Good things are often very simple. Like these small nymphs tied on a short shank hook. The body length without the bead is 5mm. Even this are small nymphs, the hook gap is pretty big, so the hooking quality is still good. You can fish the nymphs very deep and you don’t have to be afraid of loosing them, because if you do so, you can tie some new ones in a short time.
A really good fishing fly. Superb for very „well educated“ fish!
Three Zonker Streamer # 6. A hook, small Fish Skull, mono for ribbing, dubbing, zonker, some marabou and thread. You don’t need more for a good streamer with awesome movement in the water. You can fish it down and dirty where the big fish are and you don’t have to be afraid to loose your precious streamer, because you can tie some new – easy like 1-2-3….almost ;-) 
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
Here is a spey shrimp tied with a little bit of uv materials. You can’t see them in normal light, jsut when you use your uv torch. Some say fish can’t see uv light, other say they have definitely more hook ups with flies tied with a bit of uv materials. I’ll let the fish decide… ;-)
Last but not least a Flatwing Tobis
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.
These 5 „Burner“ are for the master caster Lars Chr Bentsen in Denmark.
This is a very durable and effective streamer pattern to imitate a small fish. It’s absolute versatile. Seatrout, trout, perch, asp, zander, … every fish which hunts for smaller fish is a good target for THE BURNER.
It looks good when dry, but it looks amazing when wet.
This is really a pattern which you should try.
Materials:
Wind on the lead wire and attach the mono for the ribbing
Split the thread and put the Ice Dub between it. Spin the thread and brush the dubbing with your velcro, than wind the dubbing from the back to the front. Brush the body again with your velcro.
Tie in a piece of a zonker stripe and rib it with the mono. Catch the mono at the front with your thread.
Tie in some bunches of Senyo’s Laser Dub in the colors of your liking. The belly should always be brighter than the back. Finish with a whio finish behind the hook eye and comb the fibres back.
Take your super glue and put two 3D eyes on each side. Then take Bug Bond Lite UV Resin and put a drop between the eyes on the top and on the underside. The thin resin soaks into the head. Use your Bug Bond torch to harden the resin. If you like, you can do some gills behind the eyes with a thin marker pen.
That’s it! A sweet baitfish pattern with the great movement of the zonker stripe and the cool translucent look of the laser dub.
Tight lines and some good time at the water!
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.
This is a really quick step by step of a good baitfish pattern. Ok, to be honest, I just tied this fly for my fishing and took a quick shot from time to time. ;-)
This baitfish looks ok when dry, but when it’s wet! Holy cow! It looks amazing! The Senyo Laser Dubbing gets semi-tranparent and there is a cool flash in the fly, too. The tail made out of arctic fox just moves fantastic in the water. One important fact is, that you have to stiffen the first 5 mm of the tail with Bug Bond Lite. So, the tail doesn’t tangle around the hook bend during the cast. Most flies with a really soft tail material behave like that and it is really a pain in the ass, when you strip your fly in and you see almost every cast, that it was tangled. When you put some weight in the front like lead wire or a tungsten bead, you get a nice jigging effect. Just give this fly a try. It’s durable, it’s tied very fast and it catches fish.
