FOTW Picket Pin

[lastchance]

I was requested that I do a Fly Of The Week and I'm happy to. I've decided to tie an old standard pattern that many of my elderly friends fish regularly, the Picket Pin. It's an easy tie and one, that every now and then, takes fish in bunches. I fish the standard, but over the winter I've tied a few for experimentation with modern synthetics, such as peacock ice dub for the body instead of peacock herl, and a krystal flash rib. I might add that I use wire ribbing (in stead of krystal flash) when I dub the body with ice dub because I figure that's plenty of flas already. The tail is made of 2 brown hackle tips. I tie size 10s and 12s to fish as wet flies or nymphs. You can also tie these in a larger size to fish as a streamer. So,

1. Tie in the tail

2. Tie in the rib

3. Anchor the palmer hackle at the bend

4. Dub the body with the peacock ice dub (Leave 2 eye lengths at front of hook to allow room to anchor the gray squrrel tail wing.

5. palmer the hackle

6. palmer the rib

7. Tie in gray squirrel wing.

8. Make head and tie off.


The fly is an old standard that continues to catch fish. I was speaking with an old timer yesterday and he was telling me the first flies he ties on to this day are the Light Spruce Streamer and Woodduck Streamer. I have to ask him how he ties the woodduck. "You always fish the Spruce Fly near the bottom, and the Woodduck about 4 or 5 inches under the surface," Fred instructed. "Me and my buddy, John, have been fishing them for 50 years and they still work."

PS. I'm not a professional tyer so feel free to tell me if I have made any mistakes. I should be able to post a photo by Monday evening.
Bruce

[Byron haugh]

Hi,
Had to do some free substitutions and it probably doesn't resemble the original Jack Boehme Picket Pin, but wanted to participate as our attempts don't have to be the best - just participate.

I used dyed bucktail for the tail. I used badger for the gray squirrel hair.

[lastchance]

Hi Byron. Thanks, I never knew who originated the pattern. Your fly looks good to me. Thanks for jumping in with your take.
Bruce

[Byron haugh]

It was supposedly named after what someone out West thought a Marmot (often called a large ground squirrel) standing upright in his hole in the ground looked like. Never quite made the connection myself - other than the hair used?

Picture of a Marmot here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._princeton.JPG

[John Rhoades]

Per George Grant, in his 1981 book Montana Trout Flies, "the hair wing of the original was tied with gopher tail hair and this little ground squirrel was often referred to as a 'picket pin' because when sitting upright it resembled a tether stake."

Grant goes on to say that the pattern is now tied with the tail hair of the eastern gray squirrel, which has not reduced the effectiveness of the original.

As it differed from your fly, Byron, Grant lists the original pattern as having a tail tied with golden pheasant tippets, body of med. flat gold tinsel, ribbed with yellow tying thread or fine gold wire and palmered with med-brown saddle hackle, a collar of white tip hair of gray squirrel on wing only, a head of either peacock or ostrich herl, full. The original fly was tied on a Mustad #9672 hook, 3xls, Size 4-6.

One of my most effective early season nymph patterns, when the caddis (such as brachycentrus, or Grannom) are active is a fly I call a Picket Pin. It is deadly in the east and the west, but as you can see, my pattern only casually resembles the original, and is closer to yours, Byron, than anything:

TMC 200 or 200R (or equiv.) hook size #14-16, tail and wing of groundhog guard hair (gray squirrel would also work), peacock herl body, palmered with med- brown hackle, and an oversized peacock herl head. Sometimes, I rib the body with fine gold mylar tinsel, and sometimes not, depending on how much time and effort I want to put into tying them, and more often these days I also add a gold bead head. Fished deep with a weighted leader, and dead drift, and left to swing up at the end of the drift, this fly is very effective.

I don't know whether you'd call me one of those old-timers or not, Bruce, but I've been fishing this fly across central Pennsylvania for over 40 years, and I can still remember many of the large trout I caught on Penns Creek and other central PA streams on it back then early in the season (like right now to the end of April).

About ten years ago, as an experiment, I visited at least a dozen fly shops in MT, including a couple in Missoula where the fly originated, to ask whether any of them stocked Picket Pins. Not a single fly shop carried them, and I only found one fly shop employee who even knew of the pattern!

John

[AlanB]

Although I've heard of this fly, I've never tied it before, so I thought I'd better start at the beginning and tie as close to the original as I could. Had to use grey squirrel for the wing, gophers are not common here so I couldn't go out and get the gopher tail hair.

Then it was time to play. Thinking a heavyweight version may be useful I twisted antique gold, green, and emerald wires together. This gives some approximation of peacock colour. Also a twisted strand of bright gold for the rib. The body is formed by tying in two strands of the twisted green and one of the gold, at the same time tie in the hackle. They should lie in the order: green, gold, hackle, green. This will mean they lie in the right position when wound. Wind the three strands of twisted wire. Tie off the two strands of green and unwind the gold. This leaves a grove or "valley" into which the hackle is wound and tied off. The gold is then re-wound over the hackle. If nothing else with a body formed of 8 strands of copper wire it'll sink!

It has just occurred to me that this might make a good Atlantic salmon fly. Hmm just a moment.

Tag: Gold wire and peacock herl
Tail: GP Tippets
Rib: Gold wire
Body: Two halves rear, Uni Peacock tinsel front, Peacock herl
Hackle: Furnace cock saddle and red game hen at head.
Wing: Grey squirrel over orange Crystal Flash
Cheeks: Jungle cock nails
Head: Ostrich herl dyed black
Worth giving it a swim. This is certainly a pattern that can be played with.
Cheers,
A.

[John Rhoades]

Alan -

I like all 3 of your flies, a lot. I would especially like to see an Atlantic Salmon caught on your salmon fly.

Your top fly, above, looks very much like the "Picket Pins" I tie, except I use woodchuck hair for the tails and the wing (I like to crank them out fast, and can do it faster if I use fewer materials), and my fly uses peacock for the head, rather than ostrich, and I tie the heads twice the size as yours, with very little tying thread showing at the head -- not that it probably makes much of a difference. They'll all catch fish!

[AlanB]

Thanks John, I've got salmon fishing on the River Fleet available this year so I'll give it a swim. It will have to wait a few months as the run doesn't start until late May.
Its not a pattern I've ever seen before though I've heard of it. Often a written pattern is subject to interpretation so there could be many different dressings that would qualify as "Original". I went for the ostrich as I like the contrast it gives at the head.

I feel the same way about tools you do about the number of materials. More tools just slow me down. Most of my flies I can manage with vice bobbin holder scissors and a bodkin. No matter how tidy you are, and I'm not, it takes time to pick up another tool. Also a tool is a barrier to the "feel" of how a material is behaving. That said it doesn't stop me collecting all sorts of gadgets. Some I do use from time to time.

Cheers,
A.

[dr korn]

AlanB - those sir are lovely ties.....

[AlanB]

Thanks Doug,
One thing I forgot to mention. In the first one I tied the hackle in at the head, Wound it down the body then trapped it with the wire rib. This is a technique I use whenever there is a rib and palmered hackle for more security.
Cheers,
A.