No fly fishing but some fly tying at least

Most free time lately has been working around the tradies at our new house  which has occupied most weekends

But with wife away on conference this week, and a couple of school camps over the next two weeks however gives me heaps of brownie points for fly fishing opportunities

So while I can't be on water as much as I like - at least plenty of time for fly tying - well once rugrats into bed and asleep of course - so have been tying flies in the evenings (and in non class lesson at work!) on a great note: the youngest daughter is showing a great interest in my "man craft" of fly tying - might be a next generation tyer in the family.

So over the last week........

Firstly tied 50x 2/0 clousers - had heaps of size 1 tiny whities but need a few larger clousers for the bigger pelagics currently targeting in open water (above wrecks and reefs etc)

Great simple fly to tie - catches everything!
while some bag the fly out - it is a must have when all the 'realistic' flies are not working.

While bucktail was the originally material use for the pattern when it arrived on the scene in 1987 - thanks Bob C (30 some years ago, been that long that I have been tying it!), the range of synthetics is vast and far more durable, then again a while ago I exclusively  used marabou which is very fragile in a pelagics mouth - go figure! Have also used goat hair and calf tail for smaller hook sizes this prefered to synthetics for tiny versions.

A great fly as most will tell you and to quote Lefty Kreh

I believe that this pattern is the most important and effective underwater fly developed in the past 20 years. During the past three years I have been able to catch 63 species of fish in fresh and saltwaters around the world with this pattern!

— Lefty Kreh 1994 in The Professionals' Favorite Flies

I tend to tie the pattern more traditional in style (I think that's the term for my versions) than some clousers out there that use a crazy charlie style wing where both wings are on hook point side of shank.

Rather............
I tie in eyes first on top of hook shank - half way between hook point and hook eye
Then I tie in a touch of flash material two or three strands for 1s-2/0 sized flies (some use more)- wrapping this material to hook shank most of the way to hook bend (less fouling of flash material hopefully also keeps the flash inside of the two wing material tufts - hopefully to create depth and subtlety of the flash

Some tie the flash material long, well past all the other materials but I like mine imbedded in other materials (less tail nipping??? who knows but works for me!)

Next tied in is the first wing material - this is the wing material that is usually the lightest colour, the one that will be on bottom of pattern as it moves through the water after being inverted by the weight of the eyes (it's all about the physics - I am sure someone has explained how and why the fly inverts somewhere on the web - look it up maybe when you have a bit of time)

I wrap this wing material on top of the hook shank from in front of the eyes to about ten wraps of thread past the tie in point of eyes as this helps stop the eyes from moving if your tie in method is a little slack (a few thread wraps under eyes and a couple cross wraps over eye tie in point helps too) - adding a touch or brush of nail polish with each material added to the hook - this helps to make fly more durable.

A side note - the length of the wing material is usually between 1.5 to 2 times the hook shank length but it really depends on the material you have and what you are tying the pattern for. but that's a start for wing length at least

I then turn hook over in the vice and tie in second tuft of wing material, wrapping it from hook eye to just in front of the eye tie in point - causes the wing to rise slightly - so when the fly is stripped the material pulses and then spreads - adding more movement to the pattern - well I think so anyway

And that's it - tie off thread and give another coating of nail polish to the thread areas!

So tie it, better still tie 20 of them!
Take them to the water and get one of them in the water!
It's how you get a fish to tighten your line! it makes you smile lots!
Go for it! Just do it!

Last lot of flies tied during the past week - were 42 silicone surf candies

21x 2/0 and 21x size 1

(was tying 20 of each but must have lost count somehow!!)

Need a heap of these as I keep giving them away to people, 5 or more at a time

Search through my past blogs - somewhere you will find a step by step blog entry on how to tie these very successful patterns - I never launch the boat without them! A full box of them just in case!

Looking forward to using them all - hopefully on coming weekend for at least one day out of the two available

Tight lines everyone