Hook: Kamasan B280 #6
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Tag: UNI-French, Lagartun French Silk
Tail: GP
Butt: Black Ostrich
Body: UNI-Floss
Rib: UNI-French
Underwing: Black fox
Wing: Mallard Duck, 2 toppings
A quick one this afternoon: Two doubles that started with the blue charm as inspiration and a little bit of google image search where I found the wing and GP layout that I thought would work good together.
Hook: TMC7999 #1/0
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Tag: Lagartun Oval X-Strong Fine, Lagartun French Silk Floss
Tail: GP, Veniard Red Crow Substitute
Butt: Black Ostrich
Body: Yellow/Claret/Black Seals Fur
Rib: UNI-Mylar #10, Lagartun Oval X-Strong Large
Hackle: The Fly. Co Rooster Neck
Throat: Veniard Chinese Cock Doctor Blue
Wing:Pair of Jungle Cock, 2 pair of GP tippets, 2 GP toppings
Sides: Jungle Cock
Head: Black Ostrich
Another classic salmon for my fishing box: the Durham Ranger. I have a JC that really isn’t that good for display flies, but for these fishing flies they are great! The durham ranger is one that I haven’t tied before but is in almost every book about the classics, and it shows up on many sites describing this pattern that was made by William Henderson in the 1840’s. I didn’t have all the material to be true to the original pattern, but I made due with what I had.
I always tie up a couple of each when I start a pattern to get a feel on how the pattern is, this time the second time around did come out better:
The seals fur body in three different colors:
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!
Hook: Partridge Bartleet Blind-Eye #3/0
Thread: UNI 17/0 Trico White, Sheer 14/0 Black
Tag: Lagartun Oval X-Strong Fine French Tinsel, Lagartun French Silk Floss
Tail: GP topping, Wood Duck
Butt: Black Ostrich
Body: Lagartun French Silk Floss, Seals fur Green Highlander
Rib: Lagartun French Tinsel
Hackle: Green Highlander Cock Saddle
Underwing: GP tippet
Wing: Dyed Turkey Yellow/Orange/Green, Wood Duck, Mallard Duck
Throat: Rooster Neck Yellow
Cheek: Red Crow Substitute
This one has been a long time in the making: I started last year with some married wings but it went on and off for a while and I didn’t have material that I needed for this pattern. I still don’t have everything I would like to have: the wing should have some GP/Bustard/Mottled turkey, a good JC and horns. But: step by step I’ll add more to this pattern, this time it was all about getting the 18 strands of wing to stay together and tie them in without the fibers going in every direction, and I did! Next time I’ll increase the wing to 21/24 strands and manage to tie that in properly, but I don’t mind doing more variants on this pattern (as long as I get some more silk gut soon….).
There are some adjustments on this (there always is!), but the parts I’m happy with on this fly: the GP that meets up in the back, the GP underwing that aligns (and the fact that I figured out how to do it), the fact that the wing stayed in one place when I tied it in (“Tying the classic salmon fly” helped me out there) and the mallard duck roof.
I’m also quite happy with the start of the fly: the silk was nice and (almost) even, together with the tinsel it was a good starting point:
The underbody of white UNI-Floss before I started to add silk and seals fur. This makes for a better profile on the final fly:
Up until this point the fly is flowing nicely: the hackle could be better and the yellow throat should be thicker:
The colors of the green highlander is what pulled me in the first time:
Rear-view of the green highlander:
The topping is forming a nice veil on top of the fly and packs it in:
If I were to save one fly I have ever created it must be this! I know that if I come back to this in a couple of years time I will find a lot of things to point out, but this is the process: tie up, learn, repeat. And for me part of that process is to put these patterns out here, together with a macro shot that shows all the little flaws it have, but that is one of the things that drive me to become better!
To give you a idea of how big this fly is:
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?
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
I 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.
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