The Parachute Daddy Long Legs.

Parachute Daddy Long Legs

  Daddy Long Legs

  This is one of my most recent fly tie, I call it the Parachute Brown Sugar Daddy Long Legs. It's pretty obvious that the whole fly is brown and probably could have call it something else, but what the heck, the name sounded ok, I guess. There's not much to talk about on this particular fly pattern, just another fly tying experiment. This daddy is tied on a size 12 TMC thin wire shrimp or scud hook, with a segmented brown foam extended body. The hackle post is brown antron and the hackle is a light brown saddle hackle. The wings are hackle tips which came from the same light brown saddle cape, using the smaller or shortest feathers available. The legs are knotted pheasant tail fibres and some peacock ice dub was used for covering the base of the hackle post or thorax area. It's a pretty simple fly tie. The hardest part is probably making the foam body and the rest is pretty straight forward.!


   Materials

• Hook- shrimp or scud size 8 to 14
• Body- 2 mm. fly foam
• Legs- knotted pheasant tail fibres
• Wings- saddle hackle tips
• Hackle post- antron post material
• Hackle- dry fly brown saddle     
• Thorax- peacock ice dub
• Thread- Uni 8/0 or 6/0 

The Zoolly Worm.

The Zoolly Worm 1.

The Blood Shot Zoolly Worm.

The Bird's Nest Zoolly

  This is my version of a wet fly variant pattern that originate from the famous "Woolly Worm" and the "Zulu". Either one is correct or incorrect, Because non of the materials that make up the 2 patterns mention above were use like wool, silver tinsel, mallard etc, But the fly does looks like a cross between a couple of patterns. The reason for tying this fly pattern is because I've read some article online about a certain fishing flies that were being banned from use because they were making such a killing on the trout, ( Booby, Blob, Alexandra etc ) That the river authority has to make up rules to stop them from being used. One of the main reason mention was that the trout will swallow a certain flies very deep down their throat and that will seriously harm or kill the fish. Eventually the dead fish numbers will add up over time and will put even more pressure on the already sensitive natural trout populations. In my opinion no fishing flies should be banned. The flies made for fly fishing are meant to be small because fly tiers are replicating very small insects & crustaceans or nymphs, the probability of a fish swallowing a small fly deep in the throat has a pretty high percentage of doing so, and not to mention that the fisherman fishing skills & attitudes has to be added to the equation as well. When the fisherman are using barb-less hooks & release more of their catch and handle the fish with care, it's possible that everyone can enjoy the sport of fishing for many years to come, we all need to do our part in protecting our environment & natural resource for the future generations. OK. Lets get back to tying flies. The zoolly is a very simple fly pattern to tie and probably a lot of  fly tiers know it already, but I'll list the materials and tying steps below anyway, for anyone who would like to try it out.!


 Materials & tying steps

The Zoolly Worm

• Hooks- wet or nymph size 10 to 18 Mustad 3906B
• Tail- soft hackle or schlappen and marabou
• Body- ostrich herl or dubbing (reinforce with wire or tying thread) optional
• Hackle- grizzly bugger streamer hackles
• Collar- ice dub or diamond dub ( brush back with velcros ) 
• Head- tying thread & head cement
• Thread- Uni 8/0 or 6/0

1- Put hook of choice in vise & start thread right behind hook eye, continue thread in touching turns to the barb or just before the bend. (leave a long thread tag if decide to use thread as a binding wire) Optional.

2- Tie on some soft hackle fibres just shy of hook shank length & tie on some marabou the same length around the soft hackle for tail. Tie on a piece of wire about 4 or 5 inch long, if no thread tag's been used. Now tie on the grizzly bugger hackle tip first to get a slight taper. Finally tie on a piece of  medium & long black ostrich herl for the body.

3- After all the materials is secure, bind down all loose material while bringing thread back to the collar area about 2 to 3 mm behind hook eye. The first material to be wounded is the ostrich herl & tie off at the collar area. The next material is the grizzly bugger hackle palmered around ostrich herl. dull side faces the rear. about 5 to 7 turns & tie off. The last thing is the medium wire or tying thread wound over the hackle & tie off at collar.

4- After everything is secure at collar, use a piece of velcro gently brush hackle & ostrich herl together and toward the tail. Dub some peacock or ice dub on tying thread and make a small collar covering tie off points.

Use velcro brush loose some ice dud to blend with hackle. Finally use tying thread to wrap a small & neat head & whip finish. Put on 2 coats of head cement and the zoolly is complete.! 

5- For the Blood shot zoolly, the collar materials must be mix with some peacock & red ice dub or red synthetic materials to achieved the blood shot effect over body.

Blood Shot Zoolly

           
                                                                               

The Parachute Mosquito Larvae & Nymph (PML).

Parachute Mosquito Larvae ( Dry )

PML ( Dry )

  This is another one of my new fly creation and I call it the Parachute Mosquito Larvae or PML for short. The idea of this fly came from watching mosquito videos like the mosquito's life cycle on you-tube and other mosquito related photos on Google image. This fly is something in between a dry fly & a nymph and the larvae stage of the mosquito is excellent for this kind of pattern. The parachute on this fly is a little different than the regular parachute dry fly people are use to, because there's that small gap between the mosquito larva's body and the water surface above. The hackle has to be tie a bit higher from the body, so that the nymph's body can sit a bit deeper below the water surface. It's the hardest part of tying this particular fly. But it can be done with a little bit of practises or it can also be done by using 2 vise and make the parachute part ahead of time and the rest of this fly pattern is pretty simple. I also tie the same fly without the parachute just for fun and to see which fly pattern is more effective on trout when fish. I'll list the materials and tying steps below for anyone who's interested in trying out a different type of fly pattern like the parachute mosquito larvae.!

Mosquito Larvae Tenkara Style.

  Materials needed for this fly pattern.

• Hook- dry or nymph size 14 to 20
• Body- .5 mm clear stretch cord
• Under-body- tying thread 
• Whiskers- soft hackles or schlappen
• Eyes- burn mono & black marker
• Thorax- hares mask dubbing
• Parachute- antron post & dry fly hackle
• Tying thread- uni 8/0 or thinner
• Head cement

  

Mosquito Larvae Nymph.

   Parachute mosquito larvae tying steps.                

1- Start thread behind hook eye & tie in hackle post using half of a full strand of regular antron post material & leave out a few antron fibres on the side for breathers. 

2- Continue thread down the hook shank to just past hook bend and tie in mono eyes with some figure 8 wraps. 

Mosquito Larvae Nymph.

3- Using 10 to 15 soft hackle fibres and tie it in front of mono eyes, dub tying thread with some hares mask dubbing & figure 8 dubbing thread around  mono eyes. Using the soft hackle fibres to cover the top side of mono eyes to make a mosquito larvae head. ( see PML 2 )

4- Tie in a piece of .5 mm clear stretch and dub just a bit behind mono eyes to cover thread wraps, bring thread back to hackle post area in touching turns. Start ribbing body with the clear stretch in touching turns and tie off ribbing material at the base of hackle post.

5- Tie in dry fly hackle a few mm above fly body on the antron post and leave tying thread on the top side of hackle post, start wrapping the hackle up the antron post to where the tying thread is and tie off hackle.        (The hackle can be tie on to antron post before everything else)optional.

6- Add a drop of head cement to the base of hackle post and the hackle tie off point. The fly is complete.!

  More PML photos below.

Parachute Mosquito Larvae.( Black )

Parachute Mosquito Larvae. ( Green )

Parachute Mosquito Larvae. ( Yellow & Black )

Mosquito Larvae Nymph.

My Caddis Dry Fly.

My caddis. golden olive 

My Caddis top view.

  This is my new semi realistic adult caddis dry fly pattern. The idea came about when I was trying to create a caddis pattern that doesn't need any dry fly hackle around the collar and still floats just as good or even better, So my only go to options was a fly foam body & substitute the dry fly hackle with cdc feathers ( cul de canard ). The fly in the photo was the result of my first successful tie of this new hackle-less caddis pattern. It was supposed to be called a "Tape Wing Extended Body CDC Caddis" but the name was way too long and it sounds more like a fly description instead of a fly name, so I just called it "My Caddis". This pattern is pretty easy to tie, but there's a few things that is needed to be made ahead of time, like the scotch tape caddis wings, the segmented fly foam body & the small burned mono eyes. It's better to colour the wings & extended body before hand and let it dry completely before tying it onto the hook and the only materials remain are micro-fibbets, cdc feathers & a small amount of mix rabbit & antron dubbing. I will list the materials and tying steps in order for anyone who would like to try it out.!

My caddis. brown

My caddis. silver & gray

      Tying Steps

 1- Start thread & tie in 2 pcs of micro fibbets around 1 or 2 mm. behind hook eye.

 2- Tie in mono eyes on top of the antennae tie in point with a few figure 8 wraps & continue thread to hook barb.

 3- Tie in pre-made extended body by the hook barb, #'s of segments depend on hook size. The front of the extended body should reach the thorax area or 1 to 3 mm behind mono eyes.

 4- After body is secure, make a slit in the middle of the tying thread or make a dubbing loop & insert cdc fibres to make a string cdc hackle and wrap it around thorax area & tie off. #'s of hackle wraps depend on the cdc string hackle length and quality.

 5- Tie in scotch tape caddis wing & add a Little bit of mix dubbing to cover thread wraps and do a single figure 8 wraps around mono eyes & whip finish, add a drop of head cement & the hackle-less dry fly caddis is complete.!

My caddis brown.

 Materials

Hook- dry fly size 12 to 18
Body- 2 mm. fly foam. ( burn butt end ) optional.
Wings- scotch tape ( reinforce with packing or sealing tape ) optional.
Legs- cdc feather fibres
Thorax- mix rabbit & antron dubbing
Eyes- heavy mono fishing line 15 or 20 lbs, burn both ends.
Antennae- micro-fibbets
Thread- uni 8/0 or 6/0