12037 on the 15th

I just checked and my hit counter is at 12037...I must re-read my own stuff a lot more than I thought.
Tonight I decided to take the steelhead tying full circle.  If these chromers are so hot to eat a caddis, perhaps they will take the best all around caddis emerger known to this author...a hare's ear soft hackle.  1/2 doz added on #7 Alec Jackson hooks.  In case they really want the adult, I added another 1/2 doz steelhead caddis of my own design on the same #7's.  My tying desk looks like Noah's Ark exploded.

Fourteen

If last night's dozen doesn't raise them, perhaps tonight's dozen steelhead caddis will...

Saturday the 13th

I tied a few articulated leeches today...50 lbs gel spun to connect the sections and then enough marabou to make my finger tips black.  I kept thinking about the water ski muddler I tied back on the eleventh night  and decide to add a few more.  By this time next month I will be back from the "D" and we will know which of the 9 dozen turned the trick (if any).

Twelfth Nite

Messed around with Q-tips...er ...I mean tubes.  Finishing nail in the vice and away we go.  I've got a long, long way to go before I feel comfortable tying on something other than a hook.
Special thanks to Shocks McSteel for sending the black bear hide.  Magical stuff.

the eleventh...

I screwed around at the vice today and tied a fly using pheasant, tinsel, marabou, and rubber legs.  I just needed to breakout...if it catches fish it will be called the "midwest farmer's daughter" if it doesn't catch fish it will require no such name.

 I was trying to figure out how a fly might really skate on a long down and across swing and decided that I'd tie a muddler that didn't so much skate as ski...i.e. single ski  (see pic below).  It may work or it may be a total flop but the end result was pretty much what I had in mind.

I also wrapped some more purple deer hair (more or less) in the shape of a muddler.  These should be a pretty safe fall back if Ol' One Ski doesn't pan out.

The boxes are starting to fill up...

My eldest daughter decided that she wanted to wrap today and given the bright and wild colors of many steelhead flies (and the material I had on the table) it seemed obvious that she'd be drawn to the process.
I stepped in and showed her how to get things started, but then undid all of my work so she could start over and do it all herself.  I think she did an excellent job.

She picked the colors and materials...

A close up of my daughter's handiwork...

 

Night 10...Tying for the "D"

The latest in the box filling saga...
I decided to try the "Green Butt Skunk" with a chartreuse ostrich hurl butt...it looked pretty cool so I continued.
1/2 doz in the box.  I moved on to the "Redwing Blackbird", the tying instructions weren't clear in all of my googling so I followed the sample pic that was sent by NK and embellished with some red dyed pheasant tail for the collar and tail.  Again, I liked, so I wrapped a half dozen.  Next I built a orange bodied muddler with tan and orange kip tail and the bottom cut flush (flat) I'm hoping this will wake across some steelhead's nose and cause it to erupt...I switched to a straight eye hook for the larger version and used a down eyed Mustad 3906 sz 6 on the smaller versions.  We'll just have to see....

...Night 9

I flew back from the bright lights of Los Angeles this evening and pulled up a chair at the dining room table (instead of my desk in the basement), clamped on my vice and caught up with my wife while I wrapped up 1/2 doz Max Canyons and 1/2 doz Purple Angels (Edge Brite Variant).  Good to be home.