Recent comments

Love it

Thanks for sharing this! Next time I go bonefishing I am definitely tying some up.

Blue Jay

Awesome Davie!!!

Were you a builder when you were not fly fishing?

I believe you built a modular house for Dorothy Rieger at Bald Peak? We bought the house 2 years ago which had been expanded and renovated before we bought it.
The Club is trying to get on the National Register with Castle in the Clouds. Any information about the house would be helpful! By any chance do you have any photos of what the house originally looked like or know anyone who might?
We love the house.
I am fascinated with fly fishing! Creating the flies is such an amazing art!
Thank you
Beverly

substitutions

i've been tying a similar pattern for the few years

however instead of fur i use whatever large hackles i have and palmer those onto the hook

for the tail i switched to silicone cord from some craft store

here in middle america the pattern has taken a variety of panfish, bass, gar and even a few carp
snapping turtles seem to like them in late summer and early autumn

on the road trout seem fond of the mice in sizes 6 and 8

Tips

Thanks for the tips. Hehe I'm thinking a good pun. Actually I do appreciate any strategies on ways to stack hair so I thank you.

Grannoms

In the US at least, there are at least 4 species that are of importance to trout. They often appear on the same streams (Americanus,numerosus,appalachia and occidentalis) and most species can be found across the country. These are one of the first major caddis hatches of the year in some areas (most Grannom activity is from mid-April to mid-May). There can be overlap of species hatching and the colors and sizes vary between species (males are typically 1 to 2 sizes smaller than females). Body colors on adults range from green to greenish brown to brownish black or grey. Grannoms give you all day fishing. Starting with larva/pupas in the morning, emergers around 10 am, adults dry on the surface mid-morning til noon, soft hackles for drowned adults through the day, then a return in the late afternoon/early evening of the skittering, oviposting adults and then finally spent flies at dark. Just an FYI from across the pond ;)

Fly Fishing

The video and song were great. Liked it a lot.
Rick.

Alternatives to Nymph Skin

Bodies look great and lots of options for variants. In case you don't have any of the original strips, Hareline now offers a product via US retailers called Kiley's Nymph Skins which seems identical to the original Virtual Nymph product. Or you can cut various industrial protective gloves into thin strips and use as substitutes for the commercial products. A US tier, Safet Nikocevic, has been demonstating how to do this for many years at the International Fly Tying Symposium in New Jersey.

This black night fly is called Kragefluen. Dressed for Karup Å

Original, body hackle is a white and a brown hackle cut very short and black squirrel wing, but a few variants have been made and this is one of them with a short grizzly hackle over peacock herl and wing with Arctic fox.
It has caught many seatrout in the 80s and 90s
You can see variants in the book "Along the Karup River" (Langs Karup Å).

Update?

Any update here. Looking to fish anywhere I can. Will be bringing a 5 and 8wt.

Fishing with a fly

Markiç,

Explaining flyfishing is going to be a long story … luckily some people have done a great job here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_fishing

Martin

fly tying

excellent video on fly tying

Great site, but what does flyfishing mean?

The site seems like a fun place, and congrats on 28 years of being on the web!
The only problem is that I dont even know what flyfishing is.
Cheers I guess...

Eggs

I recall reading about someone casting bullets from hot melt gun (for shooting mice inside their home), on the cast boolits discussion board site. So you could probably cast round fishing weights as well. Which could then be placed on hooks to make salmon/trout egg 'flies'. At worst you might need to slice them open to slip the hook in and then glue them back together or heat the cut and press them back together, around the hook shaft.

PossibleTiers

Looks like something Ulf hagstrom or Chris Sandford would tie.

Furled leader tips

Kristjan,

When I make furled leaders using mono I use very thin mono and usually end it in a loop. To this loop I attach a piece of mono and I then attach the tippet to that.

It's true that the tip of the furled leader is fairly thick when using mono - when ending with four strands it's of course four times the thickness of the line you furl. So the trick is to keep it thin, but even with a 0.10 mm line you will still end up with a 0.40 mm tips as you also mention, and will need a further "step" down.

I typically fish a 0.20 or 0.25 mm tippet in my fishing, so a piece of 0.30mm of about 30-50 cm will suffice to give a proper taper. I also use this piece as a "wear piece" that I can cut down when changing tippet, and exchange completely when it becomes too short.

For thinner tippets - like for stream fishing - I use furled leaders made from tying thread, in which case the tip is much thinner, and this problem rarely occurs.

I hope this helps

Martin

Furled leaders, tip question

Hello, First let me say I love your website! It is a constant source of information for me.

So, my question is about tapered furled leaders, more so with tip diameter. If I look at the table of butt section diameters, at the end of this article, I can get the butt sections in the appropriate diameter, for example ca. .55mm for 5 wt.
But using the same material, my tip diameter is about .40mm which seems a bit much to tie on 0.14mm tippet.

No matter what diameter mono I use the leader tip always seems too large for tippet. The only solution I found until now is to do a two part furled leader, where I first furl 4 strands and then marry the 4 strands furled mono to the actual furled leader via loop to loop. The taper comes out to 22-18-14-10-6-4, when using the formula from this site.

Is the large jump in diameter ok, am I just being overpedantic? Should I tie tapers before tippet or is there any other trick to get a good taper from the tip of the furled leader to tippet?

Thanks for Video

GDay Martin. Surprised to se my video here, very cool. Last place I would have expected to be given the participants and audience. Anyway, glad you found it interesting enough to warrant posting. Take care.

The Water’s Violin

Thank you Kate. I am not sure what part of Bartok’s violin piece inspired me. Thank you for your comments. They are helpful and encouraging. If you get a chance read Simon’s Daughter. It is the 2021 Robert Traver Fly- Fishing Writing Award Story in the Spring 2022, The American Fly Fisher, which is the Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing. If you can’t find a copy of the journal I can send it as an attachment to you if you send me your e-mail. Mine is jedtfeffer@aol.com. Thanks again Kate. By the way Karl Eric Leitzel created the photos, not me. Cheers, Jed

Trevor Morgan lines

I still want the lines. I’m having trouble posting. I hope this works.

Trevor Morgan lines

Yes I am interested if you have them. Especially the 7 wt. single hand line. I’d probably be interested in others though too.

The Water’s Violin

Great job on comparing fly casting to the bowing of a violin. You are referring to a slow movement of one of the Hungarian, or Romanian folk dances??
Yes, casting horizontally might meet the bowing motion. Your poem is wonderful, it describes a day on a stream very well. Casting a fly can be poetry in motion; it is a peaceful thought provoking activity.
It is nice to have the thought interrupted by a hungry fish. Then we go back to the unfinished poem. Your photographic and poetic abilities are a special gift, please continue to pursue them. You chose wisely to select Karl Eric Leitzel’s watercolor painting to accompany your poem.
Thank you very much for sharing with us.

hi

Hi Uncle Garret

Another tier with similar flies

Nick Thomas, who has been contributing a lot to this web site recently, has several similar flies. Check out his youtube channel and we site.