Inspired

It was at the garage gathering a few weeks ago that JH showed up with a mitt full of musky flies.  Beautiful ties...all of them.  After 25 years of tying I've never really sat down to tie a musky fly.

I'll say this, you aren't going to tie a dozen in an hour.  I'll also mention that materials that I've had on hand for decades were depleted in just a couple of flies.  Nothing like burning through the inventory.

Thanks for the nudge JH.

Full Circle?

I was walking the banks of my home trout stream recently when I spotted a bit of fur.  I stooped, picked it up, gave it the sniff test and pocketed it. 

I figured an owl must've destroyed a squirrel and left it's meatless tail for me...

It sat on the dash of my car as MK and I drove north to a flyshop for a day of talking about steelhead with a bunch of guys that appreciate fish like that.

I glanced at it a few times as we drove and decided that it should become bonefish flies.

This morning I brought the vise upstairs to the dining room table and started in.

2 dozen flies...1/2 doz heavy dumbell eyes, 1/2 doz light dumbell eyes, 1/2 doz heavy beadchain eyes, 1/2 doz light beadchain eyes.

As I was tying, the birds at the backyard feeder ceased their singing. 

The hawk in the tree stayed around just long enough for a few photos.

I decided that perhaps it wasn't an owl that ate this squirrel after all.

It was probably a hawk and I hoped it was this hawk.

That'd be pretty neat.

"Angler visited by hawk that provides him his tying material"

If indeed it WAS this hawk that ate THIS squirrel I have some logistics to work out.  Do hawk's hunting grounds extend over 25 miles? 

Maybe. 

But the bigger question?...the tail that I found is the same size and "feel" of a squirrel's tail...EXCEPT, whoever saw one this color??  Ginger with white tips?

Before

 

  

During...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, during

After

HEX - trade secrets

I have fished a fair number of hex hatches over the years and I have settled on certain aspects of fly design.  There are a number of excellent patterns on the market and many more tied by guys like me who have their own secret "Hex" weapon.  But, when it comes down to the few hours a year I get to fish the hexagenia hatch, (and if I am fishing dry) I tie on one of these two patterns.

Here is what I've concluded about dry flies for the hex hatch.
1.  I like an extended body...but I don't like them to be rigid.  I've had a number of fish suck a fly down and yet I never got a hook in them.  I believe that the rigid extended bodies have kept the hook from getting into the "hooking zone".  I originally switched to a segmented body threaded onto a 5wt running line thinking that the line would add floation.  The segmentation worked well as I believe that my hooking percentage went up.  I don't think the 5wt running line was as limp as it should've been so I've since changed to doubled over 4-5x tippet...you'll see what I'm talking about in the pics below.

2. I fish spinners 95% of the time.  If it's a spinner fall the spinners "match the hatch" (or more correctly the "fall".  If it's an emergence, I believe the fish see the down winged version as a cripple/stillborn or at least a healthy struggling fly with damp wings unable to fly.  I believe that fish that have spent a few nights feeding on a hex emergence see this version of the fly as easy pickings. 

I've reached a point in my Hex tying that I haven't revised this fly much in the past few years.  It's a little bit tedious to tie in terms of prep work, but once the extended body is assembled it's pretty smooth sailing.  Take a look and if you are interested, confused, or have some thoughts on improving these patterns... shoot me a message.

Salmo's Hex Dun

Old aluminum tent pole, sharpened and beveled to cut foam disks. 

 

 

 

Disks threaded onto doubled over 4-5x tippet

Zap-A-Gap on Tippet and then foam is slid into place. Doubled tippet left long to lash to the hook and as tails. 

Extended Body attached to the hook

Parachute wing post of relatively stiff (but not too stiff!) synthetic.

Under Thorax of foam lashed and thorax dubbed.  Add two hackle feathers.

Hackle wrapped, thorax foam pulled under and secured behind the eye.

Clip excess foam, whip finish and cement the thread.  Abdomen colored with marker (optional). 

View from below.

Salmo's Hex Spinner

Extended body attached to the hook.

Synthetic down wing + a little flash, figure 8 tied.

Top View

Dubbed Thorax

Foam Head/Thorax.  Poke a hole in the foam and slide over the eye.

Lash the foam behind the wing / in front of the extended body.

Cut foam.

Vice Time

Playing around with a little deer hair and epoxy...the Gulf of Mexico on my mind.

The origins of sub-species

I was wrapping flies for a friend today and happened to glance up and notice an artifact from my very early years.  My Dad made this vice for my brother and me when we expressed an interest in fly tying.  I'd guess it's 30+ years old.  In case we didn't mention it...thanks Dad.

A few hours creekside

Sunday afternoon after the chores were done I found myself creekside for a few hours of angling.

The mission was to try some short line nymphing with some heavily weighted small scud and midge patterns.  I'm not exactly a French/Spanish/Czech nymphing guy, but I decided to go deep, sans bobber and see what happened.
What happened was this...

I was immediately confronted with rising fish so I tied on a a 24 RS2 emerger and fished dry.  The risers were small, but I sat and watched the pool and the fish before a threw in and promptly blew the first sipper and consequently the whole pool.  To save SOME face, the fish ate and I set up on air... 
I finally got back to the original agenda after stopping at a popular bridge crossing with a deep run on the downstream side.  I reasoned that most of the seasoned anglers would shun such a "wormhole" in favor of deeper haunts AND that anyone attempting to fish it would be an indicator fisherman, who would be unable to ply the depths due to bobber and fast flows.

I cast, my tandem weighted bobberless rig, sunk, drifted and pondered the zen purism of angling deep with out indicator watching for the tell-tale pause, twitch and stop that all of the magazines and nymphing books suggest may be the activities of trout below.  I thought about how difficult and intense the whole operation was.  I craned my neck and squinted to follow the dark olive flyline as it exited the shadows into the full glare of reflected 2pm sunlight that even my $189 polarized glasses couldn't contend with (that blazing orb, afterall, heats our planet from space...best of luck Revo).
...after my 9th rainbow I determined that my heronlike prowess, and kingfisher eyes were successfully helping me land fish that a DNR truck had recently dumped off the bridge.

At my vice, midweek, during the hours that I should be sleeping, I think of fish and hatches, and days, and moments and critical variables like one turn of soft hackle or two.  I ponder color, refractive light, shadow and hook size.  I think of leaders and underhand casts and hope, as I finish 1/2 dozen of this or that size 18 burnt-umber crippled baetis emerger with poly no make that cul de canard, split wingcase, that some wise old brown will find my offer worthy and take a chance on my handiwork.

I never (ever) think of stocked rainbows just off the bridge near town.

So, I set to work and hammered every last one that I could.

For moral highground's sake I will say that I ventured upstream and hooked, on said nymph rig, a solid 15" Brown that hit the sky and popped the faux chironomid in mid air.  The leap was very rainbow-esque but at least it was from a brown that was the offspring of a fish planted 20+ years ago instead of fresh off the chute last week...

Where are the native brookies in this story?  Good question...

Caddis...yum.

Trout Chow?

I spoofed a hatchery fish (at least this one had most of its fins)

At the vice with new technology

I just recv'd my shipment of Clear Cure Goo.  I think I may be in love.  After years and years and years of trying to find the perfect epoxy for a myriad of patterns, ruining dozens if not hundreds of flies and watching the epoxy turn amber after a season....along comes Clear Cure Goo.  With a few different  in viscosities, it seems that the options are endless.   Once the Goo is in place, simply hit it with the UV light for 5-10 seconds and you are DONE!  No more drying motors!!!!!!!!!

I cranked out a 1/2 doz Deceivers and I was very happy with the outcome (at least the outcome of the heads and eyes, it seems I may needs some new Indian Strung Hackle in white and certainly some new bucktail...).

I also tried something else...By tying in a mono loop in front of the eye and covering with the Goo, it is likely that I have stumbled across a very viable "diving-lip".  I am not sure if anyone else out there has done this yet or if it will even work, but the end results are very, very cool.  Take a look:

I also messed around with some baitfish and all I can say is LIQUID GOLD (just ad UV)!