It's a great design that has been around in many forms as Bill shows. Love your variations Ray. I'm working on Salty Tenkara flies this winter and I had this one chosen to experiment with. I think I like the option with a tail. This way the fly retains some length when it's not actively being stripp...

Thanks gentlemen. I forgot to mention that I tied this with the open wraps in the thorax so that it rides the surface a bit more.

Here is a nice Iron Blue Dun pattern given by Hidy. It is a little variation of his from what most of us are used to. This variation is found in Famous Flies and Their Originators, Overfield, 1972. I haven't tied one of these before. Definitely putting some in the box. Claret Silk Mole dubbing Dark ...

Nice fly Bill. I did pretty well with simple soft hackled steelhead flies like this on the Wallowa. I had 3 patterns I tied. Caught a lot of trout as well while steelheading on these. #6-#8.

First off, welcome to the forum Bob. I'll give a few brief personal perspectives on each silk thread type commonly available. I have used all of them. Pearsall's is the gold standard of traditional wet fly tying and tradition plays a big role for many of us. A lot of us still have quite a bit of Pea...

I vote we just rename this section "Norm's Page".

Really nice Ray. I don't tie this steelhead style too much anymore, being in Florida. I sure enjoy looking at them. Love the grouse and Partridge combo.

Carl

"In my opinion it I better than Pearsall's in every way. Smaller, more "silky", and you get way more of it."

Whew!, now I can breath. I just didn't want to be the first one to say it!

I agree with this statement.

It's like seal and other course fur and hair. You can do it but it looks fairly ragged. In order to get the right profile you have to dub quite a bit of the hair on a strand. I have used it for a White Miller emerging flymph on a well waxed primrose thread so that the thread is a light green, like y...

I have all kinds of wax. I have always just stored them in small ziplock baggies. Never had any issue with just rolling a piece in my hands to warm and soften. Some takes longer than others. When tying, I do like Ron and keep it in between a couple fingers while I tie. When tying for shows I keep in...