As winter becomes an indisputable reality across much of the country and fishing becomes less and less likely as ice replaces water, it’s time to settle into the old tying bench with a warming beverage. Soooo, what are you going to tie for spring? I’m going to start with a bunch of Cricket Nymphs as featured in Winter 2010 Fly Tyer magazine on page 20. With a natural squirrel or hare’s ear dubbing, black eyes and long rubber legs, it’s one of the buggiest flies I’ve ever seen. It looks like a great brim and bass fly. I hope to find a few other flies that inspire me as well. Then I will start on my legions of Gurgle Pops with which I will catch fish after fish after fish until I am exhausted. How about you? What are you tying? 8T
Micro minnows. I’m tying them clouser style on Owner mosquito hooks in sizes 8-12. They’re only about 3/4" long total and the early crappies and bluegills ought to go nuts for them.
My standard woolly worms, foam spiders, red butt epoxy ants, gurglers, & woolly buggers. I also plan to tie up a bunch of foam stealth bombers & klinkhamers. Wish me luck, the Klinkhamers will be a challenge (at least for me!).
Mike
Black leeches on size 10 2x hooks for bream and size 2 hooks for LM bass These are my absolute go-to flies for late winter early spring. In fact, they work pretty much all year round. Also, plenty of Carter’s Sculpins in Grizzly and black for bream when they’re a bit deeper and in bright colors of white with purple, red or chartruese tails for crappie. Once the water warms up a bit I switch to polar fiber minnow patterns for bass, usually olive over chartruese over white and cap spiders for the bream along weed lines or overhanging brush.
Been tying a boatload of crappie jigs lately. Before spring, I’d like to learn and tie a bunch of EP-style minnows. I saw those bluegill crickets in Fly Tyer and plan to try a few of those as well. I’m sure a bunch of floss and tinsel wets will happen at some point, too…
I need to tie a bunch to replace all that ended up in the trees, hung on submerged unseen obstructions or otherwise just lost for some reason I can’t remember. I will be tying woolie buggers, “tinsel flies”, poppers, try my hand again at spinning deer hair, a few trout flies, various woolie worms in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, boa yarn leaches, fun fur leaches, pheasant tail nymphs, hare’s ear nymphs, soft hackles of various sizes, shapes and configurations, and other experiments that just look buggy.
My close friend is planning to give his son, now working and married, a fly rod for Christmas (at least one), and knowing him it will likely be a Winston, or something similar. I have fished with both of them many times, and they live a long way away. At any rate, the son is like a nephew to me and my wife. He has been a spin fisherman, but has been fishing with a fly rod for several years.
His dad and I have fished only with fly rods for probably the past 10 to 15 years or so and his son is improving on his fly fishing.
At any rate, the son is going to get a set of flys to go with the rod, but will not get them until it is time to start fishing. His dad is tying nymphs, and I am tying the dries. I have primarily finished the caddis flies, and have just started on Wulffs, with stonefly dries to follow. After that I will be working on a set of bluegill dry flies for him, foam spiders, a few small poppers, etc.
Wow, I’m honestly impressed with the choices so far. Isn’t great being a fly tyer and being able to make pretty much any fly, in any size and weight that you would like to fish. I would bet that a non-tyer would have to do an intense search to find Cricket Nymphs or many of the other flies listed above.
Jim Smith: Are those leeches going to be made with dubbing brushes? If so, what material are you going to use for those dubbing brushes themselves?
I will be tying some boa yarn leeches, furled tail mphjair leeches , the cricket nymph along with some other flies.
Also tying some PTN and hares ears for Casting for Recovery and Reel Recovery.
Have you thought about tying a fews more and sending them to one of these organizations ( or similiar)?
I’ll be tying large buggers on #2 hooks for bass in orange, green and chartruese combinations, some with curl tails and propellor spinners in front of a bead head (Pistol Pete look). Also some large Clousers in the same color patterns and some small trout size jig head buggers in various buggy colors. Then I’ll experiment with some things using willow leaf blades and bright colors and see what happens.
I’ve been tying up a few Simonton’s Island Park Mulberry Flies for carp, as well as some Carp Carrots and Carp Crack (can you guess what I want to catch MORE of?), and even a Mr. P’s Scum Fly for grass carp.
I’ve been tying up some of “The Hammer”:
I’ve tied up a good handful of Myakka Minnows in a variety of colors. Might do more in bigger sizes for spring-run white bass.
I need to tie up some Shwapf’s for ice-out bluegills, as well as some bass poppers and bluegill Gurglers. Boa yarn leeches and mohair leeches are a standard for me, so I’ll need to make sure to have plenty.
I tied up a GRHE and PTN last night, along with a SJW.
I tie year-round, so I don’t really need to stock up for a full season, I just need to make sure I have at least of few of everything ready when the ice melts.
Thank you for the excellent suggestion. I will definitely tie some extras. I would urge other tyers who have responded to this post to follow Rick’s generous lead in this season of giving. 8T
After watching Lefty and Bob tie up their half and half, I’m going to have to tie up a few of those to add to my fly box. Neat fly, and fun watching them work together to tie it.
CJ
I tie them in 4, 6, and 8. Sometimes 2. I do a version for musky that is tied on a 5/0 Partridge pike hook. I have a couple very large bucktails for that purpose.
The silver shinner is my most popular patern in size 4.
