Sharptail Grouse Patterns

[CreationBear]

You have to be a little masochistic to post pictures when both Ray and William are "in da house" but I wanted to share a couple I tied this afternoon with the dyed sharptail grouse from Blue Ribbon Flies that Ray had mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

Here's a spider (antique gold Pearsall's, hot orange rib) with the their "caddis yellow" or plover sub:


And a wire-body flymph with their "caddis olive".


Of the two skins, I think I'm most impressed with the "plover," though no doubt it's a pale imitation of the real thing. Most striking I think is that the dyed pelts seem to only complement a very limited range of body colors, whereas the depth and "warmth" of natural hackle seems to go with everything.

[willowhead]

You are one hellified tyer.....GORGEOUS flies. Not to mention KILLER pics.

[letumgo]

Wow! Those are both fantastic. I recently tried the wire bodied flies William was showing, but I couldn't get the hang of it. Yours is perfect!

How many flies have you tyed with these skins? What part of the skin did the hackles come from?

I still haven't tyed with mine. Wayne distracted me with his muskrat flies...

[letumgo]

Oh, I forgot to comment on the silk body on the top fly...superb!

[CreationBear]

How many flies have you tyed with these skins? What part of the skin did the hackles come from?

Thanks for the kind words, gents.

To answer Ray's question, I've only used the feathers on the back/saddle region--they seem a little more strongly marked, while the shoulders seem to take most of the dye, subduing the natural "figure." (Too, the wings on both were a bit mungy: the pelt was clean as you'd expect, but it was evident that the hunter in this case was definitely careful to use "enough gun.")

BTW, I took a page out of Ray's book and wrapped an underbody of Uni-Stretch before wrapping the wire--seems to give a nice taper and seems to "seat" the wire as you move up toward the eye. Of course, it's typical of me to write an "Ode to Pearsall's" last night on Willaim's thread, and then hack out the world's largest Copper John the next--I better remember "Open loops" or I might be wearing that one home.

[William Anderson]

Jon, these are great to see. I wouldn't pick one over the other and would probably fish them in tandom, letting the wire body drag the silk body down to the depths, robbing the poor fish of their safe refuge. Each of these are remarkably well tied and its nice to see you're back up and tying. That wire body fly reminds me of a quill bodied fly I tied for our second IBF swap. I'll post it sometime if Hans doesn't mind.

I will have to work on that floss taper technique. Seems a little fancy for me, pushing me over the 2-3 material limit, but it just works out nice.

Great flies.

w

[tie2fish]

Both are superior in concept and execution. Two sure winners, and the photography is very good.

[CreationBear]

Thanks, guys: I'm definitely going to have to improve my "documentation" photography, though: I haven't quite figured out the right white balance and can't shoot RAW with my P&S, so what you're seeing would be a bit different to the naked eye.

At any rate, sharptail are definitely great skins to have if you're a gamebird fan...if I were a better wingshot (or chemist) I think I'd grab a pile of birds and go the picric route. but since I don't want to blow up my house, I think I'll content myself with fishing to stupid trout. (Of course, now that I think about it, that would make an awesome episode of Breaking Bad..."Next Week, Walter and Jesse prepare for Sowbug...." )

[William Anderson]

The pics are great. Fun to keep fooling with them though. I use an old p&s too. I sill think I need more light though.

These skins are really nice. Although I would love to see jesse skimp on the chemistry and blow up an rv. If there are any chemists among us, would you send me a note?

[willowhead]

"next week Walter and Jesse prepare for Sowbug"......... and we're going to be in our new location (the Fairgrounds) next March. Wouldn't THAT! be a riot.........