VIDEO - How to Tie a Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail Nymph

Frenchie Nymph (Variant)

Recipe

Hook - Jig Hook (Size 12)

Thread - Uni-thread 8/0 (Firey Orange)

Tail - Coq de Leon (Natural)
Tag - Uni-thread 8/0 (Firey Orange)

Body - Ring Necked Pheasant Tail

Ribbing - Wapsi Small UTC Wire  (Copper)

Thorax - Fox Squirrel Dubbing (Natural)

Hot Spot - Hareline Ice Dubbing  (Fluorescent Pink)
Head - Allen Tungsten Slotted Bead (Gold)

Mayfly Nymph (Crawler and Clinger)

Recipe

Hook - Nymph Hook (Size 14)

Thread - Uni-thread 8/0 (Camel)

Tail - Three Ring Necked Pheasant Tail Fibers

Body - Wapsi Scudback (Brown)

Gills - Ostrich Herl (Natural)

Legs - Hand Knotted Ring Necked Pheasant Tail Fibers

Wing Case - Wapsi Thin Skin (Brown)

Head - Flymen Fishing Co. Evolution Tungsten Mayfly Clinger

UV Dub Caddis

Recipe

Hook - Size 12 Nymph

Body - Spirit River UV2 Seal-X Dubbing (Hot Pink)

Ribbing (left) - Mirage Tinsel (Small)

Head (left) -  2.5 mm Brass

Head (right) - Flymen Fishing Co. Heavy Metal Nymph-Head

Rainbow Trout Underwater

Short video from a recent fishing trip . . . 

This is what trout do . . . hold in the current all day and eat.

(may not play on some mobile devices)

WNC Fly Fishing Expo

Had lots of fun tying flies in the Flymen Fishing Co. 

booth at the WNC Fly Fishing Expo last weekend!

Foam Crane Fly

Recipe

Hook - Dry Fly (Size 12)

Thread - Uni-Thread 8/0 (Lt. Cahill)

Body - Foam (Tan)

Wings - Grizzly Hackle

Legs -  Pheasant Tail (Hand Knotted)

Byron's Knucklehead (and Baby)

This is a normal sized Byron's Knucklehead (Size 6) and

a Baby version that I tried with a Size 16 hook.

Recipe

Just a few ingredients are needed:

Size 6 Hook (but can be scaled to any size hook)

Foam (any color)

Rubber Legs

Crystal Flash

Eyes (made by Wapsi)

For detailed tying instructions, click HERE

Deer Hair Popper

First attempt at a stacked deer hair fly.

Recipe

Hook - Size 2/0

Tail - Marabou (Olive and Yellow); Crystal Flash

Body - Wapsi Deer Belly Hair (Black, Green, and Yellow)

Legs - Rubber Legs (Yellow and hand stripped black)

Eyes - Flymen Fishing Co. Living Eyes (Earth color)

Dee Fly

Dee Fly (my own design)

Recipe

Hook - #4 (modified to make it blind eye)

Thread - Uni-thread 8/0 (Black)

Tag - Oval Tinsel - Small (Silver)

Body - Danville Floss (Black)

Rib - Oval Tinsel - Small (Silver)

Body Hackle - Golden Pheasant Body Feathers

Throat - Schlappen Feathers (Hot Orange)

Wing - Turkey Tail

Sides - Jungle Cock Eye

Eye - Silk Gut

Grey Streamer

Grey Streamer (my own design)

Recipe

Hook - #6 Streamer

Thread - Uni-thread 8/0 (Black)

Tag - UTC Mylar Tinsel - Medium (Silver)

Body - Uni-Floss (Orange)

Rib - UTC Mylar Tinsel - Medium (Silver)

Throat - Buck Tail (White)

Wing - Peacock Herl and Grizzly Rooster Hackle

Sides - Jungle Cock Spade Feather

Fly Tyers Weekend

Fly Tyers Weekend is less than a week away. November 7 and 8.

CLICK HERE for details and the tying demonstration schedule.

Elk Hair Caddis

Basic Elk Hair Caddis on a #14 dry fly hook. Elk hair, 

Grizzly Hackle, and Wapsi Superfine Dry Fly Dubbing. 

Simple ingredients and simple fly, but it catches fish.

Makeshift Mouse

 At the FFF Southern Council Fly Fishing Fair, one of the 

visitors asked me to tie a Mouse Fly. I did not have all

of the best or required materials with me, but came up with

 this mouse from the materials that I had brought. These

pictures are from the show, and not from the very beginning

of the fly, but it will give a basic idea of how one is tied.

Spin the deer body hair. This is one not packed tight so it 

is a longer haired mouse. The tail was added first 

but not visible in the picture.

Add some foam or any other material you like for ears.

Trim the deer hair to the body shape you want.

Keep trimming.

The ears need to be shaped.

Cut the ears to whatever shape you like. Then tie

in some whiskers (these are elk hair).

Add some eyes and it's done.

Wapsi Challenge at the 2015 IFFFSOC Fly Fishing Fair

At the FFF Southern Council Fly Fishing Fair, Wapsi Fly Company

sponsored a fun contest where they gave all of the fly tying demonstrators

identical materials and the game was to come up with any fly pattern

you wanted.  You had to use as many materials from their selection as possible

and were only allowed to add a hook and one more ingredient. The following 

were the ingredients in the contest package (not all of the items were labelled, 

so I may be guessing at some of the packaging names):

UTC 140 Denier Thread (Olive)

Silly Legs (Grizzly Brown)

A new open-cell foam material (Gray)

Thin Skin - Czech Speck (Black and Clear)

SLF Dubbing (blend of rabbit and sparkle)

Turkey feather (Natural)

Mirage Tinsel (Medium)

I added eyes made of burned monofilament line and a Size 12 nymph hook

 and was fortunate enough to win the contest. Big thanks to Wapsi 

for the very nice prize package and for hosting the contest! 

2015 Fall Orvis Days

Looking forward to seeing my friends at Orvis and

demonstrating fly tying at the Orvis Store in Asheville, NC

all day tomorrow (October 10). 

Size 32 Fly

This is the first trout I caught on a Size 32 fly.  Didn't measure the 

fish but approximately 15 inches.  Caught a few more after 

this one. You can see the tiny fly in the picture near the "32" on

 the label. Found the Size 32 hooks  at Blue Ribbon Fly Shop last week

 in Mountain Home, AR.  Very nice fly shop and people there. 

Southern Council IFFF Fly Fishing Fair

Demonstrating this weekend (Saturday) at the

Southern Council IFFF Fly Fishing Fair (Mountain Home, AR)

October 2-3, 2015

Classic Trout Wet Flies

Classic Trout Wet Fly (my own designs)

Recipe

Hook - #8 wet fly

Thread - Uni-thread 8/0 (Black)
Tail - Goose Shoulder (Yellow and Orange)

Body - Uni-Floss  (Orange)
Rib - Oval Tinsel - Small (Silver)
Throat - Keough Hen Hackle (Blue)
Wing - Goose Shoulder and Kori Bustard (Yellow, Orange, and Red)
Sides - Jungle Cock Nail 

Woven Stonefly Nymph

Woven Stonefly Nymph. My own design.

Recipe

Hook - #10 Nymph

Tail - Goose Biots (Black)

Body - Cross-stitch Thread (Black and Yellow woven together)

Underbody - Sparkle Dubbing (Peacock)

Shellback - Wapsi Thin Skin

Legs - Goose Biots - hand knotted (Black)

Head - Flymen Fishing Co. Nymph-Head Evolution (Stonefly - Black)

Antenna - Goose Biots (Black)

Jungle Beetle

Jungle Beetle

Recipe

Hook - #14 dry fly

Thread - Uni-thread 8/0 (Black)

Body - Deer Hair (Black)
Wing case - Jungle Cock Nail (Clear Cure Goo)

Thorax - Ice Dubbing (Black)
Legs - MTC Centipede Legs

Hi Viz Stimulator

Hi Viz Stimulator

Recipe

Hook - #12 dry fly

Thread - Uni-thread 8/0 (Lt. Cahill)

Tail - Elk Hair (Natural)
Body - 2mm Foam (Yellow)
Wing - Elk Hair (Natural)
Hackle - Furnace Hackle (Brown)
Indicator - 2 mm Foam (Yellow and Orange)

Mayfly Nymph

Mayfly Nymph

Recipe

Hook - #12 nymph

Thread - Uni-thread 8/0 (Lt. Cahill)
Head - Flymen Evolution Nymph Head 
(Olive - Size XS - Mayfly Swimmer and Burrower)
Tail - Goose Biots (Fiery Brown)
Antenna - Golden Pheasant Tail (Natural)

Body - Nymph Skin (Hand colored)
Gills - CDC

Legs - Hungarian Partridge

Shellback - Nymph Skin (Hand colored)

Thorax - Dubbing (Camel)

Olive Latex Caddis Pupa - Step by Step

Materials Used 

#12 Barbless Scud Hook

Uni-thread 8/0 (Lt. Cahill)

Golden Pheasant Tail (Natural)

Hungarian Partridge (Natural) 

Camel Dubbing (Olive)

Latex Strip

Flymen Fishing Co. Evolution Nymph Head (Caddis - Small - Olive)

Prismacolor Marker (Olive)

Tie in the Flymen Caddis Nymph Head snug against the hook eye:

Tie in a short strip of latex at end of hook in bend:

Wrap the latex from back of hook towards the front to make segments 

and tie in approximately the width of the head back from the head:

 

Cut latex strip and tie down with thread wraps approximately

1/4 of the way back away from the head:

Tie in a second strip of latex approximately 1/4 of the way back 

away from the head then bring thread wrap back to head:

Select a Hungarian Partridge feather and then pluck the fibers at

the top to form a "V" shape. Then position each side of the "V" on 

the sides of the fly to form the legs and tie in with thread wraps:

Cut the excess Hungarian Partridge and add dubbing to the thread:

Dub the thorax of the fly:

Pull the second latex strip towards the head and 

tie in right behind the head:

Select two Golden Pheasant Tail fibers, pinch them together

evenly, and tie in under the tag of the latex strip:

Cut the tag ends of the Golden Pheasant fibers and the latex strip:

Hand color the latex materials with a Prismacolor Olive 

Marker (do not color the bottom of the fly):

Pick/tease the dubbing at bottom to make the fly look "buggy".

Tie the fly to 5X or 6X tippet, make a nice cast, and hang on... :