FLYMPH FORUM

The video is "slightly different" from what he shows on pages 134-135 of his book. In the video, he attaches the wire with 2 turns of thread (just in front of the tail); wraps a 5-6 turn abdomen; ties off the wire at the thorax and then helicopters off the part of the wire he left hanging off the back end of the fly.

In this case: watching the video is worth a 1000 words!

Tight Lines- Ken

Here on the left is a Dai Riki 135 #20 tied like before but using Ed's new wire technique.

RIMG1650 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

On the right is a Dai Riki 125 #22 tied with the new wire wrap.
Thread & Body-Veevus 16/0 Black & 10 Turns of Black XS Ultra Wire
Tail and Wings-White Hi-Vis
Thorax-Black Fine and Dry

On the bottom is a bare TMC 101 #24 for comparison...
the DR 135 #20 is 1 extra short and approximately equal in length to the TMC #24 hook,
the DR 125 #22 is 2 XS and the DR 135 #20 is about 20% longer than the DR 125 #22

Good information Bill. I was watching some trout feed yesterday and think this pattern may have the key to fooling them. Whatever they were taking was very small (invisible to me) and just a couple inches below the surface. Always fun watch trout feeding and try to figure out what they are eating.

Polarized sunglasses are one of the best inventions ever. I'd be lost without them, after fishing with them for so many years.

Roadkill, that's a great photo of the fly comparison. Thanks for posting. I have used the drowned Trico at spinner time in the faster water....works like a charm.

In the process of stealing these sunken beauties to add to my trico box, I came up with a variant of your brilliant! withered female, using clear midge larva lace filled with xs silver ultra wire for the abdomen. (Aunt Lydia's and mahogany Beaver dubbing for the rest.)

Bill, these patterns are so valuable on the tail waters I fish, year round, and the Freestone rivers this time of year. They work nymphing and as a dry and everything in-between.

Great job.

Another method for the wire is to simply wrap the wire from tail to thorax. Grab the tail end of the wire with a lead wire hook clip and tightly wrap the remaining wire forward. I prefer to cut both ends rather than helicopter. At the thorax back wind your thread through the last few wire wraps and that will lock the wire in place and prevent it from slipping off of the bend. You then complete your fly by dubbing over the thorax or not. You can add a drop of super glue over the hook prior to winding the wire but there is no real need. You can also build a slight tapered body with thread prior to winding the wire but make it very sparse.

An interesting effect can be achieved with wire by going over a wire body with a waterproof magic marker and then swiping the body with a drop of varnish. The varnish 'dissolves' the marker ink and you get an interesting effect that is both subtle and better mimics an insects coloration.
Black marker over copper wire looks very good but you can experiment with other wire colors and markers too. For olives i like brown, grey or dark olive colored markers over olive or green wire. Note that white wire does not work. The wire bodied soft hackles will ride a little lower in the water column and you can use as anchors for droppers.

One more note on copper wire, every nymph fisherman should try Oliver Kite's Bare Hook Nymph. It is simply a ball of copper wire wrapped around a hook shank. Ed Zern wrote about it in The Masters on the Nymph. It is no grand fish killer but it dow work and will catch fish for you. The fly will give you a new perspective on fly tying and nymph fishing.

I've been using Kelly Galloup's version for the past couple of years and I've had very good luck with it.
I do tie mine on a 20 scud hook for better hooking. I got this tip from the 2nd video below.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YrSaMzarUA4 ... -TRE73MC6Z

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tpMI6iZNvtE ... eze2ncS_Uz