Ultra-realistic patterns

[GreenWeenie]

Many of the hooks labeled 'Klinkhammer' (especially Mustad) are great for tying but useless for hooking fish. The gap is too small and the hook shank bends too much making setting the hook very difficult. What is attractive about these hooks is the wire is generally 1x fine. I will, however, use these hooks for small and thin midge larve.

AFish has noted the solution above. Also, don't be afraid to bend the hook point to the side a little on the smaller sized hooks. The fish don't seem to notice and it will help.

Also, don't be afraid to tie some of your own creations using the Klinkhammer design. Rather than creating a stillborn or emerger pattern with two different colors/body sections, try using a few fibres of medium brown antron as a trailing shuck and then simply dub the body all one color - maybe even adding a very fine rib.

 

[Stevie-B]

Thanks everyone for the input.

 

[ryguyfi]

check out this site and scroll through all the patterns. There's some good ones on here of ultra-realistic.

http://flytyingforum.com/pattern5976.html

 

[jaybo41]

I've always thought Ultra-realistic fly tying was much more of an art form than anything else. I'm in JayL's camp on this topic, I'll stick with the more traditional way of tying. I've seen some amazing ties, but I want something fully functional to fish with.

 

[afishinado]

GreenWeenie wrote:
Many of the hooks labeled 'Klinkhammer' (especially Mustad) are great for tying but useless for hooking fish. The gap is too small and the hook shank bends too much making setting the hook very difficult. What is attractive about these hooks is the wire is generally 1x fine. I will, however, use these hooks for small and thin midge larve.

AFish has noted the solution above. Also, don't be afraid to bend the hook point to the side a little on the smaller sized hooks. The fish don't seem to notice and it will help.

Also, don't be afraid to tie some of your own creations using the Klinkhammer design. Rather than creating a stillborn or emerger pattern with two different colors/body sections, try using a few fibres of medium brown antron as a trailing shuck and then simply dub the body all one color - maybe even adding a very fine rib.

GreenWeenie,

I agree that the Klinkhammer is a killer pattern. I too tie it to match the hatch for emergers. Here are a few of my observations, for one, I’ve tried tying a trailing shuck and found, for the most part, the bare hook version seems to work better. The fly floats butt down better w/o a shuck. My theory is that the exposed hook bend may represent the trailing shuck to the fish…only the fish know for sure.

Some generic patterns that work for me is the standard hares ear with rib and a peacock thorax. The same with a pheasant tail abdomen / peacock. I also tie some killer emergers with quill bodies to match the hatch.

Sometimes I use a foam post instead of poly yarn for visibility and floatability, which makes a great “indy” fly.

Great pattern and I agree, very versatile.

 

[MKern]

I want to add that too me buying premade wingcases and legs is not tying. It's just buying parts and assembling them and shows little creativtiy as a tyier, but this is just my oppinion.

I will say that is someone bought me that stuff, I'd use it, but would never brag about what I've done (or haven't done).

Just because a fly looks realistic and complicated doesn't mean it is, or is fragile. Foam is foam, dubbing is dubbing, and poly yarn is poly yarn.

I think the best realistic fly that I tie is a san juan worm. Instead of chenelle, I use hollow tubing. Looks way more like a worm and might take 45 seconds to tie instead of 30 with a chenele body. My dubbed hendrickson nymph (with gills, 3 tails, and legs) holds up a lot longer than many of by flashback PT's.

Tying is what you make it, and for me flipping trough a book of insects and trying to replicate them is what's it's about. I know this style of tying isn't for everybody.

 

[afishinado]

I received a flurry of PMs concerning patterns and how-to tie klinkhammer flies. Rather than answering each one, I will go into more detail on the fly. First of all, here is a link to a tutorial for tying a generic pattern:

http://hipwader.com/2002/tying-klinkhamer-fly-pattern


I don't buy yet another special hook to tie these flies. I have had a lot of luck using a light-wire scud (curved) hook like TMC 2487. I use one hook size larger since it’s 2x short. In other words, for a size 16 fly I use a size 14 hook. Tie the abdomen well down into the curve without a tail or shuck. You can add a tail or shuck and cut it off on the stream to see what works better, but as I have posted, most times the shuckless version works better.

As far as patterns, just copy your favorite dun pattern for a parachute using the same the size hook, dubbing, and hackle color. For a post/wing I use the appropriate colored poly yarn, antron yarn, or sometimes a foam post for visibility and floatability. You can use peacock for the thorax or dub the same color as the abdomen and sometimes the fly with the peacock works better. That little bit of flashiness seems to attract fish at times.

I’ve have success fishing Klinks tied to match hendricksons, sulphurs, cahills, olives among others. Plain or lightly ribbed dubbing in the appropriate color works just fine most of the time. I do use quills for some of the bodies, which looks great and is a favorite for really tough fish like on the Big D.

Oh, and don’t use floatant at all on the fly, or if you do, just apply it on the post and hackle. The butt down profile seems be the most attractive quality of the fly.

The Klink is really a must-have or at least should-have fly, and accounts for a lot of fish during a hatch when they ignore dun imitations. Good luck.

 

[jayL]

I'll add that yellow and emerald klinks were at one time one of my favorite searching patterns. I have no idea why I moved away from using them.

 

[GreenWeenie]

Afish,

A #12 March Brown tied this style pattern with 7-10 sparsly tied medium brown antron fibers maybe extending 1/2" for a trailing shuck is an absolute killer for upper Delaware trout. For upper Delaware sulfurs I do as you noted and use a quill body in various shades of yellow/orange/amber/etc. Sometimes the quyill body works when all other patterns won't.