Tying Flies for Customer Orders

I’m back at the vise this week, tying flies for customer orders. I ended up with a customer wait list because my tying slowed down during the summer and fall months as we enjoyed our fly fishing road trips. I should be current by the end of the week.

Fly Diversity | www.johnkreft.com

Before I get too far on this week’s post, I wanted to mention the Zoom fly tying class I’ll be teaching this week on Thursday, 1/13. I’ll be tying two flies using CDC feathers, the IOBO Humpy and a Green Drake CDC Loop Wing Emerger.

Central Oregon Fly Tyer’s Guild’s Zoom Meeting

Time: Jan 13, 2022 05:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84499762497?pwd=TkJTU0tTQ0xnTjQ2akxnTjdFdG9iQT09

Meeting ID: 844 9976 2497 Passcode: 365061

I recently finished tying two dozen EP Baitfish streamers.

EP Fiber Streamers | www.johnkreft.com

These size 2/0 flies are headed to Baja to catch rooster fish, dorado, and perhaps a few other species. They’ve worked for my customer Jeff, and he gave a fly or two to his fishing partner who ordered a couple dozen of his own. Look closely in the fish’s mouth…yup, it’s my fly!

Baja Rooster Fish | www.johnkreft.com

The latest streamer is tied with EP Fibers rather than using hackle for the tail. I’ll be publishing a YouTube video soon on my RiverKeeper Flies channel with tying directions. I’m not sure how many people will watch it. It’s mostly for my benefit to remember how I tied the flies in case I tie more in the future.

EP Fiber Streamer | www.johnkreft.com

After completing the streamers, I returned to an order very familiar to me, tying RiverKeeper Soft Hackle Cripples and Sparkle Duns. Some of these were in sizes 18.

In the middle of that order, I needed to tie a fly for last week’s Throw Back Thursday. I selected another streamer, the Double Bunny.

Double Bunny | www.johnkreft.com

The last order I received in mid-December was for a few steelhead flies. I’m working on those now and hope to complete the order in the next day or two. Here are a few Shewey’s Spawning Purple steelhead flies.

Shewey's Spawning Purple | www.johnkreft.com

Looking back at these flies, I smile at the size differences…2/0 streamer…18 Improved Sparkle Dun…4 Double Bunny…1.5 Shewey’s Spawning Purple…16 IOBO Humpy.

If you’ve ordered flies from me in the past, I suggest thinking about ordering flies in the near future. Once June and July get here, I plan to be on the road again and I won’t be able to fill orders.

Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!

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