Tungsten Bead Head Hare’s Ear Nymphs

 Fly Fishing, Fly Tying  2 Responses »
Mar 162011
 

As I mentioned a few days ago, I have posted my special, top secret, black ops hare’s ear nymphs below. There are some pictures out there of them. I did post one over on the THFF Forum some time ago. I have made some changes to it since then. So, with out further ado, up first is the natural hare’s ear pictured below.

natural hare's ear nymph

What? That’s it right there. Hahaha, just kidding. The larger pictures are coming up next. I mean hey, I’ve been up for like 196 hours straight putting FFSC together. I needed some humor.

These are tied on a standard #14 nymph hook with a copper colored tungsten bead, hare’e wiggle dubbing, comparadun hair tail, and copper wire ribbing. I recently added the copper wire, and removed the soft hackle. I found omitting the soft hackle had little or no effect on strike potential it appears. The wild trout love it. The hare’e wiggle dubbing is available at Casters Online Fly Shop and comes in several colors. The little rubber strips give your flies a lot of extra motion. The natural colored comparadun hair really stands out on the olive version. Its practically as good as flash, I think.

hare's ear nymphs

Hare's Ear Face Off. Olive vs Natural.

Foam Body Quill Gordon

 Fly Fishing, Fly Tying  No Responses »
Feb 172011
 

Quill Gordon season is right around the corner here in the southeast, and if the weather stays as warm as it has been lately, it’ll be here before we know it. That being the case, I got back to tinkering with the foam body dry fly series. The latest addition is the foam body Quill Gordon parachute.

foam body quill gordon

The foam body quill gordon parachute

Features Of The Fly

  • Hook – #16 Orvis Ultimate Dry Fly Hook
  • Thread – Danville 8/0 Black
  • Tail – Two Dark Dun Micro Fibbets
  • Body – Very thin cut strip of brown 2mm foam wrapped then accented with black thread.
  • Thorax – A hint of black superfine dubbing
  • Hackle – #16 Medium Dun
  • Parachute Post – Lemon Dyed Mallard Flank

Working On Some More Foam Body Dry Flies

 Fly Fishing, Fly Tying  2 Responses »
Jan 282011
 

I’ve still been messing around with the 2mm foam to see what types of flies I can tie with it. There are a couple more pictured below.

Foam Body Olive Sparkle Dun

Foam Olive Sparkle Dun

Foam Olive Sparkle Dun

  • Orvis Ultimate Dry Fly Hook #16
  • Abdomen – 2mm foam cut into roughly 1mm strip and wrapped around hook shank
  • Thorax – Pale Evening Dun Superfine Dubbing
  • Tail – Ginger Z-lon
  • Wing – Natural Comparadun Hair
  • Thread – Orvis 12/0 Olive

Foam Body Yellow Stimulator

Yellow Foam Stimulator

Yellow Foam Stimulator

  • TMC #10 Nymph Hook
  • Tail – Natural Comparadun Hair (Elk Hair is probably more customary)
  • Abdomen – Yellow 2mm foam cut to 1mm x 1mm strip more or less and wrapped
  • Thorax – Amber Superfind Dubbing
  • Wing – Ginger Z-lon (Elk Hair again is a more standard material)
  • Hackle – Brown hackle on the rear section, grizzly up front
  • Thread – 8/0 Tan

Ultimately I’d like to try coating the foam with flex-a-ment for some added durability, but it’ll have to be tested to see if that would make the dry flies too heavy. The foam should a bit more buoyant than just standard dubbing. Now if it were only Spring. The Olive Sparkle Dun should have its day fairly soon.

Revamping The Foam Body Dry Flies

 Fly Fishing, Fly Tying  No Responses »
Jan 152011
 
Tan Foam Body Dry Fly

With the weather like its been around here lately, there’s been plenty of time to tie flies. Before much longer I’ll have a whole year’s supply ready to go. I won’t sweat it too hard though, before you know it it’ll be time to break out those March Browns and Quill Gordons.

Now that I’ve finished shooting six holes in my freezer, I settled in to revamp the foam body dry flies I created and had very good success with last year. The original body was all foam, but the new version 2.1.0.3 has seen the introduction of some customary dubbing. You will find two examples shown below.

Foam Body Blue Dun Dry Fly

Foam Body Blue Dun Dry Fly

The above fly was tied using:

  • Hook: #16 Orvis Ultimate Dry Fly Hook
  • Thread: 8/0 Black
  • Body/Abdomen: Grey 2mm foam cut into a 1mm x 1mm strip (give or take)
  • Tail: Two dark dun micro fibbets
  • Thorax: Gray superfine dubbing
  • Wing Post: Medium Dun Z-Lon
  • Hackle: Medium Dun

Hopefully this fly will do a good job of imitating a Blue Dun, Blue Quill, Quill Gordon maybe, or just about any other fairly dark colored mayfly.

Tan Foam Body Dry Fly

Tan Foam Body Dry Fly

The tan fly was tied using:

  • Hook: #16 Orvis Ultimate Dry Fly Hook
  • Thread: 8/0 Brown
  • Body/Abdomen: Tan 2mm foam cut into a 1mm x 1mm strip (give or take)
  • Tail: Two cream micro fibbets
  • Thorax: Amber superfine dubbing
  • Wing Post: Cream Z-Lon
  • Hackle: Brown

The original tan foam body dry fly worked well all year last year. It does a decent job of mimicking the March Brown, Light Cahill, and other light colored insects.

The wrapping of the foam accented by a few carefully spaced wraps of thread gives these flies a nice quill bodied look with the added buoyancy of foam.

Tying The Allen’s Sili Hopper

 Fly Fishing, Fly Tying  No Responses »
Jul 032010
 

The Allen’s Sili Hopper is a fairly simple and effective fly pattern utilizing silicone legs instead of rubber legs. Silicone offers some advantages over rubber in that the silicone is less likely to melt or stick to other lures, flies, and surfaces.

Below, you’ll find a brief slide show tutorial for tying this hopper pattern.

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