I create a new post each week and many times I know exactly the subject I plan to write about. Other times, like this week, I need some inspiration. If I go to the river, it often speaks to me, and provides a subject. Today is different. We haven’t fished in two weeks after returning from our fly fishing road trip. Much of it is due to hot weather, but a few home projects have delayed my fishing. Occasionally, I go back to previous years to see what subjects I covered. I did that today. Know what I found? The Importance of Imitating Mayfly Spinners. Guess what flies I’ve been tying lately – Compara Spinners. Tying and fishing Galloup’s Compara Spinners is the subject of today’s post.
The image above shows four dozen size 16 Galloup’s Compara Spinners destined for the provider box.
I don’t have any fly orders at the moment and decided to work on filling the provider box. I needed a few Rusty Spinner flies and pulled out a dozen hooks. I finished those and pulled out twelve more…and twelve more. No, I don’t lose that many flies. But it’s much quicker to tie that quantity of flies when the materials are at hand and muscle memory kicks in.
Who knows, perhaps you need a few and will contact me to purchase flies.
I really like how Kelly Galloup designed this fly. The traditional Rusty Spinner only has a flat wing shown below (left). Kelly’s Compara Spinner is tied with a Comparadun-style wing. Tying the wing in this manner allows the fly fisher to SEE the fly.
Let me comment on the body a moment. The flies above are tied with a turkey biot to create segmentation. The images below are a couple beautiful Rainbow Trout from our time on Fly Fishing the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. They were taken on a size 14 Galloup’s Compara Spinner – Rusty, tied with a dubbed body.
Does a biot or dubbed body make a difference? I don’t think so. Perhaps it catches more fly fishers than fish! Here are the two variations side-by-side.
And a view from the bottom looking up, just like a fish would view the fly.
The benefit of this style of fly is I’m able to see them!
Maybe I’ll pull out a dozen more hooks and add them to the provider box. Then I’ll move on to a different fly pattern.
Enjoy…go fish!
