Fly Tying Recipes & Patterns

Have you ever wondered why so many winter steelhead patterns feature orange or red components? One common theory is that during these fall and winter runs, the fish are conditioned to feed on the eggs, which almost always feature some shade of red/orange or even pinks.

Over the last few seasons, this month’s pattern has become one of my go-to nymphs for fall trout here in the mid-Atlantic. There is no exciting history on this thing. Ray Bergman or Polly Rosborough didn’t fish it. It doesn’t have a catchy name. And I don’t claim this as one of my original patterns as it’s a conglomeration of enough other bead head, caddis pupa type nymphs that I would feel a bit guilty trying to convince anyone that I invented it.

This month’s pattern is one of the more recent to come along and as tied here, it could be considered a general attractor nymph as much as a caddis pupa. With a full collar hackle of natural partridge, it’s almost remeniscent of an old North Country Spider.

by Matt O'Neal of Savage Flies: Find him on his YouTube channel at Savage Flies We’ve talked about Wayne “Buz” Buszek on this channel before. Buz is from Visalia, California. We’ve mentioned his signature pattern, the Western Coachman, created in 1934. As well as his Kings River Caddis created sometime in the 1950s. The pattern I’m talking about today is actually the precursor to his Western Coachman and it's called the Old Grey Mare. Now there’s not much history to be found on this pattern. I did see one reference that this was a Buz Buszek pattern. But in Mike Valla’s book, Founding Flies, he only mentions that someone showed Buz an Old Grey Mare, and he used it for inspiration for his Western Coachman. But either way, we do know that he tied it and sold it in his shop as far back as the 1940s. It is a cool looking pattern, and like the Western Coachman, it is truly a wet fly, but with a deer hair wing so it’s not going to be a fast sinker. In fact, it’s probably what we’d call a semi dry fly today. Meaning…after a couple of false casts, it’ll dry off and float for a second or two, and then slowly sink. One advantage worth noting on a fly like this, is that you can fish it as a dry or a wet on the same cast. Even as a wet fly it will still be visible for a lot of your drift with this white wing. This isn’t a difficult pattern to tie, but it’s pretty cool looking and certainly a fun one to tie. Old Grey Mare Wet Fly Pattern Recipe Hook: #8-12 wet fly Thread: Brown Tail: Red hackle fibers Butt: Green chenille Body: Red floss Hackle: Brown hen Wing: White deer body hair How to Tie the Old Grey Mare Wet Fly Pattern

Well it is officially terrestrial season. I was out mowing a field this past weekend-- Grasshoppers and crickets were all over the place. But this is not going to be another hopper pattern. I'm sure I’ll tie plenty more this summer but right now I've got plenty in my box. I'm going to tie a beetle pattern for you this month. But oddly enough, it's about as big as a hopper.

Now I’ve got an interesting dry fly for you today, that you probably won't find in a lot of books out there. I came across it recently when flipping through Kenneth Bay's 1979 American Fly Tier's Handbook.

This tactical pattern is most useful in flat, slow-moving water where trout get a long look at the fly before making an eat-or-don’t-eat decision. It suggests a “stuck-in-the-shuck” dun, and can work well when targeting rising trout that have refused more conventional patterns.

by Matt O'Neal of Savage Flies: Find him on his YouTube channel at Savage Flies  This month’s pattern is a dry fly called the Rio Grande King Fly. Dug up from a July 1968 issue of Sports Illustrated, but also found in Raymond Scott Stetzer's, “Flies, The Best 1,000” in which he had it tied slightly differently, with upright white duck slips for a wing. History of the Rio Grande King Fly Another more recent book this pattern was featured in was Dave Hughes’ 1999 “Trout Flies” in which he had it with white calftail for a wing, tied Trude style. That’s the pattern we’re going to feature here. The history of this pattern is not really known but we do know the Trude style of fly was created in 1906 by Carter Harrison from Chicago. He came up with it while fishing on the Trude Ranch in Idaho so it's likely this fly was created sometime after that, perhaps as early as the 1920s. Maybe it was inspired by something as classic as the standard Coachman but with a white calftail wing tied Trude style. We may never know the exact history but whatever the origin, it's a really cool looking fly and according to a few of the sources out there it's been a really effective fly. Now this is not really a forgotten fly as there are a few references to it out there, but it does seem odd that it's not in more books. Rio Grande Kind Fly Recipe Recipe: Hook: #12-14 dry fly Thread: Black Tail: Golden pheasant tippets Body: Black chenille Wing: White calftail, Trude style Hackle: Brown dry fly  How to Tie the Rio Grande King See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product

by Matt O'Neal of Savage Flies: Find him on his YouTube channel at Savage Flies  Now there’s been a bit of controversy over who created the salmon fly pattern I’m going to tie for you today. It is a pretty old pattern, but it’s not at all a forgotten fly. There are lots of references to it online, and it’s in at least five of my books. It’s in Stetzer's Best 1000, Dave Hughes' American Fly Tying Manual, and the Federation of Fly Fishers Pattern Encyclopedia. One side note, it’s tied slightly different in at least four references. The main difference is in the wing material - it’s either silver fox, red fox, or gray squirrel and slightly different color bodies, and even different feathers for a collar hackle. Now the history goes back to 1911, when a guy named Roy Angus Thompson came up with a style of hair wing salmon fly pattern. Did you catch that name? Roy, Angus, Thompson – R A T. So the series of flies came to be called the Rats. I’ll buy that story, but there’s another claim out there that a guy named Joseph Clovis Arsenault first came up with the Rats. There could be some truth there, but if so, why would he have called them Rats? I don’t know, but Arsenault was a well-known east-coast salmon fly pattern tier in the 1940s and, according to him, he had given Joseph Pulitzer some black rats to fish with. He had used a rust-colored thread underneath, and they did well for Pulitzer, so well that they got chewed up and the rust color came through. So he tied a bunch more for Pulitzer – in this new color and named them the Rusty Rat. Maybe Roy Angus Thompson did indeed come up with the Rats, but Clovis Arsenault came up with the rusty orange one that became known as the Rusty Rat. Either way, it’s been a pretty popular and successful salmon fly pattern. Now one other point to make before you go because you don't fish for steelhead or use salmon fly patterns: lots of salmon and steelhead flies can be tied in lots of variations for all kinds of species. I’ll get some hate mail for saying this: you can tie this thing smaller or put it on a streamer hook. Of course, some purist will leave a snarky comment and say you can’t call this a Rusty Rat if it’s on a streamer hook. Sure you can! We can do whatever we want. The Golden Girl was originally a steelhead fly pattern, now it’s a very popular streamer. One of the biggest smallmouth bass I’ve ever caught was about a 20 incher in Southwest Virginia I caught on a skykomish sunrise – tied and fished as a streamer. My philosophy here – and you can take it or leave it – is if you see a cool looking salmon fly pattern, but you don’t fish for salmon, put it on whatever hook you want, and chase whatever fish you want with it. I do respect the history and tradition of our sport, but it’s also okay to experiment, change things up and, above all, just have fun with it! Rusty Rat Salmon Fly Pattern Recipe Hook: #4-8 salmonThread: RedTag: Oval gold tinsel, smallTail: Peacock sword fibersBody & underwing: Rusty orange flossThorax: Peacock herlWing: Fox guard hairs (silver or red)Hackle: Grizzly See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product