Hi Folks,
pardon my belated weighing in on this thread but I have to say that a lot of the old timers I have met and spoken with very strongly advocate that the best flies to use when fishing for brookies (and other trout ad shad and bass) are tied using mostly purple and/or peacock materials.
As usual Scott, your tying skills are incredible and inspire me. Great job on this fly! I love it! I do have a question on technique. As you may recall I have had probs trying to create a decent looking extended body that doesn't fall apart and I notice that you are now using a piece of mono as a basis to build the extended body. Is this a new and better method than the needle method you have demonstrated previously? I am thinking that it might work better for me. I do have a suggestion for you to try as well.
In the past when building weed guards for bass and some saltwater flies, I have burned a small glob on the end of the mono to hold the mono at the tie in point and have also used a plier to flatten a short section of the mono just past/behind the glob/ball to hold things better. Wouldn't that create less bulk than the loop method? As always, looking forward to your response.
Gerri