I went to a Craig Mathews tying show yesterday.
Good show. Craig is a multi-talented guy: successful store owner,
good talker and amazing fly tier. He knows the patterns in his repetoire
so well he hardly seems to pay attention to what he's doing while tying.
He talks, glances around, says hello to friends who wander in, makes eye
contact with the audience, and ties all at the same time.
Pretty good show. I took a few photos with a Flash and closeup lense. The Flash
is hard to work with, so my photos are OK at best:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Sandy.Pittendrigh/CraigMathewsDemo#slideshow
Craig's obvious love of small flies (I asked him and he said he hadn't even tied
a streamer in years) inspired me to work on the Pmd a bit more.
The Pale Morning Dun and the Blue Winged Olive are the most important mayfly
hatches of the year for me. And I do think most commercial patterns are too
complex, fat and over-dressed. I'm not sure how successful I've been.
But my answer (for small mayfly duns) always seems to come down to this:
Throw out the body and the rooster hackle and make a fly with trailing shuck, abdomen
and wing made from a single bunch of duck flank. And with bottom-mounted legs made from a
single right-angles-to-the-shank tuft of zelon.
This one's tied on a #22 Daiichi 1130. The wing has a bit of cdc added to the duck flank.
I find this one's a lot easier to tie than most. You're not trying to squeeze a ribbed body and wind
infinitesimally small hackles onto a tiny hook.
For larger mayflies the traditional patterns work just fine. But properly proportioned
rooster-hackled flies, with dubbed bodies, ribbing and tails, do not work well
(for me anyway) for the itty-bitties, size #20 and smaller. Traditional ties are not only
too hard to accomplish in the small sizes, they always seem to end up too fat and bushy too.
The other interesting part about Craig's show (switching context here again...)
were his comments about climate change. He refused to make any connection
to any possibly man-made responsibility--carbon dioxide, etc. Instead he
simply said it's here and it can't be denied. Climate change (for what ever cause or reason) is
happening quickly. And the first place he sees it is in the migration
of warm water aquatic insects into the local habitat. The flies they tie
at Blue Ribbon Flies are already evolving to keep up with the new species they see.
Interesting stuff.
...March 24, update:
Not much activity on the forum, last few days. Here's an update on the tailbutt mayfly:
I once heard Al Troth say (at a tying seminar) "the way to really learn how to tie fly is
to tie it for a week. Then, after that, you never have to think about it again."
Of course Al meant "tie one fly for a week, eight hours a day."
I have been working on this fly, but not 8 hours a day. It is an easy fly to tie, even in the itty bitty sizes.
But there are some tricks.
But you need more than one pattern, and Sparkle Duns are tricky to tie in the tiny sizes. Making mayflies #18 or larger?
Ok, for bigger mayflies tie anything you want. Catskill Classics are great. But catskill-style dries are damn difficult to
tie smaller than #18. That's what the tailbutt is good for: itty-bitties.
Good show. Craig is a multi-talented guy: successful store owner,
good talker and amazing fly tier. He knows the patterns in his repetoire
so well he hardly seems to pay attention to what he's doing while tying.
He talks, glances around, says hello to friends who wander in, makes eye
contact with the audience, and ties all at the same time.
Pretty good show. I took a few photos with a Flash and closeup lense. The Flash
is hard to work with, so my photos are OK at best:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Sandy.Pittendrigh/CraigMathewsDemo#slideshow
Craig's obvious love of small flies (I asked him and he said he hadn't even tied
a streamer in years) inspired me to work on the Pmd a bit more.
The Pale Morning Dun and the Blue Winged Olive are the most important mayfly
hatches of the year for me. And I do think most commercial patterns are too
complex, fat and over-dressed. I'm not sure how successful I've been.
But my answer (for small mayfly duns) always seems to come down to this:
Throw out the body and the rooster hackle and make a fly with trailing shuck, abdomen
and wing made from a single bunch of duck flank. And with bottom-mounted legs made from a
single right-angles-to-the-shank tuft of zelon.
This one's tied on a #22 Daiichi 1130. The wing has a bit of cdc added to the duck flank.
I find this one's a lot easier to tie than most. You're not trying to squeeze a ribbed body and wind
infinitesimally small hackles onto a tiny hook.
For larger mayflies the traditional patterns work just fine. But properly proportioned
rooster-hackled flies, with dubbed bodies, ribbing and tails, do not work well
(for me anyway) for the itty-bitties, size #20 and smaller. Traditional ties are not only
too hard to accomplish in the small sizes, they always seem to end up too fat and bushy too.
The other interesting part about Craig's show (switching context here again...)
were his comments about climate change. He refused to make any connection
to any possibly man-made responsibility--carbon dioxide, etc. Instead he
simply said it's here and it can't be denied. Climate change (for what ever cause or reason) is
happening quickly. And the first place he sees it is in the migration
of warm water aquatic insects into the local habitat. The flies they tie
at Blue Ribbon Flies are already evolving to keep up with the new species they see.
Interesting stuff.
...March 24, update:
Not much activity on the forum, last few days. Here's an update on the tailbutt mayfly:
I once heard Al Troth say (at a tying seminar) "the way to really learn how to tie fly is
to tie it for a week. Then, after that, you never have to think about it again."
Of course Al meant "tie one fly for a week, eight hours a day."
I have been working on this fly, but not 8 hours a day. It is an easy fly to tie, even in the itty bitty sizes.
But there are some tricks.
- tie the Zelon bow tie legs on first, underneath the shank
- Want a cdc wing? Tie it on now, before tying on the tail/trailing nymphal shuck combo. Lick the cdc to make it thin, wet and manageable. It will dry out and fluff up again later. Now tie on the tail. Now pull the cdc wing up and wind a few wraps in front, to stand up the cdc wing. Whip finish.
- Don't want the cdc wing? The Zelon bow tie legs are already in place. So tie on the tail/trailing nymphal shuck combo now, leaving the course ends of
the duck flank tail long enough to form a wing. Stand up the wing. Wrap in front of the wing to keep it standing up.
- Whip finish
But you need more than one pattern, and Sparkle Duns are tricky to tie in the tiny sizes. Making mayflies #18 or larger?
Ok, for bigger mayflies tie anything you want. Catskill Classics are great. But catskill-style dries are damn difficult to
tie smaller than #18. That's what the tailbutt is good for: itty-bitties.
