The Picket Pin, with tutorial

A 1910s era picket pin, tied by Johnny Utah

  The picket pin is rather well known fly that has stood the test of time. The fly was originated by Montana fly tier Jack Boehme, owner of a Missoula tavern and tackle shop.  That must have been pretty cool, go pick up some flies and have a beer or two.  I'd be more interested in those fish tales told at flies shops if i was guzzling a beer! Anyways.   The fly featured here in my tutorial is the one believed to be the original from around 1910.  However the original was tied with a gopher tail wing, but grey squirrel is a darn good match. 

A peacock body picket pin. Tied by Johnny Utah

  There are many different variations of the picket pin, most have a variation in body materiel.  I am sure you have seen or have tied and/or used the peacock bodied picket pin. Which tied to size is deadly around this time of year with the iso hatches.  The tie here is more of an American tradition, you know our original fly patterns, Streamers.  The fly can be tied with different color wings as well.
  









The fly is extremely versatile. Fish it as a streamer, a nymph, a dry fly, whatever you can think of, it has probably already been done with the fly.  Fishing it dead drift with twitches is a favorite amongst eastern anglers.   It is fun tie, and when you catch a trout, thank Jack for his creation.

Originator: Jack Boehme,

Hook: Mustad  79580, or equivalent, size 4-6.
Thread: Black 8/0 Montana fly co.
Tail: Golden pheasant tippet fibers (3-5).
Rib: Medium gold french tinsel.
Hackle: Brown rooster neck palmered over body.
Body: Flat gold tinsel.
Wing: Gray squirrel tail.
Head: Peacock herl.

Click read more for the tutorial 

A female slate drake cdc fly (Iso)

The female isonychia is often a shade of brighter colored olive when first hatch. It will then darken up into the more well known colors of the iso. With this little piece of knowledge comes more takes, because if females are hatching, your gonna be pressed to be putting up numbers with a rusty or mahogany dun. Tossing this fly around has brought me some great luck when I see a slate drake emerge. 

 Materials

Hook- Daiichi 1180 #12

Thread- Olive 8/0

Tail- chartreuse dyed grizzly hackle fibers

Body- Pale evening dun and brown dry fly dubbin blended

Post- 4 dun cdc feathers

Hackle- MP cdc dirty yellow.

 

Tying Johnny's heading to hatch Iso Nymph(video)

In this video I tie my hth iso. I call it the heading to hatch iso because of the black wing case. If you ever sample nymphs from a stream prior to an emergence, you will find with dark wing cases. Many times if you fish a nymph with a dark wing case you will get quite a few more takes.
   You can sub out the wing case material(turkey) for a synthetic material like silly skin or scud back. I like to use the turkey because I have a lot of it. Don't be fooled by the length of the video, I do a lot of explaining for the various techniques thought the fly. Once you have it, they are a rather quick tie that's well worth it. The stripe is optional, but I strongly recommend using a grey stripe. A white stripe while disappear when wet. The technique for the legs one the fly is a great one to learn. I use it on a lot of my nymph patterns.
   Fish this fly in tail outs and riffles and good moving runs. Isonychia nymphs are excellent swimmers, they are fast. Be sure to apply action to fly via rod twitches, swinging, and stripping. You can fish them dead drift and still pick up fish, after all the nymphs have to stop swimming at some point. Enjoy.

 Materials 

Hook-daiichi-2220-#12-#16. I like #14 best 

Thread-brown 16/0 or 8/0 

Tail- brown mini marabou or chickabou. 

Abdomen- brown bou 

Rib-black utc wire brassie 

Stripe-light grey life flex. 

Wing case- black section of turkey tail tip

 Legs- dark partridge Thorax- peacock herl.

Super hair trico spinner.

Got the notion from a forum for using super hair for spinner wings. So I gave it a go for a trico spinners.

Mayflies and a Yellow sally

These guys have been hatching lately on my local waters. There is a cahill, bwo, sulphur, and a blue quill. Theres quite a few pics so dont forget to click the read more.

Tying Johnny's quick bugger video

 Seeing how i am tying all these buggers for the cold water conservation school in June(see post cold water conservations school needs) I figured to help out anyone who like to tie some for the kids by making a video on how i do my quick bugger. Its a very simple bugger that takes hardly any time to tie at all, once you get the hackling technique down.   A rotary vise is necessary for the technique.

  The beauty of the quick bugger is that it only requires 2 feathers and thread.  The bou secures the hackle so the fish dont break it, and the flies are so quick and simple that who cares if  you lose them.  If you wish to add flash to fly by all means just add that step in, no doubt the flash can make all the difference some days.  Ok well  I am rambling like I do in my videos, haha.  Enjoy the video.   Thanks for stopping by the fly corner.

Materials

Hook- Your favorite bugger hook(mustad 79580)

Thread- Black mono cord

Weight- fine lead wire

Tail- Black Marabou

Body- Black Marabou, butt end of feather from tail

Hackle- Grizzly dyed olive rooster neck hackle. (the whiting bugger packs are great)

Another March brown wet fly

Materials

Hook- Daiichi 1560 #12

Thread- uni 8/0 orange

Tag- Gold Holographic

Tail- Bronze Mallard

Rib- Oval gold tinsel

Body- Fox squirrel dub. Cut up very fine

Hackle- Dark Partridge

Wing- Pheasant wing slips.

With the dubbin cut up fine the orange thread bleeds through wonderfully. Just dub it very lightly. The tag is just to add some flash. Sometimes that can make all the difference.

The Double wing Rusty spinner video

  Here is my latest video. The double wing rusty spinner. Its a version of Ellis's triple wing spinner. The fly is extremely durable and floats great. Plus the trout, especially spring creek and limestone, really like the fly.  The fly is a quick tie, so dont let the video time scare you, I just rattled on a bit about things.   I use dun colored wings and tails on almost all my spinners. I agree with what is written in selective trout, something along the lines of the dun being preferred by trout.  Have you ever seen a real spinner with white wings????  Spinner wings are clear but the dun color surely isnt. However on the water flush against the film, it does look the part as compared to a white wing.  Just something to think about.......... Anyway, Enjoy the video.

Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1170 or 1180 sizes 16-22
Thread- Montana fly co Rusty Brown
Rib- Uni 8/0 Rusty brown, also try camel, olive dun and dark brown
Tail- Dun hackle fibers
Wing- Dun Niche siliconized poly yarn.

Spring session 8, Brief but great.

  Got out early this afternoon with Fredy after we did some planting and stream restoration. I will be doing a post on that soon. So Fredy and I hit my local spring creek for some quick dry fly action. It didn't take long before Fredy had one take his bwo dun.  I was using the Dark Star and got my first brown it and then on my next brown I lost it to him. The curse of the dark star continues. I an never keep one of those flies on my tippet, but they sure do work well, so i will continue to tie and use them.  Then we both swapped out for rusty spinners and we both got into fish with them.  Time ran out and I need to head on home so the session was over. It was good time on the water. Didn't see many bugs about, just the occasional caddis and the always present midges.

Spring session 7. Rusty Spinner and soft hackles

Got out for some flying on my favorite freestone stream. The fishing started off slow but picked up when Bwo spinners began to fall I tied on a double wing niche rusty spinner (video will be out soon). I fished the late morning and right into the afternoon the Bwo spinners just kept falling.

I began seeing the occasional sulphur pop off and a fish flash here and there. So I tied on a team of soft hackle again. I tied the biot sulphur soft hackle on as lead and the sulphur emerger soft hackle as point with two size 6 split shots to get me down in the deeper swifter runs. I dead drifted the flies above me and past. The I would throw a belly of line down and stream and allow the flies to swing from the bottom to the top.
It was early in the sulphur emergence so the majority of the fish took the flies on the deep swing. I worked my way down stream fishing down and across as the hatch got heavier the trout began to take near the surface and less down low. So to get the ones near the surface I simply took the shot off the line. I have used this technique for sulphur hatches for quite time and it hasn't let me down yet. Give it a go when you notice the things I describe before and get ready for some hard hitting takes! Fishing was hot right up till dark. With light rapidly fading and "more than four" I headed on back to the car. It's sure is great in being a swinger. ;)

Spring Session 6, bwos, sulphers, and cahills

   I got out on the mighty musky here in New Jersey for some flying in the evening. Oh man was there a hatch. There was tiny bwo's sizing around a 18-20 and there big brothers sizing in about #16 in a deep olive.  The fish were in tuned with the blanket that these guys formed on the water. A little bwo dun fly did the trick.  Then the fish switched to the larger bwo, so a nicheo was tied on and back into fish.  The occasional sulphur started to hatch and the rise forms became more tell tale of the taking of emergers.  I tied on a team of the emerger sulphur and the biot sulphur softy and began swinging.  The hits just came one after the other. The fishing was hot to say the least and to my surprise the occasional cahill would drift by me.  The swallows were swooping the cahills that stirred in the eddies of the stream banks. There were several baby mallard ducks having a field day eating the bugs. It was a prolific hatch for sure. 

 With so many mayflies hatching dont be without spinners on your next outing. Bwo spinners fall late morning with many species and the sulphurs will fall in late evening. So if your seeing rises and dont see whats doing, give a spinner a try.

My only wild brown of the evening

Ridge and Valley T.U. Fly tiers round table, Sulpher Emerger video

   Well last evening was my T.U. chapters second tiers round table meeting. It was a good turn out for the event.  At the meeting I demoed and gave instructions how to tie a great emerging  sulphur soft hackle that I have been tying and using for some time. The fly can be fish dead drift in the film, bounced on the bottom, fish as a dropper off a dry fly and on the swing. A leisenring lift is particularly deadly with this fly. 

Special thanks to the M.W.A. for allowing us to use there amazing building check them out Musconetcong water association

Here is the video of the fly I last night, and thanks to everyone for coming out. Hope to see you all next month! Enjoy the video.
Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1110, 1180, 1560  sizes 14 and 16
Thread- Uni- 8/0 Light cahill.
Tail- Pheasant tail fibers
Rib- Tag of tying thread
Abdomen- Pheasant tail
Thorax- Lite yellow U.V. Ice dub.
Hackle- Dun hen neck hackle ( Whiting hen is great for this pattern as it will help the fly stay in film)

Lessons in the fly corner

Well Josh was out to the fly corner this morning for and I taught him how to tie the U.V. Diamond scud, the High Test Hares Ear and .......... The Golden Oldie!!!!!!!  Well hell he has been fishing the fly since i devised, so its only right he should know how to tie one!  Great Job Josh.

Dark Star tutorial (step by step)

The Dark Star Dun
Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1180 or 1110 #12-20
Thread- Tan 8/0
Wings- Black hen hackle tips
Tail- Sandy dun hackle fibers
Abdomen- Stripped peacock quill
Rib- Small Opal tinsel
Thorax- Dyed black peacock hurl
Hackle- Sandy dun.

Start the thread and wrap half way down the shank.

Then wrap the thread half way back up. This will give your wing placement.

Select 2 hen neck hackle tips, pair them up and line up the tips. Measure your wings to be the same length as the hook shank.

Pinch and loop the wings to the top of the shank. Take a couple additional turns to secure, wrapping back touching turns as you secure. Then snip the waste.

Wrap back over the butts touching turns to just before the barb.  Dont worry about standing the wings up yet. They will just get in the way.

Take 6-8 hackle fibers and tie them in for the tail. Take one turn on and one under then one to secure.

Tie in a stripped quill by the skin on the butt end with one turn.

Tie in the small opal tinsel, and advance the thread to about a hook eyes back from the wings.

Wrap the quill forward touching turns.

Now rib the body with the opal tinsel,  3-4 turns is enough. Blurry??? yeah sorry about that.  Now before you stand your wings, put a light coat of varnish/head cement on the body. Be sure to get a bit on the under side of the hook bend to anchor the varnish. This helps make it much more durable.

Now stand the wings up by pulling them up with your finger and thumb and putting wraps right in front of the wing base.

Select a hackle and tie the butt end in in-between the wings. This help keep them split.

Tie in a dyed black peacock hurl by the tip and bring the thread in front of the wings.

Wrap the peacock hurl forward, touching turns and just take one turn in front of the wing.

Now wrap the hackle, take two full turns behind the wing and 1-1 1/2 in front of the wing. 

Whip Finish and your head and the Dark Star is complete.   For flatter water cut a V into the bottom of the hackle. 

The Dark Star Tying video

Here it is, The Dark Star Tying video,  Enjoy.

The Dark Star dun

  I have posted about this fly in some of my fishing reports and never put a photo up.  This fly has worked extremely well for me.  I have used it all over the place, from limestone to freestone, it just works. 
  In high glare situations this fly shines as the black wings are easy to see in this situation. I will confess that there are some times when the black wings are next to impossible to see, but the lighter colored hackle(sandy dun) makes the fly visible at those times. 
  The video is currently uploading and will be on youtube late tonight. I will have it on here in the morning.



Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1180 or 1110 #12-20
Thread- Tan 8/0
Wings- Black hen hackle tips
Tail- Sandy dun hackle fibers
Abdomen- Stripped peacock quill
Rib- Small Opal tinsel
Thorax- Dyed black peacock hurl
Hackle- Sandy dun.

Remember......Its wild brown trout approved!!!!!!!!!

Hendrickson Nicheo Video

Here is my latest video. It is of how I tie my Hendrickson Nicheo. I used it this month the few times I got and it worked very well. Enjoy