Simple But Deadly: The Christmas Ornament

Throughout the years, I've very infrequently delved into fly tying on this blog. That may partly be because fly tying feels more like actual work to me than fishing does, but that's neither here nor there. Whatever the reason, I only occasionally have written actual fly tying posts, with recipes, tips, and productive patterns. And because I do routinely mention specific fly patterns, and have over the years simplified and honed my own fly selection down to relatively simple to tie but extremely effective patterns that can fool more than one species of fish, it's high time I started a fly tying series. Most of these flies, basically all of them, are other tyer's designs. A few are my own. But they all work, and I have an immense amount of faith in them. This series is not written for beginner tiers who are still learning simple methods and steps, but for experienced tiers looking to diversify their fly selection that can understand very simplified instructions that don't cover every step in detail. This is "Simple But Deadly."

Flash flies are a loose collection of different patterns composed mostly or entirely of synthetic flash material. There are a number of notable patterns I’d call flash flies, from the salmon and steelhead pattern by the very name “Flash Fly,” to the Empie Shiner and Kreelex. I semi-accidentally came up with my own flash fly in 2018- an abomination of material some would say should never be graced with the designation of being a fly- but it just catches fish so damn well.

The Christmas Ornament was born when I brought home a beat up musky cowgirl lure I found on the side of the road. The wire, hooks, and blades were flattened, unquestionably from being run over by cars a time or two. But the flashy skirt was in good enough shape that it seemed like something I could use to tie flies with. It was a multicolored mylar material, like Hedron Saltwater Flashabou. I tied an utterly hideous fly out of that, articulated and intended for muskie and big pike. The material from the musky lure wasn’t long enough for the tail, so I blended rainbow krystal flash and holographic flashabou in a couple sizes and colors. The fly ended up being pretty useless, but on one day on Lake Champlain, I realized I needed something durable and flashy. I cut off the back hook of that fly, and not only proceeded to catch pike and pickerel but even largemouth ate that silly thing. And thus the Christmas Ornament was born. The fly has caught numerous big bass for me, as well as stripers and bluefish. Mostly, though, it is just a pike catching machine. 

Materials:

Tail: Hareline Krystal Flash, rainbow. Hedron Saltwater Flashabou, Gold. Hedron Holographic Saltwater Flashabou, gold. Hedron Holographic Flashabou, green. Hedron Holographic Flashabou, gold. Equal parts, hand blended.

Body: Hareline Saltwater Flashabou, gold. Hedron Holographic Saltwater Flashabou, rainbow. 1 part gold, 2 parts rainbow, hand blended. 

Thread: UTC 140 Fl. Fire Orange

Hook: Size 4-2/0 Gamakatsu B10S

Hand blending flash takes some practice. Lay out the flash on a flat surface, obviously keep the fibers parallel. Make sure the colors are evenly distributed. Then bundle it all together. The tail fibers should be 3 to 4 times the length of the hook shank. For the body, tie in 3 or 4 clumps about 4 inches long, tied in halfway between the ends and then folded back, almost like a reverse tying bucktail. You can add eyes to this fly if you’d like but they aren’t necessary. Using lead wrap to weight the fly is also useful in some situations. Yes, these are very simplistic directions, but this is a very simple fly. I didn’t feel a photographic guide to tying it was necessary. It also doesn’t need to be perfect, just full-bodied, even, and durably tied.  

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, and Luke for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien

Simple But Deadly: George Harvey's Pusher

Throughout the years, I've very infrequently delved into fly tying on this blog. That may partly because fly tying feels more like actual work to me than fishing does, but that's neither here nor there. Whatever the reason, I only occasionally have written actual fly tying posts, with recipes, tips, and productive patterns. And because I do routinely mention specific fly patterns, and have over the years simplified and honed my own fly selection down to relatively simple to tie but extremely effective patterns that can fool more than one species of fish, it's high time I started a fly tying series. Most of these flies, basically all of them, are other tyer's designs. A few are my own. But they all work, and I have an immense amount of faith in them. This series is not written for beginner tiers who are still learning simple methods and steps, but for experienced tiers looking to diversify their fly selection that can understand very simplified instructions that don't cover every step in detail. This is "Simple But Deadly". 

George Harvey's "Pusher" isn't as much of a pattern as it is a template that can be tinkered with in as many ways as you want save for one. It's the wings of the pusher fly, what sort of feather they are and how they're tied in, that make it an innovation in the world of flies designed to catch trout at night. You may never have hear of the Pusher before, and that's okay, most fly fisherman haven't and most never will, but if you want to try to catch salmonids in the dark it is a good idea to have a few of these in your box. Now, lie I said this fly can be tied in different ways, and what follows is my own. I believe George typically used Guinea Foul for his wings, others use mallard flanks. My friend Mike like to put in some black marabou for added movement. But this is what I do:

Materials:

sz6-4 2xl-3xl streamer hook

any ol' black thread

golden pheasant neck feathers

black dubbing

grizzly rooster saddle

black hen hackle

pheasant neck feathers

Begin, after affixing your thread, by tying in a clump of golden pheasant neck fibers for the tail.

Tie in a grizzly rooster saddle hackle at the tip. 

Then dub a roughly cigar shaped body with any black dubbing of you choice. The body should be 2/3-3/4 the length of the hook shank. I tied a small order of streamers not long ago that used up a lot of black craft fur, so I used some of the excess soft under fur (if you could call an artificial product that) on this fly and other pushers I've tied recently.

Palmer the hackle up the body. You can use wire or mono wrap here to secure the hackle better if you'd like. 

Tie in a black hen soft hackle, tip first, cleaned of fluff. 

Use every wrap of fibers out of this feather. Bulkiness doesn't hurt like it does tying a soft hackle spider. Tie in and trim the stem.

Pick and clean two cock pheasant neck feathers like this:

Then tie each in, concave side out, on either side of the hook. You can put some thread wraps immediately behind them to prop them out even more if you'd like. 

Tie in another grizzly saddle hackle, this time butt first, and dub the head with the same dubbing as the body or wrap peacock herl as an alternative. 

Wrap the hackle forward three times, tie off, and whip finish or do some half hitches. Don't worry if the head looks a little sloppy, or the rest of the fly for that matter as long as the body is well tapered and the wings are set straight and true with the concave side out. 

The Pusher can be fished wet or dry, though it was designed as a subsurface fly. I've taken numerous trout as well as smallmouth and largemouth bass at night on Pushers. Joe Humphrey's Pennsylvania state record brown trout fell to a Pusher. Fish these flies when the rivers are low and warm. Work them down and across stream, in slow walking pace water and over shallow drop offs, with a hand twist or figure eight retrieve. Takes are often very jarring. The idea is to imitate a large aquatic insect, or even something like a crayfish, creeping through the shallow, slow water that trout and bass often feed in after dark. The Pusher does this job quite well, its wings moving water and getting the attention of fish that may otherwise have let a more subtle offering slip by.

Until next time,

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Simple But Deadly: Rich Garfield's Sirloin

Throughout the years, I've very infrequently delved into fly tying on this blog. That may partly because fly tying feels more like actual work to me than fishing does, but that's neither here nor there. Whatever the reason, I only occasionally have written actual fly tying posts, with recipes, tips, and productive patterns. And because I do routinely mention specific fly patterns, and have over the years simplified and honed my own fly selection down to relatively simple to tie but extremely effective patterns that can fool more than one species of fish, it's high time I started a fly tying series. Most of these flies, basically all of them, are other tyer's designs. A few are my own. But they all work, and I have an immense amount of faith in them. This series is not written for beginner tiers who are still learning simple methods and steps, but for experienced tiers looking to diversify their fly selection that can understand very simplified instructions that don't cover every step in detail. This is "Simple But Deadly". 

Rich Garfield's "Sirloin" is a twist on the classic muddler. It's a three material streamer, very easy to tie, and I guarantee most of you that tie your own flies have two of the three necessary materials already. You may not have the third, but I highly recommend getting it if you want to tie the Sirloin. There are decent substitutes but I wouldn't call a sirloin without it's trademark wing an actual sirloin.

Recipe:

sz. 10 to sz. 1, 2x or 3x long streamer hook

Danville 3/0 waxed monocord white

Coyote belly fur

black, grey, brown, orange, olive, or white chenille

Deer hair

Start, after tying in your thread, by cutting a clump of coyote fur, measuring it to about the length of the hook shank, then tying it in as the tail.

Tie in your chenille, wrap forward four to five turns, then tie off and trim (on hooks smaller than sz. 4, wrap chenille to just behind where the head would start. Hook sizes 4+  get 2 wing, under get one).

Tie in another clump of coyote fir, proportionally equivalent to the first.

Tie in your chenille again, and advance it four to five turns again, then tie off and trim.

Tie in a second wing of coyote fur, proportional to the first.

Trim and stack a clump of deer hair, pinch down to the top of the hook, make too loose wraps, then tighten while continuing to hold the clump in place to for the collar.

Spin two or three more large clumps of deer hair to form the head.

Whip finish or do 5 half hitches.

Using a razor blade, trim the bottom of the head flat.

Then round the rest of it.

Use your scissors to get the head to the shape you prefer.

Adirondack guide and tyer Rich Garfield really hit the ball out of the park on this one, the coyote hair provides a great natural color blend and swims beautifully in the water. You can modify this fly by adding lead or no lead wire, wrapped or as a keel, or simply use split shot or a sinking line to get it down. Fished without any weight near or at the surface at night, early in the morning, late in the evening, or on cloudy days, the sirloin can draw fish up. Strip the Sirloin quickly through the shadow lines along the bank in the summer when trout aren't actively rising. When striped bass are on shrimp st night in the creeks, swing a sparse Sirloin in tandem with a flatwing. Twitch this fly along the bottom to fool smallmouth feeding on crayfish or madtoms. This is not the last of Rich's concoctions that will find itself in the "Simple But Deadly" series... oh no, there in at least one more worth delving into.

Sirloins ready for action.

Until next time,

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.