So.............

What do you like to fish ? Is it marabous, those newfangled intruders, an ESl, some damnable bunny leech type thing, or are you even more of a lowlife and use a plastic bead under an indicator ?

Sometimes, what I like to tie and what I like to fish are different. Drug out the Kelson and Pryce-Tannant books a few weeks ago, and starting filling boxes with patterns and styles from the turn of the century (19th)

Pics welcome on this thread, in fact encouraged..............maybe it'll drive off the non ascot wearing gear queers who migrate here when they get fly curious, and clutter the threads with their mindless ramblings and witless commentary. Todd, Stam, I am speaking directly to you guys...........

I like to tie feather wing speys, and classic types of patterns. I fish a lot of them, as well as all the rest of the newer stuff, but keep gravitating back to the old patterns.



Sometimes I just make it up as I go.........



The look of a full box o' bugs is always a good thing ...




PS. Anyone have some Speckled Bustard they want to give away, or sell cheap ?

Pretty awesome there Mr. KK.

PS - where are my Ackroyds?

Not bad for a cork-consuming hippie
Don't get caught shootin' those herons






Seriously though, those are nice looking bugs, KK.
The classic spey style looks like it would have good motion for a slow presentation.
I've always admired that style.

Coley I got tired of waiting for you to tie me up a dozen so I had to wrap my own variation..........alaskans aren't as reliable as one might think evidently. I'll give you a few in January, you can trail them behind a bead.

It works best the other way around. Bead dropper off the useless bunch of feathers.



Oh, and these treated me well this fall. Far from elegant and fundamentally flawed I am sure, but the fish didn't seem to mind.













For the record, I am very reliable. I delivered exactly what I promised...diddly squat!

Ackroyd

(did I use it correctly?)

you get an A in emoticons. I like thd ones you posted, they look gond, but honestly it was probably the rod that got it done..... Good karma and all that.

True enough. I actually had a fish swim up to me and ask, "is that KK's old rod?" and then he swam away and bit my fly. Hard to argue with karma.

I am known for losing fish at the bank, so they do get a good look at my handsome visage as those gators spit the hook.

Don't forget the old standards. I just wrote an essay (with pictures) for Doug Rose's Christmas Newsletter featuring the Skykomish Sunrise, Purple Peril, Polar Shrimp, Hellcat and Skunk with a few notes on their origins. In spite of the extreme faddishness of popular steelhead patterns these old-time flies will still do the job. Doug's website is dougroseflyfishing.com and the Christmas Newsletter should be up in a week or so.

Who needs beads or chicken feathers, breakout the glue gun & get it over with. Sam calls this one the "creekcleaner" & that's just what it does.


BTW killer OP grayling pattern.


c/22

I will be using these flies for at least some of my winter steelhead fishing:

Sol Duc Spey



Stillaguamish Sunrise Spey

I like to look at classic patterns, but I don't tie them. Don't have the exotic materials and am too cheap to buy them. I only have pre-embargo jungle cock because I won the neck in a raffle decades ago, and acquired some pre-embargo, pre-CITES heron around the same time. Other exotic feathers take a bit of work, and usually some stretching of the law, to get hold of. Plus, the fish just don't care. I've done as well with a piece of marabou fastened to a hook as I have with any other fly. And then when it comes to standard or traditional summer run patterns, the Spade has done so well for me I seldom try anything else. For winter patterns, I do a lot of inventing as I go. That way I don't have to think or dig around too much looking for a specific material. I fish with a lot of one-of-a-kinds as well as some easy to tie basics. Marabou streamers and a simple GP variation that's been working for 30 years now. It goes by the name, "winter bait."

Now I'm gonna' have to photograph my fly box just for this thread.

Sg

Nice SS, like the look of both those patterns. Sol Duc Spey was the first spey I ever tied. More pics please....

SG...I would take that pre CITES grey stuff off your hands if it is just getting in the way and taking up space....just sayin here.

Your fly box is A LOT prettier than mine, KK. Seems you've got skills and patience I have yet to (or may never) develop. I admire folks who predominantly fish traditional patterns, but being a hack tyer and only a slightly better angler, I tend to fish a lot of big marabous, bunny leeches, ESLs, etc. I like intruders a lot, but I hate tying them, so I usually buy them. That's about as fancy as I usually get in the winter, and that's when I'm being civilized and fishing on the swing. I would post pictures, but there's nothing special about most of what I fish, so I'll leave the pics up to those with talent.

Because I'll stoop pretty low in the name of catching fish, especially early in the winter, I also use "yarnies" under a bobdicator. When the fish are really tough, I'll even stoop to running a bead under a yarnie. I must admit that I feel particularly ashamed of this behavior on occasions where I get skunked despite my compromised principles, but there are situations (like the one I found myself in last Saturday) where a dead drifted "nymph" will outfish anything on the river, and those help to provide some vindication to balance things out. Not to worry, though. I know the by-laws of the Order of the Ascot, and I always remove my ascot when resorting to such uncivilized methods.

Admitting your transgressions against all that is sacred and holy is the first step towards redemption. Now have faith and believe in the holy swing and ye shall find forgiveness....

Amen, Brother. Amen. I'm taking it one day at a time.

May the tug be with you...For your pennance you must listen to Big Black (at 90 db) while tying 6 Carrons.

Well done.

That last shot of your beautiful box through the glass is especially nice KK.

I have a couple patterns I tie othe than the ESL that catches the most fish. Maybe I'll try and figure out how to post pic's again. Well, maybe I'll actually make a real effort this time.

Fleaflicker,

You should feel ashamed. The behavior you described is shameful.

Go Sox,
cds

P.S. There is a good chance no effort will be made regarding pic's.