Fly Tying Column for Monthly Club Newsletter

[Mark Patenaude]

In addition to my new duties as Moderator of the Tying Forum, I have been asked by Joe to produce a Fly Tying column for the newsletter each month that profiles a particular fly and how to tie it.

I wanted to solicit any input you may have regarding any flies you would prefer to see before I begin working on April's column.

My intention is to profile a fly that is predominant for that particular month.

If I don't receive any input, you will be seeing a Loop Wing, Bead Thorax. Blue Winged Olive Emerger. One of my favorite and most productive patterns after the water gets close to 50 degrees.

Please give me your input and post it here.

Thanks in advance.

Mark Patenaude
a.k.a.: fishes-with-fly

[Mark Patenaude]

Wow, no takers.

O.K. you'll get what Joe and I decide.

E2 Klinkhammer coming next.

Mark

[strbender]

Sounds good to me

[DanaC]

mark, I have a collection of articles originally written for the Pioneer Valley TU newsletter - a wide assortment of flies. If you'd like they're somewhere on this computer and I'll forward them.

Dana

[DanaC]

Here's one -


“Hendrickson Dun Parachute” Copyright 2000
By Dana Charbonneau

The conventional wisdom on matching Hendrickson duns is to use a ‘Catskill’ style dry fly to represent newly hatched adults on the water. Most of these flies will hatch in fast, broken water, and the high profile is better for visibility under such conditions. Occasionally it will be cool and damp, and the flies will ride for a long distance while their wings dry. They may then wind up in slower water below the riffles. This fly is designed for a lower profile and more precise silhouette for calmer water. I’ve since used it as a ‘dull attractor’ to pound up water when nothing was hatching, with very good results.

Materials:
Hook – size 14 dry fly
Thread – brown, 6/0 or 8/0
Wing – wood duck fibers, post style
Tails – dun hackle fibers or micro-fibbets
Body – tan dubbing
Hackle – dun, parachute style

If you’ve tied parachutes before this fly will be easy. I use a full wood duck feather for the wing post. Take a good feather, pull back all the fibers that don’t reach even with the middle. Take a thread wrap over the center feather, two hook-eye lengths back from he eye. Adjust the length of the wing and secure with several more wraps. I like to keep the wing long on this fly, about equal to a size 12 fly. This acts as a strong visual ‘trigger’ for the fish to key on. Stand the post up, form a thread dam ahead of the post, then take several wraps around the post, wrapping about 1/8 inch up and down again. Clip the feather behind the wing post, and wrap back to the tailing point. (I save the remainders of the feathers for tailing nymphs.) Dab a bit of head cement on the wing post wraps to secure and stiffen. Tie in the tails and separate them with thread wraps. Or, dub a small bit of fur to separate the tails. Either way, you want the tails splayed wide. Dub the body forward, including a small amount of dubbing forward of the wing post. Take a size 12 dun hackle, clip fibers about 3/16 inch from end. Tie in ahead of the wing post, shiny side down, pointing rearward. Attach hackle pliers and wind clockwise around the wing post 5-6 times. Bring the pliers over the hook toward you, and let them hang. Secure with several wraps of thread, clip the feather and finish.

This fly has produced for me during hatches and all through June when fish were rising. Since the parachute body rides low in the water, you may have to dry it more frequently. I treat all my flies in advance with one of those liquids, where you soak the fly and let dry for 24 hours. Apply floatant before casting, and use a drying powder occasionally to ensure the fly stays afloat.

[DanaC]

Here's another one from a few years back.

“Yellow Drakes” Copyright 2003
By Dana Charbonneau

Confusion. The big bright yellow mayflies are called Cream Drakes and the big cream-colored mayflies are called yellow drakes. The former are Potamanthus species, the latter are Ephemera varia. I encountered them on the Deerfield this past June, and had a blast. They look like a paler version of the Green Drake, with lighter tails, wings and thorax. I suspect any pale yellow fly in size 10 would have worked when the fish are taking these big duns. I tied a few based on close observation and a good picture.

Materials:
Hook: size 10 dry fly (or 14-2XL)
Thread: pale yellow
Tails: pale deer hair
Body: yellowish cream polypro
Thorax: ginger polypro
Wing: pale mallard mixed with yellow-died mallard
Hackle: cream

You can tie these either as a conventional dun or a parachute. Or you can just tie a few of your favorite sulfur pattern in a jumbo size and probably do alright. The evening I encountered these flies they were one of eight kinds of bugs on the water. I caught fish on several patterns, but now I’m ready if they get fussy.

[DanaC]

Published In "The Trout's Window" (Pioneer Valley TU) a few years back...

“Lime Sally” Copyright 2000
By Dana Charbonneau

This past June I got lucky, in the sense that luck is where preparation meets opportunity. I was on the Deerfield one morning and nothing much was happening. Finally around 9:30 I noticed several risers below me. Lime Sally’s, small bright green stoneflies, were returning to the water to lay eggs. I spent a few minutes rummaging through my fly boxes looking for an appropriate fly, and came up with a size 16 green caddis with a pale tan wing, a fairly close match. I trimmed back the hackle to a minimum and managed to take three trout before the dam release chased me out. I’d never tied specifically to meet this bug, although Jim Dowd lists it in his hatch chart in “The Deerfield River Guidebook.” (New England Cartographics, No. Amherst, MA) It was just luck that I had a couple of green caddis in the fly box. When I got home I tied a few flies to copy this bug more precisely.

Materials:
Hook – size 16 standard dry fly
Thread – pale yellow, 6/0 or 8/0
Tails – light tan deer hair
Body – light green polypropylene
Wing – tan Z-Lon
Hackle – cream or light ginger

This is an easy fly if you’ve ever tied elk-hair caddis or similar down-wing patterns. Start the thread; bring back to the tailing point. The tail is a half-dozen or so fine deer hair fibers, tied on hook gap long. Dub the body two-thirds forward. I tried fluorescent chartreuse dubbing but found it too bright. Instead I blend equal parts of bright ‘caddis’ green and pale yellow. Tie a sparse wing of tan Z-Lon and trim to length, about 1/8 inch past the hook bend. Clip off the front of the wing. Tie in a hackle one size smaller than for a mayfly, (size 18) take three or four turns, tie off and trim excess. Finish the head; add a drop of head cement and clip thread.

On the water you may want to clip the hackle off the top and bottom for a lower float, but try the full hackle first. Egg layers often struggle in the surface film, and full hackle conveys an illusion of movement. Now, with a half dozen of these in my vest, I feel properly prepared. All I need is another opportunity.