What Are You Tying Today? 2025

[mt_flyfisher]

Thanks @dc410 for posting the Usk Naylor wet fly and advice on tying it. This one produced a brown trout last evening in some deep fast moving water.

I used a size 14 Nymph Hook.
View attachment 1641242353

It’s always nice when you tie a new fly and then catch a trout with it.

Like you, I tied a couple flies in what I’d call the Usk Naylor style, after @dc410 showed the one he tied.
I wasn’t very confident at the time that this fly would work, but I wanted one with pronounced purple showing through. It’s not that much different from yours, so maybe there’s hope for it.

 

[nfrechet]

Pink Lady

Bob Baker Creator

Tag - Oval silver tinsel
Tail - Golden pheasant crest with red hackle over
Butt - Black ostrich herl
Rib - Oval silver tinsel
Body - Fluorescent pink floss and peacock herl
Wing - Green dyed squirrel tail
Cheeks - Jungle fowl
Hackle - Yellow hackle wound as a collar
Head - Red and black

 

[Broodstock]

Here is a big eastern green drake variant of the extended body Wally wing.
Mallard flank, fibbets, olive griz hackle, and the extended body is felt with olive synthetic fiber over.

 

[nfrechet]

Yellow Canary

Tag - Fine oval gold tinsel
Tail - Golden pheasant crest and orange hackle fibers
Butt - Black ostrich herl
Rib - Oval silver tinsel
Body - Silver tinsel
Hackle - Orange hen hackle
Wing - Dyed yellow gray squirrel tail
Topping - Golden pheasant crest
Cheeks - Jungle fowl

Fabri-Mouches Website

 

[nfrechet]

Grasshopper

Plate 10

Tail - Scarlet hackle wisps
Ribbing - Brown hackle palmered
Body - Yellow wool
Wing - Light brown turkey

Trout - Ray Bergman

 

[nfrechet]

St Lawrence

Plate 8

Tip - Gold tinsel
(not written in the original recipe but depicted in sample drawing)
Tail - Scarlet
Butt - Scarlet chenille
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow floss
Hackle - Scarlet
Wing - Light gray turkey over brown turkey

Trout - Ray Bergman

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Here’s another purple soft hackle that I saw on Facebook. Looks easy to tie, and should be effective.

Start by wrapping the body with orange thread. Then rib the body with purple thread that is very thinly dubbed with gray fur (I would think mole fur or muskrat would work).

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

View attachment 1641242349View attachment 1641242350
A couple extended body mayfly with Wally wings. The body is felt and elk hair, with a mallard wing and grizzly hackle. Possum dubbed thorax. I might try a few more patterns and colors like this. They are tied on a klinkhammer hook - size 10 and 12.

Very nice drakes. Are the bodies tied separately, or on the hook when you tie the bugs?
(And where is the Chagrin River? I feel like I've floated down that one a time or two.)

 

[Penns Woods]

St Lawrence

Plate 8

Tip - Gold tinsel
(not written in the original recipe but depicted in sample drawing)
Tail - Scarlet
Butt - Scarlet chenille
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow floss
Hackle - Scarlet
Wing - Light gray turkey over brown turkey

Trout - Ray Bergman

Very interesting the St Lawrence fly, Not many tiers know the trout fly St Lawrence. I'm glad you tied and show it. I have another version of the St Lawrence.
Thanks for showing it.
(Larry) Penns Woods.

 

[nfrechet]

Very interesting the St Lawrence fly, Not many tiers know the trout fly St Lawrence. I'm glad you tied and show it. I have another version of the St Lawrence.
Thanks for showing it.
(Larry) Penns Woods.

what is the other version? care to share?

slightly different version

St. Lawrence

Tag - Scarlet
Tail - Scarlet
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow floss
Hackle - Scarlet
Wing - Mottled turkey

Amateur Tyers Fly Dictionary - J E Willmarth

 

[nfrechet]

Wasp

Plate 9

Tip - Orange floss
Body - Alternate black and brown ostrich herl
Hackle - browm
Wing - Tan-black-tan duck or goose quill segmants

Trout - Ray Bergman

 

[Broodstock]

Very nice drakes. Are the bodies tied separately, or on the hook when you tie the bugs?
(And where is the Chagrin River? I feel like I've floated down that one a time or two.)

They are tied separately on a needle then attached to the hook (actually on the broken off end of a pin, the ball of the pin became a cicada eye) . I tie up a batch of bodies and then do the final ties on the hooks. I really like Barry Ord Clake and his youtube (Feather Bender) for instructions on how he does extended bodies. I used felt instead of foam since it was just what I had.

FWIW the hookup percentage on extended body flies seems lower than on normal dries. @dryflyguy agrees with this. I think the body needs to be very, very soft and flexible.

Chagrin is in NE Ohio. It was the first river I ever cast a fly into at the age of 13. My grandma drove me there and sat on the bank reading a book while I fished. I spent a lot of time catching smallmouth and eventually steelhead in the Chagrin. I caught my first brook trout from a trib of the Chagrin. I also managed a brook trout hatchery for a summer within the Chagrin watershed - my profile name here is a nod to that.

 

[Penns Woods]

what is the other version? care to share?

slightly different version

St. Lawrence

Tag - Scarlet
Tail - Scarlet
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow floss
Hackle - Scarleties it
Wing - Mottled turkey

Amateur Tyers Fly Dictionary - J E Willmarth

what is the other version? care to share?

slightly different version

St. Lawrence

Tag - Scarlet
Tail - Scarlet
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow floss
Hackle - Scarlet
Wing - Mottled turkey

Amateur Tyers Fly Dictionary - J E Willmarth

 

[nfrechet]

?????

 

[dc410]

Gartside’s Gurgler tied on a size 4 Gamakatsu B10S hook

 

[hooker-of-men]

Gartside’s Gurgler tied on a size 4 Gamakatsu B10S hook

View attachment 1641242464

Oh sh!t yes.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Freestylin'.

Rubber leg caddis with snowshoe body and underwing

 

[HoboWithAFlyRod]

Unweighted black dungeon for night fishing, size 2 and 4 hooks.

 

[nfrechet]

Wasp

Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow chenille
Hackle - Brown
Wing - Dark slate or black duck or goode quill segments

Authors Note

Also made yellow floss body with black floss joint in center.

Amateur Tyers Fly Dictionary - J E Willmarth

 

[nfrechet]

BR (Black Rainbow) Baetis Emerger

Larry O Jergens

Tail/Shuck - Gray antron yarn fibers
Ribbing - Blue wire
Abdomen - Black rainbow embroidery thread or equivalent
Wing - Gray or white antron yarn fibers
Thorax - Mahogany brown superfine dubbing

LoJ Ramblins'

lojsflytyingbugstuff.blogspot.com