Something unusual ...
... if not absolutely unique. Tails incorporated in an FEB. Something I've never seen in 18 years of fly tying, reading about fly patterns, watching demos and videos and following the ongoing content of the FAOL FOTW articles, except when such flies were coming off the vice on my fly tying desk. And something not seen by anyone else I've shown the technique to, including, most recently, Barry Ord Clarke.
Fly Tyer Magazine Magazine named Barry Ord Clarke it's first and ( so far ) only Fly Tyer of the Year in 2021. Clarke has been writing about fly angling and tying for many years, has written or contributed to thirty books on fly angling and flies, and has something north of four hundred videos on fly tying, a large number of which are posted on YouTube.
A couple weeks ago, Barry posted a video on YouTube for a furled extended body mayfly. His technique and materials are somewhat different than I have used over the past decade plus, but the end result is quite similar.
So I decided to direct Barry to a couple of my FEB flies, first Duck's Green Drake and then the Serendipitous PMD Emerger, as examples of tails incorporated in an FEB. Felt rather a bold thing to do, considering Barry's standing on the International Stage of fly tying, especially when I told him that I would be delighted if he was interested in and would give some thought to posting a video on the technique to YouTube, something I am simply not equipped to do.
I heard back from Barry this morning - "That's interesting!"
Barry didn't commit to anything, and only time will tell if he follows through on my request. But his email was a nice way to start the day.
John
The fish are always right.