A quick bit of history about the fly I sent…
Several years ago, I tied up a batch of coachmen (Standard, not royal). THey did well up here, but the herl bodies fell apart, and I had always had good luck with hair winged wet flies on our local waters. I am a fairly traditional tyer, but I decided to tie an upgraded version of the coachman. I swapped out the feather wing for a white hair wing, and then I replaced the herl body with Estaz sparkle material in a peacock shade. It did well, but evolved a bit over the years. (I am sure I am not the only person to try these upgrades. I remember an article in the 80s talking about taking standard patterns and adding flash and synthetics to them) Later, the fly evolved a tail of Flash, and the wing changed from white kip tail to grey squirrel tail. The fly also got some flash mixed in with the wing, but I am not sure it helped, so I want back to the regular squirrel wing.
At about the same time, I was tying a small white wet fly for crappie, bluegill and trout fishing with red hackle, white kip tail wings, and a bit of flash. It worked well for trout, but I started to add a few fibers of olive yellow grizzly or guinea over the top ofthe wing. I thought that this might pick up a bit of the olive yellow color of the baby perch fry that were a good food source in our local lakes and ponds. I ended up tossing this to some trout and having really good luck with it. That fly had a gold pheasant tippet tail, and a red throat. As it was probably imitating a baitfish as much as anything, it grew a little longer and larger winged in proportion to the rest of the fly. Almost a cross between a wet and a streamer. It still worked well on local trout.
I had about nine of the upgraded coachman flies tied when everything went haywire last week. I had Cathie bring up my fly tying kit, but I didn’t have the right materials packed to finish off the other flies. I couldn’t locate the Estaz. I also had to switch hook sizes due to what she could grab at a local shop. I then had her grab some guinea and silver flash, and I went to tie my white fly. I decided to upgrade it to the squirrel tail wing, but decided to keep the flash toned down a bit, since this is a light colored fly to begin with. I took a clue from my coachman variation and tied in a flash tail and the plain squirrel tail wing. I also kept the olive yellow overwing (Ideally just a few loose fibers over the top, but they always want to join up and make a married feather again) I haven’t been out to the water to test it yet. (In another week or so…) I gave a couple of them to locals who came over to give me grief when I came home. So far, results are mixed. THey are doing well on crappie and rock bass in Houghton Lake and grabbing the smaller panfish in the Reedsburg flooding. Bobby took some up to Mio and tried them on the trout, but he didn’t get a response from the fish. (Except one that swam away when he lined it!) He also didn’t get a response with any other fly either, so he called it a wash. (He did say that the white fly was much easier to see while not catching any fish, so that’s a plus.)
I will go ahead and give all three patterns if that’s okay.
Modified Coachman.
Tail Silver Krystal Flash
Body. Peacock black estaz or mylar chenille tied full and oversized
Wing light grey Squirrel Tail with a strand or two of flash (Optional)
Hackle Brown tied beard style
White fly for trout and panfish
Tail Golden Pheasant tippets
Body White chenille
Wing White calf tail with yellow or olive grizzly or guinea fibers tied in to the top
Hackle Bright red beard style
Dave’s hallucination induced anesthesia influenced procedure room nurse approved special.
Tail Silver Flash
Body White Chenille
Wing Squirrel Tail tied a bit long
Overwing Yellow olive guinea fibers worked over the squirrel tail
Hackle bright red beard.
The fly is still a work in progress. Sorry to change plans on all of you at the end like this, but I knew if I waited until I got home, I would not be in shape to tie the remaining modified coachmen to match up the first ones. I am guessing that the new fly will end up getting some flash added to the wing after all, and it may get a different tail. The panfish like it, but we’ll have to see about the trout.
I can’t wait to see what the rest of you came up with.
Dave