Zak Nymph

Things have been very slow lately on the fishing and blogging front with me. Work has kept me away from home and when I am home I don't want to spend the time in front of the computer or tying bench.I have also been busy getting my little online shop more functional and ordering tungsten beads by the thousands and then having to sort them out into packets of 20 takes a long long time, never mind cutting and packaging zonker strips.

Anyway, below is a version of the famous Zak Nymph designed by Tom Sutcliffe that I tie. The hackle on the below fly is not as spares as I normally like it, otherwise the only difference on my fly is that I use Hends Body Quill on my versions body. It is still a magic little fly and has accounted for more fish than I can remember. Check out Tom's Step by Step and tie yourself a few. You wont be disappointed.

A small stream Brown that was seduced by a Zak Nymph

The Ed Herbst Hopper

I was browsing through Tom Sutcliffe's site the other day and he has an excellent tutorial on tying the Ed Herbst hopper. This is a great little pattern for any stream and works quite well on still waters as well. My rendition isn't quite a neat as either Ed's or Tom's but they certainly do the trick.

Have a look on Tom's site, The Spirit of Fly Fishing, for the Step by step. While there check out the rest of Tom's site for some other patterns and some stunning photography..