Christmas Card Extras

[DOUGSDEN]

Good Evening Fellow Forum Members and a Very Merry Christmas to All!
The excitement is building around this house! Our nearly two year old granddaughter Olivia stayed with us for the better part of the day. I was holding her and asking her when "Ho-Ho" is coming. She looked at me and started to shake and smile sweetly and said, "Two Sleeps Pap"! Her excitement is hard to contain and I wish that we all could look at this special day with the same simple joy that our children and grand babies do! But, this is not what this post is all about although I wanted to share this special moment with you!
I want to give you the recipes for the two patterns that Bill posted for me recently! Yes, I am rather slow but here we go! Number two pattern is a Baetis (Blue-Winged Olive) immitation by Sylvester Nemes from his book Soft-Hackled Fly Immitations. Two years ago I did all four BWO patterns from the chapter entitled Baetis and the one mistake I made was not tying them small enough! This one is called Starling and Olive and has been very effective when my sunfishes get a little smug. There is very few BWO's that hatch in my area but they still gobble it up just the same! The recipe from Syl's book is as follows:
Hooks: 16-18 light wire.
Tying thread: Danville olive.
Body: Danville olive thread built up from the tail into a thin sloping taper.
Ribbing: Yellow silk.
Thorax: Tiny bunch of mole. (optional.) I didn't on mine but I wish that I would have! D.
Hackle: Starling, three or four wraps. (Include at least one or two wraps of the dull, base side of the hackle.)

Notes: The hooks that I like to use for this series are TMC 102Y and you gotta love the bite that these hooks have!
The yellow silk ribbing is a great idea because it is more pronounced than using say any of the dacron tying threads which seem to lay flat like they are designed to do. Even twisting the dacron threads does not do the trick like good ol' Pearsalls or similar.
The mole on the thorax adds a bit of heft to an otherwise thin profiled and delicate fly. Tie a few with and without and see what the neighbors think!
Starling is a joy to work with but I can see that I did not choose the length properly. Maybe just bit longer would have been better!
One of the amazing things about this series is that there is four distinctively different patterns representing the same insect!
Syl's descriptions of the effectiveness of each as he traveled around and experimented with each is fascinating! "Immitations" is by far my favorite of the trilogy that he offers!
The other three patterns are Starling and Pheasant, Waterhen-Bloa, and Blue-Winged Olive. These are also great fish getters on my local waters! Tell me what you think of these patterns and how they work on your waters!
I think I will tackle #1 on another thread.
Thanks for listening,
Doug

[letumgo]

Doug - I enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for taking time to give us the background on this pattern. I agree with your book assessment. It was a treat to read.

Blessings to you and your whole family.

[William Anderson]

Doug - I enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for taking time to give us the background on this pattern. I agree with your book assessment. It was a treat to read.

Blessings to you and your whole family.

Same here, Doug. Thanks for the background and for putting together a couple of exceptional patterns. And thanks to Bill for posting these.

w

[DOUGSDEN]

Hello again Friends,
After a weekend of Christmas partying with my family, I suddenly realized that I did not give you a recipe for #1 pattern that Bill posted for me! So, here she be!
This is one of those throw together from the stuff on your desk type of patterns. It has been a while ago and it has graced my flymph box for several years now. This is the only one! I remember that the hook was a TMC 3761 with that heavy wire and graceful curve along it's length! The tail fibers are those from a "dirty cream" colored hen neck that I plucked so much that there remains a huge bald spot in the middle of the pelt because all of the good feathers have long since vanished. The overall look of the feather was decidedly red and now, over time, it has taken on a lighter shade! The body is Krystal Dub which has some of the finest and thinnest antron shavings mixed in that I have ever seen. It was applied directly to the hook and not a prespun body on my spinning block (sorry). I did use the "hackled over the first 1/3 -1/2 of the thorax" method and as is the case with most of my patterns, it appears to be over-hackled! It's a very rough and tumble pattern for sure! If you gave me another 5 years or so, I could prob. reproduce a half dozen or so! That's how inconsistant my tying is! Please enjoy this one of a kind!
Mad Scientist at the vice,
D.