Sparkle Mayfly. Wings are two colors of CDC (natural and white from Trout Line) with a few strands of very thin flash. There’s a little sparkle in the wings. It’s hard to show that on the picture, in reality, it’s looks very posh! Thorax is normal dubbing, wingcase is made from pheasant and the body is made with Polish Quills, secured with Bug Bond. Tails are synthetic Mayfly Tails. For the hook I’ve used a D23BL # 14 from Trout Line.
This is a little Caddis Pupa weighted with a tungsten bead as a head. The abdomen is made with thread, green Polish Quills and Bug Bond uv resin. Pheasant as wing case, also secured with Bug Bond, dubbing and some fibres from a partridge feather as legs. Very simple, but a good fishing fly.
Some quick shots from the tying vise for you
There are a lot of tools for the fly tier on the market. Some are good, some are useless, some are expensive but worth the money, some are cheap and still super usefull.
I used a lot of different tools and gimmicks in the last 20 years, and in this series I want to show things, which worked well for me and I’ll try to tell you why.
Part 2
Every fly tier needs a good hackle plier. You can find a lot of different pliers on the market. This are the two types I can highly recommend.
1. Dorin Hackle Plier
You can buy it normally for less than 5,- €. It works great and has a lot of power holding different materials. I use it often, when I have to tie with a high strength, especially ribbing with mono. Just wind the mono two times around the wire. The only negative point for me is, that my finger does not fit into the loop of wire.
This is the Dorin hackle pliers I use. It looks a bit shabby, but it’s over 13 years old.
From time to time the plastic tubing is damaged and the materials begin to slip. To solve the problem is very easy.
Just push the tube over the edge and cut it. Now it works like brand new. You can see, that it’s not necessary to do it often. Like I said, the one on the picture is more then 13 years old and it was used very often. There is still some tubing left. ;-)
Here is the expensive one. C&F hackle plier. About 30,- € for the cheapest model. Well, a lot of money, but it’s worth every cent. It works perfect as an all around hackle plier. You can tie with it many years and it still works like on day one. The rubber pads are missing on mine, but that’s no problem. Still working great.
The secret of success. The tip is rough in a microscopic way. Hackles, feathers and synthetics are hold very well.
This is the rotary version of the C&F, which I sometimes like to use when tying smaller patterns.
Well, that’s it! My two cent on hackle pliers. These are the pliers I use since many, many years without any problems. Still working perfect.
There are a lot of tools for the fly tier on the market. Some are good, some are useless, some are expensive but worth the money, some are cheap and still super usefull.
I used a lot of different tools and gimmicks in the last 20 years, and in this series I want to show things, which worked well for me and I’ll try to tell you why.
I begin with something very special, the Bug Bond Pro Light Mains Adapter.
When you look at my flies, you’ll see that I work a lot with uv resin. No matter if I tie dries and nymphs or streamer and flies for pike, seatrout, asp, …
Working with uv resin means, you have to use a uv torch with maximun battery power to harden the resin. I often saw people using a torch with low power, wondering, why the resin won’t cure like it should.
Bug Bond offers a nice solution for the power problem: An adapter for your pro torch to connect it with your power supply at home. You just have to screw the adapter into the torch and you have a super strong uv torch every time.
To connect the adapter with the torch, you have to screw off the switch at the end.
Maybe you’re asking yourself how to switch on the torch without the switch at the end? With the Kit comes a solid foot switch like you know them from sewing machines. Just put your foot on the pedal and the torch will do it’s job.
The torch is always hanging from on of my lamps on my tying desk ready for some action.
I f you like to use uv resin for your tying, then I can recommend you the Mains Adapter. It’s super nice to use, you got always maximum curing power and you don’t have to care about the batteries.
I use the Adapter now several months and I don’t want to miss it.
This is a good all around nymph to imitate caddis pupa. The vague looking nymph seems eatable to the fish. It’s a nice combination of a semi-transparent body and the mix of cdc, soft fibres and the dubbing mix of natural hare’s ear and ice dub. Not to flashy. Just that kind of nymph I personally like to fish.
The tying steps are self-explanatory, I guess. So here are just the materials.
If you got questions, just feel free to ask.
Some quick tied glitter wet flies
I posted this pattern some weeks ago on my blog and on Facebook and I was asked, if I could do a step by step tutorial about it. So, here it is. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Materials:
Put the hook with the tungsten bead in the vise.
Form the unterbody with your thread and tie in the Flashabou and Polish Quill.
Color the underbody with an olive marker pen and wind the Flashabou and then the Polish Quill around the body and secure it with your tying thread.
Put some Bug Bond Lite on the body and cure the resin with your Bug Bond torch. Then, tie in some strands from a pheasant tail feather as shown.
Dub some SLF light olive on the fly and tie in the brown colored Flashabou Mirage. Cut the Mirage like shown on the photo.
Dub the rest with SLF in cinnamon till you reach the tungsten bead.
Cut a „V“ out of a partridge feather and tie in the fibres of the partridge as legs. Then fold the pheasant strands to the front to create the wing case and catch it with your tying thread. Put a drop of Bug Bond Lite on the wing case incl. the thread with which you catch the pheasant. Cure the Bug Bond Lite with your Bug Bond torch and cut the thread. You’re done! The Bug Bond Lite makes it super strong! You don’t need to do whip finish!
That’s it! Now grab your fly rod and catch some nice trout or grayling or whatever you like to catch with nymphs and pupas!
tight lines!
Holger
This is a Gammarus pattern, weighted with thin lead foil tied on a shrimp hook # 12. Super simple fly. Lead on the hook, some antennas or legs made from Coq de Lon, mono for ribbing, Pro Sportfisher Gammarus Shell black on clear coated with Bug Bond UV Resin, SLF Saltwater Dub fluo shell pink and tying thread. That’s it! Tasty! ;-)
To be honest, I’m not a fan of czech nymphing. I just love to cast with a flyrod. Czech nymphing is super effectiv, no doubt about that. It’s just too less casting for my liking… ;-)
The Czech Nymphs on the other hand are pretty cool flies. I didn’t fish them much in the past, but I want to try them in the next season, especially the ones with a little hot spot. This is quite hard for me, because I got a lot more faith in natural colors. Maybe I was wrong all the time, we’ll see….
Czech Nymphs should be weighted AND as slim as possible to sink fast. That’s not the easiest task. You have to find the right amount of dubbing. Less is more!
I look forward testing them in a nice stream for trout and grayling. :-)
01.01.2014
The first fly of the year, the Hangover Fly. A nymph # 14 with a tungsten Bead.
This Caddis Pupa, tied on a Daiichi Klinkhamer hook # 14 was the last fly I tied in 2013.
