This is a beadhead PTN. A lot of folks on here seem to like them, so thought I’d give it a try. This is one of my first attempts at this fly. I think I could’ve done better with the peacock herl thorax, but overall not too bad, and it should catch fish!
Below is a beadhead Clouser Swimming Nymph. I used possum dubbing for the abdomen. Looks like there’s a big gnarly guard hair sticking out of that!
Below is another idea for a crayfish pattern. It seems ok, but still not exactly what I’m looking for. Getting closer, I think.
This is a Griffith’s Gnat. I used brown hackle instead of grizzly. I don’t know why I did that.
And the one below…well…its ugly, but there’s a story that goes with it. I took my daughter to her practice last night. I had nothing to do for 1.25 hrs, so I’d brought my vice, some chenille, krystal flash, scissors and whip finisher. Might as well tie some flies, right? Yeah! Figured I’d tie up some of the SHWAPF patterns I like to use for bluegills right after ice-out.
Well…I forgot the THREAD!! ugg.
So, the abomination below is what I tied without using thread. Actually, I tried to use krystal flash as a thread-replacement on this one. I had problems with the chenille spinning on the hook shank well after I’d tied it down. So…yes, I KNOW its ugly! I’m not convinced this thing is going to hold together very long either. I doubt I’ll forget to bring thread next time.
I really like all of your flies – especially the Clouser Swimming Nymph and the crayfish pattern.
I have done really well on both carp and smallmouth with the Befus Carp Fly. You might want to give that one a try! I patterned a bonefish fly after it and caught bones on it in the Caribbean.
On the Griffith’s gnat, I’ve tied them with brown, cream and grizzly. They all seem to work. I even tried a couple with “adams” colors using a brown hackle and a grizzly hackle. The problem with it was on a size 20 hook it was a little too much. I caught fish with it but it looked more like a feather blob. A couple nice rainbows in the tailwaters didn’t mind but it just didn’t look “right” to me. I may tie some up soon to try it again.
Here’s some more flies I tied over the weekend. I don’t even know what to call most of these, but I’m sure others have tied similar stuff before. If anyone knows of the true name for any of these, I’d like to know…at least maybe I can title my fly pictures correctly:
Miscellaneous nymph…
A dubbed-bodied pheasant-tail nymph.
A fairly simple rubber-legged nymph
Mohair Leech
A small size 10 crayfish pattern of my own design:
Here’s the recipe…“FishnDave’s Baby Crayfish”:
Hook: #10 TMC 200R
Weight: .025 Lead-Free wire around hook shank under the “thorax area” of the crayfish. Also, medium gold-colored beadchain eyes at the “tail” of the crayfish to keep the hook point riding up.
Eyes: large black mono
Nose (rostrum): small piece of rust-colored thick chenille, tied in at both ends under the hook bend.
Antennae: red-barred Sili Legs and pearl Krystal Flash
Claws: aftershaft feathers taken from the backside of some brown grizzly marabou feathers I have
Thorax underbody: Rust-colored possum dubbing, picked out heavily after tying in.
Tail underbody: Orange-colored possum dubbing, picked out slightly after tying in.
Carapace: Pheasant tail, with the tip ends tied extending out over the mono eyes. Tie points were in front of the eyes, behind the eyes, at the back of the thorax, and at the the eye of the hook. Trimmed past the eye of the hook as shown.
Ribbing: 4-5 wraps of small copper wire spiralled around the tail section.
Other folks seem to like that one too. So, I tied up a couple more this past weekend, and I wanted to see what they looked like wet. So, I filled the sink and tossed 'em in.
When I took them out of the water, the “claws” turned to thin little strands…but as they air-dried, they fluffed right back out again all on their own!
Just to reiterate (because I included that picture to sort of make fun of myself…It isn’t a picture I would normally have shared!)…I was tying in the car while waiting for one of my kids to get out of some lessons…and discovered I’d forgotten to bring thread. Rather than sit and do nothing, I decided to try to tie a SHWAPF without thread, using Krystal Flash instead of thread. It wasn’t pretty, I don’t recommend doing this. However, this is a good pattern that has caught good numbers of fish for me (when tied WITH thread).
That fly certainly looks fishy, and there’s no reason to apologize for how it was tied. If you wouldn’t have told us that you tied it without thread, no one would know that from the picture.
Actually, I bet if you tied that fly with tying thread as you normally do, and then wrap over the thread head with krystal flash, whip finish and lacquer it, that would make an even more appealing fly.
A white chenille “bass worm” I tied up, using some ULTRA THICK chenille I found. The other bass flies behind it I had tied previously, and are there for size comparison. The white one with the red head is about 4.5" long:
I used to think Lion Suede was really thick chenille, but that white stuff is at least twice as thick…I think bass are gonna love it!
