Dry Fly Swap Flies
Tied by Kent Bishop (Clarksville MD)
Hook: Orvis Premium or equivalent #12 (I use the standard Mustad
dry fly hook)
Thread: Yellow, 6/0 Pre-Waxed
Tail: Dark Cream Hackle Fibers
Body: Cream Poly
Hackle: Dark Cream
post: calf hair
Tied by Jim Tefft (Henrietta NY)
#18 3906 hook
Black thread 6/0
black hackle tail
peacock herl body
I have found the herl midge to be a northeastern type fly. I have
a good portion of my luck on herl type flies.
Tied by Kerry Kimmins (Montrose BC CAN)
Hook : Midge or standard dry fly, sizes 22 - 14 ( I used #18)
Thread: Olive or Brown 8/0 or 6/0
Abdomen: Green,Olive, black or
brown antron dubbing.
Wing: Light or dark deer hair
Thorax:
Tan or brown hare's mask or Australian opossum
1. Dub a body of antron 2/3 the way up the hook shank. (1/2 hitch)
2. Comb, stack, measure and use the pinch to tie in a bunch of
deer hair ( I found that if I tied the deer hair ontop of the antron
the deer hair would slide so tie the deer hair on the thread wrappings
ahead of the dubbing). Wing should come to the end of the hook. (1/2
hitch and glue)
3.Dub the thorax,
This is one of only three
flies that I use (EHC and little olive parachute) I tie them in 18 - 22
and I have only been skunked once. The lake that I fish has lots of
activity and the fish are not nervous so I have never had a problem
with presentation. After I cast the fly I let it sit for about 20 sec
and then strip in about 6 " and let it sit 20 sec normally about the 2nd
strip a fish will come for it. The largest fish I have caught on this
fly is 12" which is the largest in the lake that I am aware of.
Tied by Dave Churches (Latham Australia)
Hook: 16
Body: Peacock herl
Hackle: Grizzle palmered.
Used in Australia to imitate the chironomid gang bang, or without
floatant when aquatic snails are drifting just under the surface.
Tied by GP Peterson (Toronto Ontario CAN)
Hook: Standard Dry Fly hook (#12 to #18)
Tail (Shuck): Tuft
of snowshoe rabbits foot (pad), less than wing
Body: Fine hair and
fluff from pad (very close to bone). Can be mixed with various dry
dubbing to fine tune body colors.
Wing: Same as tail, but thicker
Instructions
The tie is essentially identical to the comparadun series.
Substitute snowshoe rabbit for deer hair.
Fishing instructions
The beauty of the Usual is that it can be fished in a variety of
ways with little to no change in the fly itself. It does not require
floatant. Its bouyancy depends on the hair of the snowshoe rabbit
trapping air as it is false cast. If another dubbing is substituted for
the body, floatant can be applied to the dubbing only, to aid floatation
if required.
Fished dry, it represents a variety of duns. Allowed
to become partially wet, it makes a killer emerger, fished in the
surface film.
I know it isn't much to look at, but its 'buggyness'
makes it one of the killer flys in my dry arsenal. Not to mention a
number of people I fish with.
If you are already familiar with the
Usual, then you are aware of what I am speaking of, if not, I am
convinced you will find it to be one, killer fly as well.
Tied by Henry Kanemoto (Wausau WI)
MATERIALS:
Hook: #10 Tiemco TMC100 or equivalent dry fly hook
Thread: Black Monocord
Abdomen: 30 Lb. Cortland braided mono dyed with permanent markers.
Start with white braided mono and use a permanent marker (BCS 136) to
dye it blue. Then use a black marker to give it alternating blue and
black bands. I use a Berol Prismacolor Art Marker PM-40 Copenhagen Blue.
Gary recommends a Process Blue Marker but I haven't been able to find
it. Cut it into sections 3 .5 cm. long (about 1.25 inches) and melt one
end of the mono with a cigarette lighter to seal it.
Post:
Dazzelaire yarn - Island Blue color
Thorax: Dubbing made from the post yarn. I comb out the end of the
yarn with a regular hair comb and cut the combed out yarn into 2-3 inch
strips. Then I repeatedly comb all of this until it becomes one pile of
dubbing.
Hackle: Light dun or Sandy dun cock hackle tied parachute style.
Hackle should be about the length of the body.
TYING INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Bring the thread to the back of the hook and make a small ball
of thread or a small dubbing ball on the hook. This should be placed so
that it will elevate the abdominal segment off the hook. Take the
unsealed end of the abdomen segment and fray the mono for 1/4 inch. Tie
down the mono using the frayed end and put on some super glue and
overwrap the mono back to the tread ball
2. Double up the yarn so
that it forms a loop for the yarn post. Off set the ends slightly so
that the transition on the hook will be smooth. Tie down the yarn ends
in front of the abdominal segment on top of the superglue and wrap back
so that the post starts just at the fur ball. Wrap the shaft of the post
to form a base for the parachute hackle.
3. Place the hackle so that the concave (shiny) side faces down
and tie down with two wraps. Put some dubbing on the thread and overwrap
the body to hide the dark thread at the base of the post and the tie
down area for the hackle. Take three to four wraps with the hackle, tie
it down, and cut it off.
4. Dub the thread and wrap the thorax to
the head of the fly. Spread the hackle in the front of the fly to the
sides and pull the yarn post forward over the thorax and wrap it down
behind the eye. Bring the thread in front of the yarn and whip finish
the head. Cut the extra yarn post off leaving about a stub of yarn about
as long as the eye of the hook. The black thread around the yarn
simulates the eyes of the insect and the stub of yarn, the head.
5. Straighten out the hackle in a smooth semicircle in back of the
thorax and arrange the abdomen in an upward curve. Put *clear* and
*thinned* head cement at the base of the thorax and hackles to hold them
in place. Put some head cement between the abdomen segment and the
dubbing ball to hold the abdomen in position.
6. Tying hints - Dye and band the abdominal segments as one long
piece of braided mono, then cut to length and melt the end. Put on the
head cement after you finish all the flies. Do not skip the superglue or
your abdominal segments may pull out. Use a whip finish on the head and
you can skip the head cement for this area.
Tied by Marguerite McKenzie (Springfield OR)
Recipe:
Hook: TMC 921 BL, #12
Thread: 8/0 Gray
Wing: Gray: Clark's Yarn; or Poly Yarn; or Deer Hair
Body:
Extension: Gray Vernille
Base for hackle: _Fly Rite_ #21 Light
Gray
Hackle: Dun Cock Saddle Hackle (one will tie 3 flies)
Tying Instructions:
1. Start the thread one hook eye length behind eye
2. Tie in
the wing, hook shank length, to mid point on hook shank, secure with
three thread wraps, then cut at an angle (/) then advance thread to
point of the hook (*not* barb); leave the wing pointed out over the hook
eye for the time being
3. Tie in extended body, length of hook
shank, with the head of the extended body resting against the butt of
the wing (\/).
4. Return thread to the first tie in wrap on the
vernille which should be directly above the hook point.
5.
Sparsely dub thread, about 1 1/2 inches
6. With dubbed thread tie
in one Dun feather,* _size 14_*
7. Continue wrapping dubbed thread
forward, to one hook eye width behind the eye; as you bring your thread
forward, be sure to wrap several times directly in front of the wing, to
hold it up.
8. Tightly wrap hackle forward, using 7-11 wraps
behind the wing to the wing, and 1-3 wraps in front of the wing. Be
careful not to crowd the eye. When wrapping the hackle, be sure to
wiggle the feather so as not to trap any of the barbs under the wraps.
Wiggle side to side, right to left.
9. Secure the wrapped hackle
with a couple of tight thread wraps and clip remaining feather at this
point.
10. Tie off with a whip finish (3-5 turns) or a couple of
half hitches, which ever you prefer. It is important not to trap any of
the barbs, if possible, and you might want to use a hackle guard to
acheive this goal.
11. If you use head cement on your dry flies,
apply a light coat now.
12. While the head cement is drying, pull
the wing up sharply and clip excess just a hair above the hackles. Now
is also a good time to check the vernille extended body for proper
length and simply clip any extra off, now.
13. Remove the fly from
the vice and turn it over. You will be looking directly at the eye and
hook point. Take your sharpest pair of scissors and place them at an
angle, high at the eye end, and low at the hook bend end. Cut a narrow V
shape. You may need to clip a little here and a little there, but what
you are attempting to acheive is a clear V so that when you turn the fly
over and place it on the table top, it will sit perkly upright and even
from side to side.
14. This fly should float high and long, but if
you want to make doubly sure, you can pop it in a Hydrophobic solution
and then let it dry long enough and then fish it as you would any Gray
Drake. Best of luck! &->
I did not invent this extended body fly, but one of the young men
at the Caddis Fly Angling Shop in Eugene Oregon did. His name is Ethan.
Tied by Hans Weilenmann (Amsterdam Netherlands)
My first trip to Montana took place in July/August 1982. In
preparation for this trip I read up on all the hatch-charts and other
information I could lay my hands on. I then compiled all the required
patterns and commenced tying them. (I was naive and more gullible
then...) I literally tied up hundreds of flies. Dries, wets, nymphs and
emergers in sizes ranging from #10 4XL through to #28. Unfortunately,
very few of the anticipated hatches actually materialized. Apart from
one rather spectacular Yellow Sally egg-laying session on Rock Creek,
where an imitation (with a deer hair bullet-head, extended body made
from twisted yellow poly yarn and a trimmed grizzly hackle wing tied
flat) triggered explosive rises, it was caddis all the way. Not a mayfly
in sight. So I fished the Elk Hair Caddis. And the EHC. When this fly
did not work, I'd fish the EHC. I'm sure you get the picture. Anyway, to
cut a long story short, the EHC has been one of my most effective dry
fly patterns from this time onward.
Mostly I would follow the
Troth pattern closely: dubbed body, palmered hackle, counter-ribbed with
fine gold wire. Or, on #16 and smaller, sometimes only dubbing without
hackle.
The last season, though, I deviated from the Troth path.
With the increased availability of CDC in natural and dyed colors I
started experimenting with this material on my core set of fishing
flies. For my EHC I started using CDC barbules dubbed onto the thread.
Although this worked OK, it did not really improve on the pattern. What
I wanted to achieve, next to (perhaps) improved floatation, was a
stronger illusion of movement, i.e. to utilize the in-built mobility of
the CDC feather. I tried and discarded to trap the CDC barbules in a
dubbing loop. Tying in clumps of CDC barbules was not satisfactory,
either. Various other options were tried and rejected. The answer turned
out to be to use the whole CDC feather, including stem. The resulting
fly, basically a modified EHC, I call the CDC Elk.
The required list of materials is pretty short: standard dry-fly
hook, thread, CDC feather (natural or dyed) and fine-tipped deer hair.
Tying instructions:
- Attach the thread halfway down the hookshank and run backwards
to the bend.
- Select a CDC feather of the required color and
size. (The longest barbule approx. 2 times shank-length) Hold the CDC
feather at the butt and, by stroking the feather between thumb and
indexfinger towards the tip, bunch the tips together.
- Tie in the
bunch, butt pointing backwards. Tie down with two turns, then slip a
third turn under the tips and a fourth turn over the barbules, just
forward of the third. This will lock the CDC barbules in place and
prevent them from coming loose. Spiral thread forward to eye, then back
one turn.
- Clamp butt with hacklepliers and wind the CDC feather
towards the eye in touching turns. You will find that the rear half of
the body will resemble a dubbed one, but as you progress towards the
eye, more and more free barbules appear. Stroke these backwards with
each turn. A little practice will enable you to arrive at the eye with
only the bare part of the stem left.
- Tie off with one tight turn
of thread, unclip the hackle but do not trim yet. Tighten with a second
and third turn of thread. You will see that the CDC butt will move with
the thread, securing the tie-off point. Clip the CDC butt.
-
Finish off as a regular EHC. I like to trim the deer-hair to the
required length before tying it in. Your mileage may vary.
To summarize: the EHC is a great fly, but I like to think the CDC
Elk improves on this great pattern. If possible, better floating.
Surprisingly durable. Illusion of movement provided by the straggling
CDC barbules to suggest legs, antenna, trailing shuck, crippled wings,
etc. Easily obtainable materials and incredibly easy and fast to tie.
And it even catches fish!
Do give it a try...
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This page compiled by Rick Lalliss for the FF@ Dry Fly Swap.
Copyright 1995, Rick Lalliss and Respective Authors
EMail: lalliss@aros.net
