Kind of Blue - Rangely Style Streamer

Hook: #4 Gaelic Supreme 8xl
Thread: white 70 denier under body,  black 70 denier for head
Tag: flat silver tinsel
Body: blue floss
Rib: flat silver tinsel
Underwing: blue bucktail then white bucktail
Throat: white saddle hackle
Wing: paired black saddle hackles between paired blue dun saddle hackles (slightly shorter)
Cheeks: Guinea Fowl
Eye (optional): jungle cock
Head: black thread with blue floss accent

Soft-hackle Dry Flies

John Shaner, of Hardy fame, gave me a solid dose of the soft hackle kool-aid and since I've been thoroughly enjoying tying up traditional spiders and north-country wet flies with soft hackles, I decided to see what those materials could add to some traditional dry fly techniques.

Above, is a fan-wing style Adams which grizzly soft-hackles instead of the standard dry hackles. The middle photo is a traditional red-quill but with two turns of Hungarian partridge in front of the traditional dun dry hackles.

The bottom photo is an attempt at a March Brown which a hackle fiber tail and a gold ribbed hare's ear body. I wrapped a few turns of CDC as a thorax hackle and then a few turns of dun hen hackle in front of that.

Turkey Dun Wet

 

Hook: Standard Wet Fly, #14 (weighted opt)

Thread: Black 70 Denier

Tail: Dun hen hackle fibers

Body: Gray Hareline Dubbin

Hackle: Dun hen hackle

Wing: Paired Turkey Quill

Normally, a Blue Dun wet would have a Gray Duck Quill wing, but I subbed the turkey since it's all I had on hand.

Fatal Attractor

Hook: Dry Fly, 10-14
Thread: Olive 70 denier
Tail: Golden Pheasant Tippet
Body: UV Light Olive Ice Dub
Back Wing: Coastal Deer Hair
Wing: Calf Tail, white
Hackle: Grizzly
Head: Fl. Orange thread

Greg Heffner's Hook-up Crayfish

Hook: TMC 200r, 3xl curved shank, weighted with a strip of lead free wire on each side
Thread: black
Antennae: 2 Pheasant tail fibers
Carapace: Wapsi thin skin, mottled oak
Head: brown hare ' ear dubbin
Claws: brown rabbit's fur
Thorax: brown dubbin
Legs: brown hackle palmered over thorax and trimmed on top and bottom
Abdomen: more dubbin, covered with thin skin and ribbed with brown vinyl or similar.
Tail: thin skin

Oh bugger!

 

Nothing fancy. Just some classic wooly buggers in black and black/grizzly.

Popper Madness

A collection of poppers I made for this weekend's trip to the in-law's house. Sadly, the bass in their pond were way too skittish, at least during the day, to be interested in these guys, so I had to go subsurface to catch 'em.

The poppers consist of Wapsi Perfect Popper Heads glued onto Wapsi Popper Hooks and painted with some oil-based paint pens. From there I tied on marabou tails, added a collar of rooster hackle, and some dubbin on a few of them. Finally, I heated a bodkin on the gas stove, melted a hole through the popper head and used my bobbin threader to add some rubber legs.

Wikoff Steelie Stone

While I'm new at Salmon fishing, Bob Wikoff is not and when he makes suggestions, I listen. First and foremost, he goes towards patterns that work, are easy to tie, and cheap to make. On a given weekend during peak season, he'll hook into 80-100 fish and maybe land 25% of them. If you're going to be losing 20+ flies a day, you can't afford to spend the time and money tying up Evening Stars all off season. Beyond that, he's looking for sparse patterns that get down in the water column quickly since the salmon are about as close to bottom as you can get. The Stone Fly pattern above is a creation of Bob's that he made to attract both salmon and steelhead to increase his chances of hookups. He tied his in all black with a purple or blue wing case and he added some wood duck fibers to the 'legs' on a few. To quote Bob, "it looks like &#$%" but it did catch me an Atlantic Salmon so who am I to judge? It also worked pretty damn well on small mouth bass.

Hook: Mustad 3906
Thread: Black 70 denier
Tail: Squirrel Fur
Body: Dubbed to match
Legs: Fur or soft hackle (add optional legs - Wood Duck or rubber)
Optional Shellback: Flashabou
Wing Case: Flashabou

Coyote Ugly

This is basically a Zonker pattern that I threw together to hopefully entice that monster Susquehanna walleye that got away. Aside from being what I had on hand, I'm hoping the coyote strips will imitate the color of the small mouth bass in the river. Fished low and slow, zonkers are good for leeches or even crayfish. As the crayfish in our area are mostly brown, it should play double-duty there too.

Hook: Streamer (Mustad 3665A 3XH/7XL size 8)
Thread: Black
Tail: Coyote Strip tied in Zonker style
Body: Silver Flashabou
Overwing: Coyote Strip tied in Zonker style
Ribbing: Wine colored Wapsi  wire woven through coyote strip
Flash: Wapsi Grizzly Accent silver/black
Head: Thread coated with Hard-as-Nails

Hair-wing Blue Charm

Hook: Mustad 3906B #2-8 or Salmon style hook

Thread: black 70 Denier

Tag: double-sided tinsel w/ silver showing

Butt: flourescent yellow floss

Body: black floss

Rib: silver Wapsi wire

Beard: blue marabou

Wing: squirrel tail

Bivisible

A classic Catskill dry fly shown above with a few Light Cahills in the background. 

Hook: #14-18 dry fly

Thread: black 70 denier

Hackle: brown for rear 2/3, cream or white for front 1/3

Optional tail (not shown): brown hackle fibers 

Flying Ant

Hook: #18-22 emerger

Thread: black 70 denier

Thorax: black foam over peacock black Ice Dub

Abdomen: black foam folded over wing

Wing: poly yarn tied spent

Head: thread

I'll be trying out a parachute version as well in the hopes that it'll float well and be somewhat more visible for use in faster water. 

Black Bear Green Butt

Hook: #4-8 Streamer or Salmon Hook

Thread: Black 70 Denier

Tag: silver tinsel

Butt: fluorescent green thread or floss

Body: black floss 

Opt. Throat (not shown): black hackle or marabou

Wing: black bear fur

Head: lacquered black thread

Pale Evening Dun

Hook: Dry size 16-20

Thread: 8/0 Primrose (or pale yellow)

Tail: Natural Dun Hackle fibers

Body: Thread wraps

Wings: Natural Dun Hackle tips

Hackle: Natural Dun

Foam Popper

Hook: streamer or wide-gap stinger hook

Thread: black 70 denier

Popper Head: 5 craft foam discs, alternating black & silver

Legs: 2 strips of silver craft foam, rubber bands or crazy legs

Tail: black marabou

Collar: black saddle hackle

Foam n CDC Beetle

Hook: #12 Dry

Thread: Black 70 denier

Body: Dark dun CDC tied in by tip and wrapped forward

Wing: Craft foam disc

Thorax: "Peacock Black" Ice Dub

Foam Head Hoppers

Foam head made with two over-lapping foam discs. 

Hook: 6-10 streamer or 3x dry

Thread: rusty brown 8/0

Head: green craft foam

Body: olive hare's ear dubbed thick and buggy

Under-wing: elk hair

Legs: 4 pheasant tail fibers knotted to make the leg joint

Over-wing: turkey quill lacquered with Tough as Nails

Whip finish behind foam head

More traditional foam head created by tying the foam to the shank and folding it back on itself. This go around I left the butts of the pheasant tail exposed to mimic some forelegs. 

Sulphur Sparkle Dun

Hook: #16 dry

Thread: Orvis "Primrose" 8/0 (light yellow)

Tail: silver poly yarn

Body: thread wraps

Thorax: Hareline UV Light Yellow Trout Ice Dub

Wing: light deer hair tied comparadun style

Isonychia Comparadun

A classic low-riding representation of an Isonychia or Mahogany Dun.

Hook: #10-14 Dry
Thread: Rusty Brown
Tail: Dark Dun Z-lon
Body: Hareline Olive Brown Dubbin
Wing: Natural Deer Hair (the finer the better)

Can be tied with lighter deer or elk hair and combined with different colors to represent other hatches as well.

Extended Body Light Cahill

Hook: #14 Emerger

Thread:  tan 70 denier 

Extended body/tail tied separately: white deer hair

Hackle: cream

Wing: calf hair