I hope you haven't given up on me. I've taken something of
an extended break from Just Old Flies, for a number of reasons,
but mostly just to recharge, and of course, to tie some flies. I've been
tying a lot of wet flies, both American and European styles, and think
I've learned a thing or two along the way, which I'll pass on starting now.
Recently I've felt like getting away from the more complicated
married wing wet flies. I decided to do some of the most basic
winged wets I could find in Trout, going for a minimalist approach,
a look of simple elegance. Whether or not my goal has been realized
is in the eye of the beholder, but there are at least a couple of these
I like. Here's the venerable Hawthorne Fly.
- Body: Black Floss
- Hackle: Black mixed with light claret
- Wing: Black
These simple flies turned out to be not quite a simple as
I'd hoped. I right away ran into an old bugaboo that had
haunted me in the past, and it reared its ugly head again.
If you have a simple fly that is made up of just a floss body,
hackle, and wings, with no ribbing, tail, or tip, the floss will
invariably fall off the back end of the fly. It will inexplicably
work its way back from the end of the body that you
established in the first place, and kind of unravel back there.
I had to tie three Herman Flies before I remembered this.
This will happen before you even get the fly completed,
before the first coat of head cement goes on. I'm not sure
what would ever happen if you fished one of these, but I
would imagine the whole floss body would ultimately collect
down at the bend of the hook. Here is a typical shot of what
happens by the time you get the hackle on. I've used a single
piece of rayon floss for the body:
Here, the body looks fine.
Here, the floss has run off the back of the body. This happened
as I was winding the hackle.
I knew of a fix for this, one that Don Bastian uses. I'll show it
to you below. It involves a second piece of floss pulled over
the top of the fly once the body is wound:
Floss Body With Keeper
Floss Body With Keeper Pulled Over
Floss Body With Keeper With Hackle
I decided that this fix wasn't good enough, and tried
several other ideas, all of which proved to be worse.
The Herman fly even has a tip, and I thought that might
help, but it didn't. Ribbing will cure this, as will a tag or
butt of peacock herl, but this problem even extends to
floss tips on flies, and the cure there is the same. A second
piece of floss pulled over the top of the tip will solve the problem.
These simple flies were not proving themselves to be
as simple as I thought! Simple flies, as I was to find out,
are very unforgiving. The problem is that since there is not
all that much to look at, everything has to be perfect.
Blemishes in wings stick out like sore thumbs. Bad heads
look, well, bad. So do bad bodies. In any case I finally
got a decent Herman Fly, and here it is.
Herman Fly
- Tip: Gold Tinsel
- Body: Crimson Floss
- Hackle: Brown
- Wing: Slate
Once I got on a roll the flies became easier, and I
was able to tie quite a few different ones in short
order. Here are four more, and I'll list all the recipes
below each one. If you'd like to tie winged wets, these
are a great place to start. If you can master these,
everything will just build from here.
Loyal Sock
- Body: Pale yellow floss
- Hackle: Black hen
- Wing: Black
Luzerne
- Body: Dark claret floss
- Hackle: Black hen
- Wing: Gray mallard
Cooper
- Body: Orange floss
- Hackle: Brown hen
- Wings: Brown mottled turkey
Golden Spinner
- Tag: Peacock herl
- Body: Pale yellow floss
- Hackle: Brown hen
- Wings: Light slate
Gosling
- Body: Green Floss
- Hackle: Gray hen
- Wings: Slate
Note: This fly is tied as shown in Ray Bergman's
Trout, but the recipe specifies a dun tail.
Credit:
Trout by Ray Bergman.
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