If you’ve been trying to keep up with this series to this point, it’s
very important that you learn the patterns or procedures used in the next
two weeks of tying. What you learn here will help you tie the flies
coming up in a couple of weeks. There’s nothing particularly hard about
these flies, but there are a few tricks that will be helpful later.
Streamer flies are capable of catching just about everything that swims
and has fins. They imitate small minnows and such, and that’s what a
vast majority of fish eat when the opportunity presents itself. Even
little fish will pounce all over a streamer that’s small enough to fit in
it’s mouth.
The first fly this week is one that has caught many different types of
fish for me. They range from a 32 inch brown trout, caught in the
Missouri river in Montana, to many four pound plus smallmouth bass caught
in South Dakota. A few walleyes and a pile of northern pike round out
the selection.
As usual, you have the option to modify, fine tune, or adjust the
pattern to suit your needs. In fact, I tie a whole series of little
trout streamers designed to look similar to juvenile trout in the many
forms they appear.
The idea here is to represent the fish in a basic form rather than an
exacting imitation. Many times that works better than having a fly that
looks exactly like what a minnow looks like to our eyes. Fish see things
differently than we do, and many times it’s better to have flies that are
more general in appearance than the exact representations you sometimes
see in books and magazines or in fly shops.
You’ll notice I’m using a different type of mylar tubing than you
usually find in a fly shop. I like the looks of multi-colored tubing,
and I found that craft shops usually carry a good selection of the
multi-colored stuff I’m using here. The color of the tubing is part of
the allure of the fly, so it’s a good idea to have a good selection on
hand. Experiment a little to find the colors that excite your local
fish.
Originally published c. July 13, 2008 on Fly Anglers Online by Al Campbell.