Stealing a page from William's Book

[letumgo]

I am stealing a page from William's book and converting my recent caddis pattern over to a wire bodied nymph. It's a bit rough, but I think it will work on some of the local steelhead.

[willowhead]

Now THAT'S a frickin' innovative fly.........you should fish it VERY soon to see how well it works. If that puppy catches steelies well.....(and a few more variations, ie: purple, blue, hot pink [wire]), i see an article in a major fly tying mag. in the works.

[William Anderson]

That's great. Funny, I have been trying to tie up something approaching this one: http://www.flymphforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1759
using the wool you sent. I don't have any pics and I'm not there yet but I'll put something together. Is there any weight in the first caddis fly you tied? This wire version will probably get down quick and do the job, but the first one is beautiful.

w

[letumgo]

Thanks for the encouragement Mark.

William - There is no extra weight in the first version. I just tyed a tapered under body using the tying thread and then wrapped the antron yarn over the tying thread. The fly has a fairly slender profile, so it should still sink fairly well. The wire bodied version should sink like a rock. I tyed the above fly using medium size Ultra Wire, but it seems to big to me. I need to tye a few with a finer diameter wire to see if I can tighten up the design. I was also playing around with a different hackling technique I saw Charlie Craven use. I clipped the center out of a grouse hackle and then tyed in in over the back of the fly with two loose wraps. You can then adjust the length of the hackle by pulling on the stem of the feather. It looks like a useful technique (yet one more way to skin a cat).

Once I get the hang of this pattern, I think it will be a quick tye.

[willowhead]

Ah yes........the ole' couple loose turns pull the stem to adjust length trick......... i love that one. Misa and i were in Charlie's fly shop the other day...........boy do i wish you'd been with us............Charlie's regular smile would of grown extra large with all the money you'da been spendin'........... He had some perfect loose Peacock swords for 50 cents each, alllll kinds of that bleeched and dyed Peacock eye/sticks in a ton of colors, and allll kinds of steelhead stuff you can use up where you are. i swear, if it's the last thing i do.....i'm gonna get you out to do the FFF International one of these years........you better start workin' on the ole' lady now. Think Spokane, Wash. for 2012.

[William Anderson]

Ray, I was surprised at the size of the medium wire too. I tie mostly with small, extra small on some 18's and 16's, but rarely with brassie size, and the medium size is definitely for the larger streamer size and over.

I finally got some small black wire from Jim S today and an olive color too that might make this interesting.

Nemes shows that hackling technique in the revision of The Soft Hackle Fly, tying some small flies or something. It didn't look like it worked very well in the shots shown in his book, but I have seen it done quite well. It would be really nice to be able to use some of the larger grouse and partridge feathers. It's not like I'm tying size 8 P&O's. I will give that a try.

w

[willowhead]

btw Ray, what size hook is that? Tkx.

[tie2fish]

A fly as attractive ande suggestive as that ought to work on trout and landlocks as well as steelhead. Great concept, Ray, and a very nice combination of colors and materials.

[CreationBear]

I've had Charlie's site bookmarked ever since I started tying--the "step-by-step" tutorials are a great resource.

Otherwise, with all this wire-work, some of you gentlemen are going to have to start fishing center-pin reels, if only for safety's sake...

[letumgo]

The hook is a Mustad C49S/Size 10. The medium wire should be finer in diameter for this size hook.

I've got centerpin rig, but have tended to fish for steelhead with a fly rod the past couple years. I have no doubt that this fly would work nicely, swung deeply under a float. The added weight would make this an ideal fly for fishing the heavy currents of the Niagara River.