Back at the tying bench.

Next season I want to fish dry flies more often. So last night I tied up some mayfly style patterns. This is an extended body Light Cahill imitation following a Tim Flagler pattern.



The beauty of this pattern is it's simplicity and minimal materials required to tie it. A scud hook, thread, a single Mallard Flank feather, Para Post Poly for a wing, and some Superfine Dubbing for the thorax. The feather forms the body and the seductive up swept split tail. Easy and fun to tie. This one is in size 12, but I will tie some smaller versions if I can find some proportionally sized feathers.

I fished a similar split tail pattern last summer and did well with it. The fly sits up well in the film and is reasonably durable. I also tied a few using Lemon Wood Duck feathers to provide a bit of variety in color and size.

Here's another one, but with darker gray dubbing to give it a different look. Getting the dubbing to wrap correctly is half the battle with this pattern. I didn't do a great job with this one, but I doubt it will matter too much once it gets wet.


Another Flagler pattern is this Isonychia Mayfly pattern.


The Isonychia is a well know eastern Trout pattern, but I feel like it will fish well here in the Midwest also. It's a basically a just a parachute Adams with purple-ish body dubbing. The Flagler video for this one is good to learn tying techniques from. His skill and detail are unmatched. Using the bare quill of the hackle in the wing post is brilliant and effective.




-Bill

Here's a few more streamers I tied up this morning.



A couple of smaller Sculpin single hook streamers and The Mini Dungeon, a downsized version of Kelly Galloups popular Sex Dungeon articulated streamer.


I didn't have the best barred marabou that the pattern called for, but I think this will work OK. At only 2 1/2" I really like the size of this streamer. A better option for the smaller streams I prefer to fish.


-Bill

Made a trip to the fly shop on Black Friday to take advantage of some sale stuff and pick up the proper materials for tying the Mini Dungeon. This one turned out much nicer than my previous efforts.



Tied this one with size 4 hook in front, and a size 6 in the rear. The proper barred marabou really provides for that striping and mottled look that Sculpins have. I overdid the yellow marabou tail and will trim that down in the next effort.

Not crowding the hook eye with the dumbbell head to leave enough space to spin the deer hair is critical. I'm getting a bit better at getting that right and forming the head properly. It's too easy to overdo trimming and ending up with a too small head. A bit of a learning curve with this one, but it gets better after five or six.

Also, GSP thread really makes streamer patterns like this one much easier to tie. The stuff is really strong and gives just a bit, and lays flat making applying materials to the hook much easier. GSP thread is worth the extra money.


-Bill

Edited by user Saturday, November 30, 2019 8:28:45 PM(UTC)  | Reason: added GSP thread text