Recent Flies from the Vise

I’ve been tying lots of flies lately, trying to catch up on my customer orders. Several fly patterns are new to me and I thought I’d highlight them along with the other flies coming off my vise.

The image above is a Biot Backed Stonefly. Devin Olsen created the fly a few years ago and one of my customers asked me to tie them in sizes 10, 8, and 6.

The next fly is Wollum’s Brown Drake Emerger size 12.

This is a cool looking fly! I might have to change the colors and try imitating Green Drakes.

Remember Art Flick’s March Brown?

I highlighted these flies in a TBT post recently. If you missed it, click HERE.

These are tied using Wood Duck for the upright wings. A couple of friends recently gave my some Wood Duck, Pintail, and Widgeon feathers. They do a wonderful job of cleaning and drying the feathers, which makes it easy to tie with.

Knowing I was going to need Wood Duck feathers to tie Flick’s March Brown, I decided to open the bag and sort through all the feathers. My customer wanted these tied in size 16, which is fairly small for this style fly…at least for me. I was looking for the smallest feathers to tie a wing and ended up sorting the feathers into small, medium, and large and pulling off the fluff on each feather. Yes, it took awhile, but the feathers are much easier to work with when the fluff is removed. In addition, when I need to tie more flies with upright wings, it will be easy to pull out the box and select the proper size.

Did you notice the deer hair in the top two compartments?

Well, there are 2 dozen “blanks”. I’ve tied the wings and tail on size 10 hooks for future Sparkle Duns.

I picked up the word “blank” from my friend Al Beatty. I can add green dubbing for finish Green Drake Sparkle Duns or use a brown dubbing to imitate brown Drakes.

The next fly is George Anderson’s Rubber Legged Brown Stone Nymph. I tied this fly in size 10. Notice the woven body?

It took a little practice, but I liked the result after tying a few.

I tied a woven body for a customer a few years ago called the Bitch Creek Nymph. The body was chenille, not wool yarn like one above.

Several of the flies were from Favorite Flies for Yellowstone National Park: 50 Essential Patterns from Local Experts (Volume 6) – (2022) by Paul Weamer.

I received a photo with the materials and tied flies to look like the images. This Coachman Trude #12 was one of them.

The last two flies I’ve tied recently is what I called the Silver & Red Perdigon and some Callibaetis Spinners.

The Perdigon is tied with holographic tinsel for the body and ribbed with red wire. The Spinners are tied with a biot body.

Lastly, in case you missed these images on Instagram or Facebook, I captured some mayflies recently as I tested a new lens. These were taken at 400 mm. I’m pleased how well these three images turned out. Be sure to cycle through the carousel of images to view all three.

Enjoy…go fish!