Fly of the Month

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

Learn to tie the Woodruff Dry Fly, a pattern with roots in the Catskill Mountains of New York

J. Stockard Pro Tyer: Paul Shurtleff, Springville UT, You can find Paul @: www.instagram.com/insectinside/, www.facebook.com/pauliescustomflies When J. Stockard approached me about creating a fly for the cover of their 2023 Catalog, I was both excited and a bit nervous. It's one thing to post one of my creations to Instagram, it's another to think about a picture of my fly sitting on thousands of tying benches across the country. After considering a few options, I settled on the “trude”, a style of fly patterns with hair wings. First introduced in 1901, the pattern is 121 years old and has many variants.  The Royal Trude fly (the one I submitted for the cover) is in fact a hair wing version of the Royal Coachman. It is an effective fly and I personally use this pattern for high mountain trout. This particular pattern shines on small streams and it punishes the native cutthroat trout in my area waters! There’s just something about the peacock and red band that trout love and the white wing makes it super easy to see too! You can read more about the history of the trude here and see the recipe and instructions for my version below. Recipe:Hook: Partridge G3A-LY (or any standard dry fly hook)Thread: Semperfli 18/0 Nano Silk (black)Tail: Golden pheasant tippet fibersBody: PeacockBody band: Floss (red)Rib: small wire (silver) - use extra small or brassie if smaller flyWing: Calf body hair or you can substitute Calf Tail.Hackle: Whiting coachman brown saddle or capeCoating: Loon water based head cement Fly Tying Instructions: Start by putting the hook in the vise and start the thread at approximately 1/4 of the hook shank behind the hook eye. Select a few golden pheasant fibers for the tail. Measure the length to be the hook length. Trim to length and tie in. Bring the thread to the beginning of the hook bend keeping the fibers on top of the hook.  Select 2 or 3 strands of peacock for the rear body bump. Align the butts of the peacock strands, trim off the very tips and tie them in by the evened out tips. Spin the peacock around the thread to form a peacock rope. Wrap a few turns of the peacock rope to form the rear bump and tie off and remove the excess but save the remaining strands for the forward bump.  Bring the thread the same distance as the rear peacock bump up from the rear bump to give an even section for the red band. Tie in the wire (optional) and the red floss for the band. Wrap the floss up to the start of the second peacock bump, then wrap it back, and then forward again creating a 3 layered band of red floss for the center bump. Wrap the wire over the floss in even spaced turns (2 to 3 max) and tie it off.  Tie in the same 2 to 3 strands of peacock used for the rear bump, spin it around the thread again to form a peacock rope. Wrap 2 to 4 turns for the forward peacock bump, tie off and remove the excess.  Select a small clump of calf body hair for the wing. After cleaning out the clump of hair, use a hair stacker to even the hair tips. Measure the wing to be the hook shank in length. Trim off the butts and tie in the calf body hair wing at the end of the forward peacock bump. Tie in the remaining wing butts and make a clean thread ramp for the hackle.  Select a hackle and tie it in on top of the hair wing ensuring that the “shiny side” faces forward. Bring the thread to just behind the hook eye.  Wrap the hackle in close touching turns, preening the fibers back after every turn to slightly compress the hackle turns and not trap any hackle fibers. Wrap the hackle to the hook eye, tie off the hackle, pull the remaining hackle back and whip finish behind the hook eye and in front of the hackle. Remove the thread and hackle and treat the thread head with head cement.