What's in your vise?

[Glen]

Originally Posted by Shaq

Vise Time

Dunt: William Murdoch who wrote about spring flies for the Dee River in Scotland in the Fishing Gazette in 1895's most famous fly. It's turning out to be quite a steelhead fly as well.



A Glentana: A fly from Mr. Brown from Aberdeen. It appeared in Francis Fancis's A Book On Angling in 1867


Another William Murdoch Fly from the Fishing Gazette


The Red Wing, or Red Wing Heron by William Murdoch. This is the latest fly to be pulled by chrome for me last weekend

Shaq,

Very nice flies, and they obviously work. Thanks for posting.

[JW]

Wondering what line you are using there?

[Shaq]

JW,

In that run, at 750cfs on the Salmon, I was using a floating Delta Spey Line on my 13 foot 7wt with 10 feet of T-11 sinking tip material on it. 3 feet of 12lb maxima tippet.

[Moonman]

Hey Shaq,

That Glentana looks an awfull lot like Dec Hogan's Skagit Mist. Change the tail and bit and they are twins. Or shoud I say the Skagit Mist looks like the Glentana?

Nice flies.

Moonman.

[Shaq]

Moonman, the skagit mist is more like an akroyd with the yellow turned to red. I tied this one last year...I have swung it but our fish don't seem to like it.

[Glen]

So I finally got around to trying out new dragon fly nymph and chironomid prototypes. I'm not sure the dragon fly nymph is dark enough, but what do you guys think about the concept? Pretty simple tie; dubbed abdomen, woven herl thorax, hackle points over the top, swiss straw wing case, partridge and some mono eyes. This has some weight and I would fish this slow and deep. The chironomid looks kind of weird but I was going for a minimalistic approach with a very thin body.

Any comments or suggestions appreciated.

GlenDSCN2563.jpg

DSCN2569.jpg

DSCN2570.jpg

[vtflyfish]

So I've been largely absent from this discussion. Something about 70 hour work weeks and impending deadlines for Boeing's new 787. I only worked 65.5 hours this week and thus had an afternoon at the vise. Here are a few favorites I'll be counting on for Spring.

006.jpg
The ubiquitous Bugger with red leech dubbing

003.jpg
The simple Adirondack Nymph. I can't tell you how many trout have fallen for this simple fly.
004.jpg
The rubber legged Stonefly tied on a Draper hook to give it that nice, flat profile.
005.jpg

[vtflyfish]

Plus a couple of favorite Chironomids. Note the yellow Goose biot wing cases on the black one.

[vtflyfish]

I sat down tonight with old friends Polly Roseborough and Skip Morris. New friend Denny Rickards had something to say as well. Jim Beam and my Old Grandad are vacationing on the Isle of Jura so I settled in with my Argentinian buddy Malbec.

We had a good time at the vice, er - vise. Damsels were in my head. Damsels in Spring, Damsels in distress. They swim with a whipping motion, so motion is key. Big eyes, we all know about those. Now for that profile and the illusion of translucence...

[Glen]

VT-

Glad your back doing what's important. What are the tail fibers on that Adirondack nymph?
Also, where did you get those killer draper hooks?

Really like that black chironomid too.

[vtflyfish]

Glen, old buddy, old pal,

The tail on the ADK nymph are Moose body fibers from just below the mane. I've got a buddy who whacked one in the VT season last year. He offered me the whole pelt which probably weighed 100 pounds.

And those Draper hooks? A gift from a friend. BTW, I've got 200 coming...

[vtflyfish]

My youngest son, Ross, has really caught the fly tying bug. He's read every book we have that pertains to flies and tying. Worse, he really fancies classic flies. Married wings, classic Salmon patterns, stuff I never was good at.

Mid last week he asked me how to marry feathers, so I showed him. Yesterday and today after school, he came up with these. Ross is 10. I give him one more year before he outclasses us all.

[wildbrookies]

Very nice Ross!!!

Hes already got me beat ...what do you mean in a few years...

Love his choice of tying the classics...theres no prettier patterns than those..

WB

[Shaq]

Great flies! I have met several "kids" at fly tying events this year that put me to shame...he is well on his way! Look out...pretty soon he's going to be asking for speckled bustard feathers and a jungle cock cape for christmas!