Fly tying

Well the new season is definitely here now and unfortunately my fly boxes are nowhere near ready for it. I have had a hectic few months searching and applying for PhDs (all sorted now, off to Cardiff so see you on the Taff!!) and completely forgot about the more important things in life, restocking my boxes being one of them. To get back in the swing of serious churning out I have signed up to a couple of fly swaps on various fora. The first was a beginners CDC swap, my contribution a very much tested sedge pattern which (together with the good ole CDC and Elk) tore the Derbyshire Wye apart last August.



The second swap is a much more daunting prospect, some of the names on the list are phenomenally good tiers and I was a wee bit hesitant to put my name down but what the hell! The theme of the swap is mayfly (any life stage) and for me that really only means dry fly. I have chosen to merge a pattern I have used before to good success with one stolen borrowed from the Dry Fly Experts blog (if you havent read this, do). The original and result are below, hopefully it wont be too far below par for the swap.


The only two reasons I changed this pattern at all were that it has been mentioned the varnished wings could impair hook-ups and that the varnished wings are a bugger to tie in neatly. Keep it simple stupid!


Fragile deer hair was replaced by slightly less fragile pheasant tail, the rib was changed from thread to spanflex for a more defined rib and the wing was changed to white calves tail. Coupled with a more heavily hackled thorax it should float well.