue it on a size 18 hook, and then build thin layers of epoxy around it. Just keep doing a paper thin coat, hitting it with the light, repeat, etc. After I had it nice and round, I added some pink coloring with a prismacolor. It will definitely be heavy enough but I'm not sure if it will catch fish. It looks pretty cool though :)

Mega-post from the Sex Dungeon! (safe for work - I swear!)

Well, I kicked Pneumonia's butt after it kicked mine for almost the last three weeks and I'm back in business. Unfortunately, I had to back out of the Salmon River trip this weekend so I can get back to full speed. My bro-in-law is up there now and reported the skunk today so I don't feel too bad.

Since I can't fish, I've been doing a lot of tying. I actually got a new vise delivered to me from Bass Pro Shops yesterday. I went with the Anvil Apex because it came with a C-clamp, pedestal, material clip, and it looked like it handled a WIDE range of hooks.


I hate to say it, but I don't like it at all so far. It's supposed to be rotary, but you have to loosen a wing nut to rotate it and when you do that, the whole barrel becomes loose. I'm most likely going to return it and hopefully pick up a new one at the Somerset show next weekend.

One thing I don't like about my old vise is that it has a tough time handling a hook any larger than a size 8. I decided to put the new vise to the test on a few size 6 long streamer hooks.

It seems like I can't read a website, pick up a fly fishing magazine, or listen to a podcast without Kelly Galloup's name coming up. This guy is supposed to be the master of big streamers for big trout. After seeing his Sex Dungeon tandem hook streamer, I had to try to tie one, if only for the fact that I can say I tied a Sex Dungeon. I studied pics of the pattern and checked out a YouTube video on how it's done, and then tried it out.

Before I post the pic, here is some advice if you attempt to tie this fly.

1.GO LONG on your streamer hooks. my 3XL size 6 hooks did not seem long enough..or maybe it was that my lead eyes were too big.

2.Learn to spin deer hair. I suck at it so bad, and you can tell on this fly. This is only the 3rd time I've ever tried to spin deer hair and I still need a ton of work.

3.Go smaller with the beads. The only plastic beads I had were ones we use for monster channel cat fishing with spin tackle. They are way too big on this fly.

After 45 minutes on the vise, this is what I came up with.


Yeah, I know. I suck at tying flies. It's embarrassing how bad it turned out. The head looks awful. I don't have the patience to sit there with scissors and clip deer hair. Plus, it makes a mess. But I spent all the time tying the thing and I'm now determined to catch at least one stupid fish on it. Expect a ton of "tried out the Sex Dungeon but got skunked" posts this year until I find a fish dumb enough to hit it. My thoughts are that it will be a 8 inch largemouth that finally hits it and that it will happen around August. I will try it once the ice is off my favorite pickerel lake at the end of February though.

Now that I embarrassed myself, let's move on. My last post was a crappy i-phone pic of my steelhead box. I decided that I should give you some better images, and some more insight in to my favorite patterns. Here's a few recipes on some patterns you might not have thought of trying. Keep in mind that I like to keep these flies simple, because you lose so many. They are really quick to tie so you can knock out a dozen at a time.

This pattern was shown to me by the guys we stay with when we chase chrome. I've heard it called a steelhead nymph, or a steelhead caddis. It's a bit different than a standard estaz egg. It has a glass bead, and the estaz is only sparse at the top. THe body is wrapped thin with bright colored thread or preferably, Lagartun french mini flat-braid.

Size 12 Scud hook
Lagartun French mini flat-braid wrapped thin up the body
Killer Caddis glass bead (color to match pattern)
Petite Estaz (or regular Estaz for a puffier thorax..see pic 2)



This next one is something we just kind of came up with while fishing up there. We started having luck on small black scuds, so we started tying them with a brighter colored head as an attractor. I eventually decided to flip it up, making the scud brighter and adding a black head for contrast. One thing I noticed with regular scuds was that steelies shredded the fly really quick and the scud backing would rip off fast. So, instead of bringing the scud back all the way to the head, I cut it off 3/4 up and just did a thick black head coated with cement. I also added some extra coloring in to the scud back.

Size 14 Scud hook
1/4" scud back
UTC Ultra-wire - brassie (copper)
Uni-Thread 6/0 - black
Harelin Steelhead ice dubbing
Berol Prismacolor in darker shade than dubbing - colored on scud back



Here's an egg pattern that I haven't tried yet but I've read about it. It's called Bear's Crystal egg. I knocked out half a dozen of them.

Size 12 Scud Hook
Crystal Flash tail
White 6/0 Uni-Thread
Otter's Rubber Egg
Glow Bug yarn - white


Here's another really quick tie. This is a really basic attractor stonefly.

Size 14 Scud hook
Uni-thread 6/0 - black
Black goose biots
Uni-Floss (body color) of your choice
V-ribbing - clear, small (wrap over colored floss)
Harelin steelhead ice dubbing
Swiss straw (wingcase)



And last but not least, here's a red and black version of the Tungsten Stone I posted last week. I love this fly. It's a freaking paperweight.



A few more patterns, and I can put this box to sleep until I hit the water in a few weeks.


And before I go, I want to give a shout out to Maxim magazine. I hate this awful publication. Someone got me a subscription to it years ago, and for some reason it never stopped showing up each month. I barely ever open it anymore, but that changes when Olivia Munn is on the cover. A girl who loves video games? Yes. Now if they could only get a shot of her in waders....

Stoneflies and Fan Mail

It's definitely been stonefly party time at the vise this week. I listened to a pretty bad podcast today while stuck in traffic on the turnpike and they had a guy (can't remember his name) talking about how prince nymphs are killer steelhead patterns and how they like the peacock herl. That motivated me to sit down and knock out a green and black stonefly pattern with a peacock thorax. I tried one with biots and one with rubber legs. I weighted the hell out of these with wire and added a tungsten bead to get them down to the chrome with a quickness. Thoughts?

Peacock Stone
3xl Orvis curved nymph hook
black tungsten bead
black goose biots or medium rubber round legs
6/0 black unithread (also used for the body
.015 lead wire.
UTC ultra wire, olive (sm)
Strung Peacock Herl
Black craft store raffia (wingcase) coated with Zap-A-Gap







In other news, I received a kind message the other day from a prominent member of one of my favorite fishing websites. I found it to be awesome that someone actually looks forward to reading this thing and doesn't spend all of their spare internet time at work watching THE WEBSITE IS DOWN over and over again.

Mike,

First...Love reading your Blog. Never read a blog before and yours is great...!
Just looked at yor McFly Foam entry. I have been using that for a while and it really is great.
I don't throw eggs much at all, but let me tell you what I found. At the Salmon River the BLUE Mcfly Foam tied as sucker spawn works extremely well for Steel Head. So, tried it on Trout and it works well on them also.
I don't do well with the strike indicator/bobber and egg...I end up with a tangled mess more often than not. That is just my poor casting skills I'm sure. That is why I don't throw them much.
Next, really like the look of your red head pheasant tails. I never would have thought of them and will tie some up after I send this PM.
Lastly, Thanks for the blog. I have learned a lot from it since I don't get out much. I check it two or three times a day to see what is new. I am on the PC all day while working.

Wishing you and yours a great, healthy and prosperous New Year.

**name witheld**

Thank you for the kind words sir. I greatly appreciate it. Also, I'm going to take your advice and place some of it in my flybox.

Who needs a wingcase?

Tonight = filling in the box with some basic patterns and downing a few bottles of Spaten Optimator

Redneck Pheasant tail

Orvis 3xl nymph hook size 20
tungsten bead
pheasant tail fibers
UTC copper wire xs
12/0 brown uni thread
danville 70 denier bright red (hot spot)




I'd also like to give a shoutout to Minion Fly Fishing and Fishing With Dad for linking to us and pushing through some extra traffic. Gracias!

Dry flies in PA in mid-December?! Oh yes. It happens.

I was psyched to hit the water this morning after a long week at work. I had a bunch of new patterns, I cleaned out my fly boxes, had a fresh leader, and brand new spools of tippet.

I tied up some BWOs just in case the rare hatch happened this time of year. I got to the Little Lehigh just before 11am. I started off by hiking half a mile downstream and didn't see one rise. A few small trout were feeding on midges, but that's it. Fishing was tough for the first 45 minutes. I took a break and hit the Fly Shop for some more tungsten beads and then got back on the water.

After that, it turned out to be a damn good day. I still didnt see any rises, so I started to fish midges. Turned out to be a good idea and I found myself in a nice 5 minute fight with this 18-19 inch rainbow in some fast water.



But what's that bright colored thing in his mouth you ask?


That would be a hot spot Zebra midge. (I apologize in advance for the quality of the fly in this picture. This is the exact one that caught the fish and it is mangled.

Orvis size 20 emerger hook
Uni-thread black 6/0
UTC Ultra Wire XS in silver
Glass bead from Michael's arts and crafts store
Hot Spot - Danville 70 denier 6/0 in hot orange
Coat the whole thing in Sally Hansen Hard as Nails



With no more luck on midges, I turned to a two fly rig with an egg up front and an orange flashback pheasant tail behind it. I literally watched this small brown move about 6 feet across the stream, scoop up the pheasant tail, and then he grabbed the egg before I even had time to set the hook. Even though he was hooked twice, he was released unharmed.



Here's the fly. Again, I apologize for the condition of it. This is the same fly that caught the fish.

Orvis 3x nymph hook size 20
Pheasant tail dyed orange
Krystal Flash
UTC Ultra Wire XS in gold
peacock herl



You are probably asking yourself, "I thought he said they were dry flies?" Relax, I'm getting there. After I released the brown, I saw one rise. Two minutes later..another. I then saw a baetis land on my hand. I immediately tied on some 8x tippet and threw on a size 20 BWO. I made a cast and was connected almost instantly to a brown that had to have been 20 inches plus. He broke me off in about 30 seconds by jumping. Damn 8X. Rerigged and connected a few casts later to a small brown who was landed with a quickness. Then after losing two more and missing a few strikes, I landed a 12 inch bow. I love fishing dry flies, and I usually miss it all winter, so I love when I come across a cold weather olive hatch.



I mentioned in an earlier post that I would post the BWO pattern I use so here it is. This is the easiest fly to tie and it can be done in like a minute. Thanks to Rod at LL Fly Shop for offering to show me this one.

You'll need
Size 18-22 dry fly hook 2XL
Olive thread - I use Sheer 14/0 but you can use whatever you want
Dun microfibbets (synthetic mayfly tails)-If you cant find dun, the black works just fine. I've used it.
CDC Puffs - dark dun

Build up a thread body about halfway back the hook. Tie in 4 microfibbets for the tail. Length should be 3/4 of the hook length. Work your way forward and build a tapered thread body until you hit 2 eyes lengths away from the top of the hook. Tie in a cdc puff with the feather shaft facing the eye of the hook using only 2 loose wraps. Pull the CDC towards the eye until you get the wing length you want and tie off. Wrap around the CDC to get it to stand up. Whip finish.

I've caught at least 50 fish on this fly this year. It's so easy to tie. It will sink after about 5 casts since there's no hackle but a few false casts dries it off instantly.






I also hate to admit it, but I caught a sucker using the new worm pattern I mentioned earlier this week.


My bro-in-law and I got drunk one night and made a fishing show video of us targeting dogfish at the NJ shore with bunker. Maybe I'll be an asshole some day and make a fishing show on sucker hunting. I know exactly what to call it.

Stockies on the EB

Well, it's Saturday. We did buffett at the diner for breakfast, trip to Home Depot with my son, and picked up a Christmas tree. The afternoon was spent trying to get a 9 foot tree to stand up straight inside a tree stand that was way too small to hold the weight of the enormous Douglas Fir. After running some hooks and rope all over the damn place, the tree is standing. (complete with lights and various things hanging from it)

I needed a break and once my son went down for a nap, I headed out to the East Branch for an hour of fishing for stockies. The water was stocked on 10/4 by the PFBC, but only 600 trout were stocked in about a five mile stretch of water. Over half of those were taken out by the worm dunkers, and after listening to Tom Rosenbauer's 10/28 podcast saying that in most cases, stockies only survive a few weeks, I wasn't expecting much.

But, with limited time and a small chance to catch fish, I made the 100 yard trek down to the stream. I tied on a streamer and started roll casting along a bank near a deep pool. Mr. Rosenbauer was wrong. A 12 inch rainbow took the streamer. He was definitely stocked, but started to gain back some wild color. It was still nice to catch a trout less than a stone's throw away from my house. I released him to hopefully catch him again in a few weeks.


As for the fly that he took, it's a new one I tied up that I was going to test up at the Salmon River for steelies, but never got around to it. Real simple green and black streamer with no hackle. Sometimes less is more.

Size 14 Mustad 2xl streamer hook (weighted with lead)
Killer Caddis glass bead
Ice Chenille - Peacock
Black Marabou

I think I have a new favorite pattern

So, I was searching for Copper John patterns the other day and I can across a few rubber legged versions which intrigued me. I recently purchased some rubber legs on clearance from A Sporting Lifestyle on Friday before they closed up shop so I decided to have a go at tying some.

After about 4 failed attempts that had me snapping off the hook eye to get my bead back, I finally came up with a pattern that I liked. I kept the rubber legs long in hopes of giving the fly some nice movement underwater.

Recipe:
Orvis 3x long curved nymph hook, size 20
UTC Ultra Wire (Medium) in the color of your choice
Harelin Dubbin Medium Rubber Legs (Black)
Peacock Herl
1/8" Scud Back
Polar Flash
A drop of Hard as Nails on the wing case and finishing knot

Here's the result.






They look goofy, but I was hoping they would work. I was planning a trip to the Little Lehigh on Sunday and I knew the fish would be keying in on eggs so I sat at the vise with a beer by my side and knocked out a handful of eggs and a few of these Copper Johns.

Sunday's arsenal...



I fished from 1-4pm. I was bouncing an egg pattern with a small split shot, followed by one of these Copper Johns. The water was crystal clear and I had no problem site fishing to all the fish podded up in the Heritage Section. I wasn't even there 5 minutes and I already hooked in to a fish. I continued to have hookups every few minutes all afternoon.

The fish were keying in on the egg, but when they saw the CJ, they rushed it. It was a great afternoon on the water and I'll definitely be tying more of these.

And if you don't believe me that these things catch fish, here's a beautiful small, but wild, brownie that came about 8 feet across the stream to smash the CJ.