The Water Pig

 First tie in foam, then holo-tinsel medium blue for a tag. Then palmer a black hackle through black ostrich herl.

 Tie in knotted black pheasant for legs. I've only knotted these once, the length isn't important. Tie in three each side.

 Pull the foam over to complete the body. 

 Tiemco aero-dry wing makes a great spotting post. Tie in and trim to length later. Trim butt end close to base.

 Tie in two pieces of peacock sword on each side to represent a wing. Cut the waste of the foam off tapering each side so you can tie it in neatly. Don't worry about the taper as the hackle grips onto the foam well. A little glue here if you like.

 Tie in your black hackle. We will finish off with a hackle.

 Once the hackle is in place trim the spotting post to size. 

Beady Eyes

 Cut 15lb Mono and thread though your favourite bead. Melt one end up to the bead. Melt about 1cm.

 Choose the distance between the eyes. Depending on the fly the gap is usually about 5mm. You'll have to experiment a bit. 

 These tweezers are sprung so hold the nylon by themselves. Now you can see both ends have been melted down. (Careful not to breathe in the nylon fumes.)

 The finished eyes ready to tie in.

The great thing about this way of tying eyes is that there are so many colours of beads, they are relatively quick to make and the result is quite natural looking.

Make a Wish for 2017

Nature's Clues

Big Winds and Bright Wings

Tried to make a dry that I could see easily, and came up with this. It's nothing new in terms of design, but decided to share the tying stages.

 Tie in synthetic wing with CDC around the outside and tail fibres.

 Tie in your favourite coloured soft feather for the body.

 Wrap the body almost to the wing post and angle butts towards the point of the hook under the fly.

 Tie in your favourite hackles.

 Wind the hackles behind and in front of the wing.

 Tie off hackles ready to trim off.

 Turn fly up-side-down and trim down the centre. Clear a path for the body material to come forward.

 See here a cleared pathway.

 Then pull body material over like a nymph wingcase.

 Trim ends and tidy up head area, whip finish.

 Trim the wing to your favourite size.

 Finished fly.

 Nice profile.

Ready to go!

Materials 

Hook: Size 12 - up turned-eye dry fly hook. 

Wing: Neer Hair

Tail: Cock-de-leon, speckled brown.

Hackle: Grizzle Yellow, Grey.

Body: Dyed Hen Pheasant.

Captain's Maiden Voyage

 Captain of the boat has spotted a trout rising near a small willow. First time the captain has ever chased trout and already hot on the trail.

 Paddling and eating chocolate at the same time.. true multi-tasking.

 Trying hard to attract a fish. It's all about a balanced approach.

The captain was nervous about getting hooked as this was her first time to see fly fishing. 100 dollars was offered as compensation for every time the captain got hooked! Back with reassurance to the eye-brow management.

 

Time to muscle-up for the paddle back.....get those guns out!

Stream Scene

 

Haven't been on a small stream in a long time. It reminded me of my early beginnings as a fly fisher. We always used to say if you can catch fish in a willow-clad small stream, you can catch them anywhere. It was fun to use the 5 weight. The Lochmor 5905-3 is a fantastic rod, with a punchy responsive action. If you are looking for a slick 5 weight I totally recommend it. I team it up with a  Hardy Ultra-light disc.