By Gaeron Friedrichs (gaeronf)

As we all know, winter is here. To me, it sure doesn’t feel like it. There’s no snow at all. But since its winter, it’s time to go to the winter flies. When someone says winter flies, I typically think big stoneflies, or little midges. Here I’m going to show you a pattern I developed. The Goldilocks Stonefly is a golden stonefly representation. Keep in mind, this isn’t just a winter fly, it can be used year round, but it is a super effective fly in the winter. It incorporates some great realistic and attractive aspects. For example, the use of rubber legs and Australian Possum give the fly superior movement. Typically you want stones to be super heavy. I use a tungsten bead on this fly, along with a great deal of lead (or lead free) wire. This is due to the fact that the abdomen, legs, and thorax is all natural material. As some of you may or may not know some natural furs, like hare’s ear and possum, will decrease the sink rate of a fly. That’s why we balance the fly out with the extreme weighting. Like I said before, the rubber legs (used for tails and antennae) will give the fly great movement, and the fly will breathe great with all the natural materials. The back will give the fly a little contrast and flash, and the thick rib gives a distinct ribbing. The hook I love to use is a Skalka Streamer hook. This hook is super strong, and has a ridiculous point. So first, let’s look at the exact recipe:

Goldilocks Stone
Hook-Skalka Streamer Hook size 6
Bead-Matching Gold Tungsten Bead
Additional Weight-A large portion of lead wraps. Used here is .025. Be as liberal or as stingy as you wish
Thread-Golden Stonefly colored Danville’s Flat Waxed Nylon
Tails and Antennae-Gold or yellow rubber legs. Round or square doesn’t matter. Barring optional.
Rib-Brown, Copper, or Amber colored MEDIUM UTC wire
Abdomen-Australian Possum/Icelandic Sheep Golden Stone Blend
Abdomen Cover-1 strand of wide Mylar tinsel
Thorax- Australian Possum/Icelandic Sheep Golden Stone Blend
Thorax Cover-2 strands of wide Mylar tinsel
Additional Materials-Brown and Black Sharpie

Read detailed instructions here.

The 2011 PAFF Eastern PA Tying Jam was held at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center. This event was unique, in that there were 19 demo tiers that were given 10 minutes each to explain and tie a fly pattern of their choice.

There was also a table set up for beginner tiers. The beginners were instructed in some basic techniques, and had the opportunity to tie green weenies, foam beetles, and also the flies from the demo tiers that provided kits.

Tying flies "in the spotlight" was new to many of these tiers, and while most were nervous, none needed to be so. All of the demo tiers handled their presentations with a lot of skill and style.

My intention in setting this event up was to allow each tier to showcase their skills, share their techniques, and learn tips and tricks from each other. Judging from the response here, and the smiles on their faces, I'd have to say this event was a huge success.

Please keep in mind - I just arranged a place for this to happen. The members that attended provided the magic that ensued. The skills, spirit, and enthusiasm on display at this event was remarkable. Gatherings like this foster goodwill, and promote comaraderie amongst the members of this forum, and all guests.

I'd like to thank all the guys that helped with this event - it couldn't have happened without you. Your generosity was truely impressive.

Special thanks go to the guys from Hokendauqua TU for running the beginner's instruction, especially tony300wby of this forum. One classy guy, and one of the best tiers I've ever met.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Glenn McConnell, owner of McConnell's Country Store/Fly Shop. He donated several hundred dollars of swag for the raffle. His shop has become the gold standard of fly shops in Northcentral PA.

Here's the pictures that I have so far from the event - feel free to send me any pictures you may have of this event, and I'll add them in.

H.A.

Fly tying swaps are one of those pretty cool outcomes of Paflyfish that I never anticipated when the site was started many years ago. Sadly, I can barely tie my boots let alone a Blue Winged Olive CDC Cripple.

So when I see others putting together #14 caddis pupae with ice dubbing I get a little envious. I think my eyesight is getting worse by the second and probably won't even be able to see my AARP card when it comes in next year, so staring down a #24 hook and tying up a midge I might as well be changing the radiator in my wife's car. I am much better at computers, I can at least enlarge the font on the screen.

For those not familiar with the swaps that happen in the Fly Tying forum they are an often random proposal suggested by the members of the forum on a specific theme of flies for a swap. Over the past year there have been several swaps including: Holiday, BWO, Beginner, Meat Box, Sulphur, Steelhead and Midge to name a few.

People then sign up in the thread and share ideas about what fly they want to tie. A participant in the swap then completes enough of their flies to share with others in the swap and sends them off to the swap organizer. Fly tying recipes are included to keep each other educated on the ties being shared. They are then organized and mailed back out to the group.

Kudos for those who have organized these swaps over the years. I can only imagine they are like herding cats at times. Flyfishermanj has been in the center of several of these swaps over the last year. He recently shared a few dozen flies with me including a March Brown Varient by flytyingfred and a Snow Shoe Sulphur Emerger from Boss_Steb. All these fine flies masterfully tied.

Flyfishermanj explained that he enjoyed seeing ties and techniques from others. He now has added some of those patterns from others to his own fly box. The swaps work well with an influx of new tiers participating with the regulars.

FreguentTyer also shared with me the flies from the BWO Swap this past fall. It was loaded with CDC split wings, comparduns, loopwing emergers and several other attractive patterns.

Some upcoming swaps will be the annual PAFF Swap and a possible Drake Swap too. The Drake sounds good as that is a fly I can easily see. You can check the swaps and other conversations about fly tying in the forum.