I like those spider-hoppers. Those would work very well on the rivers and creeks I fish. Let me know how the dragonfly works for you. I have tied up some regular blue foam dragon flies with congo hair (EP Fiber-like synthetic) wings. Haven't had a chance to fish them yet so not sure if they will twist the line badly or not. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try them out sooner rather than later.

I took those flash-wing dragonflies out to test them. I'm very meh at this point. As far as twisting the line, the flash wings were superb. But they are not very durable, and I didn't get any sense of what fish think about them.

First off, it was not a day or time that I would normally have fished a topwater, much less a dragonfly. It was close to noon on a pretty cool and overcast day. No bugs flying in the air or landing on the water. But I was out and really wanted to see how this fly handled, so I tied on what I knew wasn't going to work.

Problem came when I was trying to throw a very tight loop under a tree with a sidearm cast. The leader smacked up against my fly line and twisted the entire leader. 100% casting error, and nothing to do with the wings. While I was un-fouling the lines, the flashing broke on one of the wings. When tied in all by itself, and perpendicular to the rest of the fly there is nothing supporting the flash. It is fairly brittle material and it just broke right off like when old deer hair dries out.

I cast it a few more times, and even unbalanced with one wing it still did not twist on me. But I can't see the flash wings holding up to fish for any length of time at all.

EDIT:
So here is a question for you seasoned fly tiers. I tied that flash wing in with a a single bundle of flash that made the wings on both sides. Tied it in a figure 8 pattern to keep it straight across. Would it be more durable to tie the left and right sides in separately?

Yes Sir as I stated before. Awesome thread! Some mighty fine flies!

"Blue Lady"

First attempt at a tapered, "cigar shaped" body. Need to smooth it out more, but overall, not too bad for a first attempt.

Tag: Oval silver tinsel
Tail: Yellow hackle
Rib: Oval silver tinsel
Body: Black silk
Throat: Kingfisher blue hackle
Wing: Blue dyed grey squirrel tail
Cheeks: Jungle-[censored] feather

I took this somewhat original number out for a spin at one of the recently opened state parks. As usual I spooked vastly more fish than I caught, but it was really fun to pitch this up on the bank and watch a big dark shadow dash out and crush it. Of course the bass then wrapped me in a tree and broke off, stealing the only one of these I had with me, but... still really exciting to watch. It was a good 4lb fish too.

I also got some smaller 8-12" fish on it before that as well.




It's more or less similar to the Belly Scratcher Minnow from Fly Fish Food and Bennet's lunch money, but the sort of conceit is that the unpainted lead eyes represent the "blue" of a bluegill behind the glued on eyes, plus I put in the yellow throat to represent the spawning bluegill coloration. It has a really nice tight wiggle action on a strip and the rabbit kind of flops around on a pause. I'm really happy with it, and I think it's by far the best "original" fly I've done (though obviously it hews pretty close to those others).

Hook: #6 B10S
Thread: 3/0 light yellow
Tail: "Grizzly"/natural zonker strip
Body: White crystal chenille
Throat: Pink fluoro fiber
Head: Dark tan, white, and yellow Senyo's laser dub.
Eyes: Small unpainted lead and 6mm stick on.

Tie in lead eyes, tie in chenille, bring the thread to the bend of the hook. Poke the hook through the rabbit, then slide it down to the "bottom" of the shank or the top of the fly. Tie in the rabbit at the back, then move the thread up to just behind the eyes. Touching turns of chenille up to the lead eyes, then tie off. Move thread just in front of lead eyes, then do a few strands of fluoro fiber and one stack of white dubbing. Tie off the rabbit in front of the lead eyes, and cut off close. Wrap to neaten the tie in, then do alternating stacks of tan (top) and white (bottom) dubbing going forward. The last stack is yellow on the bottom of the fly. Trim the head so the length of the top matches the length of the rabbit, and is rounded off in a bluegill-ish shape. The bottom can be a little longer to fill in the bottom of the profile. Then attach the stick on eyes using whatever glue you prefer. I did thick UV resin, because I find that easiest.

Glitchmo, I like that fly. As I was looking at the pictures I was getting a Lunch Money vibe with a different head. I imagine it will be a serious fish catcher.

And Rex, you continue to tie flies that are way too pretty to fish. Have you ever gotten a chance to throw them at Atlantic Salmon? If not, I know a pond with some giant bluegill that will eat anything. I am sure they have never seen a Blue Lady before.

Tying a shrimp right now. Final product to come

Quick but I think it'll work...

Unfortunately, the only time I have been near a Salmon, it was on a dinner plate.

I've just always been fascinated by these flies. I have definitely learned a lot by tying them and they are fun to do.

Bass will eat them, but it's not worth the effort. There are simpler patterns are way better bass flies.

I am not sure if I have ever tried one on Bluegill. It sounds like fun. .

Interesting question. There is a lot of varieties of flash materials available. For better durability, I would try a different material.

The challenge with figure 8 is keeping the wing from slipping out the side. A drop of super glue is good insurance.

Are those Briminators J-Moe?

I probably need to tie some up. I've got a couple I bought from BreamBugs, but now that I am tying my own flies that's a pattern I want to do.

Yes, they are variants of the Briminator pattern. Not true Briminators but they work for me.

Couple of Gargside Gurgler shrimp. I've been looking for a bigger shrimp pattern that will be loud and noisy in the water. Hopefully these will fit the bill. I left the head part of the foam pretty long and cut it into a shrimp tail shape. Thinking it will displace that much more water.




Even tied a couple in black so I can throw out in the surf after dark.


Now I just have to get down to the coast...

I usually give these away, but I tied this one for my own hat.

"Claret & Black" (sort of...)

Hook: Hat pin style
Tag: Oval gold tinsel and red floss, sub'ed for claret
Tail: Indian Crow sub
Butt: Black ostrich
Rib: Oval gold tinsel
Body: Red floss and red dubbing, sub'ed for claret
Body hackle: Black
Throat: Supposed to be widgeon, but the bag wasn't labeled, so, who knows...
Wing: Black goose
Cheek: Jungle C. nail feather