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!

Similar Posts

  • Dette Yellow Stonefly Nymph

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Dette Yellow Stonefly Nymph. I pulled out Mike Valla’s The Founding Flies and paged through to locate an interesting fly for this week’s post. The Dette Yellow Stonefly Nymph spoke to me. Walt and Winnie Dette are known for their beautiful Catskill dry flies. At least that’s…

  • Damsel Flies

    Have you ever fished with adult damsel flies? Talk about exciting! These bugs are quick, so when a fish takes your fly, it’s more like a toilet bowl flushing…a big ring from the fish taking the fly with gusto! At times, there can be massive hatches or swarms. Here is a recent picture of a…

  • Crossfield

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Crossfield, a strip-winged Atlantic Salmon fly. The Crossfield is the second Atlantic Salmon fly I’ve tied from Poul Jorgensen’s book entitled Salmon Flies – Their Character, Style, and Dressing (1978). The first fly I tied from his book is the Blue Charm. Some quick research finds the…

  • Ray Bergman Undertaker

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Ray Bergman Undertaker. I haven’t posted a Ray Bergman wet fly in awhile, so I pulled out his book entitled Trout (1940 – fourth printing) to find a fly to tie and highlight. On page 254, Plate No. 9 I found the Undertaker. As I’ve mentioned many times,…

  • Caddis Time

    It’s the middle of summer and that means it’s caddis time. Yes, all those spots are caddis…thousands and thousands of them. You might recognize this image a little better. These prolific bugs with their tent-shaped wings hatch throughout summer after the larger mayflies and stoneflies are finished. It can produce some very good fly fishing…

  • Ellis Triple Wing Spinner

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Ellis Triple Wing Spinner, which I tied to imitate a Rusty Spinner. I thought it was fitting to feature a mayfly spinner as this week’s TBT, since I wrote about PMD Spinner Fly Patterns in yesterday’s post. The Ellis Triple Wing Spinner can be found in Kelly…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *