A Year Long Project

So here it is 2 weeks before Christmas 2008. Shortly thereafter comes New Years then a LONG wait for water to get soft to chase trout. So I have been putting off starting this years tying / box arranging exercise and I couldn't quite figure out why.

Then it hit me. I'm laying in yet another hotel bed at 4:00 am wondering why all hotel ceilings look alike when my eureka moment arrived: A One Year Fly Fishing Challenge.

So here it is: I am going to tie up just enough patterns to fit in either 1 C&F fly box or three altoids tins. That's it. That's my limit.

So how is this a learning experience: You're going to tell me what patterns to carry in that small space. Here are the criteria:

I live and fish in South Central Pennsylvania. Patterns perferrably tried-and-tested in those waters.

I want to limit my patterns to wet, streamer, terrestrial, and a very very few dries. I've already proven to myself that I can catch fish on dries but wets (soft hackle, fuzzy nymphs, flymphs) are another story.

I'd like you to suggest exact patterns and sizes to put in this small space and I will only tie and carry those patterns. If you can include your most sucesful method to fish that pattern, it would be tested on 'my waters'.

Next Christmas, I'll review my logs and see how my learning experience went.

I'm tired of carrying around a small fly shop when I go out and I just know that you all can teach me something about pattern selection and can offer some great ideas for this project.

I'm especially interested in 'guide flies' of the wet and streamer variety. Most of the streams are small, but some are larger, some are stocked, some are wild water, so the patterns will need to be diverse (or so I assume).

Let's have some fun with this and start me off on my one year project to fish with only a small number of 'sucessful' wet patterns.

Thanks. This should be fun.

Hope I'm the first responder SOM, add black AP's to your flybox in 12, 14 and 16.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

SOM -

Interesting challenge you have dreamed up for yourself. Are you sure you were awake in that hotel room at 4:00 a.m. ??

I haven't fished in your neck of the woods ( streams ), but I do have a "down and dirty" wet fly / nymph that I wouldn't leave home without. Similar flies have been shown or mentioned in other threads by folks from around the country, so it is fair to assume that it will work on your waters also.

Simply put - a soft hackled pheasant tail.

Simply tied - tie in copper wire for the ribbing; tie in 3-4 pheasant tail fibers with a suitable length hanging off the bend for the tail; using an electrician's clip or hackle plier, twist the fibers to be used for the body to strengthen the bunch and enhance segmentation of the abdomen; wrap the p.t. fibers forward to about the 1/3 point on the shank and tie off; counter wrap the copper wire to rib the abdomen and tie off; tie in a couple pieces of peacock herl, wrap it a two or three times to form the thorax, and tie off; tie in an appropriately sized hen hackle by the tip, wrap as many times as necessary to get the hackle effect you want, and tie off.

Tie these in the size you need for your local blue wing olives and other mayflies and caddis if they are in the system you are fishing.

You can fish them as a nymph or on a down and across presentation as a wet fly. At the end of the swing, let them hang for several seconds before picking up.

Looking forward to what others will contribute to your fly box.

John

SOM.

I know you said just a few dries. I would suggest a light colored parachute dry fly and a dark colored parachute. I would also include a couple of EHCs. 8T :)

This past year I have been rather partial to Zebra nymphs, Black with silver ribbing in six 16 and 18. Works great over here at Boiling Springs on the Yellow Breeches and the "run". Same for the color red but black was numba one.
Bernie

in size 14 and 16. great for cold water, like April and November. drop it beneath an indicator or as the last of two or three nymphs. works in Cove Creek and the Little J.

i confess i'm going to keep an eye on this, since we're fishing the same waters. ;)

Thanks for the info and ideas so far. Please keep the ideas coming. I have 3 altoids boxes to fill!

This is going to be great fun. Early flight tomorrow back home.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnScott

SOM -



Simply put - a soft hackled pheasant tail.

Simply tied - tie in copper wire for the ribbing; tie in 3-4 pheasant tail fibers with a suitable length hanging off the bend for the tail; using an electrician's clip or hackle plier, twist the fibers to be used for the body to strengthen the bunch and enhance segmentation of the abdomen; wrap the p.t. fibers forward to about the 1/3 point on the shank and tie off; counter wrap the copper wire to rib the abdomen and tie off; tie in a couple pieces of peacock herl, wrap it a two or three times to form the thorax, and tie off; tie in an appropriately sized hen hackle by the tip, wrap as many times as necessary to get the hackle effect you want, and tie off.

John

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I was about to suggest something very similar, but try substituting yellow yarn for the herl, and use partridge for the hackle. Tie it on size 14 hook. It's a very effective sulfur emerger. (John's suggestion is excellent, too, btw.)

While you've partridge out, tie a few partridge and oranges, again size 14. They work pretty much year round; but one time you'll definitely want to try them is whenever you might have used a rusty spinner in the past (i.e. Hendrickson spinners, sulfur spinners, etc.)

Both flies can be fished either dead-drift, or on the swing. You want them near the surface.


It sounds like an interesting project. (Although I may point out that it's now 2008.)

Bob

2008, 2007. It was 4am...thanks.

For us newbie's that are following along, could you folks let us know what AP's and EHC's are? Thanks.

This is a cool idea SOM (Son Of Martin ;) ). I'll be starting my 3rd season of fly fishing next year and I think I could easily lose an entire fly box of flies in one season to the trees, the bushes, the rocks and sticks under the water, etc.

Actually, I haven't lost a fly to a tree in a while. But now that I'm learning how to nymph fish I get them stuck between rocks on the bottom all the time. So are you allowing yourself to re-tie lost flies or is this a one time tie and that's it for the year thing?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DruLeeParsec

For us newbie's that are following along, could you folks let us know what AP's and EHC's are? Thanks.

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AP = The name of a series of nymphs, AP can stand for either "All Purpose" or
"Andre Puyens" depending on who you talk to.
EHC = Elk Hair Caddis

Some other common abbreviations:

PT - pheasant tail
BH - bead head (can be combined BHPT = bead head pheasant tail)
GRHE - gold ribbed hare's ear
P & O - partridge and orange.

Hello DruLeeParsec, AP= All Purpose and they're nymphs...sorry about the brevity of the post above, I was anxious to be the first to post the new thread. Black All Purpose Nymphs are general looking and contain elements that apparenty trigger trout to take from instinct and habit.

It seems that a huge percentage of trout diet consists of dark colored things that drift along close to the bottom. I suggested 12, 14 and 16 from experience and there was a time when I'd carry half a dozen of each size and fished them nearly exclusively with great success.

Tyes vary, but tailed, buggy bodied, copper ribbed, sparsely hackled or bearded are what I've found to be popular. I use copper wire from old car voltage regulators to weight black AP's and also for the rib. One thing I don't do is try to use all black materials. Some will cringe but I use whatever scraps I have on the bench from white to black, red or yellow then when I'm done with a batch I use a black sharpie to 'black' the flies. Everything. Rib and all...which for some reason seemed to increase my take rate.

Your Bear river sounds interesting.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

Finally home. I really dislike airports. Like planes, but airports are another story.

Oh if I loose flies I will replace them. I just want to create a list of flies and stock the box with only those patterns. That's the challenge.

I meant to say ZEBRA MIDGE in my earlier post on the Yellow Breeches...sorry about that
Bernie

Interesting challenge, and great thread.

If you're carrying 3 altoid tins, unless they're "family size" ones, you'll want to make every fly work hard for you.

Fast water? Slow water? Freestone, spring creek, tail water, lakes too? High off colored water? Deep in water column? Natural insects, including terresterials? Major hatches? Different fishing methods?

One way to cover a lot of bases is to decide on a few "styles" of flies that will cover different situations and then make subtle changes in them when you tie them in different sizes, or modify them on stream. There's no right or wrong here, and I'm not familiar with your streams, but just to give you some ideas based on some of the waters I fish north of you Delaware River and some Catskill streams ...

Nymphs:

PTN (Pheasant Tail Nymph) size 16-20 on a standard dry fly hook would cover you for a lot of small slim mayflies, including a lot of Sulphur and Blue Wing Olive situations. If you tie them unweighted on a light hook you can fish them high, or add micro split shot to the tippet to go a bit deeper, or hang them off a dropper.

GRHE (Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear) size 10 2xl and 12-16 1xl (xl refers to the length of the shank of the hook, a 10 2xl hook like a Mustad 9271 has the shank length of a standard size 8. Odd numbered hooks are hard to find nowadays but they were more common "back in the day". A 12 1xl hook like a Mustad 3906B would be the same shank length as a standard "11").

Instead of tying a bunch of standard GRHE's in those sizes, I would tie a light version and a dark version.

Light GRHE - light tannish cream body, brown wing pads ginger or light brown tails and beard size 10 2xl (for Green Drakes) and 12-14 1xl for Gray Fox, March Brown, Cahill, White fly

Dark GRHE dark reddish brown body, black or peacock herl wing pad, dark brown tail and beard sizes size 12 2xl, and 12 -16 1xl. This would cover you for Isonychia, Quill Gordons, Blue Quills etc. You can tie them with or without beadheads, or mix it up.

Green Rock Worm heavily weighted size 14 if you have lots of caddis for short line nymphing in riffles

Zebra midge in whatever size, it sounds like you might want some.

Scuds if you fish spring creeks maybe?

For streamers, I'd go with something for fishing high water, or pulling large fish like a Black Marabou Muddler size 6, To make it more of guide fly tie it with a sculpin wool instead of spinning deer hair. If you like fishing streamers add a bucktail like a Black Nosed Dace to imitate baitfish or a bright attractor like a Trout Fin or Mickey Finn size 8. I would also add an unweighted Mini-Muddler size 12 to imitate sculpins or to grease and fish for a hopper on top in summer.

For dries, i'd also try to make them work hard:

Sparkle duns cover a lot of different situations and sorta cover you for emerger, cripples, dun and spinner mayflies and are a good durable slow water pattern. I would tie them in two shades, light and medium dark with small variations based on size.

Light version in sizes 10-18 is basically tan antron or z-lon shuck, bleached or very pale deer hair (compara dun hair) and a light body- creamy gray yellow 10 (Quill Gordon, White Fly), tan 12-14 (March Brown, Gray Fox) , creamy yellow 16 (Cahill, some sulphurs), pale yellow with a bit of orange (Dorothea). You could tie a Green Drake Version with split tails instead of a shuck, and creamy olive body on a 12 4xl (streamer hook like a Mustad 79580, which will get the size 8 right, but will weigh less than a size 8 standard hook because of thinner wire.)

Medium Dark Version in sizes 12 to 20 has a dark brown shuck, medium gray deer hair wings, and body would go from dark reddish brown (12-16) to olive (16-20). this would cover you for all kinds of stuff Isonychia, Blue Quills, Hendricksons, Quill Gordons in the red/brown sizes and BWO in smaller.

If you run out of a size in light or medium-dark, going to the next lower size in the same light or medium dark often works for the same hatch, so you don't need tons of back ups in every size and color with you on the stream, and can replace them as you need to.

If you want to fish wets, instead of the dry patterns, you can tie the above wingless, or with duck quill or rolled hen/partridge/mallard/woodduck wings etc, and turn or two of soft hackle on a dry fly, wet fly, or scud hook following the same color palette. You can also tie them as emergers like a DHE (Deer Hair Emerger) pattern on a dry or light wire scud hook (like a tmc 2487).

I'd also add some EHC (Elk Hair Caddis) for rougher faster water, and to imitate your local caddis hatches and maybe double for some small stoneflies:
Body/Wing/Hackle
Tannish Olive/Brown deer hair/light Brown, Medium Ginger etc 14-16 for a lot of caddis
Black/Dark Brown deer hair/Dark Brown 10-16 (for Grannoms, Dark Blue Sedge, Black Caddis and early season small stoneflies- Early Black and Early Brown).
Cream/Elk/Pale Ginger- 12-16 for Cream caddis and Yellow Stone (sort of).
You don't need to tie them all in every size in every color but pick from the list to tie some
so you have a range of colors and sizes of the naturals to be in the ball park.

Rusty Spinner 12-20 ( split tail, dark reddish-brown wrapped quill or biot, or dubbed body, no wings and a pale dun or cream hackle wrapped 5 times or so and left "in the round". A lot of mayflies look like this in their spinner form. You can skitter it around, or cut the hackles on the stream with scissors by trimming the bottom into an upside down "v" to sit lower in the water, or trim both top and bottom to sit flush in the film. Skip some sizes if you want to tie less, but that's a good range to work within.

Hope this helps to give you some ideas...

peregrines

I'd have to have some Baillie's Spiders with me in size 14. These flies have been fooling fish since around 1835 or so. They are still around because they are so darned effective. Here's a picture of some Baillie's Spiders.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...iesSpiders.jpg

From left to right, Black, Red and Dun

Tying instructions for Baillie's Black Spider.
Hook: Daiichi 1640 size 14 or any straight eye, 2XShort dry fly hook.
Thread: Pearsall's Brown Gossamer Silk, well waxed till almost black, or any black thread.

Catch in the thread right behind the hook eye with three turns of thread. Snip off tag end of thread. Tie in Starling body or neck feather by the stem with the tip of the feather pointing over the eye of the hook. Wrap thread in touching turns down the shank till even with the hook barb. Wrap thread 1/2 to 2/3 way back to the hook eye in touching turns and let bobbin holder hang. Take the tip of the Starling feather in your hackle pliers and wrap the feather back, in open turns, to where the bobbin holder is hanging. Secure the feather with one or two wraps of thread then advance the thread toward the hook eye in open turns. Wiggle the thread as you wrap through the hackle to avoid trapping hackle barbs. At the eye of the hook make a small neat head, whip finish and trim thread and excess hackle.

For the Baillie's Red Spider:
Substitute Pearsall's Gossamer Primrose Yellow silk, well waxed till light olive in color or use a light olive thread. Substitute a reddish brown hen hackle for the Starling. Tying sequence is the same.

For the Baillie's Dun Spider use the same thread as for the Red Spider, substitute a dun hen hackle for the red. Tying sequence is the same.

Fishing Instructions:

If allowed, use a three fly wet fly cast using one of each color, then use what ever fly the fish are hitting. These are tied on light wire hooks, so they will be in or just under the surface film.
If using one, two or three flies, cast upstream and dead drift the flies downstream. Takes while the flies are upstream tend to be somewhat subtle. As the flies move past you and drift downstream, fish them on a standard wet fly swing, until the are directly downstream of you. Takes while the flies are downstream tend to be violent and aggressive

Try a quill gordon tied in a wet fly style. My Dad swears by them on the Coduras. try size 14 or 16. Copper johns work great as well, Last, consider the pheasant tail is a bead head soft hackle (14-18)--deadly as a dropper off a para adams (12/14) or an EHC 12/14.

While I have never fished in PA., one of my all-time favorite dries is Charlie Meck's Patriot. Since he's from PA, the fly should work there as well as it does in the Catskills.

Thank you for all the responses and PM's sent. I've been down for three days with a virus and am just now digging out. Have to tend to work then I can get back to important things like tying. Please keep ideas flowing, I have a great list going so far.

Thank you,

SonOfMartin

Well since peregrines already dumped on my idea of scuds, maybe a couple Wooly Buggers. Say Olive and Grey.

But I have to agree that there must be Pheasent Tail, GR Hares Ear and the Zebra Midge.

I'm looking forward to hearing how this turns out. Great idea.

I have not seen anyone mention an Adams yet. I fished in NW PA for a few years in the early 70s and when there wasn't a hatch to match the Adams was frequently productive. Size 14 and 16.

Greybeard

Only need my fingers and toes to count my trout fishing experience, but I would'nt be without a black wooly bugger, a Tellico nymph, and a glass bead soft hackle. I've caught trout on these and if I can do it, then anyone can be successful with these !!!!