This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Tommy’s Twisted Sister.
This fly came to me from Jimbo Busse.
You might recognize his name because he is responsible for providing several images of Shane Stalcup’s flies recently.
I received a Comment of appreciation from Jimbo for highlighting Shane’s flies. I always enjoy receiving Comments about my TBT posts because I’ve stirred a thought or two from one of my RiverKeeper Flies readers. Bringing back good memories and sharing the history of fly fishing is the reason I post TBTs each week.
Here is the description he provided about Tommy’s Twisted Sister.
This pattern came about because of the small size of caddis hatching on “Potato Creek” and missing so many strikes due to the small hook gap on the fly. To eliminate the problem we went to a TMC 2487 and made the body out of twisted yarn. The name comes from my fishing buddy Tom Staab.
Materials
Hook
TMC 2487 #14-20
Thread
Brown UNI 8/0
Body
Antron yarn twisted and laid back over itself
Wing
Light Elk Hair
Hackle
Furnace
We have since changed the body color and hackle color to fit the situation but using the curved hook definitely solved the problem.
I didn’t know of Jimbo before receiving his Comment, so I asked him to provide a little background about himself. Here’s what he wrote:
I live in Colorado Springs, Co. have been here for 12 years now. I’m retired and spend most of my time fishing and hunting with my wife. My dad would take my brother and I fishing every weekend mostly to Lake McConaughy in Nebraska. After I got home from the Vietnam war I moved from NE Colorado to Denver in 1969 and started fly fishing with Ray Sapp and another friend from back home. We fished the South Platte a lot and fished the Blue River and the Eagle River when we could. I met Sylvester Nemes at one of the ISE shows and picked his brain about wet flies and soft hackles and now I have become one of his addicts. I love wet flies and use them a lot in both rivers and lakes. Feb 9th I will be tying at the West Denver TU annual fly tying clinic in Lakewood. This will be my 35th year at the event. There are about 40 to 50 tiers from all over the region tying every style of fly you can think of.
Thanks again Jimbo for providing information about Shane. I really appreciate your efforts.
Enjoy…go fish!
