Grouse

[CM_Stewart]

Scotfly,
Absolutely beautiful ties. The Grouse and Jasper is amazing. I'll be tying some of those for sure.

Hankeye,
Pearsall's Gossamer Jasper is one strand black and two strands orange (not quite hot orange).

Anyone,
The Tummel-bodied wingless wet (can it be a true Tummel style and still be wingless) seems to be a minimalist's dream fly. Anyone every fish one? Catch anything?

[tie2fish]

scotfly: excellent series! I like every one of them.

[William Anderson]

CM, about 5 years ago I started tying a few sets of small flies using the three body lengths attributed to each region just for grins, they all went in my box, and I've used up a lot of them. They are in small sizes, #18 and under, so I don't thing the bodies make a big difference on a size #22 fly, I'm sure many will disagree. I tie some small stuff with just a thorax of herl and a hen hackle that are great. I can't imagine a wing added would make a difference either.

anyone else tie soft-hackles with short bodies?

w

[Otter]

I don't tend to tie with overly short bodies and bowing my hat to mark I cannot resist ( as always) a bit of conjecture.

Instinct tells me that a small fly on a big hook cannot be a particularily clever idea. However many claim that they find it just as successful, either they are lying , bluffing , just making excuses for lazy tying or is there something else going on here.

Is it safe to assume that a wet tied short on a 14 will fish differently than same tied long on a size 16/18 due to the weight of the hook ?
Does weight distribution of the tying materials on the hook affect things. ?
Does it make a difference to Mr Trout ?
Is the assertion that it makes no difference Fact or Fiction ?
Have these styles developed for definable fishing reasons or simply because for example . the originators of these styles had easier access to or preference for, a certain size of hook ?

Now theres a few puzzlers

[hankaye]

Howdy All;


CM_Stewart,
Thanks for the info on the Jasper, and I've been to your website .......... ya done good!
Think I'll try that stuff ....................later. Gotta get a handle on regular fly fishin' first.


Otter,
I would surmise that the sparser the dressing the more it speaks to the "thriftness of the Scotts".

hank

[Otter]

Howdy All;

Otter,
I would surmise that the sparser the dressing the more it speaks to the "thriftness of the Scotts".

hank

Thats a classic Hank, and I suppose 100 size 14's may have been thrifier/cheaper than 50 14's and 50 16's

Mind though that fellas from the North Country are noted for similar behaviour so that knocks that one on the head.

[CM_Stewart]

However many claim that they find it just as successful, either they are lying , bluffing , just making excuses for lazy tying or is there something else going on here.

But unless or until you actually fish them, it is just conjecture. The "something else going on here" might be that we really don't know what triggers fish to strike, and the hackle alone may be sufficient. I myself have never tried them but until I do I'll not say they aren't as effective.

[Otter]

CM, my line as you quoted is intended to stimulate debate on this.

Quite often I have spoken with anglers that claim it makes no difference, but on quizzing them further I discover that they have no experience and are simply quoting perceived wisdom's. This is often the case amongst our fraternity and I would genuinely like to hear from those that have extensively fished the long, the short and the medium body styles so well shown by Denis and their opinions on the matter.

I remember reading the theory that a trout sees what it wants to see, maybe quite often ,it is the angler that sees what the angler want's to see.

God knows, the hook may be part of the attraction of our flies.

[scotfly]

Thanks for the compliments folks, glad you like them.

With the posturing about what is and what is not a north country soft-hackle from one village or another

Whilst I like to be as accurate as I can, I'm not going to lose sleep if I'm wrong William. There's plenty of important thing to worry about in life.
OMG, what am I saying! This is fishin' and tyin' It's more important than anything.

The Grouse & Orange (1st. pic.), the silk you wound almost looks like it's corded.
Did you make it look like that or is that the way it comes off the spool?
Is that what is called 'Buttonhole" ?

Hank,
That's ordinary pearsal's silk, it comes off the spool like that. Don't forget you're looking at it magnified on the screen.

I would surmise that the sparser the dressing the more it speaks to the "thriftness of the Scotts".

The thriftness of the Scots is a complete falacy, if you ever meet me you'll find me to be like all Scots, generous to a fault! Or you would if my short arms could reach my wallet in my deeeeeeeeeeeeeeep pockets.

Have these styles developed for definable fishing reasons or simply because for example . the originators of these styles had easier access to or preference for, a certain size of hook ?

Now theres a few puzzlers

They were developed for definable fishing reasons Norman.
The Clyde style were developed for the.... Clyde. In the days of old (when you were a boy) on a large fairly fast and deep river like the Clyde, before weighting, the solution to getting your fly to fish a little deeper, was to put less materials on a bigger hook.
On an even faster river like the Tummel, the solution was to use even less materials than the Clyde style.
That's my understanding of the basic premise of the design anyway.

[hankaye]

scotfly, Howdy;

Thanks for the silk thread information. So, to get it to lay flat, ....................I un-twist it.
Ok, I can do that.

As to the depth of anyones pockets, I can say that the deepest have no bottoms, ergo, nothing in them...........

it all fell out.............

I was merely attempting to surmise that the sparsness of materials would be something someone from 'away' may refer to
to help substantiate that myth ...

hank