Confidence On The "Fly"

STAYNER DUCKTAIL

Many of those of us who tie flies seem to be always tinkering at the vise.  Working on coming up with that "Hot" new pattern that all the fish will just go nuts on this year out on the water.  Be honest now, if you have tied much or for sometime anyway, invariably, this has run through your mind.  Or, perhaps you just want to modify a certain established pattern a little bit.  That will make it a new fly right and all your fly fishing friends will credit you with be the creator of a great new pattern.  Especially, if it catches fish, and, you give them a handful to try!  Well, ya' know, you know the story from here.  There truly is probably not a snowball's chance in Hell that somebody, somewhere hasn't already thought of that or tied that pattern up during a session at the ol' vise.

How many fly patterns does an angler need to carry with him or her for a day of fishing? Well, that is a topic for another post sometime, somewhere else.  The point I would like to make here is that it really is a matter of confidence when you tie and fish a fly that works for you.  Both, at the vise, and, on the water, if you have confidence in that fly you will concentrate more when tying them and fishing them.  Why? Because you know they work and you have been rewarded with many a memory of a day{s} on the water when you caught fish after fish on that fly.  Call it what ever you want, but you know, that "Fly" is going to produce more times than not.  You have confidence on the water and confidence on that "Fly" It has become one of your favorite flies that you know you can always lean on when the weather, or the fish, or both are playing hardball with you!  Now, that is a lot said in order for me to introduce you to one of those "Flies" for me.

The Stayner Ducktail was made popular by Ruel Stayner of Twin Falls, Idaho, back many years ago.  Ruel, designed this fly to imitate Perch in the local stillwaters in Idaho.  Little did he know at the time what he really had on his hands with the creation of this pattern.  This pattern went on to become extremely popular in the stillwater fly fishing circles.  I was a member of the "Float Tube Navy" out of Boise, Idaho area.  The Float Tube Navy spent their time learning the concepts of stillwater fly fishing from a float tube and fishing many of the great lakes of the Rocky Mountains. The Stayner Ducktail became the go to fly for many of us back in the day.  It was fished with a sinking line of some sort and fished very well for Trout, Bluegill, Crappie, Bass etc. etc.  It became legendary! Now, I will add to this, that it not only became a legendary, local pattern, but a pattern whose success goes far beyond that.  The Stayner Ducktail has been fished on the rivers in Russia, on the big ponds of New Zealand and Australia, and, for the the giant Rainbows that reside in the lakes of Argentina.  Sadly, not by me, but I have seen many photos of big fish from these waters from friends who made trips to these magnificent waters.  Please bare with me as I recall a story once told to me by my fly fishing mentor, the late Ken Magee of Boise, Idaho.  Ken and several friends from the Boise area had made the trip to Russia and paid for guides to fish some of the great rivers.  He said that they had a really difficult time understanding what the Russian guides were saying, and, particularly what patterns they should use.  None of them had any of what they needed!  So, the group decided they will just fish with Stayner Ducktails.  A Rainbow Trout is a Rainbow Trout, right?  Long story short, Ken and the group had a terrific trip fishing Stayner Ducktails for big, Russian trout!  

There are more stories I could tell, but, let's refocus on the tying of the Stayner Ducktail.  Now, I might be able to tie Stayner Ducktails with anybody, but, I don't shoot video.  Being the subject just gets me all discombogulated!  So, I have done a You Tube search and found a very good fly tying video for you to watch and learn how tie the Stayner Ducktail.  Hope you enjoy watching and tying this great pattern.  Beware warm water fly fishers of the guy fishing the Stayner Ducktail!

Pond Stalker In Distress

I had full intention of putting up a new post with some of what I have been up to at the tying bench during January.  With the new vise I received from Mrs. Santa Claus, I had been re-energized and looking forward to focusing on filling my Bluegill and Crappie fly boxes with some fishy looking patterns.  I have worked on some Soft Hackles, some non-descript nymph patterns, some Stayner Ducktails, and some small versions of my Mohair/Bugger patterns just right for Mr. Bluegill.  Heck, maybe even an unsuspecting Bass might give it a whack if I was lucky!

Ok, flies tied.  Thought I would take some pictures of the flies and have them ready for my post.  The flies, along with some fly tying chat would make for a good post.  Ok, pictures taken!

Next, I needed to transfer them from my phone camera to my email.  Thought everything had gone fine and  was ready to fire up this post.

Wrong, my email has crashed and somewhere in cyberland is my pictures.  Well, no post without the pictures.  I will post them along with the other matter as soon as my email is up and running again.  Ok, so I was distressed.  But, only temporarily!

I came across this video posted by Hopper Juan over on his blog.   Problem solved! This is one of the most dramatic and incredible videos I have seen on the net.  Thanks, Juan, for sharing.  Now, I will share.  Besides, this video puts my blog writing post that I was going to post in shame!
Damsels in Distress from Sharptail Media on Vimeo.

Re-Visiting The Nasty Nylon Nymph

It is a "Happening" time of year! Veteran's Day has passed.  Thanksgiving Day is just a few days away,  This morning a good snow storm greeted me as I pulled the blinds to peek outside to meet my day.  "Brr..... cold is here, I said to myself."  Any fly fishing time I get for awhile might be in the way of a few fly fishing or fly tying videos and a warm cup of Hot Chocolate or something.

Speaking of fly tying, this is the time of year that I spend a good share of my time focusing on tying and filling my fly boxes so that I am ready to go next time I am on some water and the weather cooperates with me.  I, usually, will take some time to "organize" my fly tying bench.  Meaning, putting everything back in it's original spot so that I can start to mess it all up again as I do, inevitably, when I set down for a Winter's tying season.  I have the usual list of fly patterns that I want to tie up that I fish regularly.  I, also, have a few new patterns picked out that I want to try.  Maybe they will find a way to become part of my regular stock in my fly boxes.  Besides watching videos about fly tying, there are also many fly shops in Northern Colorado that offer free winter tying demonstrations with some of the areas well know fly tyers.  These sessions are a lot of fun and there is so much to learn if the fly fisher wants to learn about new patterns or what patterns are the most effective in the area.  If you don't tie flies, but would like to learn, the shops also offer fly tying classes for beginners for a reasonable fee.  Check out the shops in your area.  There is a wealth of information to gain if you take advantage of it.

A number of years ago, I offered a beginning fly tying class through my local fly fishing club.  I would like to share a scenario that happened on one of those class nights.  I hope you will enjoy this little story.  Winter tying season always brings back this memory.  I regard it as the "Coming of the Fly Tying Season.  Let me introduce you to "The Nasty Nylon Nymph".

I know I still chuckle every time my memory drifts back to the moment in time.
Before I stray off subject, I had better focus on the story I am trying to tell here.  One of the things that a die-hard fly fisherman often times does is to learn to tie his own fly for casting to his favorite fish.  Over time I became fairly decent at tying my own flies.  Enough so that I ended up teaching fly tying at schools and various public settings.  This post is about a “funny” incident that occurred one night while teaching fly tying at the local high school.  I know your waiting to find out what “Nasty Nylons” has got to do with tying flies and teaching others to tie flies.  Well, I am about to tell you.
 
Let’s first address the nylons.  You know those things are everywhere when not being worn by your wife or favorite lady friend.  They cling to everything in the laundry if you are not careful.  Their rolled up in your gym socks, their knotted around your pants legs, there everywhere except nicely laid out for the next time my wife wants to wear a pair.  Now comes my calamity!
I was, once again, teaching fly tying to a group of adults, both male and female at the local high school.  These were beginning fly tying students so I had some flexibility with this calamity and I am not sure they ever really caught it at the moment how embarrassed I was. 
We were going to tie a basic nymph pattern that night.  Students gathered around my desk so as to see the demonstration of what they then would try to duplicate back at their desks in the classroom.  In order, the hook was placed in the position in the vise jaws so as to be held sturdy while tying other materials on to the hook.  My thread was attached to the hook and the tail material added.  Now I was ready for the body material that was supposed to be some pheasant tail fibers.  However, as I started to reach into my fly tying box for the pheasant tail fibers, there I saw it! 
One of my wife’s nylons coming out the sleeve of my shirt near my tying hand.  Oh, No!  To this day I still don’t how the brain works and how it works so quickly.  In a heart beat, and, without hesitating for a moment, I pulled the nylon from my shirt sleeve and cut a rectangular piece from it with my scissors.  I think the students were shocked, but, they looked on anxious to see what I was going to do next.  I attached the “nylon strip” to the back of the hook with my thread.  I was going to use it to make the body of my fly with.  Knowing that nylon is super fragile (you know runs, runs, runs), I knew that I would have to use some wire to reinforce the body of the fly or it would fall apart before it ever hit the water.  Thankfully I had intended on using some fine copper wire that evening anyway.  So I tied some on to the back of the hook.  I proceeded very carefully to wind the “nasty nylon” around the hook up towards the eye of the hook and then reverse wrapped the copper wire so as to reinforce the nylon body material. 
In short order, I had a fly body of reinforced nylon from my wife and some basic dubbing wrapped around the front of the hook at the eye.  Simple little pattern and easy to tie.  Besides I had lots of nylon stocking left for my students to cut up and use that evening as they practiced tying their own “Nasty Nylon Nymph”.  Believe it or not, I hear they even fished this fly on our local river and landed some trout with it.  It became a common request as I taught other classes to show other how to tie the nylon nymph.  I used it to break the ice at several tying classes to create a little humor and help new fly tying students relax. 

Fly tying fun is what you make of it!

Effective Fly Patterns For Mr. Whiskers

Catfish, ala Mr. Whiskers, can be caught on a fly rod! They can be challenging, strong during battle, and, just plain fun to wrestle with if you are so inclined. Let alone good eating if you decide to fillet up some Catfish for a tasty meal. In my previous post, Fly Fishing For Cats, you were able to see a video, that with some effort and the right fly patterns, that Catfish could indeed be approachable with a fly rod on your local pond or stillwater fishery.  I ended that post by stating that I would share with you some effective fly patterns for fly fishing for Catfish.  I will be posting three well done videos here for you to consider when fly fishing for Catfish tempts you.  I might add that all three patterns are also extremely useful when fishing for Trout, Bass, and Carp! So they are Streamer patterns you should consider anyway for your fly boxes.  You can pick out one or two or all of them to watch if you would like.  Kind of like pick your poison!  Even if you don't buy into the fact that you will go fly fishing for Catfish, these patterns are well worth having around.  Let's begin with the video from In The Riffle that instructs how to tie John Barr's very successful Meat Whistle Streamer.
  Next up, let's take a look at Jay Zimmerman's very popular Backstabber pattern!
Finally, I would like to share my favorite personal Streamer pattern for the Catfish I have caught on a fly rod. This is a video done by Curtis Fry. Let me introduce you to the Stayner Ducktail!  

What a great way to start for Fly Fishing for Catfish. Let me just say that I know there are other Streamer patterns that will work. Muddler Minnows, Wooly Buggers, and their endless variety should also do just fine. Have fun and let me know if you decide to go Fly Fishing for Catfish, and, try some of these great patterns, just how you did!