Taking a shot at one of Randall Kaufmann’s flies, a dark variation of his Freight Train; wing can be tied with squirrel, bear, pretty much anything black
hook - Dai Riki 799 #6
thread - Danville 6/0 black
tail - hackle fibers black
rib - oval tinsel silver
body - 1/4 orange yarn, 1/4 red yarn, 1/2 black chenille
hackle - black
underwing - Krystal Flash black
wing - Calf Tail black
mash barb, start thread at 50% mark, wrap back to hook point
measure a clump of hackle fibers for length (hook gap), and tie in
tie in ribbing, wrap back a bit shy of the tail
tie in orange yarn at 25% mark, wrap back to tail, return thread to 25% mark
wrap yarn forward and tie off (try to take any twist out of the yarn at tie-off so it lays flat)
wrap yarn forward to 50% mark and tie off (looks like I came up about 1/2 wrap short)
strip end of chenille, tie in and wrap forward to return wire on hook eye
wrap ribbing forward and tie off (forgot to take a pic, so here’s one from a Signal Light I was tying)
tie in (folded) hackle, sweep fibers back while wrapping forward; tie off, then stroke hackle back and down while wrapping thread back for wing tie-in
tie in 2 strands of Krystal Flash and fold back to create underwing
clean, stack and measure (back to hook bend) a clump of squirrel tail; trim to length and tie in
smooth wing tie-in (a bit of SHHAN or Super Glue first helps to tame the slippery squirrel), whip finish, a few coats of SHHAN; trim KF and you’re done
Scott , thanks for the step by step, and inspiring me to try my hand at them for steelhead. Is there any particular reason you reverse wrap the tinsel ribbing on the Coal car and not the signal light?
No reason; I’ve done very little tying of steelhead/salmon flies, so I’m just playing around, trying to figure out which way things look best. Same thing with hackling - I’m tip tying, folding, using webby hen, a bunch of old Metz saddles and saltwater capes that I thought I’d never have any real use for any more; I’ve even been able to use some materials that came from a flytying kit I was given back in the mid-70’s.
That’s very nice. Good job explaining the SBS too.
Have you ever seen the steelhead flies of Ed Haas? A set of 96 of his ties were described and photographed in an excellent article in the ‘Premier Edition’ of, Art of Angling Journal (the one by Schmookler/Sils). His neatness was amazing especially because of the method he used for tying in the wing, which I cannot explain nor did I ever learn it correctly. Maybe you or someone else here can explain it. Your thread reminded me about it.
No I haven’t seen Mr. Haas’ flies but Leroy Hyatt explains the technique for tying the wing in facing forward and folding the hair back on some of his videos and it does produce very nice, durable wings and small heads. I’ve tried a few but the results were somewhat uneven; will have to re-visit the technique.
The best I recall was that Mr. Haas used loop eyed hooks and tyed the hair in, somehow facing forward and using the loop to place the hair. The heads on his flies were small and finely tapered. I will try and find an example. Let’s see if this works. Photos within 1st post:
