Fly Tying Archive

Post categories

[flytyingarchive]

WEBSITE MOVED You can find us on flytyingarchive.com  Thank you for the support and please follow the site, our Facebook and Instagram accounts.

[flytyingarchive]

National championship 2016.  Many who have followed me for a long time know that I’m a big fan of competition tying especially the live competitions like the Finnish Nationals. The competition has been arranged since 1984 and in the golden years had around 200 participants. Now the numbers have declined mostly due to internet and the ease of getting feedback on your flies by posting photos online but it’s great that we’ve managed to keep the traditional competition alive. I would recommend it to everyone and was happy to see many new faces in the competition this year. It’s a great place to learn and improve your tying and fantastic opportunity to chat with other tyers from all parts of Finland. This year I participated in the Trout fly -category and was judging the salmon fly competition. I will not go in to much detail about the competition this time, you can read my older posts if you’re not familiar with it yet. This was the first time I took photos of my flies while tying as I usually don’t have time to do so and thought I would reflect on my own tying in yesterdays competition. We had 3 hours to tie the flies from given materials and get to read the patterns as the competition time starts. First fly was a Greenwell’s Glory dry fly. Haven’t been tying much of these in years so I was a bit afraid that this type of pattern would come. I tied it a bit too fast which resulted in pretty awkward proportions. The biggest mistakes in my mind were that I tied the wings too far back and that resulted in a too short body and too long space for the hackle. Other than that pretty happy with it considering the circumstances. 65/100 points and that’s about what I would’ve given it too. Then we tied a Kingfisher Butcher wetfly. Not the easiest of wetflies to tie neatly because of the wingmaterial but pretty simple otherwise. My tail is maybe a bit too long, the hackle too dense and the wing could’ve been better. The judges disagreed on this fly pretty much with individual points ranging from 13 to 20p (of 25p/judge) with an overall of 64/100 points. When I tied it I thought it was a bit better fly but looking at the photo I can agree with the judging. Third fly was a Whitlock’s Sculpin. This was a tricky one because I had a wrong type of image in mind when I saw the pattern and name. I never tie matukas so I had the proportions a bit wrong with a too short tail for this pattern and was afraid to do more sculpin like form for the head because of what I remembered the original to look like. The judges would’ve appreciated a more sculpin like overall form and only one tier had achieved it with his fly. 67/100 points, agreed again. Last and not least was a freestyle caddis pupa from the given materials. Should’ve been a piece of cake but somehow didn’t get a good shape or proportions for this one. Also realised later I had missed a lot of available materials which resulted in a bit awkward materials choices for some parts. 62/100 points, hard to judge this one myself as it depends a lot on what the others looked like but probably wouldn’t at least have given any higher points. So pretty steady series that usually gives good results in this competition (although usually you need a bit higher scores) and yesterday it was enough for the 2nd place. Would’ve needed 18 more points to win so it wasn’t even close and big congratulations for Timo Tuuha who deserved the win after tying good flies for many years in the competition. Congratulations to other tyers as well and a big thank you for the organizers who did a great job.

[flytyingarchive]

Thistle.

As my friends know I’m not a big fan of the modern popular color combo yellow, orange, red, fiery brown and black on salmon flies. There are a few exceptions though where the combination isn’t as obvious and when used with muted colors can look quite pleasing. Thistle is one of those simple gorgeous classic salmon fly patterns that play with those typical colors and somehow gets away with it while being unique. With those double crests and mobile builtwing I’m sure it would work well on any of the rivers where it’s modern counterparts prove their worth every season. The pattern itself is pretty simple but if tied like I did has one of the most difficult tail setups. Four delicate stems tied straight on top of each other without even an ostrich herl butt to cover things up. I’m pretty sure this is not how it was originally tied but I wanted to do it like in the description just to see how it would look and if it would be even possible to do it in relatively short time. It took awhile but with the help of good wax and patience I managed to tie them in straight on top. Here’s the pattern as featured in George Kelson’s The Salmon Fly THE THISTLE. G.S. (TURNBULL.) TAG. Gold twist and light yellow silk. TAIL. Two toppings, with Indian Crow above and below. BODY. Light fiery-brown and black pigs wool in equal divisions. RIBS. Gold tinsel (flat). HACKLE. Black, from second turn. WINGS. Teal, dark Bustard, fibres of Golden Pheasant breast, and of Amherst Pheasant ; Mallard and a topping. SIDES. Jungle. HORNS. Red, and blue Macaw. HEAD. Black herl

[flytyingarchive]

GoExpo 2016. 

It has become a tradition for me to open up the show season here in Finland working at the Helsinki Spey Clave stand and this year was no exception. We had a good setup again with more products than ever before and Markus Männistö tying his pike deceivers which differ in construction from every other I’ve seen. The show was as busy as ever especially on Saturday and the afterparties went on late in to the morning. On Friday after the show we went to a get together hosted by Vision Fly Fishing and it was a great event unlike any we’ve had in Finland before. Most of the people involved with fly fishing at the fair came there to exchange experiences and there was an open and welcoming atmosphere. On Saturday Kalaukko Fly Fishing hosted the Rise Film Festival that featured five fly fishing films including their brand new clip “They came from downstream”. Hats off to the guys for organising such an event and pushing the fly fishing film industry in Finland.

After the show was over I needed to do some actual fishing. 129cm salmon from the show-pool. Not a bad way to start the season. #keepemwet

[flytyingarchive]

Green Highlander. One of those patterns you either love or hate. It has an unusual color scheme which is probably the reason why it has become so popular. It’s one the classic flies that I’ve tied the most and it’s a pattern that I like to tie every once in a while to sort of see how I’ve progressed in my tying. As usual when I start tying a fly for this blog I do a quick search on Google to see what’s already out there. Although this version from T.E. Pryce-Tannatt’s How to dress Salmon Flies from 1914 is probably the most known there were not many that were fully tied according to the pattern. I admit that I like to mix the patterns too but thought that I’d tie one just as the book describes as a reference for people looking for the P-T version. Two alterations I made is that I tied the tippets from full feathers as I think is appropriate when tying the fly in larger sizes and I moved the Peacock wing to the bottom of the wing as I struggled to find long enough Peacock for this 4/0 hook by Jarkko Reinola. For the version from Kelson click here. Green Highlander (Pryce-Tannatt 1914) Tag: Silver tinsel. Tail: A topping and barred Summer Duck in strands. Butt: Black herl. Body: First quarter, golden yellow floss; remainder, bright green floss. Ribs: Oval silver tinsel. Hackle: A grass-green hackle. Throat: A lemon hackle. Wings: Mixed--tippet in strands; “married” strands of yellow, orange and green Swan, Florican, Peacock wing and Golden Phesant tail; "married” narrow strips of Teal and barred Summer Duck; narrow strips of brown Mallard over. Sides: Jungle Cock. Cheeks: Indian Crow; a topping over all. Horns: Blue and Yellow Macaw.

[flytyingarchive]

Bergman Fontinalis. An interesting pattern tied in honor of Ray Bergman as the name obviously suggests. Bergman’s friend Phil Armstrong designed and named the pattern and it’s part of the trout fin series which represent the fins of a brook trout that apparently was a proven bait in the US. To my knowledge it was mostly used for brook trout and steelhead but I’m sure it will catch all kinds of predatory fish. I didn’t have a suitable grey wool thread so instead I dubbed the body from a mix of grey wool, muskrat underfur and rabbit underfur and used orange wool as a rib.  Tail: Married sections of orange, grey and white goose. Body: Alternate ribs of dark grey and orange wool. Hackle: Dun. Wing: Married sections of orange, grey and white goose. Head: Black

[flytyingarchive]

Aglaia.  Known in the Greek mythology as one of the three graces, daughters of Zeus, Aglaia was the goddess of beauty, splendor and glory. This pattern comes from Edward Fitzgibbon’s “The book of the Salmon” from 1850 which was published under pseudonym Ephemera. The book features many fly patterns and as the last patterns the three graces Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne. Aglaia is tied on a bit shorter hook than the other two and is noted as being a famous summer evenings fly. I followed the pattern pretty closely although the body hackle is pretty regular in length as opposed to short mentioned in the original pattern. I also omitted the herl head as I’m planning on fishing this fly and I’m not a big fan of herl heads on fishing flies. I’ll list the pattern as in the books for reference. Aglaia. — Body, all of silver tinsel, ribbed with gold twist; black ostrich tag, tipped with gold ; tail, a small topping and a few fibres of the wood-duck's feather ; black hackle, thin and short over body, teal hackle at the shoulder. Wings, two toppings, bustard, cream-coloured turkey and wood-duck feathers, and black ostrich head. Hook, No. 7. A famous summer's evening fly.

[flytyingarchive]

H.S.C. Classic Salmon Fly Challenge 2016 The biggest classic fly tying competition is upon us again. Deadline 25th of January 2016. Enter to win over 1000€ worth of prizes. For the rules and info on how to enter click here. For last years results and summary on judging check out this link.

[flytyingarchive]

Olive Witch. This is my favorite modification of Carrie Stevens pattern I’ve done. It’s of course a color variant of the famous Golden Witch that we’ve featured before. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it’s pretty old and slightly out of focus but I’m sure you can see what’s necessary from it. Hook: Long shank streamer hook (6x-10x long) Tag & rib: Flat Silver Tinsel Body: Golden Yellow Floss Belly & Throat: White Bucktail and White Hen Wing: Peacock Herl and Olive Grizzly Hackle Sides: Tippet and Jungle Cock Head: Black with a Red Band in the center

[flytyingarchive]

Pitcroy Fancy (variant).  An old photo I found when digging through the collection and thought it would be a good pattern to share. The Pitcroy Fancy is pretty simple yet elegant fly and a good alternative for a Silver Doctor when you are looking for something a bit more subtle. Looking back on this fly there are couple things I’d change especially if I was going to fish this fly. First and foremost a fragile heron(or B.E.P.) hackle on a flat silver body is a recipe for disaster and I would counterwind the hackle and then cross over with the rib to make it more durable. Another thing that I would change is a longer guinea hackle for the throat, don’t know what I was trying to achieve with that short hackle but a slightly longer one would work much better. Here’s the pattern as described in George Kelson’s The Salmon Fly where the pattern is attributed to Turnbull. I’ve changed the wing slightly by omitting the tippet and using a regular brown mottled Turkey for the main wing. Tag: Silver tinsel. Tail: A topping and strands of tippet. Butt: Scarlet wool. Body: Silver tinsel. Ribs: Silver tinsel (oval). Hackle: Grey Heron, from centre (sub Blue Eared Pheasant). Throat: Gallina. Wings: Tippet (large strands), light mottled Turkey, Pintail, Mallard, and a topping. Sides: Jungle Cock. Head: Scarlet wool.

[flytyingarchive]

Ghost Minnow - Step by step. I thought I would open up the tying process a bit of the Ghost Perch posted previously but instead do it with a minnow coloration. The pattern is basically the same, only different colors and of course without the stripes. It imitates all kinds of minnow and fry species that are present in trout streams with a natural shine and translucency. Again when wet the materials become really translucent so the photo deceives a bit making the fly look more white than it will be in a fishing situation. Click the captions on each photo to see my notes on tying the pattern. Tail/Belly: Bucktail - Fl. White. Wing/Body: Ghost hair - White Transparent and the last bunch of Ice Silver Grey. On top some Black SLF Hanks. Tied mostly on top of the shank in about 5 bunches with dubbing made from the same Ghost Hair in between. Eyes: 3D Epoxy Eyes - Silver fastened with gel-type superglue.

[flytyingarchive]

Ghost Perch I’m always trying out new materials to improve my flies. One element that I constantly felt was missing from my streamers was translucency. No matter how sparse and hollow you tie a fly it would always be pretty opaque in the water due to opaque materials. Couple years ago I was excited when I tried a new “flash” from Sybai called Fine Hair. It’s a flashabou like material but made from tinted translucent plastic strips. It seemed like exactly what I had been looking for. The experiments were successful but the material was easy to tangle and needed a lot of support materials which defeated the purpose when it came to translucency. I still use it on many flies but not as the main material. This year I went to stock up on some Fine Flash but the guys at HSC told me they had replaced it with another Sybai material Ghost Hair. This is basically the same stuff but thinner and more Angel Hair like in structure. Due to the structure it’s not as translucent as Fine Hair but it seemed like it could work for my purpose. I’ve now tested couple prototypes and am very happy with the results. It could be more translucent and I still like to add a bit of bucktail to keep it tangle free but these flies look really good in the water and have a lot of movement. I will have to do some more tests in the sea with this material when the sea trout season gets in full swing. Tail/Belly: Bucktail - Fl. Cream. Wing/Body: Ghost hair - Golden Olive and the last bunch of Dark Olive. On top few strands of Olive and Black Angel Hair and Black SLF Hanks. Tied mostly on top of the shank in about 5 bunches with dubbing made from Golden olive Ghost Hair in between. Eyes: 3D Epoxy Eyes - Basic Honey fastened with gel-type superglue. Stripes: Black permanent marker.

[flytyingarchive]

Royal Coachman. Originally a variant of course from the Coachman wet fly was commercialized and named by the Orvis family in the last quarter of the 19th century. The red band of silk was originally added to protect the herls but the way I tie my herl bodies with a reinforcing thread I think this is actually the more fragile bodytype. Tail is more commonly made from Golden Pheasant tippets but I preferer the look of Wood Duck which was the original tail material on Orvis flies. Some patterns say the tip/tag is optional and I decided not to put one here. I think it gives the fly a cleaner look. Royal Coachman Tail: Wood Duck. Body: Peacock herl with red floss in the middle. Hackle: Brown. Wing: White.

[flytyingarchive]

Raven with hackle wings Here’s a slight variation of Brad Burdens steelhead spey pattern developed for the Oregon rivers. Bob Veverkas book on spey flies has been a huge source of inspiration for me and many others and the plate featuring Burden patterns is one that I like to visit often. To me they are sort of a mix between American spey flies and Finnish salmon fly design. Simple yet beautiful. This one is a really quick tie suitable for beginners and let’s face it, you can’t go wrong with that color combo. Raven (variation) Tip: Oval silver tinsel. Tail: Golden Pheasant crest dyed red. Rib: Oval silver tinsel. Body: Black Seals fur. Bodyhackle: Black. Hackle: Black Heron or similar long feather: Wing: Natural black hackle tips. I used hen on these.

[flytyingarchive]

Muddler Minnow step by step Don Gapen invented this legendary pattern for the Nipigon river in Canada. It was supposed to imitate Cockatush minnow which is a sculpin and called a “muddler” in parts of Wisconsin. The muddler wasn’t supposed to be that type of firm and clinically cut that we like today but rather sparse and long. Customers seemed to prefer the look of the shorter cut tighter heads and the fly evolved accordingly. You might want to try it with a more original head too for fishing as it will have a very different type of movement and sinking rate. The version tied above is just according to my personal preferences, cut to a symmetrical cone and packed pretty dense but not too dense to still keep it soft. Hook: #2-10 3X Streamer hook. Tail: Mottled Brown Turkey wing. Rib: Oval Gold tinsel. Body: Flat Gold tinsel. Wing: Natural white tip Squirrel tail and Mottled brown Turkey wing slips on top. Head: Natural Deer hair muddler style. Stack the tips of the first bunch to form a neat collar.

[flytyingarchive]

Bullhead Diver I use quite a lot of Sculpin patterns that use different zonker and muddler head combinations. This one is the latest addition to the line and it differs from the previous ones with having a reversed hook and dumbbell eyes. I usually fish these with quite a short line so castability is not the main function of the fly. However it is important to get it to sink fast and to have a lot of movement. The dumbbells are pretty heavy to offset the large muddler head and to keep the correct orientation in water all the time. The hook set upside down of course is to minimize hooking the bottom. Hook: Mustad C52S or similar streamer hook. Eyes: Large dumbbell eyes with Ultra 3D Epoxy eyes on top (Basic Honey color). Rib: #M Oval Gold Tinsel. Body: Light dubbing of your choice. I used a mix of Tan Saltwater Dub II and Brown Spectra Dubbing. Tail/Wing: Magnum Rabbit Strip - Gold Variant, cut to taper towards the tail. Fins: Wing feathers from hen Pheasant - dyed Golden Brown. Set to curve outwards. Head: Deer hair - Natural, Golden Brown and Brown. Reinforced with UV-resin underneath after cutting.

[flytyingarchive]

Video from HSC demo day and Mikael Frödin’s Masterclass. Here’s a short film I made for Helsinki Spey Clave from the events I posted about earlier. Also few clips from the Perfect Drift Masterclass by Mikael Frödin. Sorry about the audio quality on the masterclass clips, I didn’t know I was going to shoot video so I didn’t have a mic with me. This was the best result I could get with the internal mic without disrupting the crowd too much with my filming.