T.D.C Nymph

T.D.C. Nymph

Thompson's Delectable Chironomid

Hook - Your favorite hook and style

Thread - Black

Ribbing - Oval/round silver tinsel

Body - Black wool yarn

Collar - White ostrich herl

The TDC (Thompson's Delectable Chironomid) was developed by Richard B. Thompson in the late 1950's. Richard was a Fishery Biologist for the State of Washington. Prior to this fly, Chironomid fishing within lakes was just not done. Richard developed techniques with this fly, such as utilizing an indicator for depth control and fishing the pattern off the bottom of the lake with a slow retrieve. He wrote an article , "Chironomids and Trout" that was published within the State of Washington's Game Bulletin describing his TDC fly. Many tried using the Chironomid pattern but failed, due to their habit of using a fast retireve. However, by the early 1960's, his techniques caught on with other lake fly fishermen and a number of other Chironomid patterns were developed. His TDC pattern, using a dubbed body, remains highly effective and is the basis for many new variations.

Reference - Popular Fly Patterns - Terry Hellekson

Adjustable Balloon Strike Indicator

Fly Box Inventory, Sorting & Cleaning

These are the trout boxes. 

Bass & panfish boxes will be taken care of over the Christmas Holiday work shutdown.

Since I have a 4 days off from designing submarines, I thought I would take out a few fly boxes and inspect them for rusted flies, flies coming apart from trout teeth etc and just do some basic resorting of the dry boxes.

Lady McConnell

Lady McConnell

Originator - Brian Chan

Hook - 2xl dry fly hook

Thread - Black

Shuck - Grizzly hackle tip

Shellback - Deer hair

Body - Gray dubbing

Hackle - Grizzly

A Brian Chan designed pattern for McConnell Lake in the Kamloops area of Canada.

Heathen

Heathen

Originator - Phil Camera

Hook - Your favorite curved hook

Thread - Black

Under body - Pearl krystal flash or tinsel

Over body - Larva Lace or equivalent

Ribbing - Spiral black thread forward

Post - White foam cylinder

Thorax - Hares ear dubbing

Tying Tip

Vary the thread, tinsel and tubing colors to make variations of this fly. 

This fly can also be tied with v-rib, d-rib, body glass etc. 

Chota Hippies

Sometimes that's all you need!

Chota Hippies

http://chotaoutdoorgear.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=119

Blackburn Tellico Nymph

BLACKBURN TELLICO NYMPH

Hook - Mustad 9671, 9672 or equivalent, size 6-12

Thread - Brown
Tail - Mink fibers or brown hackle fibers
Ribbing - 2 strands of peacock herl twisted into a rope around a fine gold wire
Wing Case* - Dark Brown turkey feather section
Body - Dirty golden-yellow dubbing
Hackle - Palmered through front half of body

This pattern was originated by Richard Blackburn of Tennessee to imitate the Golden Stonefly Nymphs that are common in the fast rocky streams of the Smokies.


Reference Information
http://www.uky.edu/~agrdanny/flyfish/ljdecuir/tellico.htm


* There is a lot of breakable fibers on the wing case, 

so a ribbing of wire or thread should be added for durability.

Cheater Soft Hackle

Can't find the right length feather for that soft hackle you're tying?

Try the following technique shown in this video.

Check out here for additional info.

http://paracaddis.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/cheater-soft-hackles/

Humpback Warrior

Humpback Warrior

Here is a variation of Lance Egans "Rainbow Warrior"

The recipe is exactly the same as a "Rainbow Warrior" except the bead is a "fringe bead" in a pearl color.

Charlie Craven Parachute Adams (Biot Body)

Here is Charlie Craven tying a variation of a parachute Adams. In this video he explains quite a few techniques that will help a beginner and an experienced tyer.

Enjoy!

The Craft Shop

Always have a look in your local big box craft shop, home center, department store or dollar store. You can find some interesting fly tying materials that you wont usually find in a fly shop. Feathers, foam, beads, wire, organza, ribbons, tinsels, paints, markers, storage boxes, threads, metallic threads, yarns etc.

But by all means, support your local fly shop if you have one nearby.

Once again, thanks for looking.

Cutting Wire

Lets be real about this, we are not cutting a #2 gauge 100 amp service panel electrical wire with our fly tying scissors, we are cutting a soft copper wire that begins at approximately .003 thousandths of an inch to about .013 thousandths of an inch in diameter.

But this will most likely spark some controversy, I still cut ribbing wire with my more than capable Dr Slick tying scissors. The scissors below are over 10 years old and are showing their age. The fancy gold finish around the finger holes is wearing off. They have never been sharpened since the day I brought them home. But they still cut everything I need them to cut without any problems. I think they are tougher than most tyers want to believe. They can cut wire as long as you cut it in the right place. If you cut your wire close to the pivot point, the rest of the blade will remain sharp to cut the remainder of your fly tying materials.

You can grab that tag end of the wire and twirl it around like a helicopter rotor until it breaks of clean as a whistle! You can use finger and toe nail clippers. You can also dedicate a cheaper brand of scissors to do all of your wire cutting

Lead wire doesn't even need to be cut at all with scissors, just break it off with your thumbnail.

So what I'm really trying to say is yes you can cut wire with your scissors, just cut it in the right place!

Lets remember that this is just my opinion and yours will always be different!

As always, thanks for looking!

Multiple Function Materials

As you can see in the mylar piping material shown above, there is multiple uses for it. You can remove the core from the piping and use and use the piping for bait-fish bodies, you can use the antron/zlon type strands of the core for wings, wing posts, bodies, legs etc and you can even unbraid the piping and use each strand as mylar tinsel.

The mylar piping shown above is a chartreuse color and size large but I have found this type of piping with the antron/zlon type core material in other colors including silver, gold, pearl and even holographic.

As always, thanks for looking!

Glo Bugs - The Simple & Easy Way

Craft PomPoms

Your favorite curved hook

Your favorite brand of glue

A fly box full of Glo Bugs

Just stab a craft pompom onto the curved hook, apply some super glue to the hook and push the pompom into the glue. Its as easy as that!

Broken Thread

You tied that perfect fly body and you just broke the thread?

Don't despair! It happens all the time.

Take your hackle pliers and attach it to the broken end of the thread. Reattach your tying thread and wrap over the broken end and you're ready to continue tying the rest of the fly.

Cap That Bottle

Cap that head cement bottle after each use. You'll be glad you did!

A simple fix.

Magnets

Keep some sort of telescoping magnet tool around your tying area to pick up those stray hooks that land on the floor. Trust me, you will drop hooks or your vise will spit one out.

You can also use business card sized magnetic sheet to stick on your tying bench or pedestal. Its a great place to hold hooks for the flies you are tying at the moment.

Even magnetic tape will work as pointed out in the comment below by Johnny Utah

Thanks for looking!

Simple Dropper Loop

Some folks aren't too comfortable tying a dropper directly to the bend of the hook. Adding one in before tying you fly might be the way to go. Just tie in a simple mono loop to the top of the hook as shown below and then complete the fly per the recipe.

As always, thanks for looking.

Olive Nymph

i have been tying up these Olive Nymphs for a fly swap. Here is a simple step by step on how to tie them.

Install a bead and attach olive tying thread.

Tie on a few coq de leon feather barbs for the tail and return the tying thread to behind the bead.

Take a piece of brassie sized black ultra wire and a piece of midge size chartreuse tubing and inert the ends of both into the open end of the bead. By inserting both ends into the open end of the bead, this will ensure that the body will be smooth and not show any bumps which would have occurred if I tied these material in at the bend of the hook.

While stretching the tubing and holing the wire, wrap these materials back to the bend of the hook and maintain a smooth under body.

Grasp both materials and wrap a neat body forward to behind the bead. it will be required to stretch the tubing while wrapping forward. Trim the materials as shown.

At this point its time to decide if you want to coat the body with one of many brands of UV cured goos. The one above was covered with Diamond Hard Resin.

Now its time to dub a thorax with your favorite dubbing. On this one I used some brown olive Free Range wet fly dubbing from Kieth Barton at Singlebarbed.com.

Whip finish or half hitch the tying thread and clip it off. With a dubbing picker/brush, tease out some fibers in the thorax for a buggy look.

Recipe

Hook: your favorite style in your favorite sizes

Thread: color to match

Tail: Coq de Leon Feather fibers (grizzly will work just fine)

Body: brassie size wire and midge size stretch tubing (v-rib, d-rib, body glass etc will also work)

Thorax: your favorite dubbing (natural or synthetic)

Tying Note

The above method of tying is simply a guide and if you don't have the exact materials I used, please feel free to substitute any one of them to tie the nymph above. There are so many tying materials the could have been used, I just pick out some I Had on hand at the moment. Experiment. I dont want you tying how I tie. Try out different materials. Be creative.

Dubbing reference: http://www.singlebarbed.biz/NYMPH-DUBBING_c4.htm

As always, thanks for looking!

CDC Feathers: What You Need to Know

Here is a great web page for identifying, understanding and tying with CDC feathers.

http://globalflyfisher.com/tiebetter/tying-with-cdc/

Here is another great web page on the CDC & Elk and a family of flies,

http://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/cdcelk/