Realistic Flies

[haresear]

This stuff does beg the question - why do we tie flies? Is it to get a fish, or is it for the pure pleasure of constructing the fly.

Mine are purely for catching fish, although they don't seem to know that .
I don't really enjoy tying flies and find setting up my vice etc. a bit of a chore to be honest. Having said that, once I've got the gear together I don't mind the actual tying too much.

I've just moved my stuff into the loft and intend to have it set up full time to make it easier for me just to nip up to a tie a few. it also means i won't have to tidy up .  I'll just add the excess feathers to the loft insulation.

Incidentally, when designing and tying dries, I always look at the effect from the underside of the fly and against the light rather than from the side. It is what the fish sees that really matters.

Alex

[haresear]

Based on recent findings that fish actually see very little of a fully blown dun , (just a few footprints) our flies complete with hook penetrating the surface are presented very differantly( unless tied upside down)

That's right Col. I made a gallows tool and tied a couple of proper Goddard and Clarke USD duns, but they were fiddly for me and liable to twisting the leader.

I've tried various methods in the past to get an easy to tie USD dun.

This included exaggerated tails tied well around the bend. These, along with a hackle trimmed on the topside as the hook sits in the vice, forces the fly to flip over and land hook up. Sounds good in theory and it does work, but the aerodynamics which cause the fly to land hook up are the same forces which cause it to spin like a mepps .

It is a subject I am guilty of abandoning and one of the many things I'll have to get around to before this season...

Alex

[Fishtales]

Try a Leckford Professor or Cows Arse is its other name

Hook:-  12-16

Body:-  dark hare's ear fur

Rib:-     Fine flat gold tinsel

Hackles:- A bright red cock hackle and a white cock hackle tied in at the bend hiding the point of the fly. Alternative is to tie in a hackle stalk or white floss like a tail and wrap the hackle parachute style round it.

This is the way my mate George tied them. He had 22 Grayling on the Earn on one from the same drift during a hatch of Pale Watery Duns They hang in the water with the eye and line below the surface and the hackle and wing, if you go with that method, on the surface.

[haresear]

A bright red cock hackle and a white cock hackle tied in at the bend hiding the point of the fly.

I had forgotten about that method Sandy. It is one I never got around to trying and should be as aerodynamic as a standard pattern. Definitely another one for to try. Thanks.

Alex

[The General]

dont know if this is legal but here is a photie
http://www.danica.com/Flytier/jwestphal/leckford_professor.htm

Davie

[Fishtales]

The hackles are a bit rough for a dry fly on that tying and I don't like the bent hook as it throws the outline of the fly off. Here is a better picture showing it tyed as it should be, although I prefer a down eyed hook

http://www.fish4flies.com/Dry/Hackled/Leckford_Professor.Gallery

[The General]

Good site Sandy, thank you.   Great looking fly.  Really have to make sure your leader was sinking.

Davie

[haresear]

Re the Leckford Prof. If you trimmed the top of the hackle in a V shape and also used a down eye hook, that should make it land USD every time and also give a nice footprint in the surface film. The tail end of the hook is also a more logical place to have the line coming from rather than the head. The line could be mistaken for a tail or shuck.
I'm definitely going to try some prototype ideas along these lines.
Olive flexifloss body or stripped peacock quill, with a dun hackle. Those Clyde troot will be easy meat (aye right).

I'm not so sure that the leader would have to be sunk and can't see why it would any more desirable on a back-to-front fly than a standard pattern. After all, in the F-fly the leader is flush with the surface too.
Why do you think so, Davy. Is it because the leader is flush rather than being held slightly aloft in a properly cocked traditional pattern?

Alex

Alex

[Fishtales]

That's the thing about this fly, it tends to land like an umbrella with the body below the surface pushing the leader under, like a ? mark, as long as you keep any grease off the body and leader that is close to the hook. I use spider dries most of the time because I reckon it doesn't matter what way they land on the water they will always look right. Put a wing on them and you feel they should always float with the wing cocked up, but how many times have you looked at a rise of fly and some of them are stuck in the film with their wings flat to the side, so does it really matter

[The General]

Jeez.   As I said in another post - you think you've discovered the big secret then
along comes another fly to disprove the rule.   When I fish the DHE I am not worried
that some of the floatant attaches itself to the leader as I want the head of the fly
to be clear of the water to aid the body of the fly to be in or below the surface.
That fly was my most successful by far last season and I have tied more than enough
for this season.  I would surmise that the success of the fly you are recommending, depends
on the eye and body being in or under the surface.  My concern with the floating leader would
be that this would suspend most of the fly above the surface...............but.
My friend John, as I have said in another post, always has a Loch Maddy fly on his cast and this
is treated with floatant and very little of the fly would penetrate either in or under the surface.
This fly has been as successful for him as the DHE has been for me.  So I have tied more than enough
of these as well for the coming season     Can I also add that another fly he has introduced me too
has a substantial deer hair body, a feather (compressed with finger nails) just a bit longer than the body as a wing and a hackle to finish it off.  This fly invariably lands wing side up with very little of the body
either in or on the surface.  What amazes me is that the trout cannot see most of the fly yet they take
it with great gusto.  My only conclusion to this is that the trout must see more than we think or
that the deer hair makes the kind of footprint the trout is looking for.   I wonder if we would catch as
many fish with just the deer hair but I have never been brave enough to try.
Anyway............I appreciate the amount I have learnt since joining the site, I wish I could join in more
of the stravaigs but for the time being cannot. Some of the posts really make me laugh, please keep up
the good work

All the very best for the New Year
Davie