I don’t know if we can call this little skiff of snow that coated our meadow a snowstorm, but I’m going to call it that and set up my tying vise to tie enough flies to fill in the blank places in my fly box. I mostly wait for the third snowstorm.
I always start with a Royal Coachman streamer fly because it is big tied on a size 10, 3X streamer hook, which is big enough to see with old eyes. I still use a light and mounted magnifier lens, but the fly is big enough to tie without it.
Years ago, I bought a piece of golden pheasant skin since the pattern calls for tail fibers of the yellow feather. After tying a short tail, I use a peacock herl for a butt, wrapped in a tight little ball. The belly calls for red floss, but I tie some in red and some in a green floss, since that’s what I caught a big brown trout on the White River in Missouri years ago.
Someone called it a Trude streamer.
Ahead of the floss, I wrap more peacock herls, and before finishing the head, I add some white calf tail fibers for a wing. It’s supposed to imitate a baby or swim-up brook trout and I guess it does, but not only will it attract brown and rainbow trout, but also brook trout. When I’ve used it on warm water species like bass and panfish, it attracted them, too. Maybe it does imitate a baby brook trout, even though brook trout live in cold water. It doesn’t matter; it catches fish.
Before I put the materials away, I tie dry flies using the same pattern only on smaller dry fly hooks.
Because I haven’t used my fingers for tying since a year ago, I’ll start with size 12 hooks. From the larger hook, I tie through size 14 to size 16 and 18 hooks. The Royal Coachman pattern is one of the antiques of fly fishing. Some say it imitates several sizes of ants, while others say it’s just an attractor pattern.
I don’t have a theory, but I know it will always attract wild brook trout in mountain streams, and sometimes attract browns and rainbows even when there is on hatch or even ants floating on the surface. Trout might even take it for a caddis. All I know is it’s a go-to fly when nothing else works.
Getting lazy in my dotage; I’ve cut down on many of my patterns for mayflies and caddis. For mayflies, I tie wings vertically with a pale white or tan poly material. If I slant it back toward the bend, it will serve as a caddis wing. For my bodies during the season, I wrap a pale tan or white fur sparsely.
I visit Michaels fabrics and buy some permanent markers in earth tones of tans, browns, black, greens and yellows to mark the furs to imitate the insects on the water. Once on Silver Creek in Idaho, the trout were taking tiny blue-wing olives, and Tricos, while sometimes switching to a tiny tan caddis. I kept switching flies until they were all gone. Some call it a masking hatch.
That night in our motel room, I tied some with vertical poly wings and some with the wings slanted over the body, but all with white fur bodies. In the morning, I tried one and when the trout refused to take, I’d just paint it a different color until I picked the right color that the trout wanted to eat.
The Big Spring Watershed Association will hold fly tying classes beginning Feb. 22 at the First United Presbyterian Church, 111 W. Big Spring Ave., beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the community room. Park in the big parking lot off the alley and go in the doors. They need a head count of those interested in tying or learning to tie. RSVP via email at: fishmorekane@gmail.com, MESpicka@ship.edu or bkferris@kuhncom.net. Hooks, materials, instructions and even a few vises will be provided at no cost and there will be plenty of instructors. Masks are optional.
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