Posts Tagged ‘maltese dogs’

Thought I’d head out this morning for a couple of hours to the small lake I’ve been fishing recently.  I have plans to fish this evening as well, but the weather forecast is calling for possible thunderstorms and rain.  It was cloudy and windy earlier but no thunderstorms happening.

It was very breezy when I started fishing and no surface activity so I thought I’d try the regular wooley bugger,  leech, blob,  and similar patterns.  For an hour and half, I fished, trying various depths and retrieves – and nothing.  I tried a buzzer pattern – figured, “why the heck not, nothing else is working” and still not even a strike.

Finally, I tied on my Malteser fly.  Would you believe two fish on this thing again? It makes no sense at times. It’s a pattern I tied up more of a joke than anything else – just to say I had tied up a fly from my dog’s hair.  And they are all very messy ties – but yet the thing gets me fish sometimes when nothing else will.  A yellow bead, lots of red thread, and white Maltese dog hair.  Heh.

If this keeps up, maybe in spite of how annoying this little dog is with all his barking, he’ll be worth the thousand bucks we paid for him.

After the second fish, I started hearing thunder and thought it might be a good time to get off the lake.  It also might be a good time to tie up more of these flies.

“Here, Rudy… come on pup….”  Now where’s my scissors…

Rudy is a little Maltese dog that we got last year when he was a puppy. Now, I might not be able to train Rudy to fetch beer for me, but he does have pure white hair that has some marabou like qualities to it when under water. Last year, I tied up some streamers using Rudy’s hair – he needed a hair cut. The streamers were later dubbed “Maltesers” by Team Osprey captain, Ernie Kalwa.

This evening, I went out on the Grand with Colin before I take him home to Ottawa tomorrow – the conditions were worse than they were on Saturday. The water level was very high – the water felt colder, and although the sun was shining in Orangeville before we left, warming us up – it was overcast on the river.

Once again, we cast a variety of nymphs and streamers but not even a hit. Others on the river were experiencing the same lack of action. Finally, I thought, “what the heck?” and tied on a Malteser that I had in one of my fly boxes.

A few minutes later, an envious Colin was watching me pull in a 14 inch brown. It was the only fish we saw however. A real pretty brown it was, except for the gash marks across its back, likely from an Osprey (the bird, not a team member) looking for a snack.

I’m thinking of hosting another fly swap – perhaps my pattern will be this Malteser. I’m curious how it will work for others!

When we got home, Rudy being the loud yapping dog that he is, of course yapping with excitement to see Colin and I home. Instead of telling him to shush, I picked him up and thanked him. His hair kept me from being skunked twice in a row!

Part of the fun of fly tying is experimenting – sometimes doing things that might seem ridiculous – but who knows, right?

I purchased a Maltese puppy a few months back.  For those that don’t know what a Maltese breed is like, it’s considered a “toy” breed, growing to a maximum of 6 lbs. generally, and has very silky, mostly white hair.  It does not shed like other breeds and therefore is a good choice of dog for those who suffer from dog allergies.

My pup’s hair is starting to really grow, so while he was sleeping, I decided to do some chopping. Although it doesn’t look so, when on the dog, the fur is very very fine and quite silky.  So I got a silly idea to use some for dubbing on a white dry emerger fly. The second fly I tied up, I even tried to use it to form the tail – but I’m not sure yet that this will work.

I used white hackle for the wing – and tested it out in a bowl of water – the fly has no problem floating.  How durable it will be on the water, I’m not sure. I did find that using sticky dubbing wax helped a little more.  Anyhow, I have an abundance of Maltese puppy dog hair available to me, so I’ll do some further experimenting, I’m sure.  Maybe try some larger clumps to tie up some streamers… who knows?!?

How about you?  Do you have a pet that you use as a source for fly tying materials?  I’d love to hear about it! Use the comments section if you’d like.