Here are all of the patterns I tied up for this trip. I hope penns isn't blown, so I can try them. I messed around a lot with different nymphs. Who knows, they could work.

Nice spinners guys.

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I bought a few standard poly coffins as well, and tied some replicas. but they are nothing special. I like the patterns I made up. Dave, the wiggle nymph idea came from you. Thanks!

dont be afraid to tie them big

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I was experimenting to come up with a different look and tied a more traditional looking wet fly. If it doesn't work, I'll try it on steelhead this winter.

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Dave, that's actually the pic from the web that gave me the idea how to tie mine but as I said, except for the trimming, they are identical.

I think a lot of the nymphs I'm seeing look much more like the Iso or Hex nymphs with the prominent gills. While the EGD nymphs are a little fuzzy on top they just don't seem to have that wide look the gills on the other flies have. Just an observation.

Jack, if it doesn't work right away, try trimming (on stream) the wing first before boxing them up for the winter.

Tom, that's a good observation. There's a reason you observe the gills on the GD as being different. Most nymphs have gills that extend out from the sides of the abdomen and, while the GD gills do so as well, the GD's gills sweep up from the sides andover the back of the abdomen (they're long). If you look at the photo of the real nymph I posted you can see it. To me, a pattern with the gills out from the sides only isn't as accurate a representation. Most overbacks on the pattern will not allow the gills to sweep up as the natural's do.

Dave R.

Bump.

Anyone getting ready to tie drakes? What kind of patterns do you like?

I'll be starting mine in a week or two.

Good idea to bump Jay.

IMO it would be cool to have the links to all these individual bug thread in 1 area just like the swap section. Just a thought.

They we could keep em going yr to yr or as things come up.

Well, I probably won't be much help because of the range of my green drake experience. I always assiduously avoided the drake hatches on the name limestones because, frankly, if I want to see that many people and open myself to that level of painful frustration, I'll go into downtown Chicago and twist my nose around with a pair of needlenose pliers.

But that's me and how I'm wired. I'd rather catch 5 fish and not see a soul than catch 10 and see a half dozen guys.

But I used to chase the drakes pretty fervently on the freestones, particularly the medium size wild trout fisheries like the tribs of Kettle, the Upper Allegheny drainage and of course, near home in Crawford, Venango and Warren Counties.

For these places, I never found a need for anything more than Art Flick's Gray Fox Variant in a 10 or 12, depending on the size of the drakes in the stream in question (more often a 12 than a 10).

Flick also recommended stripping a big light cahill wet (8-12) on a nymph hook to imitate the moving nymph and that seemed to always work pretty well too.

So, that's all I know...:)

Bob, you hit on a winning combination: Green Drakes and freestoners...and, let's not forget the trout!!

Dave R.

The "thingambobber" you used on the one pattern lookes like the standard strike indicator size. I saw a few weeks ago they came out with a much smaller version (like 1/8" dia ball) that is designed to be used as a wing post.

Might want to check it out...

Thanks.

For some reason, I thought I was using the smallest thingamabobber, but there was a smaller one available. I was going to try that, but might try the ones you mentioned instead.

I think I cannibalized those flies to get the indicators back after the hatch ended. I'm not sure that I'll try it again this year.

Do you guys favor the extended bodies over the traditional flies on longer hooks, or visa versa?

I will probably tie extended bodies, but just curious as what everyone prefers.

The extended bodies took too much time, and weren't worth it to me.