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Black Goldfinch

2014.12.02.kvitre.no.black_goldfinch

Hook: TMC 7999 #1/0
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Tag: UTC Oval Silver Medium, UNI-Floss Red
Tail: GP, Veniard Red Crow Substitute
Butt: Black Ostrich
Body: UNI-Floss Black
Rib: UNI-Mylar #10
Hackle: Whiting Black Rooster Cape
Throat: Harline Strung Guinea Natural
Wing: Turkey Yellow/Red, 3 GP toppings

The “Classic Salmon Fly Patterns” by Michael D. Radencich lists 5 variants of the Black Goldfinch. What I had closest material for was the Black Goldfinch No.1 and tied these two up for my salmon box. Still have some issues with mounting, but the real interesting exercise here was the mounting of 3 toppings over the wing. The GP toppings needed to sit correctly together and not flare out to the sides, to tell you: I spent some toppings to get these to sit ok, but a good exercise indeed!

 

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

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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

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

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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:

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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

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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

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A batch of Polar Magnus done and ready to fish:

2014.11.03.dryfly.me.polar_magnus_batch

2/0 10xl red & black streamers

2014.10.25.dryfly.me.red_black_streamer

Hook: Partridge Carrie Stevens Streamer #2/0 10xl
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Tag: Uni-Mylar
Tail: Golden Pheasant
Butt: Black Ostrich
Body: 3 layers of UNI-Floss White, Red/Black UNI-Floss
Rib: UNI-French, UNI Red/Black Floss
Wing: Whiting Cape – Black, Foxtail Cock Neck – Red
Shoulder: Harline Strung Guinea Natural, Jungle Cock feather, Veniard Red Crow Substitute, Jungle Cock

I really enjoy pushing the boundaries when it comes to tying flies, and this one is one of the bigger ones that I’ve tied! The 10xl Carrie Stevens streamer hook is massive to tie on and can give some challenges when it comes to planning the layout and finding the material that will stretch all the way to the end. The plan from the start was to mount these in a frame and put them on the wall, I didn’t have a pattern to go from, but was rather inspired from various images on google and some Carrie Stevens patterns to draw some knowledge from, besides that these two are a creation from my own mind, so what should I call them?

2014.10.25.dryfly.me.red_black_streamer2

I wanted to create something that popped out and had clean lines to look at, that’s where the two main feathers came from, the original plan was to have a read feather as the first feather on the second one but I didn’t have large enough to stretch to the end of the hook so I ended up with just changing the colors on the body for the second one. I like the lines it has and mounted together in a frame these two will be a good match to each other

2014.10.25.dryfly.me.red_black_streamer_togetherI do see some issues with the execution: the body floss is not as smooth as I would like, the guinea should have been pulled a little bit further towards the hook and the lines from the JC to the black feather is not in line. But this will be a exercise for the winter to get better on, I just need to get some more of these hooks since I’m almost out.

 

Baitfish day

2014.10.14.dryfly.me.baitfish

Hook: Allen SW001 #4
Thread: Benecchi White
Body: Hareline Select Craft Fur white/black/olive, flash, anglehair
Eyes: 6mm 3d, Bug Bond cover

My new saltwater box needed some baitfish and I found a box of Allen SW001 that is quite short and have a nice open bend that I like in this pattern. When tying these long hairy baitfish you can use a range of material: bucktail, fox, templedog or craft fur as I have done here. This is a really quick pattern to tie up, and most of it is actually spent curing the bugbond!

The primary colors I fish with is green and black, but I have some blue, yellow and red that I will give a go later on. The eyes are attached with superglue and then some layers with bugbond around to form the eye, they are still a bit tacky, so I want to try out some other UV resin soon to see how they behave.

As you can see in this picture I tie these really slim, but the movement this gets when you pull it quickly in have triggered the most of the seatrout I have landed, so I never go out without a couple of these in my box

2014.10.14.dryfly.me.baitfish_single