I love sitting at my fly tying station an surfing the net looking at softhackle flies, streamers, nymphs, etc. and when I see a pattern I think might work in my local river, I tie it and put it in my fly box. Well, today, I was fishing with one of my fishing buddies who is a disabled vet that I met through the VA while volunteering to teach fly tying and fishing and we found the fish but could not get them on the hook. They would tug and pull but no hook up. I sorted through my fly box and found a fly that had a tail, red wire body, peacock herl thorax and a soft hackle collar and the fish loved it. Since I only had one of that pattern, I handed my fly rod to my buddy and told him to fish with it and let me see if I could find another fly to put on his rod that the fish liked. After finding a softhackle that worked, I handed him is rod back to him and he handed me mine with my fly hung up in a limb in water to deep to retrieve, so, I broke the fly off and sorted through my fly box and found another fly that the fish loved and caught many rainbows with it. I brought the fly home, dried it and studied it and have tried to make several copies of it for the next fishing trip. I would love to know what pattern this is so that I can look it up and tie it according to the instructions. If anyone can help identify this pattern, I would be very thankful. I tied up one based on the fly I brought home and here is a picture of it. Hopefully, it is a pattern that someone here will know and can provide a name so I can tie up several more. Thanks in advance…
The fly I first used on my rod had a tail with the red wire body and I gave my fly rod to my buddy so he could be catching fish while I looked for another fly to put on his rod. The other fly I found in my fly box is the one pictured and it had no tail, but, worked great. If I had to guess about the one with the tail, I am thinking pheasant for the tail, body wrapped with pheasant and counter wrapped with the red wire. That is a guess because I only had one of it to and my buddy hung it and lost it. The first fly, which also worked, I cannot remember where I found the pattern for it either, but, I am thinking the tail is pheasant, the body is pheasant like on a PTN which is counter wrapped with red wire, the thorax is peacock and softhackle collar up front. If that “rings any bells” for a pattern, I would appreciate the name of it too because I feel it will also work.
tail----hen or p-tail
body— red wire loosely wrapped
wing----yellow dyed mallard
thorax---- peacock herl
collar---- hen hackle off of a rhode island red
have fished this pattern cant remember name. and I have over 60,000 patterns listed
I searched the internet and the closest thing I found would be the Le Bug, which is a soft hackle with a peacock thorax and various colored abdomens. I think this is a variant of it with red wire under tubing.
It’s a version of an 88 streamer. It can be tied different ways, but it usually has the red wire in the back for the body with green floss towards the front. I know that I’ve seen it posted here in the past, but you can do a search for it if you want. I have more info on it too, but it’s down in my tying area. I can post it later if needed.
Thank you so much! That is the fly and your SBS is where I got it! I did notice, in your SBS, that you did not leave as much space between the wire wraps as I did, but, I am sure with a little more practice you will get the hang of it! : )
Thank each and every one of you for the help. You all must tie this up. It works great!
We can all thank Alberto Jimeno for his version of such a cool fly (the one I used as a model for the SBS); really glad to hear it works so well for you. May have to give it a try when we visit our daughter in Tenn.
Alberto tied a nice version, but he wasn’t the one that came up with this pattern. It was named after some lucky person that caught 88 trout in one day in the Pittsberg, NH area (Perry stream, Indian stream). Originated around the Sebago lake area in Maine in 1971. Can be fished wet or dry, on ponds or running water. Both versions were tied on a Mustad 9671 10-14. The dry called for flourescent orange for the back 2/3rds of the body. The original wet called for fine brass wire for the rear portion. This was from The old Breacmor Society site that’s been gone for around 12 or 13 years now.
