Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Lopez Minnow




Lopez Minnow

Hook - Streamer style
Thread - White
Under body - Lead Wire
Tail And Back - Buck tail (Brown, black, green etc)
Over body - Silver mylar braid piping
Eyes - Painted yellow over black
 UV Resin

Reference: Streamers & Bucktails The Big Fish Flies by Joseph D Bates Jr

Friday, October 9, 2015

Thumb Tack Eyes

I had an idea regarding eyes for larger flies like those used for pike, musky, saltwater fish etc and thought about using thumb tacks for eyes. I had a box of white thumb tacks and a variety of lacquer craft paint and married the two together as shown below




You can start making the eyes using gold, silver, white, multi colored thumb tacks





When ready to install in your fly, just snip off the tack to the desired length and use epoxy to adhere the eyes to your fly.

I used the Wasatch eye painting tools to help make the eyes



Monday, October 5, 2015

Sinfoil's Fry


Sinfoil's Fry

Minnow Imitation

Ken Sinfoil

Hook - Dai Riki 700 or equivalent, size 10-12
Thread- Black
Underbody -Silver mylar tinsel
Body - Clear plastic wrap cut into 1/8-inch strip and wrapped
Collar - Fluorescent red Body Stretch
Wing - Sparse widgeon flank, mallard flank, teal, bronze mallard fibers
Head - Black thread
Eyes - Painted black over yellow

Awesome Lake Brookie



Awesome Lake Brookie

Hook: Streamer style
Thread: Light color for under body and then black
Tail: Olive marabou
Ribbing: Red holographic tinsel
Body: orange floss, orange Uni Stretch or equivalent
Topping: Peacock herl from an eye stick
Throat: White buck tail followed by orange hackle fibers
Eyes: Painted yellow and black

Tying Note: Light colored thread is used to help maintain the body color of the fly. 

Thanks for looking.

Friday, August 7, 2015

Slade's Secret



Slade's Secret

Hook - Mustad 3399, 3906 or equivalent
Thread - Black
Tag - Flat gold tinsel & gold floss
Tail - Bronze mallard
Butt - Peacock sword
Rib - Gold oval tinsel
Body - Rear half lime green wool, front half peacock herl
Wing - Brown bear
Throat - Teal flank, sparse

Reference - Charles DeFeo section of Forgotten Flies

In this pattern I made a couple of substitutions

1. I colored white floss with a gold marker to achieve the gold floss

2. I used peacock herl for the butt. I didn't feel the peacock sword herls I had were long enough.

3. I used moose body hair for the wing. I have no brown bear.

I hope you like it.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

How Does a Trout Catch a Fly?


http://www.flyfishingdevon.co.uk/how-does-a-trout-catch-a-fly02.shtml

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Preserving And Storing Material

Feathers are composed of about 91% protein, 8% water, and 1% lipids.  The type of protein in feathers is called keratin, a sulphurous, fibrous protein.  Fur and hair have a similar composition so use this information for storing all natural materials.

Read the rest of the article here

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Oval Tinsel Substitute

So you want to tie a streamer body of flat tinsel and ribbed with oval tinsel and you search and search for the oval tinsel and you come up empty. Do not fear! Here is a simple trick for making your own. It wont replace the real thing but it will serve as a substitute.


Tie in the flat tinsel and wrap the tinsel in touching 
turns to the bend of the hook. 
(I like to attach hackle pliers to the tinsel at this point)



Begin twisting the tinsel from the flat ribbon to a rope 
configuration. Pay attention to the twisting of the tinsel so that you get a 
silver rib on a silver body.


Wrap the tinsel into a tight rope.


Wrap the ribbing forward and tie off.


You now have a smoothly wrapped tinsel body with a rib of 
twisted tinsel that substituted for the real oval tinsel.

Continue to finish the fly.

Thanks for looking.




Monday, January 19, 2015

Imitation Jungle Cock

Here is an easy and inexpensive way to make a jungle cock substitute by Dick Talleur

Tt wont actually replace the real thing but for fishing flies who cares! 

Keep the real jungle cock for your museum quality flies



You don't really have to use the brass template to make the imitation.

All you need is a feather that has a white spot in the center of the stem as shown in the first photo and a pair of scissors. 

Just strip away any waste barbs and trim the guinea feather to the approximate shape shown in the third photo on the left.


Sunday, December 28, 2014

Storing Long Freathers

I store all of my longer feathers upright in a cheap metal vise from Walmart. 

You can also keep the feathers in the original packaging if you prefer. 

The feathers in the photo below are on the north side of my house and do not receive much daylight that may fade them. Plus, the window blinds are usually closed.


Sunday, November 23, 2014

Gravel Gertie


Hook: Streamer
Thread: Black
Tail: Orange yarn
Body: Black and white chenille
Throat: Pink yarn
Wing: White calf tail topped with red fox squirrel

Reference: Forgotten Flies

Fly Tying Proportions