The strung saddle streamer patterns.

A pair of clown shoes.

Mr.Badger

   Here are some of the strung saddle hackle streamer patterns that I tied back when I was just starting to learn about fly tying. I call one of them the Clown shoes and the other Mr.Badger. The original idea came from an article inside the 2009 autumn issue of Fly Tyer magazines by Ward Bean called the Beaner's Baitfish. The Beaner's baitfish patterns uses soft hen hackle & marabou, although my version looks very similar, it's made with regular strung saddle hackle. There are a few reasons why I choose strung saddle hackle instead of hen hackle, first it's readily available at any fly shops with a wide range of colour selections and a regular package of strung saddle hackle cost only about $2 to $3 dollars Cdn, but the main reason is because it's the only materials that I've got a lot of at the time. I was really happy with the final result of the finished fly. The red & yellow clown colour turn out to look pretty good as a streamer pattern. This kind of fly pattern is excellent for beginners, because it's simple and it's a good way to practise one of the basic, but very useful skill in fly tying, which is the palmering of hackles and the most important thing is to get the hands use to the idea of handling soft & fragile materials. The other technique that I learnt to use on this pattern is call a dubbing loop, it's where I put cross cut rabbit hair in between a thread loop & begin to twist the loop in a single direction with a tool that was made for spinning the dubbing loop, turning the zonker strips into a very soft rabbit hair hackle and a lot of other materials can be use in a similar way, like deer hair, cdc, marabou, mallard and etc. This is where the experimenting of different materials and the fly tiers own creativeness & personal preferences comes into play. This is why fly tying is consider to be an art by so many fly tiers & fly anglers.! I will list the materials for this fly pattern below for anyone who would like to try it out.***  

The baby green sea perch.

      

   Materials list.

• Hook- streamer or aberdeen size 4 to 10
• Body- strung saddle sub zonker strips, hen hackle, mallard
• Tail- strung saddle sub mallard, hen hackle, 
• Eyes- dumbbell, chain bead 
• Flash- pearl, silver, gold (optional)
• Weight- lead wire (optional)
• Thread- uni 6/0 black or match fly colour 

The clown shoes

My Pheasant Tail Nymph Variation.

Pheasant tail mayfly nymph.

   This is my version of the famous fly pattern call the Pheasant Tail nymph. It looks kind of different from the original version tied by Frank Sawyer MBE back in the 1950's. His way of tying the pheasant tail nymph was to use only the centre cock pheasant tail fibres and dark copper wires. My version of the pheasant tail mayfly nymph is a bit more complicated to tie because of the extra materials added to the head area of the nymph, like eyes, legs, antennae and a transparent air bubble on top of the thorax. All the extra details made this nymph more realistic and should be enough to fool any wild trout into taking the fly. Although some may argue that my version is not a true pheasant tail nymph because of the extra materials, But I think that a true fly tier should be able to create new fly patterns from the old versions. This is just my interpretation of the pheasant tail nymph pattern and there is lots of variations to the pheasant tail nymph tied by many different fly tiers & fly anglers around the world. I will list the materials for my version below for any one who would like to try it out and tight lines.!

Pheasant tail mayfly nymph

• Hook- nymph or wet size 10 to 18
• Body + Tail + Legs- pheasant tail fibres
• Rib- fine gold wire
• Thorax- brown dubbing & chocolate ice dub 
• Eyes- black chain bead or mottle 
• Antennae- micro fibbets
• Thorax cover- pheasant tail fibres & UV resin
• Thread- uni 8/0 brown or black
• Head cement- thorax cover & whip finished area.

The Ring a Ding.

The Ring a Ding

Ring a Ding

   The name of this fly pattern is called Ring a Ding and this is one of my own creative nymph pattern that I came up with while brain storming for new fly tying ideas. The fly in the photo is the result of mixing 2 very different fly patterns together, one is the famous soft hackle Spider wet fly and the other one is consider to be one of the most popular nymph pattern called the Copper John. In my opinion, I think that it is a good idea to have a fishing fly that looks like many different type of insects in the water column and the chances of catching fish with that one single pattern should be much more higher than a pattern that represent only one type of insect. It's possible that someone else might have tied this kind of fly pattern long before I did, but I haven't seen any thing like it in fly tying magazines and many of the other popular fly tying websites & forums. As a fly tier I like to experiment with lots of different tying ideas and materials, sometimes the fly will turn out to be a disaster and sometimes the fly will turn out to be something very special and unique. One of the most important thing about fly tying is to have fun and enjoy what you do as an fly tying artist or as an extension to the fly fishing sport. When I start catching fish with the flies I tied, I get the feeling of accomplishment, because my fly patterns fool the fish in to taking the fly.!

• Hook- nymph or wet size 10 to 16 Mustad 3906B
• Tail- yellow goose biot (sub colour of choice )
• Body- medium gold wire (sub colour of choice)
• Thorax- Yellow ice dub (sub colour of choice)
• Hackle- partridge, mallard, starling, mottle hen
• Head- black peacock ice dub
• Thread- uni 8/0 or 6/0 yellow (sub colour of choice)
• Add head cement to whip finished area.  

The Foam June Beetle Bug.!

June beetle side view

June beetle bottom view

   This fly pattern is called the Foam June Beetle Bug. It is inspired by a balcony full of June bugs flying around going about their business. I have no idea why they swarm around my balcony, But I've caught a few of them in a glass jar, so I can see what they really look like up close. These June beetle bug have a hard & fat chunky abdomen that's a bit bigger then their elytra, the exoskeleton or hard shell that protect their wings & body. Their body colour is sort of beige or light to dark brown, they have a hairy thorax and clumsy legs with sharp hook like claws for clinging on to things. This is my first attempt at tying a June beetle pattern, but I've seen it done before on you-tube & some fly tying magazines, so I got a pretty good idea on how to tie one. This beetle was tied on a standard size 14 mustad #94840 hook. All the legs were made a head of time with mono like plastic stand, doubling up and tying knots into them. For the shell or over body I used a 1 or 2 mm beige foam. The abdomen is made with mix dubbing, black on the inside and grey + beige on the outside layer. The thorax is grey and rusty brown dubbing and I also lightly dub the 2 body segmented joints. The eyes were made with a small piece of 15 lbs mono line lightly burn on both ends and UV resin was added later on to make the eyes a tiny bit bigger. The antennae is micro fibbets and the thread used was a uni 8/0 rusty brown. A bit of colouring was done with different colour permanent markers, rusty brown to the top side of the beetle, dark brown & black to the legs & joints. I dotted the eyes and antennae with a black sharpie. Add a little bit of head cement to the whip finished area and the fly is complete.!

June beetle top view

    The material list.

• Hook- dry size 8 to 16 Mustad #94840 or #94831
• Shell- 1 or 2 mm. foam
• Abdomen- mix colour dubbing
• Legs- knotted plastic strands
• eyes- heavy mono fishing line & UV resin (optional)
• Antennae- micro-fibbets
• Thread- Uni 8/0 rusty brown 
• Head cement
• Permanent markers- black, rusty brown, dark brown (optional)

 

          
 

Fan Wings Dry Fly.

Fan Wing Dry Flies

  The fan wing dry fly is simply one of the prettiest looking fly pattern. The first fan wing was fished and discovered around the early 1900's. I think the fan wing was a variation of the original royal coachman and is tied with lemon wood duck breast feather as wings on a royal coachman

Fan Wing March Brown

dry fly. The feather I used for wings on these patterns are dyed mallard feather, they're easier to find and less expensive and they should work just as good, if not better. I learn how to tie this fly from Davie Mcphail's channel on you-tube, the pattern he tied was called a fan wing Adams. He used a peacock quill for ribbing the body and I used a medium oval gold tinsel for ribbing the body of a march brown dry fly, it's more flashy but a bit heavier. I also try something that I haven't seen any body done before. It's called a fan wing humpy, everything is the same except the body is made to look like a humpy pattern with a deer hair tail & deer hair covering a dub body. The extra deer hair should add a bit more floating ability to the fly. I also try mixing different materials for the tails, like hackle & pheasant, lemon duck & hackle, deer hair & mallard etc. This pattern is pretty simple to tie once you get the wings ready by matching up a pair of mallard feather tips together convex side to convex side and adding a tail, dub the body, wrap the hackles and the fly is complete.!                                                                                                          
                                                                                     
 
The Materials needed for these patterns.                    

The Fan Wing Beetle Humpy 

The Fan Wing Yellow Mayfly

• Hook- dry  size 10 to 16 Mustad #94831
• Wings- dyed mallard feather tips
• Tail- hackle fibres, pheasant tail, deer hair 
• Body- dry fly dubbing, muskrat, antron
• Over body- deer hair ( humpy )
• Rib- peacock herl, oval gold tinsel 
• Hackle- neck or saddle (web free hackle)
• Thread- uni 8/0 matching colours
• Head cement- wing base & the whip finish area

The Baby Tube Fries

Baby Tube Fries

White & Blue

  These are some tube flies I tied awhile ago and they are called Tube Fries. Tied on large 1/8" OD HMH tubes that are cut to the size of 1/2 inch or less and the finished tube fly is consider kind of small by my standard. The average length of the completed tube flies is about 1-1/2 to 2 inches long. The colour combinations are endless and depends on what material the tier have on hand and the style of patterns they desire. I used fox tail & synthetics fibres for tails, but many other materials can be use, like marabou, craft fur, long mallard feather fibres, pheasant tail, buck tail, Icelandic sheep and the list goes on. The body is made with palmering schlappen or large soft hackles. The eyes that were added later on was a great idea, because it looks a lot better with eyes then without, the eye colours is also another tiers personal choices. When I started tying this fly, I have no idea what fish species these tube fries are good for and I haven't had a chance to try them out just yet, but I have confidence that some fish will take this bait. For the person who stumble upon this blog, maybe they can tie up some of these tube fries and try them in their local water and see if it'll work for them or not. All the materials used was mention above, but I will list them again in detail below for who ever is interested in trying it out.!

Black & Olive

                                                                                                 

          The list of material used.

• HMH tubes size large 1/8" OD Or small 3/32" OD
• Tail- Fox tail & Synthetic fibres
• Body- Schlappen or Soft hackles
• Eyes- Regular sticky eye, Crazy glue & UV resin
• Thread- Uni 8/0 or 6/0 matching colours
• Cote eyes and head with 1 to 2 layers head cement.
• Remember to leave some room for the extension hook tubes.

Red & Orchid (purple+pink)

The Corn-Fed E.T Hopper.

Side view

Bottom view

   This fly pattern is called the Corn-Fed E.T Hopper. The reason I call it E.T is because of the black & glossy alien like eyes, they were made with UV resin & black sharpie, it reflect a lot of lights and it's very buggy looking. A lot of different grass hoppers have similar type of glossy eyes in different colours. This was my second attempt at tying a hopper type of pattern using my own tying technique of using deer hair as an under body material. I think that the deer hair not only looks good, but will float much better together with foam. Even when the fly is completely soak, it will only sink just below the water surface. I think adding natural material to a fly pattern can give it a more neutral and realistic feel to it and should be more appealing to the fish as well. Adding legs to a top water fly pattern is really deadly and will probably fool most if not all of the smartest fish. With the silhouette of legs on the water surface and a few twitches should and will trigger a striking response, don't matter if its bass, panfish or any type of fish that pluck insects from the water surface, especially trout which consume a large amount of insects in their diet. I always try to add legs to my fly pattern as much as I could, especially to nymphs and even some dry flies too if possible, because all insects have legs, well except for worms, maggots, beetle grubs and similar type of patterns. The materials I used for this fly pattern will be listed below and hope it will help any fly tier who wants to have a go at this fly pattern. This Bloody Prince hopper pattern was tied in a similar way, but different colour materials were used.!

The Bloody Prince Hopper.

Material List.

• Hook- Dry Size 6 to 10  Mustad #94831
• Under Body- Deer Hair
• Body- 2 mm Regular Fly Foam
• Legs- Knotted Pheasant Tail Fibres
• Thorax- Antron or Ice Dub & Grizzly Hackle
• Wing- Deer Hair
• Eyes- UV Resin & Black Permanent Marker                                                                                        
• Head- 2 mm Regular Fly Foam                            
• Thread- 8/0 or 6/0 Match Pattern Colour  

The Extended Body Mayfly Nymph.(Hatchmaster).

right side view

left side view

  This fly pattern is call the Hatch-Master Mayfly Nymph, because of the one mallard feather construction. I got the idea from watching mayfly nymph videos on you-tube and wanted to create an extended body mayfly nymph that's different. I notice a lot of mayfly nymphs in the water constantly lift up their abdomen and especially when they get wash down stream by strong current and get toss upside down, I think that is when they are at their most vulnerable to predations by trout and other fish waiting for insects drifting down stream. Remember that this is not your traditional nymph pattern and will take some time in preparing the mallard feather for tying. This is a pretty easy fly to tie once you get the mallard feather ready and the rest is just adding weight, dubbing, UV resin (optional), but is on the pattern in the photo. Adding UV resin help with the colouring of the body or make different type of markings and segmented details on the abdomen with permanent markers. I will list the tying notes below for any one who wish to try this fly pattern and hope that it will work for you as it did for me.!

          Tying notes.

• Preparing the mallard feather, remove the tips of the feather and align 3 fibres on each side for tails, a total of 6 fibres, use a bit of head cement to help with separating the tail fibres, 2 fibre for each tail. 
• Put a extra short hook in the vise, add 3 or 4 turns of lead wire about 1 mm behind the hook eye and start thread, put only a few thread wraps on lead wire for security and continue to hook bend or barb.
• Tie in the mallard feather, pull all the fibres forward on the feather toward hook eye, except the tail and tie in feather with some tight thread wraps by the hook bend. Than pull all fibres back and tie down on same spot as the first tie in point.
• Add dubbing to thorax area and cover lead wire. Pull all mallard fibres forward to make the thorax cover and tie off with a few tight thread wrap, Now split the remaining mallard feather in equal half and push fibres backward and tie off. Whip finish and add a drop of head cement, the fly is complete.!