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Post 11 Oct 2017, 11:11 • #1 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
I can't see small dry flies anymore so what does it matter if they float or not? During the Blue Winged Olive hatch I just want to catch fish.

I can put a dry fly 24" inches behind a big Royal Wulff and watch for dimples behind the big bushy. Or tie something (anything) on and swing it like a wet fly. And wait for a tug.

But I can't thread tippet onto hooks smaller than size #16 either, so for hooks #16 is as small as it gets for me. Wry flies are half dry fly half wet fly. Sometimes they float sometimes they don't. Doesn't matter to me. I tie them like dry flies but I either swing them like wets or dead drift them behind a Royal Wulff. How well do they float? I have no idea. I can't see well enough to say. But it doesn't seem to matter.

Tie on a duck flank feather. Stand up the butt of the feather with a few horizontal parachute wraps at the base of the wing. Use the tip of an exacto knife stroked upwards, either the flank feather stem. Then cut out the feather stem so only fibers remain.
Image

Trim the wing with your thumb and a razor blade, somewhat like a jail haircut. You can trim it with scissors too but the jail haircut technique makes a fuzzier, more ragged, better-looking edge to the wing.
Image

Hold some Snow Shoe Rabbit's foot fibers behind the fly. Wind once or twice to snag the fibers with the thread, winding them on a bit like a feather hackle. Dub a small blob right behind the eye. Whip finish. It's a Wry Fly. Wet or dry. During the hatch (which is happening now in Montana)
Image


Last edited by pittendrigh on 11 Oct 2017, 13:29, edited 3 times in total.

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Post 11 Oct 2017, 11:56 • #2 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/06/15
Posts: 1249
Location: Central Oregon
pittendrigh wrote:
I can't thread tippet onto hooks smaller than size #16 either,


Cool flies!

Check out these big eye hooks for smaller projects:

http://www.orvis.com/p/big-eye-hook-in- ... yUQAvD_BwE


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Post 11 Oct 2017, 13:20 • #3 
Master Guide
Joined: 10/22/13
Posts: 451
Location: AB, Canada
That's an interesting fly. I'll have to try that one out!


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Post 11 Oct 2017, 19:09 • #4 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 09/18/09
Posts: 5561
Location: Relocated to the Drought Stricken West.
Sandy,

You take minimalist tying to the next level. These are flies that are meant to catch fish.


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Post 11 Oct 2017, 19:09 • #5 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/05/10
Posts: 5229
Location: Mid Hudson Valley of New York
I'm a big fan of minimalist fly patterns, so I love this! Plus snowshoe hare is a favorite material of mine. Dig its translusency and floatability. Did you lacquer the trailing section of duck flank?


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Post 11 Oct 2017, 20:18 • #6 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
The duck flank abdomen/tail looks like a tiny paint brush when tied.It usually becomes a sharp point when wet.

For photographs I want it to look that way even when dry so I stroke the tip of the abdomen tail with a micro dot of water base fabric cement.

Aleene's Flexible Stretchable fabric cement is the softest. And by far the best. Flexible Stretchable fabric cement is changing the way I tie flies.


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Post 11 Oct 2017, 20:33 • #7 
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Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
Not sure what went wrong with this photograph. I'll have to redo it at some point. This is much the same fly, but with a marabou tuft for the wing. So it's also a Wryfly. Half wet half dry. This would be more like an emerging mayfly with still wet crumpled wings. Or maybe a dead adult.

During a heavy mayfly hatch everything goes by: emergers, crippled half eclosed adults in variety of postures and fully floating adults with upright wings. The fish eat them all. I don't buy the argument they "key in on" cripples. From what I've seen the fish take anything and everything real that drifts by--if it's in their feeding lane, drifting by at just the right time, in the middle of their rising rhythm.

Image

The marabou from this one is just the fuzz at the base of a duck flank feather.


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Post 11 Oct 2017, 20:39 • #8 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/05/10
Posts: 5229
Location: Mid Hudson Valley of New York
so you used the fabric cement on the fly in the photo only to show what it looks like wet?


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Post 11 Oct 2017, 21:12 • #9 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
So it looks better in the photo. I do it about half the time......half look good enough without the glue. You don't need much.


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Post 11 Oct 2017, 21:35 • #10 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/22/16
Posts: 1760
Location: SJC
I don't have any idea what jail haircuts are, but I think I get the idea :) I love your fly designs, but the eyesight issue is tragic, like Beethoven going deaf :(

Didn't know about the big-eye hooks, will have to try some.


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Post 12 Oct 2017, 08:58 • #11 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
To make a jail haircut you hold a razor blade against the side of a comb with your thumb, and then comb it through with the comb at a bit of a tilt. I never had one?

Thank you newfydog for the Orvis Big Eye hook link. I'll get some of those.


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Post 12 Oct 2017, 14:39 • #12 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
This one has a duck-flank-feather-marabou wing, which wouldn't stay dry as well as feather fibers further away from the stem. But it's a Wryfly. It might float and it might sink, so it doesn't really matter. I can't see it anyway. I either swing it and wait for a tug or fish it behind a Royal Wulff. And look for dimples behind the big white-winged fly.

Image

...this one does have the tip of the abdomen tail wet with fabric cement, so it makes a neat and tidy point at the end. I'm not sure how important that is, other than for photography, because the pointed tip tends to happen anyway, as soon as the fly gets a bit wet.


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