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Fly of the Month 2024


March 2024
Bair’s No-See-Um

Tied by Bill Ninke

NoSeeUms

Left, No. 18 Baetis. Right, No. 20 Midge. Flies oriented as they will ride in the water.


With the warm weather we’ve had at the end of February and the projected extension into March, small flies (Midges and Baetis) should soon be popping giving us a chance for dry fly fishing after a Winter of dredging. This month’s pattern is a simple combination of a standard dry fly hook, thread and hackle. It can be tied with black thread and grizzly hackle on a size 20 to 24 hook to represent a midge. Tied with olive thread on a 18 to 22 hook and either grizzly or dun hackle, it represents a Baetis. With these simple attributes you might think it was created by a guide. But this pattern is the design of Phil Bair, just a dedicated fly fisher from Utah. He does have the local reputation, however, of someone you should not fish behind. While I’m showing the pattern as a Midge and a Baetis, you can vary the hackle and thread colors to create versions to imitate Sulfurs, PMDs, Paraleps and other small mayflies.

From the photo above, you might recognize the wing creation technique. It’s just a collar of five turns of hackle with “X” wraps of thread underneath to bring all the fibers above the hook shank. Guess you could call it a hackle fiber Comparadun wing. This is an old technique that Datus Proper introduced in his 1982 book “What the Trout Said”. So if the key technique is from long ago and the wing resembles that of a Comparadun, also an old pattern, what justifies the new name and attribution to Bair? Look at the above photo of the pattern. What do you see, or more to the point, what do you not see? That’s right, there is no tail. As a result the wing doesn’t sit upright poking above the water as we normally expect of a wing. Instead the wing sits mired flat in the surface film and the thin thread body hangs down below the surface. This gives the trout a direct view of what’s coming long before the mired wing pops up in the “window”. Forewarned is fore eaten.

You want the pattern to float in the film. Since the pattern is held there by the mired hackle fibers, the hold is stronger with longer fibers. So for flies to be fished in flat water, use a hackle that is two sizes larger than normal for the hook. For example, use a size 16 hackle on a size 20 hook. For flies to be fished in turbulent water, use a hackle that is three sizes larger than normal for the hook. For example use a size 14 hackle on a size 20 hook. Don’t use powder floatants with this pattern. It will get on the body which you want to sink. Use a paste floatant on the wing only. Even with careful tying, treatment and casting, the pattern can sink a bit. But with the sparse natural profile trout still readily eat it.

Since, during the drift after being cast out, the tiny pattern can be mired in the film or slightly submerged, the appropriateness of the No-See-Um name is apparent. So how can you know where it is? I recommend fishing this pattern as a duo with a larger white post parachute dry fly. I often use a size 14 Parachute Adams. If you want to fish just this pattern, add a small section of a paste-on foam indicator or a New Zealand Strike Indicator a few feet about this pattern. Small size tippet (6X) helps in keeping your float drag free. You get sips not slashes with this pattern so just gently lift to set the hook and be ready for a quick initial run.

Tying instructions for how I tie the fly are given below. You can also view how two noted tiers, Clark “Cheech” Pierce and Barry Ord Clarke tie it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vImm4b4sdYE&t=5s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnV8nsO0VOY respectively.

Send comments, questions and suggestions via email to Bill at fotm@cjtu.org


Material List:

Hook: Standard Dry Fly, e.g. TMC100, Daiichi 1109 or equivalent. (Flies in photo tied on a Saber 7210, a barbless black nickel hook)

Thread: Danville 6/0. Olive for Baetis, Black for Midge or color appropriate for pattern being tied.

Hackle: Whiting Saddle Hackle. Grizzly or Dun for Baetis, Grizzly for Midge. Other color appropriate for pattern being tied.

Marker: (Optional) Brown for Baetis. Other color appropriate for pattern being tied.


Tying Instructions:

  1. Debarb hook if barbed and insert hook in vise.

  2. Pull off 6 inches of thread from bobbin and run between thumbnail and finger tip to flatten the protruding section of thread. Attach thread right behind hook eye and wrap back to ¾ point over elevated tag to pack thread wraps edge to edge. Trim thread tag. Spin bobbin CCW to reflatten thread and wrap back in touching turns to hook eye. Spin bobbin CCW to reflatten thread and wrap back in touching turns to start of hook bend.

  3. For the Baetis, mark about ½” of thread immediately adjacent to hook shank with brown Sharpie. No marking for midge. Spin thread CW to cord thread and wrap forward in open turns to about 1mm behind hook eye. (about 5-6 turns).

  4. Strip fibers from the stem of hackle for 1mm back from base. With the good side of the hackle up, align base with back of hook eye and tie down stripped stem firmly ending with thread 1mm behind hook eye.

  5. Lift and wind hackle back in three touching turns then forward in two turns ending at thread. Tie down firmly, trim hackle stem, leaving thread 1mm behind hook eye.

  6. Separate hackle fibers under the hook shank with a bodkin and press with finger tip to widen separation. Then moisten finger tips and pull fibers up above the level of the hook shank. Take two sets of X wraps under the fibers to hold them mostly in position.

  7. Whip finish and trim thread.

  8. Add a small drop of thin head cement under hackle fibers and to thread head.

  9. Wait for cement to partially set. Then pull fibers up once more. Fibers should now remain at or above level of hook shank.





February 2024
Ramirez’s Money Midges

Tied by Bill Ninke

MoneyMidges

If you’ve followed this feature over the last five years I’m sure you’re aware that I really like tying and fishing “guide flies”. A “guide fly” is a pattern that is highly effective yet quick and easy to tie. Further it is both originated by a professional fishing guide and used extensively by that guide during the rendering of his/her services. When “hammer-handed clients” break off a bunch during the day, the guide can restock in a short time in the evening.

Since midges are productive to fish here now, I’ve chosen both a midge larva and an emerging midge pattern that fit this category. These patterns were originated for use on Colorado waters but I’ve found them to also be very effective in our local waters. They are the creation of Juan Ramirez, a highly regarded guide for the Denver area. These two patterns are very similar as you’ll note from the photo with the emerger being the larva with a small wing addition. Ramirez has created quite a number of “guide flies” that I regularly tie and use. You may recall his Kryptonite Caddis described in March 2023. More of his patterns will be presented in the future.

These two patterns are tied on the same model hook, a TMC 2488, in sizes 18 through 24. For the three larger sizes, a 1.5 mm black bead (either brass or tungsten) is added at the head. There is not much room on the shank of the size 24 so a thread bulge at the head darkened with a marker replaces the bead. Tying thread forms the body. The only downside of these patterns is the use of two unusual materials. The first is the rib and is what Ramirez calls and sells on his web site as “Thin Rib” (3 ft for $2.50) https://hopperjuan.com/slim-rib-%2F-stickers When I started tying these patterns I bought some of the ribbing directly from him and only have a little left. So I’m due for a new order as I’ve found no substitute. He also uses it on several of his other patterns that I’ll be presenting in the future so if you get some now you’ll be ready for them too.

The other material is an embroidery thread (Madeira Glamour No.8, Color 2400, Prism White). Its use was popularized by Pat Dorsey of the Blue Quill Angler Fly Shop for his Top Secret Midge and other patterns. You can buy a 110 yard spool from sewing shops for about $7. Alternatively, as I did, you can get about 6 feet of it for $0.95 directly from Blue Quill. (https://bluequillangler.com/collections/fly-tying-synthetics/products/top-secret-midge-wing-material) I don’t think I’ll live long enough to use it up. A perfect substitute is Hareline Dubbin Midge Diamond Braid in pearl. A few strands of pearl Krystal Flash will also work.

The tying of these patterns is straightforward. My only overview advice is to use plunger style hackle pliers in handling the small hooks for debarbing, mounting the bead, and inserting in the vise jaws. Instead of the usual written instructions below, I give links to two short YouTube videos of Ramirez tying these patterns.

Send comments, questions and suggestions via email to fotm@cjtu.org


Material List:

Hook: TMC 2488, Sizes 18-24

Bead: 1.5mm, Black Brass or Tungsten

Thread: 8/0 (MFC Light brown, Semperfli Brown, or Veevus Brown)

Rib: Hopper Juan’s Thin Rib, Brown

For the emerger:

Wing: Two Strands Glamour Madiera


You can watch Ramirez tie his midge larva at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNyQhXRM2Bk and his midge emerger at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt2mGcHu0nU






January 2024
Jigged Faux Fur Zonker

Tied by Bill Ninke

FauxFurZonker

Top, Brass Barbell Eyes; Middle Tungsten Bead Plus Plastic Barbell Eyes; Bottom, Plastic Barbell Eyes


Whenever I visit a crafts store I walk all the aisles looking for any new material that might be used to in tying a fly. About five years ago in the yarn section of my local Hobby Lobby I noticed a yarn I had not seen before. It seemed an endless white synthetic zonker strip close in fiber size, texture and width to a natural rabbit zonker. As I picked up and examined a skein, another customer walked up beside me and picked out a skein for herself. I took the opportunity to ask if she could tell me what it was and what she was going to do with it. She said she knew it to be a synthetic fake or faux fur and that she was going to crochet into a fur-like collar around the neck of a sweater she was making. She advised me that I should be sure to use a size 13 crochet hook if I bought it. I assured her that I wouldn’t be crocheting with the yarn but might make fishing flies from it. She said “Good luck”, gave me strange look and hurried away to check out her skein. Thus was I introduced to the name fake fur yarn and how normal people use it. Now alone in the aisle, I noticed skeins in maybe a dozen colors beside the white (officially Yarn Bee Fur the Moment, Cream) but decided to buy only the white and take it home for experiments. At 62 yards for $6 I figured I could try and afford to discard many failed experiments while having lots of yarn left for duplicating successful ones.

Once home I started by taking a good look at the construction and properties of my new yarn. The package said 100% polyester fibers. This meant the yarn would take Sharpies and RIT Dyemore dyes. The fibers were about ½ inch long emanating from a ribbon-like tape about 1/8 inch wide. Each fiber was fine, about the diameter of the hairs from a mink zonker. But, unlike those on an animal skin, they were not solid but were comprised of even smaller fibers that separated on the outer end to give a slightly fuzzy tip. Although the “faux hairs” were slightly tangled in the yarn coming from the skein, I found that running a comb through them straightened them so that when you looked at the cut end of a yarn section you have a cross section with outer periphery in the shape of the letter V. The bottom of the V is slightly truncated, this bottom being the tape into which the fibers are woven. While the fibers emanated at nearly 90 degrees to the core tape there was a slight grain from the manufacturing process but certainly not as strong as the grain on a natural fur zonker strip.

Now having some basic understanding of the yarn, I tied the end of a piece to the back end of a long shank hook , making sure the slight grain was like that of a feather to be wrapped. I then wrapped it forward the length of the shank with the edges of the central tape abutting, brushing back the fibers with my fingers with each wrap, and tied it off. With a little more combing I had a nice cylinder of fibers. If I overlapped the tape core and even more carefully brushed back the fibers on each wrap, the cylinder became denser, the amount depending on the overlap. I then tapered the cylinder with my scissors and rebrushed it. This restored the fuzzy ends to each of any cut fibers making it looked like I’d wrapped the cylinder with a yarn section of preshaped profile. Wow, I thought. Although this yarn seemed at first to be just a synthetic replacement for an animal zonker strip, it’s really is material that can be used to form bodies or extended tails that can be sculpted. Next I furled it alone and then in combination with some eyelash yarn. Impressive results. Then I tried various weaves, Again, impressive results. I even borrowed a crochet hook from my wife and did a chain stitch extended body. Buoyed by the potential for the yarn, when Hobby Lobby next had one of their periodic “30% off on all yarn” sales, I went back and bought a wide assortment of colors in Yarn Bee and Lion brands. Over the coming months I’ll be presenting flies than take advantage of the many things I learned and faux yarns I now have. But this month I’m describing the first pattern I actually tied with a few refinements added based on fishing the pattern.

This month’s pattern is a variation on Dan Byford’s Zonker, a streamer pattern originally with a wing of a rabbit zonker strip. Byford first created it in 1975 and a multitude of tiers have produced a multitude a variants since then. In the photo I’ve stuck with my white initial yarn since a white streamer seems always effective. Byford’s original used a regular hook and lead barbell eyes. I started with only substituting the faux yarn for the rabbit. But in fishing my initial version I found that it hung up easily on the weeds in local bass ponds and particularly snagged the pickerel weeds at the edges of these ponds. So I switched to a short shank wide gap jig hook which has helped considerable. This hook has also helped reduce snags from clumsy casts while banging the bank of a stream for trout. Because the fuzzy tips of the fibers are larger than the fiber next to the support tape, a free section of yarn always curves away from the tape. See the photo.

I’ve tied and tested two weighting variations. The first uses just plastic barbell eyes. This variation is easily cast and fishes well using a Tenkara rod. The eyes are located at the center of the shank so in still water the fly settles slowly in a mostly horizontal orientation with the curved tail flapping up and down. Many a bass has grabbed it quickly. The second uses brass barbell eyes again mounted at mid-shank. This is more in line with Byford’s original. It tends to dive forward with tail again flapping up and down. I’ve used a fairly long fibered crystal chenille for the body with trimming to get a wide front but back tapered shape. Eddy currents coming off the body excite the tail during a retrieve, sort of the effect Drew Chicone and Brian Wise get with their fettucine foam patterns. Many recent articles and videos extoll using jigged streamers on mono euro rigs. I’ve pictured a version with a 3/16 tungsten slotted bead at the head (middle one in photo) which I soon will test. I highly suspect it will catch well. I did not trim the “faux hair” fibers on any of the pictured flies but I often do some tapering.

Once materials are collected, a streamer every five minutes can be done. See the detailed tying instructions. To keep the tape at the tail of the fly from fraying I’ve impregnated that part of the tape with thinned Liquid Fusion. I’ve also brushed the top front of the fly with the thinned liquid fusion to hold the front in a nice shape.



Material List:

Hook: Ahrex FW551 Mini Jig Hook, size 4.

Thread: UTC 70, white

Bead: (Optional), 3/16 inch slotted tungsten, Black

Eye: 5mm Plastic Dumbbell, Crystal or 5mm Brass barbell. Black

Tail 1: Flashabou, Pearl

Tail 2: UV Ice Dub

Body: Orvis High Density Crystal Chenille. Pearl. About a 4 inch strand.

Wing: Faux Fur Yarn piece, 5 in. long, pearl



Tying Instructions:

  1. (Optional) Insert hook in tungsten bead, move bead to hook eye.

  2. Mount hook in vice hook point down.

  3. Attach thread at front of shank ( right behind bead if used) and wrap back in touching turns to start of bend then forward to mid-point of shank. Trim tag.

  4. Attach dumbbell eyes using x wraps finishing with horizontal wraps under eyes. Dab junction with shank with superglue.

  5. Remove 2 strands of Flashabou from package, double over and cut to yield 4 stands. Tie in a midpoint at back of eyes. Fold all strands back and overwrap back to start of hook bend. Take thread back to just behind eyes.

  6. Pull some ice dub from package and hand stack and tease to form noodle about 1-3/4 inches long tapered at ends. Tie in at midpoint, fold front back and overwrap back to start of hook bend. Comb out for fluffy tail over the flashabou.

  7. Tie in chenille strand, take thread to just ahead of eyes and wrap chenille in touching turns to back of eyes. Take chenille over center of eyes around the shank, back over center of eyes then forward under center of eyes. Tie off. Half hitch thread and trim chenille strand. Turn hook point up in vise. Trim top half of wrapped chenille.

  8. Cut a 6 inch length of faux yarn, impale with hook at center of yarn tape at center of yarn length with fibers up. Remove hook from vice and slide yarn down to junction with chenille. Remount hook in vise and orient yarn so slight grain is pointing back. Tug front of yarn firmly forward so that tape rests directly on top of trimmed chenille with no gap. Tie off firmly at front of eyes and trim forward waste of yarn. Form nice thread head, whip finish and trim thread. Cement head.

  9. Locate where you want yarn tape in tail to end and mark. Apply thinned Liquid Fusion slightly behind mark and ¼ inch ahead. Let dry and trim tape in tail at mark. Comb out fibers of yarn and chenille. Trim chenille fibers tight to ends of eyes and taper back. Lightly brush yarn fibers with thinned Liquid Fusion to shape head of fly. Let dry. Trim flashabou strands slightly shorter than tail. You’re done.