A recent post by our friend Jeff Hamm on his dressing of Pritt?s Green Tail, and his lack of success with the fly brought on an in depth response from Mike Conner concerning the shade of green used for the tail and links to photos of Grannom Caddis (Sedge) Flies with a dark green egg sac. One of the photos was accompanied by a photo of a well tied dry fly imitating the egg laying female Grannom.
As this is the fly that provides the Mother?s Day caddis hatch I thought I?d borrow a bit from that dry fly and come up with a slightly different version of the Green Tail.
Here?s a photo of my first attempt.
Hook: Daiiichi 1110
Thread: Black Danville’s 70 denier
Tail and Underbody: Danville’s Emerald Green Rayon Floss
Body: Stripped Peacock Herl
Thorax: Gray Simi-Seal inserted in split thread.
Hackle: Medium Dun Hen
I believe the tail is still too light a shade, so decided to lay a thread base of black thread to the hook bend, resulting in this fly. I also changed the color of the Seal substitute to Black. The tag end of the floss was used as a rib.
The tail is still too light a shade so I switched to Kreinik Soile Platte Silk Color Number 225 with this result.
This seems to have the correct shade of emerald green, nice segmented body and lively looking hackle. On future dressings the hackle will be a bit more sparse.
That looks really good. I like the stripped peacock body, and I think the last one has the best shade of the lot. Would waxing the silk darken it up even more? I think that variation will not be met with such disdain from our underwater playmates.
I’ve been trying to come up with a better colour combination for this one as well. I checked out the shop where I usually get my DMC rayon floss, and it looks like they aren’t carrying it anymore. They have the other kinds (cotton, etc) but not the rayon. I picked up some dark green anyway, but I’ve not had a chance to try it yet. I don’t think it will spread out like the rayon floss does, but we’ll see.
Jeff, Duh, wax. Now why didn’t I use wax on that silk? I guess I was having a senior moment there. I’ll try that and tie a few up. Blame Donald Nicolson and Mike Conner for my conversion to SE hooks for some flys.
Mike, I have water running as we speak…er type…er whatever. I’ll post some pics of the wee things wet too.
Curiously, although flies vary enormously in colour and shade from hatch to hatch, and at various times of year, this green egg colour on the Grannom is very very consistent. I presume it is nature’s way of camouflaging the eggs to the exact colour of various aquatic weeds, many of which are exactly this dark emerald green colour.
I think you’ve got it there REE. That’s a nice dark green once wet. Interesting comparison between the dry and wet versions combining wax on and wax off too (uh oh, I see 80s movie referenes starting up soon! ha!)
I’ve kept to Pritt’s dressing, but I’ve used a different material for the egg sack. Rather then the Green Highlander floss, I’ve used some thread by Gordon Grifiths, in a dark green. It doesn’t have a colour indicated though. This is a spool you sent me REE.
Anyway, I think this looks ok. Here are two photos of the same fly (the first without a flash, the 2nd with flash on).
Haven’t tried waxing or wetting yet. Getting ready for a wedding tomorrow, so the experiments have to wait until the day after. The one in the photo is going into the “collection” that I’m giving to my brother for Christmas when I get home so I can’t wet that one. I’m hoping the darker green breaks my skunk with this pattern though. Fingers crossed.
Ok, I’ve sneaked a wee bit of time to tie one fly, this time waxing the thread. Below are two shots of it dry, the darker without flash, the bright with. The thread, to the naked eye, looks a bit darker with the wax. More importantly, the wax gives it a bit of a translucent look.
Dry
These next two are wet versions. Not sure if it looks much darker, but the wax may be protecting the thread.
Wet
Still, I like the effect the wax gives.
This is a lot of fun. A great combination of ideas and infomration all comming together.
I figure my entire day is one big senior moment! ha! Actually, I’m only early forties, so I don’t think that qualifies. But, I am a univeristy lecturer, so absent mindedness is a job requirement!
Anyway, I think the wax helps. I heavily waxed it with pure bee’s wax, so I think I’ve created a water barrier. The translucent look is due to the wax film that builds up as a coating. After doing the green wraps, the body had a waxy, white, flaky look, so I had to pinch it between my fingers and let my body heat melt/smooth out the wax. Ended up looking pretty good though. I think silk has a bigger colour change due to waxing though. Silk has some good properties for flies.
