This Sunday my wife is taking the kids to the City (SF) and giving me a few hours of free time to do some long overdue tying. I owe her big time! I thought in addition to doing some soft hackle flies that I would give Salmon flies a try. Having read through Ronn’s articles many times over the years I thought it time to give it a try. I’ll start off with something simple, if there is such a thing with Salmon flies, but I gotta know - do people really fish for Salmon with these flies? I just find it hard to believe that something that looks like they belong in an art gallery find their way in the mouth of a fish. If you never seen a Salmon fly, check out Ronn Lucas section under Fly Tying and go to Salmon Flies. You’ll be amazed at the beauty of these flies.
Most Salmon Flies tied now day’s (Full Dress) that is in the US are tied for plates or for show not for use. They just cost way to much money. But in Europe they still tie and fish them. I have tied them for people to fish. But I no longer tie many of them. They just take to much time and I would much rather tie spring creek style flies.
Funny two years ago I had a guy from Texas wanting to buy 20 full dress Salmon Flies from me. He wanted them all mounted for Christmas gifts. Said that price wan’t a problem but he called and wanted them in November. Just no way to do that many that fast. At least for me there wasn’t. I gave him a few other tier’s names but I don’t think he ever got them tied. Just not enough time. Ron
There are plenty of salmon flies that won’t cost you an arm and a leg nor several days worth of your time. Full-dressed Atlantic Salmon flies ARE NOT among those. They will cost $s and they will take time. I was at a table alongside Paul Ptalis at a show this past January. I watched him spend 3 days tying one(1) fly and he had just gotten to the wing when the show closed.
There are contemporary books that describe shortcuts and substitute materials for Full-Dressed A.S. flies for actual use. The cost of a FDAS fly, depending on the tier, may run anywhere from $25 up to $hundreds$. As far as fishing a FDAS fly, that’s entirely up to you, your wallet and your conscience. Just don’t tell your wife.
Contact Ronn via email. I am sure he can give you some tip on hair winged flies or simpler single feather, rather than married wing salmon flies. Steelhead and spey flies can be fun and look great lined up in a box.
I have to admit I did chuckle a bit when you mentioned you had a “couple of hours” and wanted to try salmon flies. Bet of luck. It can be adictive.
I have some Carrie Stevens patterns on Ronn’s sight, you may want to try tying some of them up first to get your feet wet. You’ll learn a lot of the same things needed to tie salmon flys plus you can fish them and they won’t cost you an arm and a leg to build. Then jump to the bigger stuff.
I’ve tied up and fished some of the hairwing Atlantic Salmon flies, like the Coseboom. These are really just hair wing streamers, and are hugely popular patterns to fish. I’ve tied what I call a “fishing full dressed”, which just means I make married wing segments out of a strips of coloured goose feathers, and have osterich hurl butts, and maybe a two toned body colour, and most importantly if you want to fish them, don’t worry too much if the thing looks like a butterfly that’s hit the windscreen at 60. If it looks too good, you will take too long, and then you won’t fish it! Which is fine, but trust me, it will always be in the back of your mind “I wonder if that one is just the ticket for today? No, no that took too long, my precious” - and we all know where that leads to: Gollum. :lol:
Spring creek style flies are flies tied to be used on the different spring creeks in this and other country’s they are normally much smaller on average than the normal flies that we use on freestone river’s but we do use them on Freestone streams at times.
Flies like BWO’s, CDC PMD’s, size 18 - 26, Different style’s of small emerger’s, Pheasant tail nymph’s, Small Sulphur dun’s and Midges. Small Ant’s and Beetle’s. Scud’s and those type’s of flies. Just a little different from the normal 12’s and 14’s.
The flies used on spring creeks for the most part are smaller than we use on the freestone stream’s. It is just a term that I use to describe those flies I tie for the spring creek’s out here.
I tie a lot of them for sure. 60 dozen now from the first of July for the local spring creek. LOL :shock: I am working on 10 dozen size 18 rusty spinner’s with a quil body and hackle wing’s right now just about done with them. Ron
Allen is correct in that hair wing’s would be the way to go. On the Salmon flies you want to tie. GHood way to start without spending a lot of money and they fish well and look nice to. You can learn to put a body together tying them and then go for the married wing style later when you and get all the materails together to do them. Ron
My wife laughed when I showed her this thread and asked if she and the kids would not mind staying away for a few weeks while a tie a fly. I kinda figured they took some time (for real simple dumb it down type for a newbie like me), but days or longer - I had no clue. I guess it is like I have heard, “you can’t rush art.”
Ahhh Tyrone, ‘ART’ there you go! Give it a try but do, like I and others have said before, try Hair Wings first. If there is a Fly Fishing show near you, give it a visit…again, good luck, you’ve got a good wife there.
I’ve spent the last eight months learning the techniques to the classic salmon flies and I got a long way to go… but the trip is a blast
My recommendation is follow Ronn’s lessons on FAOL. Tie each pattern until you feel comfortable with the “focus” of the lesson. Don’t worry to much about the exact material (if you don’t have any silver monkey use squirrel), but practice the technique. Explore his site for additional items http://www.ronnlucassr.com. Start collecting material :twisted:
If you can find a mentor you will develop at a much faster pace then you will by yourself … trust me!
Concentrate on the details (bumpy floss is really ugly!), they may seem trivial at the moment, but they come into play at some time.
Most of all have fun … that’s what it is all about
We sometimes use"reduced" featherwing salmon flies on our Newfoundland rivers.They are simpilfied in the sense that the fishing versions are not as complex as the original dressings.For example the Green Highlander includes an underwing of Golden Pheasant tippets back-to-back and also married wings over this in addition to jungle cock cheeks and Golden Pheasant Crest as the topping. We would use just married feather strips for the wings and maybe Jungle Cock.They do work though as I know of Atlantics of 20 pounds and larger hooked(and released).
After reading this thread, I also could not help but chuckle about the two hours. I wish I had a few extra “2 hour” chunks to top up the fly box to chase Atlantic Salmon later this month and through to the mid of October. I have been tying Atlantic Salmon flies for over 25 years, not the classical featherwing type but definitely the buck bugs, bombers, hairwing styles. With these, while I don’t hurry since tying for me is a hobby not a career, I can whip up 2-3 Green machines or bombers an hour or 4-6 hairwings per hour so with an afternoon of tying, I can get a dozen or 18 flies done to take to the river in relatively short order.
If you want to see some examples of flies, goto www.wwdoak.com or Google for Atlantic Salmon flies, you will get lots of hits.
Well Sunday plans were changed so I did not get a chance to tie. My next attempt will be a week from this weekend. Ronn sent me a couple of links to help me on my way.
Thanks you all for your suggestions and encouragements. :!:
A salmon fly is anything that will catch a salmon. Go to “fly tying”-“Atlantic Flies” and read “The Changing Face of Salmon Flies” They dont have to be elaborate to catch fish. On the other hand if you want to create something beautiful…well… go for it. Jim Clarke
