Old streamers

A lack of fishing time had me tying some flies to possibly frame. These are my first attempt at some old style streamers.

Hends Body quill

I have recently received some Hends Body Quill material and have been playing on some flies with it. It is easy to work with and comes in a variety of colours. Though I haven't experimented enough I really like this material as you can vary the colour of the bodies by changing the number of wraps. You can also add different colours in your body as seen in the Red Butt nymph.

Two other flies I have use it on so far.

Colours available

Red butt nymph

HOOK:   Kamasan B175

BODY:   Olive Quill body
HOT SPOT: Red Quill body 
THORAX: Ice Dub
BEAD: Coffee anodized Tungsten
TAIL: CDL

The Amaze

This is a little fly that I originally tied with a gold bead and has been amazingly successful for me. I have since tied it in the variations below and they have all pulled fish for me.

I am sure there is countless similar patterns out there, but I am calling this one The Amaze. Why? Because it always amazes me how it can get a fish to take it. :-) These are all on a #18 hook.

Blue Amaze

Rusty Amaze

Black Amaze

Varoius flies

My mate Jan Korrubel send me these pictures of some Billfish flies that he has been tying for the Kenya Wildfly Billfish Challenge. Awesome flies and lots of respect to him for sitting down at the bench to tie so many of the same flies.

I have also been busy at the bench and below is some of the standard patterns that needed to fill up some holes in my fly box.

 

Nymph skin pupa tying movie

I am really enjoying playing director so I made another little tying movie for Youtube. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Free stuff!!!!

Simon Graham over at Pike fly-fishing articles is running a competition with all proceeds going to Casting for recovery - Alaska, so if you want to stand a chance to win a Pikesaber rod while also helping to contribute to a good cause then check it out.

If you haven't seen Simon's blog before then also check out some of the awesome flies he ties while you are there.

Click on the image to take you to Simon's blog.

An easy Buzzer

I was buggering around on Youtube last night and found the below fly that I tied two years ago. I have completely forgotten about this and though I would share my filming skills with you. I promise I wont quite my day job just yet.

 

Just another fishing day

I finally had the chance to go fishing one of my favorite un-named small stream yesterday. My fishing partner and I wanted to get on the water early but shortly before we had to leave the heavens opened and it started pouring down and we decided to put the trip of.

Two hours later the sun was shining and it looked like it would be a stunning day. I phoned him to tell him the trip's on and an hour and half later we were busy gearing up.

Right form the first cast I missed a fish and it looked like it was going to be a good day. This particular stream doesn't hold any big fish and is so overgrown that bow and arrow casts is the order of the day. My friend fished his 6"6 2 weight rod and I had my 3 weight rod. We both fished dry flies the whole day and both of us landed a number of fish.

Damsel Nymph – Step By Step

This is quite an effective little Damsel nymph pattern that is also easy to tie. I also tie this pattern with red eyes.

HOOK: #14 2X long nymph hook

EYES: Mono eyes or glass bead eyes

TAIL AND BODY: Rabbit strip and dubbing

LEGS: Partridge feather

STEP 1:

Make yourself some mono eyes or you can do what I did here and melt two glass beads onto some mono to form your eyes. Figure of eight your eyes onto the hook and take your thread all the way to the back.

STEP 2:

Tie in the rabbit strip tail at the bend of the hook. I take a normal rabbit strip and split it in half to make it a bit thinner. Cut the hair to just above the skin on the piece to the front of your tie in point.

STEP 3:

Spin a thin noodle of dubbing onto your thread and dub the body of the fly to just in front of the eyes.

STEP 4:

Prepare a partridge feather and tie it in just behind the eyes. Wrap one turn of the feather around the hook and tie of.

STEP 5:

Now take the loose piece of rabbit strip and stretch it over the mono eyes to the eye of the hook and tie it of. Make sure that the partridge feather sits to the side of the body of the fly and points backwards.

View from the top.

STEP 6:

Tie off the your thread forming a neat thread head. Cut of the remaining piece of rabbit strip.

Finished fly.

View from the top….

….and from the front

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