Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted to my blog. 

Better late than never, I guess. 

Today, as I was cleaning up my shop (a never ending job) I stumbled across a fly I tied last fall to fish for late summer steelhead. 

This fly is a Tribute to two tiers who have both been a great influence in my tying style.  First,  Jon Harrang. Jon's pattern,  the "Copper and Claret" provided the pallet for this fly.  Jon is a great friend of mine and a wicked-good tier who has a knack for incorporating Northwest steelhead style into classic salmon fly patterns.

The second tier is Bill Chinn.  Bill has had a huge influence on my full dress salmon fly tying.  He is an innovator who is not afraid to mix modern materials and techniques into classic patterns and somehow manages to make his flies elegant and sleek no matter what materials are in them. Bill gave me a genetic hackle tip winged, spey-dee style type fly that had a flashabou tail,  no rib, a  palmered schlappen body hackle and long throat of guinea.  It was given to me with strict instructions to fish it (which I cautiously have), but it looked so good and fishy in the water, I knew the pattern and style had unlimited color possibilities. 
 
So, with all that said, the grafting of two creative tying vines has produced this fruit:

A Copper and Claret, Hackle tip, Flash tail, Palmered Spey-Dee:
Hook:  A long dee blind iron
Tail:  Copper Flashabou
Body Hackle:  Claret Schlappen, palmered
Body: Claret seal
Throat: Black pheasant rump with a turn of claret guinea over
Wing:  Two cree hackle tips set low and splayed, dee style

I just wanted to take a moment and wish all of my current and future customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  
 
Our family would like to thank everyone for all of the internet orders and walk in business in the shop this last year.  We look forward to seeing what 2014 brings.  Having the retail shop has been a wonderful opportunity to put faces with names, and I have enjoyed meeting so many of you that have taken the time to come visit us.  So please, if you are going to be in the Northwest, consider a side trip to see us at the store, I don't think you'll be disappointed! (just call ahead to let us know you are coming)

Please have a safe holiday, especially if you are traveling.  Enjoy time with your family and friends. Celebrate and remember to give thanks for the many blessings we have all received,  AND HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

 Even though I'm not very old, I guess I'd consider my tying pretty "old school" .  I am slow to jump on bandwagons, and very leery of any hype surrounding something "new" when it comes to fly tying. 
  A couple of my customers have been telling me about a yarn they have been using for quite some time now.  Easy to use, flashy, catches fish, blah, blah blah...... You know the usual fly tying marketing catch phrases.
 As I normally do, I just ignored it, and continued to tap into my vast supply of dead animal parts to dub my flies..... old school style.  

After enough repeated exposure to all of the "Willy's this and Willy's that"  I decided to see what all of the hubbub was about......  
I have to admit, it was pretty cool.  Cool enough, in fact, to get the old school gears turning in my head.  Imagine Ice dub on a string.  Dope on a rope.  So dope, I bought all 30 colors of:  ......  WILLY'S SPARKLING YARN   

WILLY'S FLY:
Hook:  #3 Alec Jackson spey
Tag: fine flat silver tinsel
Tail: Blue peacock breast feathers
Butt: Black ostrich herl
Body: Yellow Willy's Sparkling Yarn
Rib: Gold twist, medium
Hackle: Ringneck pheasant rump feather
Wing: American Widgeon
Cheeks: Jungle Cock

It's been a while since I've had a chance to tie, and I apologize in advance because this is a repeat, but.........  That should tell you how I feel about this pattern.  When thinking of terms to describe this pattern, words like magical, enchanting, and mystical come to mind.  I've fished a lot of patterns over the years, but none seem to bring me beauty and joy while fishing like this one does. 

 After my recent trip steelhead fishing, I realized that two of the three sunflies I had tied were on barbed doubles, and were not legal to fish where I was at.  My single sun fly that was legal was tied on a gut eyed single, and I prayed that I wouldn't lose it.  The poor fly took a real thrashing, but I managed to finish the trip with it.   I've gone a bit into production mode here to re-stock my box with this pattern, but the efforts will be worth it. 

DEE SUN FLY:
Hook: #2 Limerick
Tag: Silver oval tinsel and Yellow AO Silk
Tail: Golden pheasant crests (I like a min. of three for good color)
Butt: Black ostrich herl
Body: Black AO Silk
Rib: Oval Silver Tinsel
Hackle: Black Chinese neck hackle
Throat: Blue Schlappen
Wing: 6-8 Golden pheasant crests
Sides: AO Crow sub
Horns: Scarlet macaw tail (2 fibers per side)

Today's "daily"  is a Preston Jennings inspired fly.  I've tied it on a vintage Sealy salmon iron using a number of UV dyed materials. (most of which can be found for sale on our website).  This was a fun fly to tie, and I anticipate many more of this style of fly to come from my vise.  As I began to tie it, I could think of other materials and color combinations I am eager to try. 

PURPLE SEDGE:
Tag: fine oval gold tinsel
Tail: UV purple golden pheasant crest
Tag:  Laquered red glo-brite floss
Body: Flat silver tinsel
Rib: Med. Oval silver
Throat: UV pink and UV blue hackle
Underwing: Bleached and dyed UV purple Golden pheasant tippets
Wing: Mixed, Barred woodduck, Pintail, and UV purple dyed pintail flank.
Sides: Jungle cock dyed sky blue
Topping: UV purple golden pheasant crest
Head: Red

Ever since seeing this pattern in Terry Griffiths Kelson book (which we've got for sale here.), I knew I had to tie it.  So, this morning I woke up early, ate my Wheaties and had a go at it.  The fly is tied on a 9/0 monster vintage blind eye.  It's a simple pattern, but in this large of a size any small error is greatly magnified.

Also, be sure to click here to check out all of the new materials I listed on our home page.  Thanks!

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING:
Tag: Fine oval silver tinsel, and yellow silk
Tail:  Topping and indian crow
Butt: Black ostrich
Body: black silk
Rib: Gold oval (or in this large size, flat followed by twist)
Hackle: orange
Throat: Jay (sub blue guinea in large sizes)
Wing: Bronze mallard (sub mottled turkey in large sizes)
Sides: Jungle cock
Topping:  GP Crest
Horns: B/Y macaw tail

What started off with such good intentions, has not been meant to be this last week.  Due to overwhelming commitments in the shop this last week, the "daily" has suffered.  So, today I offer you the "Weekly" .   And even doing so, I must admit my failure to "actually" tie the fly today. (this is a picture from last summer) This pattern is a favorite of mine for searun cutthroat and steelhead, and it just comes alive in the water.  I like them in small sizes and tied on little doubles.  Topping wings are just magic on the swing!  

DEE SUN FLY:
Hook:  down eye double
Tag : Oval silver and yellow silk
Tail: GP crest
Butt: Black ostrich
Body: black silk
Rib: oval silver tinsel
Hackle: Black
Throat: Blue
Wing: 4-5 toppings
Sides: Large indian crow

This is a pattern  that has been floating around in my mind for some time.  I had originally thought of mixing in a strand of red yarn into the black body, but it just looked too overpowering, so the fly now has an all black wool body. 
 This name of this fly is a play on the ever popular "Lady Caroline."   Think of it as Caroline's hot little sister that's always playing hard to get.

LADY IN RED:
Tag: flat silver
Tail: Golden pheasant breast
Body: Black uniwool
Rib: Flat med. Silver counter ribbed with fine oval silver
Hackle: Black dyed blue eared pheasant
Throat: Red dyed teal or pintail
Wing: Red dyed bronze mallard

If you would like to tie this fly and need any of the materials listed above, please check out our website or call.  I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Today I've actually tied a fly for the "daily".   This lovely pattern is from the mind of my good friend and fellow classic tier Jon Harrang.   Jon has combined some very unusual and rarely used colors and materials into one beautiful, fishy spey pattern.   You can find everything you need to tie this pattern in our shop.  We don't have the import cree necks listed online, but give us a call if you are interested in one.

COPPER AND CLARET:
Tag: Fine copper oval
Tail: Golden Pheasant Breast
Rib: Flat Med. Copper with fine oval counter ribbed
Body: Claret Dubbing
Hackle:  Blue Eared Pheasant
Throat: Golden Pheasant breast
Wing: 4 Cree neck hackles
Cheeks: Jungle cock, drooping
Head: red.

Ok, I'll admit, today's Daily Fly is going to be real weak in the "fly" department.  I even showed up at the shop early today to tie a nice spey fly to post on my blog.  But, phone messages, orders, and walk in customers (thanks for coming in guys!) kept that from happening.  So instead, you get a couple of pretty pictures to look at from my weekend. 
 Yesterday morning, I decided to hit up a couple of coastal beaverponds in search of native cutthroat trout.  I struck out on the first two, but finally found a pond that had some fish.  I love these little cutties.  They are full of spirit, rarely fished, and worth all of the effort it takes to find them. 

I think you could throw just about any fly pattern in your box and catch these little guys.  But the pattern I fished yesterday was just a simple soft hackle.  It doesn't get any easier that that to tie or fish.  I lose a lot of flies in the close quarter game of fishing beaver ponds, so patterns that are easy to tie are a must.

PARTRIDGE AND ORANGE:
Body: Orange silk
Hackle: One turn of partridge.

That's it!! No need to make it more complicated that it needs to be. Tie some up, hike........catch fish.