Tying and Fishing Tiny Flies: april 2014

tisdag 22 april 2014

ACCORDING TO "JIM"

The BLACK GNAT

According to "Big Jim" Leisenring
Well, Almost ;-)

Here above is a picture of the finished Black Gnat according to the instructions of Jim in his book "The Art of Tying The Wet Fly". Tying wet flies according to Jim makes them durable and neat. Those were the things he stressed: durability and neatness. Let's "wind the tape back" and see how it's done "According to Jim!"

Use a well waxed Gossamer silk color crimson or claret and fasten it on the hook with a couple of turns. Take a starling feather and tie it down facing forward over the eye of the hook and the glossy side facing down towards the hook. Here I use a greenish starling feather while the pattern requires a purplish feather. The reason is that I can't find any feathers of that color of the right size, for a #14 hook which this is, on the skins I've taken feathers of already. I have one unused but I'll save this for when I master this technique better. I've just tied a handfull of flies this way at present. A little precaution here: as you see in the photo above, the thread windings holding the feather aren't in contact with the first wraps. Make sure they are and that the feather is pointing straight forward otherwise you most probably will run into some problems later on like I did.

Here we arrive at the end of the hook shank (could have made a wrap or two more perhaps). Along the way the end of the tying thread is cut off and also the stem of the feather. Just after that three herls from a secondary wing feather from a crow is tied in. (In the book there are pictures of a bird and a bird wing naming all the different feathers on them.) The cut off stubs show where they have been tied in. This is also a little deviation from the original instructions but I like to tie in the stump of tying thread and the stem of the hackle a little further on to make it more even and also get a little taper on the body. The herls are then twisted a few times counterclockwise and then grabbed at their end together with the tying thread and wound along the body almost up to the hackle. Secure the herl with a couple of tight turns with the tying silk.

Now it's time for the hackle. As seen in the picture above two or three fibers more are taken off at the far side of the hackle. It's just to make it easier to wind the hackle. If the hackle would have been tied in a little better that would also make it easier to wind the hackle on neatly. The pattern calls for two turns of the hackle made backwards towards the tail of the fly. Just lift the hackle feather straight up with the hackle pliars and wind backwards. Since I tied the hackle on a little sloppy I had to wind three turns to get the tip in a place easy to secure on the left side of the hackle. So it pays off paying attention at the beginning of the fly.

Then wind the tying thread one or two turns through the hackle towards the eye of the hook. Keep on winding to the eye and back to the hackle to make a head and gently pushing the fibers backwards.

Carefully make a whip finish. "The invisible knot" as Jim (or James) calls it in the book. I use a Tiemco Midge Whip Finisher that makes it easy to get close to the fly.

Then cut the thread and the fly is finished. Leisenring encourages varnishing the head of the fly even if he wasn't to picky about that tying his own flies.

I like this pattern, which goes without saying. It looks used with hints of the tying thread showing through the herl body. I haven't tested it yet but I think it's as durable as this kind of pattern of a soft hackle fly can be.

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fredag 18 april 2014

The Beaver And Starling Flymph

The BEAVER And STARLING FLYMPH

On a Mustad 94842 size #14

Found a very nice patch of beaver skin that I bought for more than 10 years ago but never used. It has a lovely shine to it. It's kind of glossy like as shown in the picture above of the finished Flymph. Perhaps more than what the picture below of the actual skin patch shows. Finding this I went on to make some bodies for flymphs.

The body was made with a Dick Clarke spinning block. The fur had different qualities from the root to the tip. The dubbing loop at the top has fur taken near the skin side of the patch. The one in the middle is taken from the tips of the fur and I think you can see the difference, even if the quality of the photo leaves much to offer.

The Flymph body is made of fur from the tip end, as the loop shown in the middle of the photo above. It has a lovely light tan color (the last two pictures are darker than in the reality) that is kind of shiny. I think this Flymph will be very effective when the lighter caddis emerges. Anyway now you might ask: What about the "starling" in the name of the Flymph? Well, the undercovert feathers on the wing closest to the body of the starling have a creamy color so that's the hackle feather on the Flymph. Furthermore they are very soft. Just blowing at the hackle you might almost make knots on the fibres. Can't wait to try it out!

fredag 11 april 2014

JAMES E. LEISENRING and VERNON S. HIDY

The art of Tying the Wet Fly & Fishing The Flymph

I can hardly believe it's true! Finally I have my own copy of this groundbreaking book. And not just that; it's a collectors item in just about mint condition and never read before. I'm almost afraid of opening it. When I've built up my courage I'll get back to you about this book.

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tisdag 8 april 2014

LEISENRINGS BLACK GNAT

THE BLACK GNAT

A pretty simple soft hackle pattern but kind of ingenious. A spool of Gossamer silk thread in crimson color, herl from a secondary feather of a crow and a starling feather for hackle. That's all needed to make this deadly fly.

First lay a bed of thread along the hook shank. Tie in three herls of the crow feather and wind them around the tying thread. Then wind it all together along the hook shank to the head. Tie in a starling feather and give it two turns. Varnish the head and the fly is ready. I'm tying some up size 12-16 for this spring to try them out dry and wet. I believe this is a killer!

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