That Starling is delicate stuff, nice tie on a sz 24...

This is what I have been fooling around with...

Size 18 miracle midges with black nickel bead head.

(1) black thread wrap after tying 32-33 gauge copper
(2) white thread wrap over black thread wrap
(3) copper ribbing
(4) whip finish with the white thread
(5) touch of super glue on the whip finish

A killer fly in the driftless streams

Brian, tell us more about the QTpie. Interesting looking fly.

I like those little buggerish creations. chickabou? on the 4 to the right?

Here's what just came off my vise (by 'just', I mean a couple of days ago).

This has a little bit of just about everything...Fly Tyers Dungeon (FTD) big fly fiber, FTD flash (black), Primotail (AA for the Chartreuse under-tail, A for the body--after dark), rattle, foam, weight on the hook bend for a keel, FTD dubbed head, FTD dragon eyes....all squeezed onto an Ahrex 4/0 TP610. I may trim up the tail a touch to make it less blocky, but I'm going to wait until after I swim it.

dry


innards



wet



I'm always amazed how much goes into this relatively simple pattern to get it to swim exactly how I want it to (of course extra manipulation imparted by the angler certainly doesn't hurt either).

This little black stonefly has worked well for me. I tried a few patterns, euro style jigs, different tail/antenna materials, etc. This was by far the most productive. Its a size 20 tmc200r, black crystal flash for the tail and antennas tied in first, midges sized vinyl rib for the body, black peacock ice dub for the thorax and a single abdominal segment made from black pheasant tail.

I fished it off the back of various bead head nymphs as a dropper, it caught basically all of the fish. Im hoping it will remain productive throughout the spring, or even the year. As an ultralight dropper nymph it could catch a ride behind even a small dry fly. I see tiny little black stones that are even smaller than this in real life all the time in winter and early spring down here.

Thanks JHuskey! Ive got a yellow sally version in 16 in my fly box, cant wait to try it.

Here is what came off the vise today! Im trying to think in terms of what kind of streamers would fish well on a lighter slower rod, floating line, 4 ft max deapth pools, what sizes make sense on an 8ft wide stream, etc. I tried to slim down the sculpins a bit. They are on size 4 mustad 34007 hooks.


Feedback is welcome, I dont have a lot of experience with streamers.

downsized for bass...




backlit to give you an idea of just how sparse these should be...


These girls seemed to like it....

I’m not quick at putting these together, but I like the results:
#14 Gray Fox

BigHeavy - good grief thats pretty. And I bet the trout think so too.

Parachute adams, gold ribbed hare's ear, and miracle midge:
Nothing particular but they work like a magic in the driftless region in Spring!
Dry dropper is the ticket.

Did a virtual tying night with some buddies last week. Shockingly, I tied up a couple of tiger musky flies (only change is are the innards---I've been playing around more with balance of keel weight in front of a piece of foam to get it to behave more like a glide bait).

Then there are just a couple of albacore flies thrown in for good measure.

I like that gaddis!