Elsie 2/0

[eunanhendron]

For the longest time, my friend, Elsie, has been asking me to tie her a Salmon fly.
Today was the day, since its her birthday tomorrow. This pattern is from Fishing Gazette, and is also in Hale 3rd edition.

Hook is a vintage 2/0 effort

The veils on the rear third and the cheeks are genuine blue enameled thrush, a very kind gift from a friend

The wing is stacked loose tippets. Pattern called for tippet strands (plenty) so i stripped the longest fibers from 4 of the longest feathers on the neck i had and tie them in stacked on top of eachother.

Cheeks (blue thrush) and sides of JC were specifically listed as extra size.

Probably could have should have tied it on a smaller hook given the Jay throat - i use the very biggest feather i had.

First time tying multiple loose tippets in a bunch - seems like it worked out pretty well.

 

[GenCon]

Beautiful fly. But I have to ask. How do you find the time for all these wonderful flies you tie.

GenCon

 

[eunanhendron]

GenCon wrote:
Beautiful fly. But I have to ask. How do you find the time for all these wonderful flies you tie.

GenCon

Generally tie only a bit at a time over a few nights, whenever i can steal a few minutes to get to the bench. Usually that is when my wife is putting my daughter to sleep.

This one i tied in one sitting this morning (day off work)

 

[jeremymcon]

Salmon flies and classic streamers are so neat. I always like looking at your posts eunan. I read somewhere that some salmon flies can take hours to tie. Why is that? What is it that takes so much time? Is it all in processing the feathers or something? Varnishing the head?

 

[eunanhendron]

jeremymcon wrote:
Salmon flies and classic streamers are so neat. I always like looking at your posts eunan. I read somewhere that some salmon flies can take hours to tie. Why is that? What is it that takes so much time? Is it all in processing the feathers or something? Varnishing the head?

This fly took me about 3 hours.
Reasons as follows

Tying in all the materials
Making a smooth underbody with no bumps, particularly for floss body flies.
Making a married wing - this can take up to 1.5 hours, as these wings did, and that was before i even put thread on the hook. These wings are married single strands. Solid blocks of color will take a shorter time to make the wing.

Material prep, which is usually done before hand, like straightening tippets, selecting the right size feathers.

Head varnishing is usually only 3-4 coats of Cellire. I used to use sally hansens, but cellire is much better, and doesnt get too thick over time. Cellire is available from Great feathers for $3 per bottle, made by Veniards...Its what the old timers used to use.

 

[jeremymcon]

Hmm... I can't picture what "marrying" single strands of feathers involves... I'll have to find a YouTube video or something.

 

[gfen]

Yes, we've seen the full dress flies, and they're very pretty.

Now, how about the ones you actually use? I, for one, would be far more interested in what someone who can tie full dress flies actually puts in the water.

 

[JackM]

I've asked this before too gfen, but I think the answer is that he tyes for art's sake, not fishing. The search function will yield a lot of very pretty creations for the shadow box.

 

[eunanhendron]

Guys, i rarely fish. This year, no times yet. Last year, i believe 3 times.
When i fish, i fish winged wets and simple nymphs, hare's ear, pheasant tail etc.

There are plenty of variations of nymph patterns available.
The salmon flies i tie pretty much for fun. I know there's not a lot of call for them in these parts.
If i was tying them for fishing, i'd tie them on eyed hooks, and with the same materials and attention to detail as on the flies i've posted.

If there are any common patterns you want to see tied by me, just list them, and i'll tie them.

 

[gaeronf]

Are there any patterns with snowshoe rabbit? Gfen loves snowshoe rabbit...

 

[JackM]

How about an iron blue dun?

 

[eunanhendron]

JackM wrote:
How about an iron blue dun?

I"ll have to order some furnace hackles.

For snowshoe, are you asking about classic flies? or regular modern flies.

I tied couple snow shoe bombers in the winter past. I"ll photograph them and post them

 

[JackM]

eunanhendron wrote:

JackM wrote:
How about an iron blue dun?

I"ll have to order some furnace hackles.

Wait, you don't have a reasonable facsimile. You can re-name it. Something like "Slate-blue dun."

 

[eunanhendron]

I have light dun half saddle. i'll tie it with that....

 

[JackM]

The winged wet catches more trouts.

 

[gfen]

eunanhendron wrote:
Guys, i rarely fish. This year, no times yet. Last year, i believe 3 times.
When i fish, i fish winged wets and simple nymphs, hare's ear, pheasant tail etc.

There are plenty of variations of nymph patterns available.

If there are any common patterns you want to see tied by me, just list them, and i'll tie them.

No, I'm genuinely interested in your PERSONAL use flies.

I want to know what someone who has the ability (and perfectionist streak) to sit there for hours to make a single fancy wall hanger actually sticks in the water.

I know what common use winged wets look like, I make and use them all the time. What I'm getting at is, let's see the ones that you tie on the end of a string and dip into the water.

Because I find that a whole lot more interesting than shadowbox examples there of.

FWIW, this isn't even you being singled out, I do teh same thing when it comes time to look at historical and original examples. I don't want to see the ones that weren't meant to be used.

Gaeron: There's only one of those that matters, and the messier the better. Furthermore, Fran Betters has gone on record as telling people who came into his shop for original patterns to be framed and hung to, "just pick them anyone out of the bin, they're all the same" (paraphrased). Users are have purpose, wall hangers are just pressed flowers.

 

[JackM]

Pressed flowers are created by God, and displayed by humans. Salmon Flies are created and displayed by humans. God isn't involved except in that He created humans with artistic capacity.

 

[pro4mance]

I wish I had that kind of talent for tying

 

[gfen]

pro4mance wrote:
I wish I had that kind of talent for tying

Have you considered pressing flowers?

 

[FrequentTyer]

Gfen, ever wonder how Raphael painted the walls of his apartment? Or maybe what Milton's shopping list looked like? Art is rarely practical, and the two worlds don't need to mix. It is interesting though that things like flies and bamboo rods can be artistic and functional. If you have the talent to make something beautiful, why would you do less for your own use?
Nice fly Eunan. The tippet stacking would have killed me.
Mike.