Archive for the ‘fly tying’ Category

That’s the “wee man,” smiling his little heart out after tying up our Copper Oval Tinsel Chironomid pattern.  This time, David did just about everything on his own.  He was pretty proud of himself as well he should be.  We went over our materials list first and  he recalled just about everything we needed.  He set up his vice on his own.  He put the bead on the hook on his own, and then tightened the hook into the vice.  He then started the thread around the shank of the hook.

He tied in the oval tinsel and wound it up to the bead where he had a little problem securing it, but he fixed that up. Then, he tied in his three peacock herl and secured them. The only thing I did was finish it for him with a few half hitches.  I didn’t hold anything for him and didn’t have to tell him what to do or how to do it. He’s getting to be an old pro at this!  Well.. we still need to do a wee bit of work on a few things:

It will still catch fish, but we need to work on getting some things tightened up a bit with David getting used to using a bit more tension.  But this fly is not far off what I tied, all by myself, the very first time, and I was an adult – not a 7 year old kid.

He enjoyed using his new bobbin – a smaller 3″ size that I picked up the other day – a Dr. Slick with ceramic insert. He seemed more comfortable holding and manipulating the smaller size bobbin in his wee hands than the larger one that came in his fly tying kit.

I think I’ll have him tie up a bunch more of these – it will be a good exercise for him to practice his tension while he wraps tinsel around the hook. When he gets it just about right, which I expect he will soon, we’ll move on to tying up some streamers. Then we’ll move back to the woolly bugger and see how well he does completely on his own with that. Of course, David has a say in all of this too – what he wants to tie will be pretty important!

Related:

Chironomid Patterns

Our First Fly Tying Video

I know, it’s Christmas Day, and I’m writing about scud patterns! The “wee fella” is playing with a new X-Box and I’m just not quite into that sort of thing. He’s promised me that later on, now that he is feeling better today, he’ll definitely be wanting to try out his new smaller bobbin I gave him.

Yesterday evening (Christmas Eve), I wrote about trying out my own new bobbin and working on some scud patterns that I want to experiment with and try out. This morning, I thought I’d see what others have to say about their favorite scud patterns. I came across The Winona Fly Factory blog and specifically, this post: The T.hread H.eaded S.cud. Take a look at the photos of his scuds. I really like how he has used the orange thread as a “hot spot.”

In my research, I note that Ian James writes:

“John went on to tell me that there is a parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis which lives in the intestinal tract of a scud and which turns the intestinal tract orange. Fish key in on this. Why orange? The scud is simply the intermediate host for the parasite. It actually wants to end up living in a trout, barbel (Barbus barbus), bream (Abramis brama), goldfish (Carassius auratus) or chub (Leuciscus cephalus). So by turning the scud bright orange the trout can easily see it. The trout woofs down the scud and the parasite ends up where it wants to be … inside the trout. Darn cunning. Sometimes you will find dead orange coloured scuds in the water or inside a fish. Orange is not the colour of a live scud, it shows up when the insect dies. The orange colour is carotene and when ingested, the carotene is transferred into the tissue of the fish, and the flesh takes on a nice reddish-pink colour.”

~ Ian James – “Scuds. It’s all about scuds.”

Lots of ideas coming to mind now. I’ll have to try to keep it all simple, so David can make another video “to teach other kids” too!

David, my “wee man,” has come down with a bit of a bug and Colleen (still seems weird at my age to call her my “girlfriend”) is visiting her mom in Nova Scotia for Christmas.  So, I’ve been tying flies.  David came down with a cough, a bit of a fever and was feeling lethargic all day.  One of his gifts was a new bobbin for his fly tying as well as some other new materials, and I let him open that gift this evening.  I thought a smaller bobbin in his hands might be easier for him.

When he opened the gift, he thanked me like I had just handed him a million dollars! When I asked him if he wanted to try out his new bobbin, he replied, “Maybe later Dad.”  He then promptly crawled back under the blanket but tried to reassure me he was “feeling fine.”

I also decided to pick up a new bobbin for myself – a “rite™ bobbin” which I’ve heard some guys talking about. I’ll post a review of it shortly. I’ve been using it this evening but can’t say I’ve exactly put it through its paces.

I’ve got this interest in chironomid fly patterns as well as scuds lately. Tonight, it was scuds, and I decided to tie some olive ones. I’m not sure how poor they are yet – I’ll have to give them a try sometime. They are quite basic – used Olive Uni thread, medium olive dubbing for the body, gold wire for ribbing, and clear plastic bag trimmed to fit for the back. I tied them on a Knapek scud hook, size 8 – a bit too big but the only scud hooks I have at the moment. And at that size, I think I need to dub a bit thicker around the middle body area.

Speaking of dubbing, I recently managed to get my hands on the complete 48 colour series of “Traditional Irish Dubbing” by Frankie McPhillips. If you like to experiment with a lot of different shades, you might want to give this a try. I haven’t counted up the different shades of olive that are available, but quite a few. There’s even a “Cow Dung” colour in one of the boxes. Not sure if there is anyone in North America that carries this dubbing, but I got mine from Stevie Munn in Northern Ireland.

Bed time for me, and hoping the “wee man” is feeling much better!

Merry Christmas to you all, too. I hope you have a great holiday.