Wet Flies

As I told you a few posts ago, the wet fly tying fever caught me pretty badly and I managed to fill my box with some nice patterns. The trigger was Dave Hughes book 'Wet Flies'. A second book I bought was ' A Guide To North Country Flies And How To Tie Them' by Mike Harding which is a real spider bible with 140 classic  patterns. Of course I can't wait to use them and definitely know it is only a matter of days till I'll go fishing for the first time this year. Drop a line and let me know what wet fly patterns you're using. Enjoy the pictures.


Partrige and Yellow ( one of the oldest English flies )

Partrige and Orange ( like Dark Snipe and Orange it imitates a host of small brown-orange insects)

Partrige and Olive ( use it whenever small olives are about )

Grouse and Orange ( grouse hackles are a pleasure to tie with )

Stewart's Black Spider ( the original is tied with brown thread )

Hare's Ear Spider ( tied with a partridge hackle )

Hare's Ear Flymph ( wingles wet fly pattern)

Dark Brown Flymph ( variation )

Hare's Ear Wet ( winged )

Light Cahill Wet ( variation - the original wing is of wood duck flank fibers )

Leadwing Coachman ( gray goose wing )

The Butcher ( originaly known as "Moon's Fly" - Mr.Moon was a butcher, W.Blacker renamed the fly "The Butcher" 1838)

Elk Hair Caddis

Another caddis pattern, this time a classic one developed by Al Troth and presented by Peter Gathercole in his book 'The Fly-Tying Bible'. The wing is made by a bunch of elk hock hair that has been bleached to a light tan. You can make the abdomen of dark hare's or squirrel fur but you can also combine the hair with some antron. Depending on the colour of the fly I used brown and grizzly hackles winded palmered backwards from the eye to the bend of the hook. I secured the hackle with some silver tinsel in the opposite direction. Make the wing by a bunch of elk hair. I tied it on hooks size 10-14.

Balloon Caddis

I hope you don't have enough of caddis patterns. This time it's a balloon caddis devised by the famous Austrian fly tyer and fisherman, Roman Moser. This fly has two big advantages comparing to other dry flies. One is the floatability and the other one is the color of the foam you can easily follow on the water surface. Except the known materials I used for other caddis patterns, you'll need for this one polycelon ( yellow, fluo green ).
I fish the balloon caddis singly as a searching pattern and has proven itself as a very productive fly. You can fish it in an upstream or downstream dead drift.

Hook:           Gamakatsu F11B size 12-16
Thread:        8/0 yellow or gold
Balloon:       yellow polycelon foam ( 2 mm thick )
Wing:           deer hair / CDC under wing
Abdomen:    antron / fur mix ( olive, brown )
Thorax:        rabbit fur

1.Attache the hook firmly in the vice and run on apply your thread base, then cut a strip of foam to suit the hook size used ( 3 mm / size 14, 4-5 mm / size 12) and secure it to the top of the shank with a couple of firm turns.

2.Build the abdomen with the antron / fur mix and wind it on.

3.As you can see, I have my little CDC obsession and I used it as an under wing again.

4.Now prepare a bunch of deer hair and tie it at the same length as the CDC. Trim off the butts.

5.Bring your thread behind the foam, then split it and make a rabbit hair dubbing rope, build the thorax by winding the rope backwards to the base of your deer hair wing.

6.Fold back the foam thorax cover and secure with a few firm turns of the thread, whip finish, cut the rest of the polycelon as short as possible and apply a drop of head cement on the thread.

7.Voilà this is the fly:

Caddis Dry Pattern

Watching my fly fishing pictures made during the last years, I found a folder from North Italy (Südtirol). I was fishing there for brown trout on a few rivers: Etsch, Eisack, Passer, Talfer. One of the most productive flies was a caddis dry pattern. I bought a few of this flies from a local fly fishing tackle store and made some modifications to the original pattern after I went home.

Hook:       D04BL HW size 10-12

Thread:     STD 6/0 Col.06 (brown)

Abdomen: dubbing (olive antron with some squirrel fur)

Thorax:     pheasent tail fibres, pre-made deer hair brush

Wing:        CDC under wing covered by a grouse / partridge / hen feather

1.Attach the hook firmly in the vice and run on apply your thread base. Split the thread and forme a dubbing rope (olive antron with some squirrel fur), then wind it on.

2.Tie a CDC under wing.

3.Place the feather in your wing burner and trim it to size.

4.Tie in the wing, leaving plenty of room for the thorax.

5.Take a bunch of pheasant tail fibres and catch them in behind the wing.

6.Make a thorax out of deer/elk hair. I used in this case ‘Oliver Edwards Caddis Legs’ but you can make your own deer/elk hair brush from leftovers ( don’t throw away the scraps after tying caddis or muddler minnows).

7.Tie in the hair brush and wind it on.

8.Pull the pheasant tail fibres forward over the thorax and secure them dowm with thread.

9.Trim the rest fibres, keep only two of them as antenae, build a neat head, whip finish and varnish.

10.Voilà this is the fly: