The Workhorse - FOTD

The Workhorse by the Haddis Catch. Great looking fly (and even better photo - fly porn!). Check out his website for tons more great fishing stories and patterns.

Great job (again) Brian!

Stonefly Tie - FOTD

A great stone fly pattern over at The Haddis Catch. I like this Copper Stone for the golden d-rib outlines by the silver wire - I have tried this and my result are not nearly as nice. The legs are an interesting addition - I like the way they add to the buginess of this fly.



Nice tie man! If you get the chance, check out the rest of his blog, he has some interesting stories and lots of fish pics.

Thick Wing Caddis - FOTD

Just saw this Thick Wing Caddis from PetterG as well on Fly Tying Forums. The wing looks very similar to Hooper Juan's foam in his Golden Foam Stone. The photography on these flies is amazing as well - great detail. I also like the use of CDC, I wish I could get my CDC to look this good - and it matches color perfectly with the wings.

Thanks again PetterG - we love your flies!

Caddis Pupae - FOTD

Some more amazing flies by Petter Gustavson - this is the caddis pupae as seen on the Fly Tying Forums. The detail on this fly is amazing - looks very similar to a pattern Chad Gauerke ties. Looks like the perfect Arkansas River fly to me!

Thsi is the second (of 3) Fly of the Day patterns that Petter has. I think I will need to get him to do a little interview for the blog.

Biot Mayfly Emerger - FOTD

PetterG has some nice biot mayfly emergers posted over on the Fly Tying Forums. Great detail on these flies and great photos!

Juan's Golden Stones - FOTD

Hopper Juan's Golden Foam Stones

I really like these stone flies for a number of reasons - they use foam as the wings (a cheap and recycled material), their color is amazing, and they seem like something that I can tie and will catch fish with. Not to mention they are tied by a local tier Hopper Juan.

Juan uses his caddis cutter to cut out the computer foam for the wings and adds some brown marker to color them. The result is some very cool looking and realistic wings. I do think that the foam may cause the fly to want to float (which is the opposite of what a stone should do) but I am guessing that is why we should add weight to the fly.

Juan also does an amazing job in photographing these flies (see his website for all the pics), I only show a couple here.

Thanks Juan! Can't wait to try and tie a few of these.

Check out Juan's website for his other patterns.

FOTD - Roughfisher Scuds

Roughfisher has some nice looking scud on his site this AM. Great colors and great ties. These look like they would work great rolling on the bottom of the river.

Wish my scuds came out looking that nice (not to mention the photography!). Great ties Ruf!

Caddis for Spinney

So I finally tied up some nice bugs - good enough to eat. I can't wait for Spinney on Sunday. I tied up a couple of emergers too - because if the trout are slamming the dries they will be cruising for emergers too! Let me know what you think.

Soft Hackles

I have never really fished any soft hackle flies before. I guess a nymph or midge has been my go to fly and I have never really had to resort to fishing a wet fly/soft hackle/flymph. But, after talking to my buddy in Oregon I hear that soft hackles on the swing are the best fly to use - especially for hungry cutthroats and in early summer/late fall.

So, I have to start tying them tonight (not bad, a week before I am leaving) - and to be honest with you, I have no clue how to tie one. Sure I've tied some soft hackles on my possie buggers, but I wouldn't call them nicely tied by any means.

I have been poking around the web lately - and specifically today - and found a few really nice patterns. Check these out below. I will be tying some of these tonight.

The Flymph


I have posted this pattern before on my site - just never got around to tying it. I like the color and the bugginess (if that is a word). Plus, I don't think it is too difficult to tie.

March Brown Soft Hackle

Easy tie - and the March Browns are popping right now in OR!

Soft Hackle Hare's Ear

Quincy Soft Hackle


These are just a few that caught my eye - I will be tying a bunch in the next few days - I will post some pics of what I have tied up.

The Lightning Bug - FOTD

I just saw this fly over at Reno Trout Envy, it is the Lightning Bug - nothing too fancy, but very flashy and easy to tie (not to mention the photo is excellent as well).



I have tied a few of these and they do kind of look like the rainbow warrior, and they do work - especially in off color water. You can tie these even smaller - all the way down to size 24 as my buddy Darren does - with a sort of purple tinsel that is only a mm wide. This tinsel needs to be glued down to hold it in place and because it can be brittle when trying to pry it out of a fishes mouth with forceps.

These flash/tinsel flies are easy to tie, can be tied all the way up to a size 10 or so and the colors can be any color you can dream of (just look at some of the colors Brian used in his fly box.

This is a great, easy to tie fly that produces. Thanks Brian for another great fly!!

Possie Bugger - FOTD

I am headed to Oregon next month and have heard that the #1 fly in Oregon is the possie bugger. I have been tying them off and on for a couple months and they look nice, but aren't great. Brian ofver at Reno Trout Envy has tied up some beauties. I like the speckled hen look as a soft hackle and need to tie some of these up. I will be tying a few of these tonight!

Czech Nymphs & Caddis Emerger - FOTD

This guy (avelino) has some serious talent - I really like the look of these czech nymphs, well tied and very unique.



This is also a very cool looking Caddis Emerger - I like wings coming out the sides.


I'm going to tie up a few of both for my OR trip! Thanks avelino!

Progress?

Last night I tied up a few more JuJus and HE's - this is what I put together. I got a tip from Juan Ramirez that maybe my hook was too long on my original HE - so I shortened it to a 1X. I think these came out better. I just need more practice.

Possie Bugger - FOTD

Roughfisher has a sweet little Possie Bugger up on his site today. This is perfect timing since I need to start tying for my Oregon trip in late May. This Possie Bugger is one of the most productive flies in Oregon and I need to tie up a few dozen.





He's tying these in size 10, which I think is about the largest I could go without it looking too large. However, my Oregon buddy swears you can tie these as large as 6 or 8's and still be effective. That seems HUGE to me!

Great ties Mr. Roughfisher!

Fly Tying

Darren came over last night and showed me how to tie the JuJuBe and the Hare's Ear. I know these aren't tough flies to tie, but I needed to get past the first wrap of super hair on the JuJu and my Hare's Ears never looked right (still don't!). I also managed to tie a Kaufman's Stone Fly. My buddy Tim showed up as well. It was a good time tying and it was good to see D and Tim.

Here are some pics of the flies I tied.

Wet Flies - FsOTD

I was surfing the Fly Tying Forum and found these beauties. They are tied by Artur Buczkowski from Poland and are amazing examples of some great Wet Fly patterns.

The first pattern is a classic brown with a red thread head.



While the second pattern has a cool looking under body with a grey thread head.



Both are very nicely photographed and professionally tied. Great job Artur!

BWO Nymphs - by Reno Trout Envy

Ok, I'm a fly fishing/tying blog junkie, and I love midges, I especially love fly tying blogs about midges - and I love it when the flies are nicely photographed. This blog Reno Trout Envy has a beautiful BWO Nymph on it today - in two colors - grey and olive. Nice little ties.





He also has a tutorial on his Grey Winter Midge which looks very effective as well.

Hot Wire (Ultra) Prince - FOTD

I just saw this on Reno Trout Envy and love the Hot Wire Prince - aka the Ultra Prince - great little tie and a great pattern on the Arkansas River here in Colorado.





Great looking ties Brian!

The Ultra Prince from the Platte River Fly Shop up in Wyo ties a killer pattern very similar as well:



Being that it is supposed to be -18* tonight - I am only dreaming about fly fishing!

Step by Step Para-Hackles - FOTD

Step by step Para Hackles (made very easy) by GlobalFlyFisher!.

I never understood how to make the hackle stand up so nicely - and this is a very "how to" method. I will be tying some of these very soon!

Step 9:


Step 10:


Step 11:


Man, this tutorial is excellent! Thanks again GFF!

Killer Scuds - FOTD

Wow, just wow - check out these beautiful killer scuds put together by LuciV.

Great photos as well - showing you exactly how to tie them.







The detail in these photos shows just how amazing these scuds look. And using CDC is a brilliant idea.

Thank you again LuciV for being a repeat offender here on CMFS!