Somebody's Tying

It was too cold to fish last weekend and too rainy this weekend. At least there's football on and plenty of tying supplies. I messed around today and worked on a bass pattern. When it comes to tying dubbing matters. I got some from Stu Thompson of Dark Water Dubbing last year. I really liked this purple black color but I wasn't sure quite how to use it.

I'm not sure how this pattern will work but I like the look of it. I also used dubbing for several soft hackle bodies. The dubbing at Singlebarbed.biz is superb. I really believe it's made a difference with my flies. They have more of a buggy look.

I haven't tried to do any poppers for quite some time. I never really know how to tie them exactly. This was my attempt at a Sneaky Pete style pattern. The body is a little awkward but I think it will fish fine.

Got some tying in

I have been wanting to tie sz20 nymphs since I had a couple work great on the South Holston.  My buddy lent me a few and all they were was a tungsten bead and black thread.  I decided to try tying the same thing then I noticed if I just added silver wire I'd have a Zebra Midge.  Working with the small flies was challenging and fun at the same time.  It's a little difficult to wrap and not hit the hook tip because the gape is so small.  I usually ended up putting the hook and barb in the vise so it was less of a problem.  I'm pretty happy with how the flies turned out.  I decided to try a few different styles.  Zebras with a collar and even attempted a Brassie and something I haven't seen before but I'm sure has a name. 

I was thinking about a Griffith's Gnat pattern.  I decided to tie that with a tungsten bead so it would sink.  I put a little extra peacock hurl along the body to give it more flash.  You can't really see it in the picture.

One fly I have been meaning to tackle is a bead head soft hackle.  They are supposed to be basic flies.  What you'll find when first tying them is the hackle will look severely different depending on the quality of feather you are using and what part of the feather is being tied in.  I was using partridge feathers and I wished I bought an actual partridge bird piece.  I tried go cheap and buy a "bag" of partridge feathers.  I realize now these are odds and ends and many of the feathers are not even usable.  You get what you pay for.  If I tied low on the feather near the blood feathers I received very spindly looking legs.  They didn't look like they'd flow very well in the water.  If I tied up near the top of the feather I'd get more fluffy legs. I think these are more of what I'm looking for.  I have an example of both.

The fly at the top has the spindly looking legs and the one one the bottom has a more fluffy style.  I think both flies will work it was just interesting learning how to get each style of legs.   There were even more variations depending on the quality and size of the partridge feather.  I really didn't know what I was getting sometimes until I started twisting the feather. 

 

While looking for inspiration on other patterns to tie I ran across a hares ear pattern using ice dubbing.  The ice dubbing really gives the fly a busy appearance.  What I mean by that is I do think in the water the colors and consistency of the material give the fly a life like looks.   It just looks like something is going on.  I tied a few hares ear type variants and used the ice dubbing as the body.  I like pink and I think these will work well for the hatchery streams.  I called these flies Trout Candy.

 

 I've been wrong many times before but I can see these flies really working well. I have also been working on another pattern that looked easy but it's been giving me grief. It is a bead head hares ear style fly only the bead goes behind the hackle and not in front. It's a little hard to explain and I'll try posting pictures of the fly later. I'm finding it difficult to get the bead, hackle and pheasant tail all together with out crowding the eyed of the hook. On a sz18 there isn't much real estate.  I'll post the results. I'm actually starting to enjoy tying. The bad part is having so many different things I want to tie. I'm stumbling upon patterns looking for other things and I just want to tie some flies because they look cool. Here's what I'm talking about.

White Bass Flies

Today I sat down and tied some flies that I'm going to use for white bass fishing this year. The bulk of them is clousers. I've been trying to use material that I already have so I worked with some chartreuse material that could substitute for buck tail. Here is a up close pic of a small clouser I tied.  I was messing around and tried tying a size 14 clouser. It was a lot more difficult than I first thought.

It's been a while since I've tied some flies. It didn't take long for me to get back into the swing of things. Stabbing my fingers multiple times and getting glue on my hands. I think I've tied enough clousers for this year and I played around with some patterns that worked last year.

I know these are ugly but they will work. Speaking of ugly flies I attempted tying one that worked for catfish last year and I think is a good carp fly. I have endearingly called it navel lint.

I love the coloring on the fly and the rubber legs hopefully give that extra attractiveness that makes fish strike. The fly is somewhat easy to tie but I need to figure out an easy way to tie the rubber legs in.  They were a pain in the A$$!  I tied them in first then while I was wrapping the dubbing which by the way was time consuming. I put the dubbing in a thread loop and twisted it until it made a yarn like consistency. Then I started wrapping the fly and tried to slowly go around the rubber legs. It took a lot of concentration to go around the legs and not get them wrapped up in the thread. So I had to find a balance of holding the legs with one hand and wrapping with the other. It wasn't fun. Watch these be the best flies that I've tied and I'll be up at night in tears tying 100 of these because they work. The blend of dubbing is a custom blend made by Stu Thompson. He's a popular carp fisherman in Canada. He can usually be found hanging out at in the forums at warmfly.com. 

I was able to get out and fish. I tried a local pond that is usually good no matter when you fish it. A cold front was coming in and a constant cool breeze kept me from getting comfortable. The fish weren't in their usual spots. I walked around the pond and as I got near the back end I realized the wind was pushing the water in that direction. I figured maybe bass were waiting in a back eddy for food to be blown in the current too them. As luck would have it I was right and got a nice tug.

It always amazing me how differently colored largemouth bass can be. This one has basically no lateral line to speak of. It was so silver it almost looked white. I caught it on a black wooly bugger.  I forgot how bass hit in cold weather. It feels like your fly bumped a rock or stick on the retrieve. If you give any slack the fish is gone. If you keep stripping like you want to snag your fly you'll hook them.  I can never seem to remember to set the hook a few times too. When I got this fish on shore he flopped a few times and the fly came right out. I hooked a few more fish in the back eddy and the wind chased me off the pond. I really didn't expect to catch much. I would have expected to catch bluegill if I caught anything. It's strange to be catching bass before sunfish. I think this year is going to be different than any other year I've fished.  

Taking Another Shot at Tying

Usually I hate tying flies. Mostly because I'm not very good at it. It seems like a waste of time to spend 20 minutes on something that looks like a bundle of thread and feathers. I like to call that pattern the trash fly. That's usually where it ends up after I'm finished. I've started to keep those flies because sometimes they work.

This year I took another shot at fly tying. I wouldn't say I'm liking it. But what has been great is catching fish on flies I tie. I've been really into these white bugger patterns with dumbbell eyes. They've been really effective on crappie and they were the only thing I could catch white bass on so far. The best part is they aren't difficult to tie. I can tie one in under 8min. The most time consuming part is finding the right hackle. The saddle hackle I bought kind of sucks. I've realized I like thin hackle strips. The big fat ones make the flies look ugly. I can see where it would be effective with bigger hooks. I'm mostly using sz10 or smaller.

I use egg patterns quite a bit and I tried to tie some on my own. They seem simple enough. There are a ton of youtube movies on how to tie glo bug patterns. Even with the movies mine turn out looking more like a cotton ball then a trout egg. I think maybe they'll be more effective in some situations. The funny part is the size of the puff ball that ends up on my hook. Let's just say I'll have plenty of flies if I ever go steelhead or salmon fishing. After tying a few dozen flies I can see the value of a good vise. Mine has tightening knobs. These do the job but if you tie a lot the knobs start to wear on your hands. I may one day look into getting a renzetti rotary vise but it's not my highest priority right now.

This year so far my fishing experiences can be only described as efficient. Each trip I've gone on I haven't had the usual annoying things that plagued me the last few years. No reels dropping in the water, I've had all the flies I needed, haven't forgot any equipment. The fish have cooperated too.

I hope this trend continues.