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