Scrounging Craft Stores for Fly Tying Materials

 Fly tying materials can be expensive, we all know this. If you want to offset the cost a bit,  scrounge up material to re-appropriate at craft stores. Oftentimes the color options are limited and the materials aren't quite as ideal as those designed specifically for tying flies, but in many cases you can find something suitable or even ideal for a few uses for much cheaper than "the real thing". And sometimes you can get exactly the same product marketed in different different packaging for less than half the price. Around the holidays the craft stores and sometimes even Walmart or Target will have silver and/or gold tinsel that is really just the same thing as Flashabou. Michael's and Hobby Lobby also have products that serve perfectly as flash for big esox or saltwater flies. I was grabbing loads of this sort of stuff around the Holidays, some of it at prices under a dollar and most of it under $3.00.

Cat approved.

More recently, I managed to find this funky yarn that essentially looks like polar chenille at a Michael's Cheyenne and I stopped at . It's called Scrubby Sparkle and distributed by Red Heart. The core is a bit more course and unruly than chenilles designed for fly tying, but I've already tied flies with this stuff and it makes an excellent under-body for Gurglers and other foam-backed topwater flies. It would also be a good filler material in large streamers. It comes in a decent color variety and at four buck for 174 yards, it's a steal and will allow you to save the polar chenille and other more expensive but specialized material where it really counts. 

From material to build dubbing brushes with, to flash, to foam, there's a lot of stuff at craft stores that is more than serviceable if you want to save a few bucks. It's unfortunate that merely marketing something to fly fishers makes it more expensive, it would be nice to see this go away overtime.This isn't just a sport for the upper classes, and it doesn't need to and shouldn't have an expensive barrier to entry. I definitely recommend a trip to the old craft store every now and then just to see what you can find.

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

Devlin Blends and Captain Ian Devlin Charters

Because the Covid19 outbreak is hitting the economy hard and those who stand to lose the most financially are small business owners, I find it pertinent to use this space to promote my friends in the fishing industry. I very rarely use this blog as a platform to try to sell anything, but with trade shows getting cancelled and the economy absolutely tanking, I want to help my fishing friends out in any way I can and this is the best I can do. If we're at all friendly, have chatted on occasion, and you are small business owner who is worried about how things will turn out with this pandemic, please get in touch and let me know what I can do to help.

My friend Ian Devlin makes some of the best flash blends I've had the pleasure to tie with. My largest ever snook and biggest striped bass were both caught on flies that use Devlin Blends, and I am certain that the flash blends made a difference in the performance of those flies. Ian's yak hair and slinky blends certainly make it easier to tie really big flies. He makes these by hand, and they are basically descended from flash blends Dave Skok was making.

If you are planning to spend some of your quarantine time tying large baitfish imitating patterns for big brown trout, pike and musky, striped bass, largemouth bass, sharks, tuna, taimen, wahoo, baramundi, snook, you name it... get yourself some Devlin Blends.

If tying big flies is too intimidating for you but you're looking to try fishing something large for herring, shad, and bunker eating stripers this season, Ian also ties and sells some excellent imitations of these baitfish with his blends. Ian can be found through Devlin Blends and Captain Ian Devlin's Charters.
Ian is still booking trips now for fly and light tackle striped bass fishing in western Long Island Sound. I'd certainly especially recommend booking a trip with Ian after things settle down. Ian is one of my favorite people to fish with. His knowledge base and teaching ability are exceptional. He knows his water, he knows casting, he knows how fish operate. He's also extremely knowledgeable of birds if you have any interest in that. If you want to catch fish and learn a lot while doing so, Ian has got that covered. And his custom Lake & Bay is a great skiff to ride and fish from. Give him a call and book a trip. Buy some flash blends. Definitely do what you can to help your local businesses through this situation.

Until next time,

Stay safe and healthy.

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

*photos in this post are courtesy Ian Scott Devlin unless watermarked. 

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.

A Traditional Swamp Fly & The Act of Killing for Food

Perch might be the most reliable fish in the winter in CT. I really enjoy fishing for big fat yellow perch an abundant white perch where they stack up to overwinter. The biomass can be truly spectacular, with fish at times stacked from top to bottom of the water column. There are a variety of reasons why perch will stack up in certain areas in the winter ranging from escaping dirty water to staging to spawn, but whatever the reason, when you find one perch anytime between early December and late March, it is safe to assume there are hundreds more there. But as fun as it is to catch hundreds of perch and as pretty as they are, perhaps the best thing about finding where perch are stacked up in the winter is that they taste really really good. Eating fish is, in my opinion, an important part of fishing. There is no way to avoid killing fish, even if you are completely catch and release, barbless hooks only, never handling fish for a significant length of time... killing is an unavoidable result of the act of fishing. As such, I believe it is important for every angler to hold a beautiful, living fish in their hand and then take its life. Nobody should completely enjoy the act of killing, as being at least a little uncomfortable with it will make a more ethical angler. Killing shouldn't be glorified, the animal should be glorified, in my opinion. But if you just can't bring yourself to kill a fish, you may want to reconsider ever sticking a hook in one again. A lot of my fishing this winter is going to involve killing fish, and though I don't enjoy the process, I'm very proud of the fact that I'm able to provide meat by my own means. There is little better meat in southern New England freshwater than perch.

The fly that has been providing the meat lately is a very interesting pattern that originated in the backwaters of Southern Georgia. That isn't something that can be said of many flies, but it is true of the Okefenokee Swamp Sally. My friend Mark Alpert gave me one after he took a trip down there this fall and I finally put it to use this weekend. It proved very productive. About 70 fish came to hand, four of which met their demise and provided my lunch.

The fly itself is very simple, with a small butt of red chenille, a yellow chenille body, and yellow  hackle wrapped behind the eye then puled back and tied down to form a head of sorts. The Swamp Sally is traditionally fished with a cane pool for warmouth, redear, and fliers, all collectively often called "bream" in the south. They're finding use now here in CT for panfish, and I'm sure would be deadly for brook trout as well.  

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, and Shawn for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Trip Prep Fly Tying

So. Did I fish yesterday?

Duh.

Was it worth writing a post about?

Uuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

No. No it was not. I caught two fish, Dan caught one. They were all tiny. If you are wondering what the plastic bag is, I use it to keep my camera safe. Though it made a rather mediocre photo it was either keep the fish out of the water longer to put the bag away or let the bag blow away. Neither are good options, and because it isn't every day that I catch a 10 inch striper, I just had to showcase this monster in all its magnificence. 

So. Nothing yesterday made itself worth writing a post about, and I am about to be away from the interwebs for two days. In the past I have had this kind of thing absolutely destroy my readership for as much as a week. Like stray cats, it seems if I don't keep feeding some of you, you'll leave. 

Did Rowan just call us stray cats? I think so. I think he did. I'm outraged. 

Calm down. I don't think you're a cat. If, however, you are a cat... welcome. I am about to post some photos of things you would probably enjoy batting around on the floor. 

Want to keel a woolly bugger? Crimp a splitshot or two on there!

In less than two hours I will be off to a very different land. A land of big and numerous pike. A land where chances of hooking a musky aren't zero. A land of huge bowfin, carp, and bass. A land with freshwater drum and longnose gar. 

My preparation tying consisted of filling out my carp box, tying some flies that freshwater drum should find appetizing, throwing together some rope flies for gar, and lashing together more flash than I have ever put on a single fly. I am armed to the teeth. I just hope the rain doesn't shut down our chances of catching some new species and bigger specimens of ones we already have. 

Lake Champlain, here we come. 

Simplicity and Functionality

The longer I've tied flies the more I prefer simplicity in the patterns I fish. When I started, I used to tie at random. I had maybe three of any one pattern in one size in any of my boxes, and I had dozens and dozens of different patterns. Over time I streamlined. I found flies that worked for me and I dropped ones that didn't.

After becoming a commercial tyer and learned the ins and outs of production fly tying I really improved my own boxes. Consistency improved as did my appreciation of simplicity and functionality. I tie anywhere from 30 to 200 flies a day now, fly tying is work for me. I don't want to pend 20 minutes tying a few dry flies anymore. So, with a handful of exceptions, the flies in my trout boxes tend to be very simple, fast ties that are also extremely productive in a variety of situations.

One of my favorites, that has a place in both my hatch matching box and my small stream box, is a three material fly modeled off of Sturdy's Fancy.



The only real difference in my pattern is that the tail is a full hackle tail rather that a tag. I think the long red tail adds to attraction as well as flotation. The other components of this fly, the peacock body and light dun hackle, have obvious fish appeal.

This little fly is especially useful at this time of year as an imitation of early stoneflies. Now, it may not look like a stonefly to you, but drifted, skated, and twitched on the tailout of a pool where trout are aggressively rising to fluttering stones, Sturdy's Fancy looks more than enough like the real thing to the trout. In a smaller size, Sturdy's Fancy is a great fly to fish over a midge hatch. The red tail aids in spotting a size 24 dry sitting in the film. Part of functionality, for me at least, is a fly's ability to emulate more than one insect and work in numerous scenarios. This little bug fits the bill quite nicely and is one of the few that I have been tying and fishing consistently since the start. Give it a shot.

Slowly Dying

This has been a rough week. Very rough. I've been sick for so damn long. In good weather I'll fish even if I've got a stomach bug, but when it's really, really cold it's hard for me to justify fishing with a body temperature behaving very much like a yoyo. It isn't fun. I've been keeping busy, tying flies, playing with my little cat, and slowly dying on the couch watching "Cheers". But I need to fish ASAP.

Uglying up the Ausable Ugly