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SBS: Polar Magnus

I have done some Polar Magnus lately and I thought it would be good to do a SBS on this great seatrout fly. This is a pattern that can be changed with different colors and hackle and this is how I tie them to ensure maximum durability during fishing.

Hook: TMC 777SP #8
Thread: UNI 6/0
Tail: Whiting Hackle tips
Body: Hareline Ice Dub
Body Hackle: Whiting
Rib: Copper Wire
Front Hackle: Foxtail Hen Red
Eyes: Bead Chain Gold Medium

1. start with thread from the hook eye and add a layer back and then towards the eye again. Add a pair of bead chain eyes, here I have used a medium gold version, but can be substituted with different sizes and colors. You can also add the eyes on the underside of the hook
2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_1

2. When tying in the eyes: wrap in a figure-eight around the hook to securely tie in the eyes, if not they can start to slip. Also make sure you apply a good amount of pressure on the thread here to secure the eyes, you can also add some superglue to the wraps when you are done to secure the eyes even more.

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_2

3. Find two hackle tips and tie them in around the hook point (or where the hook bend starts), tie them in on the side of the hook

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_3

4. The hackle tips should form a V going back

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_45. Tie in the hackle and when going back add a copper wire

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_5

6. Add dubbing to the thread, this can be varied in different colors and variants but I like the Ice Dub on this fly

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_6

7. Dub the body but stop a little bit before the eyes: you want to have room to tie in the hackle

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_7

8. Tie in the body hackle, this can again be varied: short or long, and be added in short or longer turns around the hook, this depends on how you want the final fly to appear

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_8

9. When you reach the end of the dubbing make sure to keep the hackle tight while you counter-wrap the copper wire around the body all the way to the front of the dubbing

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_9

10. The first copper wrap here is keeping the hackle down and secures it in place. Make sure to not get the wire above the hackle so that it is trapped

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_10

11. I have ribbed the fly with a lot of turns here, this will make sure the fly is durable and will add a little bit of extra weight to it as well

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_11

12. After cutting away the hackle tip (keep it to make more tails on other polar magnus!) and the wire tie in a red (or pink) hackle

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_12

13. Wrap the hackle 2-3-4 times (depending on how much hackle you want and the profile you want the fly to have) and tie it in just behind the eyes. Secure the thread with a whipfinish and you have the final fly:

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_13

14. To make sure the fly is even more durable and will endure everything that happens to it I add some Bug Bond above the thread between the eyes and cure it with UV

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_14

15. The Bug Bond keeps the eyes securely in place, but make sure that you don’t cover the hackle in it

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16. A alternative Polar magnus with red copper wire and pink spey hackle, just to show how you can mix this pattern up

2014.11.11.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_sbs_16

A batch of Polar Magnus done and ready to fish:

2014.11.03.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_batch

300 Posts

I started out with dryfly.me 1.april last year, and it has now been up and running for just over 18 months, today marks a milestone here: this is the 300th post that I have posted so far!

The plan behind starting this blog up was to explore flytying and flyfishing even more for my own part, I had done some tying before, but starting up this blog have driven me to look at different styles, patterns and new areas that all are a part of what flytying is all about. I have posted most of what I have tied up without much filter – the part of putting these pictures up here in the public have driven me to look at the why and how it should be done, and that have learned me a lot!

This has been a learning journey for me, and it will continue to be so! Maybe I’ll get into pike flies, big saltwater flies for tropics, ultrarealistic tying, who knows? What I like is to explore all parts of this hobby to become better at what I like to do: tying and fishing!

What’s next?

I have explored a lot when it comes to flytying the last year, and I will continue to post patterns and fishing trips here, but I would like to start looking more into details on things now that I have gotten to a comfortable level of tying: SBS on patterns, a deeper look into materials and maybe look more at rodbuilding and other parts of what flytying/flyfishing is all about.

The last 18 months

With this beeing the 300th post here on dryfly.me I have gone through all 60 pages and looked at what I have done in the past.

My first post: Horizontal Midge, I had just got the domain and a brand new macro camera, this was the (rushed) start of it all.

2013.04.dryfly.me.midge_horizontal_side

I then got into looking at material (this was a plan from the start): thread, dubbing and vinyl rib. I was still practicing dryfly with CDC&Deer that really don’t look that good today, but it was a part of learning it:

2013.04.dryfly.me.deer_cdc_emergerThese Aurivilli was the start of getting something right:

2013.05.dryfly.me.aurivilli

At this time I did a lot of tiny flies down to #32

2013.05.dryfly.me.parachute-32First attempt at a wetfly (and I started looking at different background colors):

2013.05.dryfly.me.green_wet

Then in june 2013 my favourite dryfly pattern appeared, and I did a SBS on it

2013.06.dryfly.me.cdc_deer_many

And I went out and got some fish with it. Introduced planet.dryfly.me that still haven’t gotten that much traffic, but I think is a really good place to catch  up on what’s going on with flyfishing around the world. I played around with vinyl-rib nymph

2013.06.kvitre.no.nymph_vinyl_rib

and got some nice trout

2013.07.dryfly.me.summer_trout

in the sunset

dryfly.me.2013.08.sunset_by_river

By august I did another SBS on the hatching caddis

dryfly.me.2013.08.sbs_hatching_caddis_9

And suddenly it was september and I got my first seatrout on fly and did a SBS on a baitfish
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Did my first married wing fly:

kvitre.no.2013.09.21.married_wings_jungle_1

Explored some new lakes around Oslo

dryfly.me.2013.10.07.new_waters_5

It was now getting into winter and I started tying up many different styles, even some really big #2/0 streamers (didn’t leave a stone unturned when it came to exploring new stuff)

dryfly.me.2013.10.27.green_guinea_streamer

At this time I got my first patch of arctic fox and tied up some streamers

2013.12.02.red_foxtail

but I got some good dries tied as well

dryfly.me.2013.12.08.emerger_backIn december I started looking at tube fly, and tied up my first one:

dryfly.me.2013.12.02.first_tube

this escalated over the winter and I got really into tying large arctic fox/temple dog tube flies for salmon, exploring sunray shadow, more sunray shadows, my sunray solsticered-tag tube,

Got into PT in the new year

dryfly.me.2014.01.02.pt_goldMade some troll-looking emergers

dryfly.me.2014.01.08.emerger_corkDid some buzzers

dryfly.me.2014.01.07.buzzers5and some more bead midges

dryfly.me.2014.01.15.bead_variations

at this point I did a lot of tubes, and this is still one of my favourites:

dryfly.me.2014.02.07.tubes

I also explored the salmon bomber on tube, making a lot of mess in my tying room:

dryfly.me.2014.02.06.bombers

We are now in february this year and I made some red-tag wet flies that I got my pb grayling on later this year

dryfly.me.2014.02.15.wet_flies

I built my first rod

dryfly.me.2014.03.17.rod_back

And at this time I had my big-tube patterns going in a good direction:
dryfly.me.2014.03.09.tube_green_highlander_family

And I started filling up my barbless box with CDC&Deer:

dryfly.me.2014.03.03.dry_side

In march I partcipated in a caenis swap with some small #30:

dryfly.me.2014.03.11.caenis_familyAnd went back to do some templedog comet on different hooks and tube:
dryfly.me.2014.04.03.comets

I got my first Cod on fly the 30th of march:

dryfly.me.2014.03.30.fishing_cod1

Exploited a dustbroom to get some parachutes:
dryfly.me.2014.04.21.dust_broom_all

The first shrimp:
dryfly.me.2014.05.11.shrimp

Got some very nice dries going:
dryfly.me.2014.05.18.more_microdun

that have a great profile:

dryfly.me.2014.05.17.microdun_frontIt was now june, and I tied up a lot for the big north-norway trip I had this summer:
dryfly.me.2014.06.29.yellow_parachute

Around this time I also experimented with my first classic salmon:
dryfly.me.2014.06.18.classic_single

The first vaskebjørn appeared in August (it was a lot of seatrout flies this autumn):

dryfly.me.2014.08.06.vaskebjorn

Did some awsome looking doubles:

2014.08.25.double_silverBefore I started tying up for my autumn trip with a lot of dry barbless:

2014.08.31.dryfly.me.dyret

At the end of August I also tied up my first couple of Bergmans:
2014.0830.dryfly.me.bergman_babcock

Then it was time to try out salmon on the fly for the first time, but all I got was this pike:
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

But Rena delivered in September, and I got a grayling that crossed the 1kg mark:
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Then it was back to Vaskebjørn and more variations of the Magnus:

2014.09.30.dryfly.me.more_rusty_magnusSome rabbit skins came my way that I’m starting to use, and lately I have done some spey style

2014.10.26.dryfly.me.speysome big carrie-stevens like streamers

2014.10.30.dryfly.me.mickey_ghost_together

and finally some more Magnus

2014.11.01.dryfly.me.polar_magnusAs you can see it has been a long 18 months where I have explored a lot of different styles and sizes, it has been great fun, and I’m looking forward to more exploring and weird experiments over the winter and the next years!