It’s Fly Tying Season

I hope you were able to read last week’s post about my fly tying activity. It’s fly tying season for me as I just completed the first of several orders. In addition to last week’s Zoom class I taught for my Central Oregon Fly Tyer’s Guild, I’ll be teaching again this week on another Zoom session. I’ll provide the details below.

Daniel's Dream | www.johnkreft.com

This is a new fly for me, something my customer called Daniel’s Dream. He sent several small flies in an envelope asking if I could tie them. It’s a fairly easy tie, but challenged me with the biot body on a size 18 hook.

Before I get too far into my fly tying activities, I thought I’d mention I did get back to the river last week for a little Euro nymphing activity. I ended up landing 3 fish – a Rainbow, a Brown, and a Whitefish. It was nice to be back on the water.

Winter on the Metolius | www.johnkreft.com

A small but pretty Brown.

Small Metolius Brown | www.johnkreft.com

A nice Rainbow that ate my Pheasant Tail Perdigon.

Winter Rainbow with Pheasant Tail Perdigon on Metolius | www.johnkreft.com

And a Little Winter Stone, probably size 20 I found walking on the snow.

Little Winter Stone - Metolius River | www.johnkreft.com

I think I got a little side-tracked…back to fly tying.

I’ll be teaching some of my favorite Green Drake patterns on Friday, February 28 at 5 pm Pacific on the BT’s Fly Tying Friday, hosted by my friends Gretchen and Al Beatty. Here is the link if you are interested in joining:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83617204710?pwd=17SV6a7Qw3BOatxpDP8QbypAMpJAsx.1

Meeting ID: 836 1720 4710

Passcode: 301102

If you were unable to attend last week’s Zoom class with my local fly tyer’s guild, here is a link from my RiverKeeper Flies YouTube channel:

I just completed a fly order for a good customer. Several fly patterns he ordered before and they must work because he ordered more! Most of them are small flies and I thought you might enjoy seeing them. The first image in today’s post of Daniel’s Dream was one of them. Here are a few others.

This is the smallest…#24. I tied these before in #26, but I wasn’t able to get that size from my hook supplier so I tied them with the smallest hooks I had in inventory. Last year he sent a well-used sample and asked me to tie something similar. I gave it a try and named it after him – GS Midge.

GS Midge | www.johnkreft.com

Here is a link to the video I created from my RiverKeeper Flies YouTube channel if you are interested in how I tie a #26 fly:

Next are a few #18 Higa’s SOS.

Higa's SOS | www.johnkreft.com

Mighty Midge Emerger in #20.

Mighty Midget Emerger | www.johnkreft.com

In the Film CDC Emerger #22.

In the Film Baetis - Brown | www.johnkreft.com

A #22 Black Spinner.

Black Spinner | www.johnkreft.com

Lastly, the NW Fly Tying & Fly Fishing Expo on March 7 & 8 at the Linn County Expo Center in Albany, OR is only 10 days away. I’ll be tying all day on Friday and Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm at table 6 so please stop by and say ‘hello’. This is a wonderful event for all levels of fly fishers. I hope to see you there.

Enjoy…go fish!

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2 Comments

  1. I also have tried for years to figure why this fly is so darn fussy to tie as one year had to make up 50 dozen and it was definitely a money loser. I used this fly a lot with orange or chartreuse abdomen, Orange at sunset and chartreuse mid day.
    Royal patterns for me have been Double wings, Stimulators and wulffs , as all of these other patterns are quicker ties for me . Even Double Wings which are another multi material pattern are a much quicker tie than PMX.

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