The Yeah Mon.

Straight from Trenchtown, a we be jammin inspired fly. 

A few flies for fall.

Here are a few flies that I had recently tied for this fall and winter.  Showcasing both Partridge and Dohiku Hooks.  Tungsten, Coq De Leon, UV, Squirrel, Hare, Benecchi and Sulky!  Fish appetizers! 

The H Bomb

This pattern has been a pattern that I have tweaked and re-tweaked and continued to alter over the years. It has been one of my most consistent flies that I have ever tied. When I first developed this guy many years ago. It was a just a simple take off the Woolly Bugger with some of my own twist thrown into it for good measure. It has mutated itself over the years, by adding this or that and taking away this or that. I have combined this and that too over the years, just seeing what works and doesn't work. Lucky for me, all the different versions that I have created over the years have caught fish and a lot of them too boot.

In tweaking the pattern over the years, I have always stayed true to a key ingredients of the fly. Those key ingredients are the just a few of the keys to this fly. Streamer hook, Tungsten Cone, Marabou Tail, silli-legs and wire under-body to make it heavy and sink like a rock. I have always kept the profile slim so it will slice through water and gets down fast.

The few ingredients that have changed over the years has been the flash in the tail or along the side of the body. The body material itself, but I have always kept the body shaggy and buggy as I could using dubbing with longer and shaggier fibers to give it action. I have wrapped hackle around the body, like the true wooly, but I always thought wrapping the hackle around the body of this fly took away from the dubbed body and the shagginess that it had. So I have stirred away from the hackle. I have experimented with the thorax and collars too over the years. I have given it different styles of wings from your classic matuka streamer wet wings to jungle cock wing pads to zonker strips.

I also have played with the colors scheme of this pattern as well, but there is one color plate that I keep going back to and tying every year. The choice color that seems to work year round and in tailwaters, still waters and running water is Olive. After my last few outings, I was starting to get low on a few colors of the pattern so it was off to the spooky dungeon man cave of my house to begin twisting them up.

With this batch came a few new twist that I have yet to incorporate into the pattern yet. Instead of diving right into the pattern, I played around with a few ideas I had bouncing around my head for sometime. But after I twisted up the ideas, I didn't care too much of the results and now knew, what I didn't want to put into the pattern. So I was set. With this batch I decided to go with slightly bigger streamer hook then in years past. I also added some new flash into the tail that I had used on the Platte River Apprentice flies, opting for the Rusty Olive Angel hair. This gave it a nice amount of under flash with the marabou over it. I continued with the 3/4 strands of krystal flash on each side of the tail as well.

Next up was the body. Sometime last year I whipped up an Olive blend of dubbing that I had titled Psycho Olive for Bunker Bombs. Looking back it must have been sometime last spring when I was, well replenishing this fly, but never got to using this blend. Twirled it up in a dubbing loop, twisted it on the hook and gave it a quick brush to shag it up.

Put in the silli-legs and now came for the next part. This is where I wanted to give it something new that I have yet to put in it. I mentioned before I have put Zonker strips in it, as well as jungle cock and various Matuka style feathers. So I had to come up with something new for my little fly here. I started digging around the vast amount of materials I had and when it hit me, to go for a double whammy here. I decided to use Black Ice Angel Hair underwing and Mallard for the overwing. The Thorax/Collar blend is a mix of European Hare Skin Le Lievre, Jack Mickievicz Masterblend of Rainbow Warrior Peacock Olive dubbing and a touch of the Psycho Olive Bunker Body Dubbing and a few have bits and pieces of mallard. Yes, I know it seems like a lot of stuff going on here, but it just pops and gives the thorax/collar a neat look to it.

The Mirage Copper Sexy MayStone

The Mirage Copper Sexy MayStone came about after fiddling with a few other patterns and trying to combine a few elements of different may and stone fly patterns into one. The Sex Stone fly pattern is a popular stone fly pattern up in the Roaring Fork Valley and the only thing that I took was the name. LOL. , The Shimmer Stone was uploaded last year to the fly tying contest held by Feather Craft. I liked the idea of the flash under the Half Round Rib. And the Copper John body is made from, well Copper Wire in a variety of colors so it too gives the fly a bit of shimmer or flash. I was playing around with a few different ideas and this is what I came up with. I really liked the final product. I thought this pattern would work perfect in place of a Copper John or Wired Stone Fly or any other heavy weighted fly. I have a few more ideas creeping into my head for this pattern, to give it some variation, that I will think will pop in the eye of the beholder and lure a few fatties as well.

The Mirage Copper Sexy MayStone

Hook: Nymph Hook any style nymph hook will work.

Bead: Brass or Tungsten

Tail: Goose Biots and pink dubbing (Siman)

Weight: Lead Free - .020 or .015

Body: Brassie Ultra Wire Black and Hot Yellow or Copper Brown and Chartreuse woven over Mirage Opal Tinsel.

WingCase : Siman Magic Shrimp Foil (add some biots for a prince style look to it.)

Thorax: Here I used Jacks Olive Peacock or Rusty Black Squirrel blend

Legs: Partridge or any soft hackle type feathers. Rubber Legs would work as would biots. Depending on how you would like to dress it. Here I chose Partridge.

Check out how the tinsel peaks through the woven wire giving it a bit of nice flash to it. This fly is perfect for the pre stone fly hatch, dirty water, lead fly, or searching pattern. This thing will sink quick and get down fast. Can be fished as a trailer behind a meaty streamer, or used as a lead fly.

The Polweevil

Ah, the Polweevil. What exactly is the Polweevil, well, I sat down at the vise the other night to begin working on a few new fly patterns, but wasn't quite sure what to tie. So I put a beaded hook into the vise and sat looking at the desk of materials. Hoping something will jump out at me. Nothing did, so I turned around and began digging stuff out from my fly tying box from the demo at Hook Fly Fishing shop from the week before and found some sand thread and began laying down the foundation. Added some lead to the shank and began to cover that up. The phone rang so I went to go answer it and low and behold as I was running up stairs to get the phone, the pattern hit me. I quickly ignored the phone and turned around and sat down at the vise. Tied in a piece of Amber Ultra Wire for the ribbing. Tied in the Glo-Brite Flosses. Green on the far side and Orange on the near side. Turned the vise and stared the Polish Weave. Ribbed the fly and tied that off and add the Turkey Biot wing pads. Yes the Polweevil was born. It is a mutation cross between the Davie's Evil Weevil and Vladi's Polish Nymph. I added a special blend of Squirrel and Angelina fibers with hints of UV in it and finished off the fly. The first fly was a little rough, because the idea was there, but laying down the fundamentals of the fly were a work in progress. By the time I was done, I had about a dozen twisted up and each and every fly looking better then the previous one. I was happy with the way the flies turned out and they should be real fish catchers here in the near future. They should work in all kinds of situations from Stoneflies, to large mother day Caddis and even some of the bigger mays later in the Season. I will test them out soon. But thought I would share, because I thought they looked buggy and had the elements to catch that lunker behind the rock that has eluded you for some time. These are the first two to come off the vise. They are not the prettiest of ties, but was thrilled at the outcome.

Happy Twisting.

The Polweevil

Hook: Partridge CZN #12, 14, & 16

Threads: Base Layer Benecchi Sand 12/0 and finish Black Benecchi 12/0

Bead: Nickel Tungsten 1/8

Weight: .015 Lead

Body: Glo-Brite Floss Green and Orange

Rib: Ultra Wire Amber Brassie

Wing Buds: Turkey Biots

Thorax: SLF Squirrel and mix of Golden Iris UV Angelina Fibers, or Olive mixed with Golden Iris UV Angelina Fibers

Tungsten Bugs

An assortment of Tungsten Thread Bugs in various colors and weights, some with single beads and a few with double beads. Shot in a few different angles. I had just finished twisting up these bugs to refill some empty spaces in a box and they were laid about the stealie coaster and I liked how they looked spead out and decided to take a few shots. After going through the photos these are the ones I thought really highlighted a few features in the flies in different angles and views.

Tails: Coq De Leon
Body: Benecchi Thread
Ribs: Fine Wire and Body Quills
Coating: Fly Rite's Fly Tite Cement
Thorax: Squirrel and Angelina
Bead: Tungsten
Hot Spot : Globrite Floss