I did a search on this site for a mosquito pattern. I came up empty.
#1 Can any one help me out?
#2 I know its tied with moose hair. (But I don’t have any.)
What if I subsitute Black bear for the dark color and maybe Bucktail for the white.
Would it still fish the same?
If you change the materials used in a fly, would that be considered a new fly?
I’m still new at tying and don’t have a large variety of materials.
I also don’t fully understand how different meterials will react in the water yet.
I’m trying to learn, so I ask people that may know.
I’m interested in any and all opionions/comments.
This is a fairly simple pattern, and easy to obtain the materials, you can find step by steps on different flies in the tying section as well. If you need more help feel free to PM me as often as you need to.
Bunzo,
Many tiers use a stripped peacock quill for the body, too. You may have some peacock herl. Sometimes you have to substitute what you have for what is called for and it doesn’t change the way the fly fishes at all. The white bucktail may be too thick for a mosquito pattern, however.
Joe
Everyone has given you great advise and I just about fell off my chair when I saw this post.
I was in your exact position more than 25 years ago when I was a teenager tying flies and learning. This older gentleman in town (he was way into his seventies then) asked my father if I could tie him 100 mosquito flies, well, that was a pile of flies for me at the time. So, I trucked out to the local Rod and Gun shop looking for, yup, moose mane and all the other fixins, thinking I would get a jump on this tall order.
The owner asked who I was tying them for, I told him, he grinned and said, “yeah… no, that is not what he wants”.
My mosquito pattern is as follows (it is a stripped down version of the original pattern):
Dry fly hook size 12
Grizzley hackle fibres for tail that are stacked and even
black floss lightly tapered for the body
white thread to make the segments
no wing
4 turns of grizzley hackle with the barbules the same length as the hook gape.
You should be able to tie about 100 of these in an afternoon once you get the rhythm down pat.
The interesting this with my story is that this gent fished these flies exclusively, I tied 100 for him every spring the same way and when he passed away his wife gave me his flybox that was full of these flies, there were alot of them that were chewed beyond recognition but he still had about 50 brand spankin new ones.
I also tie the same thing in brown to represent the “summer” mosquitos, they work well also.
I think you have gotten alot of good advise here. The essense of the mosquito fly is probably the varigated black and white body and grizzly tail and hackle. As you can see, there are alot of ways to create that body. The traditional way is to use moose mane, which has both black and white fibers in it, and wrap a black and white fiber simultaneously around the hook. You can use that approach with any fibers that are flexible enough to wrap around the hook, tough enough to stand up to a few fish and about the right thickness. One could use thread, floss, porcupine quills, horse hair (that would be excellent), black bear and polar bear (I think bear probably would be too fine), bucktail, mono line and anything else you could imagine. Unless you choose something heavy or that would wick up lots of water you should be fine. I personally think the world has enough flies that just sub a new material or color on an old pattern and call it something new but there are no real rules there.
The pattern I’ve always used for the Mosquito is the one listed by kayakfish. I believe I originally found this in the Orvis Fly Pattern Index. It has worked very well for me on some rivers.
the one i always tie is listed by kayakfish. its very easy to tie and is MUCH cooler lookin than the moose mane version. cuz alot of times ya cant get that contrast of dark and light with moosemane.
