My Favorite New-to Me Flies

One of the benefits of being a custom fly tyer is the opportunity to learn and tie new-to-me flies. The latest is a Parasol Post Pheasant Tail Emerger. I wanted to share some of my favorite new-to-me flies with you today.

This is my first try tying a parasol post fly. I’ve watched a couple of YouTube videos and it didn’t seem too difficult, so I said “yes” to my customer’s request to tie up a several in sizes 16 and 18.

I recall purchasing a couple parasol post style flies many years ago and wasn’t impressed how they fished. I must have been using light tippet because I think the parasol post caused the fly to spin and twist the leader. I plan to tie a couple extra and try this style of fly again because I’ve heard these flies can catch fish. Time will tell…

Here are a few more new-to-me flies I’ve tied and written about in the past.

The first fly that comes to mind is the Thunder Creek Streamer because I finished tying 168 of these flies a month ago in size 8 for a customer in Alaska.

The next one is the Despair Nymph. I thought it just looked cool with the natural colors of Pheasant tail for legs and a wing of Hungarian Partridge.

It was originally tied to imitate a stonefly nymph, but is also used to imitate dragon fly larva and sedge pupas. The one above is a variant. I featured the Peacock Despair as a Throw Back Thursday Fly in May 2023.

I don’t fish all these flies, but I’m pleased to hear stories when a customer responds how effective the flies were.

The next two flies were tied for a couple of saltwater flyfishers. As I recall, they were used when fly fishing for roosterfish and marlin.

This is an EP Fiber Streamer.

And several BEAST Fleyes.

The next one was a Heindl. It was tied with a stripped peacock herl and heavily hackled per the customer’s instruction. I don’t tie many of this style of fly, but enjoyed the challenge.

I’ve had several requests of older flies a customer can’t find anywhere. The  Pheasant Rump Muddler streamer fit this category. I don’t know of many flies using Pheasant rump and shoulder feathers. I’d never tied anything like this streamer, but I liked the final product.

The next flies were from 2018 and began with Taylor’s Golden Spey, a spey fly inspired by Syd Glasso’s Orange Heron.

Four spey flies to celebrate an anniversary for a couple of fly fishers, their 40th. My customer doesn’t fish.

Did you know a 40th wedding anniversary is “ruby”? I didn’t either. The challenge was to use the Golden Spey picture as inspiration and tie flies for a plate which would mean something. Why the Golden Spey? It was created by Bob Taylor in 1978, the year they were married.

I used the same basic fly pattern, but created variants of different color feathers and some creativity with tinsel bodies. I thought they turned out really well.

How about some lake flies? These damsel flies were from a customer request in 2019. Interesting flies, but I understand very effective.

The last two flies are tied with CDC feathers. These were introduced to me back in 2018, the IOBO Humpy and Improved F Fly. I tied a few extra and both flies are now staples in my fly box.

I tie and fish the IOBO Humpy in sizes 16 and 18.

I use the Improved F Fly as a Caddis imitation and Little Olive Stone. On the far right is a size 24.

I hope you enjoyed a different post today sharing the variety of flies I tie. If you are a fly tyer, I challenge you to get outside your comfort zone and see what can happen.

Enjoy…go fish!