The hackle stacker tutorial

 The hackle stacker is great dry fly pattern. It was devised by Bob Quigley. The fly utilizes a paraloop technique by winding the hackle around a post and then pulling them over the top of thorax. The pattern can be a bit of a bitch to tie at first but once you do a couple you will have it down.  You can also utilize a gallows tool for this task but I find it as easy to just use my finders.  So lets tie one up, the tutorial is of an adams, but this pattern can be tied to match any mayflies.




Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1180 #10-24
Thread- Grey Uni 8/0
Tail- Mix of brown and grizzly
Abdomen- Adams grey super fine dubbing
Hackle- Brown and grizzly rooster hackle
Loop- Tying thread
Thorax- Adams grey superfine dubbing

Underside or trouts view, Looks tasty to me.  The best part of the this fly is you can stroke the hackle down to each side it makes a great hackle wing spinner! 

The Flutter stone

Here is my tie for a spent or dying stonefly. You can tie them in a variety of colors to match the stones.  Be sure to set the player to hd. Use the little gear just below the player.   Be sure to do this with all my videos as they are all 1080 hd.

Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1180 #16
Thread- Uni 8/0 dark brown
Body- Black foam
Under wing- White/clear z-lon
Wing- White poly yarn
Front- Black superfine dubbin
Hackle- Grizzley rooster hackle

A quick tie for those small mayflies

Materials

Hook- Daiichi ultimate dry fly hook

Thread- Olive dun

Tail- Dun hackle fibers

Abdomen- Tying thread

Thorax- Light olive super fine

Hackle- Dun

fly tying desk modification

Royal flymph tying video

Here is my tie of a royal flymph. It works great like all royals do and its durable. Fish the fly like any other flymph or wet fly. Dont forget to fish it right in the film.

Materials

Hook- Daiichi 1560 12-18

Thread- Black uni-8/0

Tail- Brown hen neck

Body- Butt- peacock hurl, mid- red antron yan, front- peacock hurl

Rib- X-small red wire

Hackle- 1 white and 1 brown hen neck

Tups Indispensable flymph video

 Tups indispensable has a very secretive history behind it. G.E.M. Skues wrote about and many have talked about it.  From what I gathered from reading everything I could find on it was the fly was yellow bodied, and the thorax while wet, was pink.  They also used a honey dun hackle.
  I put this fly together, basing it off what i found out. It's not the true tups by any means but there are similarities, and from my fishing with the T.I.F.(tups indispensable flymph) it just may be as effective.  All I know is the trout certainly approve of it and that is all that matters to me.

Materials

Hook- Daiichi alec Jackson north country spider #11

Thread- Pearsall's silk  Primrose

Tail- Honey dun hackle fibers

Abdomen- Tying thread

Thorax- J.U.s tup blend(white and pink rabbit, and hares mask, and U.V. pink ice dub)

Hackle- Honey dun hen neck

Sparkle Midge pupa, tutorial

 This is a very simple yet extremely effective pattern. It is a great fly for midge pupa and the trout agree. I never go to any limestone stream without this pattern in my midge box.  I first heard of this pattern through the writings of Gary Borger quite some time ago. The fly goes hand in hand with the g-gnat. Give me a box with g-gnats and sparkle midge pupas and ill catch trout on any spring creek or tail water. 
  Tie these guys up in small sizes ie 20-26, and use different colored threads for different effects as the body is translucent.  Be sure to tie them in red, yellow, black, olive, and brown.
   Fish them with a greased leader(floatant on the leader) or dry dropper, whenever you see trout making those midge rings, and be sure to be ready, cause you will be surprised sometimes at the size of trout you can catch while midging. 

Materials

Hook- Daiichi 1110 20-26

Thread- Black 8/0

Rib- x-small silver wire

Body- Clear(white) or cream antron

Wiggle Nymph video, Hendrickson

Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1150 #14
Thread- Uni 8/0 camel brown
Tail- Ostrich herl brown
Abdomen- ostrich herl brown
Thorax- Brown rabbit and antron blend
Wing case- Flat diamond braid, black
Hackle- Dark partridge

You can tie this fly in all sizes and colors. Also tie them with several different colors of strands of herl  for some great  effects.     Fish this fly in slower waters, with a leisenring lift or with an active retrieve.   Key factor is giving the fly action, working the fly so to say.

wiggle nymph (Hendrickson)

Editing the wiggle nymph video. Hope to have it done by the end of the day

Hendrickson flymph video

Materials 

Hook- any dry fly hook will do 12-14, but I really like and use the daiichi alec jackson soft hackle hooks 9-13

Thread- Uni 8/0 tan

Tail- bronze mallard flank

Body- Pink floss

Rib- Tan Australian opossum cut up fine and dubbed on thread

Hackle- Honey dun hen neck, preferably light honey dun.

The Willow Nymph Video

The Willow Nymph Tutorial

 If you have been following my postings here, then you know the willow nymph is a pattern that I keep fine tuning and I believe I have it mastered finally.  The final version which is still subject to change lol, has served me quite well on the freestoners in the area. I am sure it will produce great all over the place. It is a great pattern for fishing this time of year, with all the stones around in great in numbers. The willow is a close match to the early black stone nymph and tied in different colors can match many different stoneflies. So twist a few up and give them a go.
  

 Materials

Hook- Daiichi 1560 #14-16

Thread- Uni 8/0 dark brown

Tails- Moose main, optional

Rib- Small brown wire

Stripe- Uni 6/0 white

Abdomen- Dubbing, Blend is 2 parts(pinches) brown rabbit, and 1 part each- black rabbit, sts black and fiery brown.

Wing case- Dura skin, brown

Legs- extra fine round rubber, 2 pieces of Senyos shaggy dub is perfect

Thorax- Dubbing blend

 Head- Dubbing blend

Lets twist one up

 

Johnny's simple stone tutorial

 There is no doubt in my mind that stone fly imitations are a nymphers deadliest flies on fertile freestone streams of the northeast, and many other streams through out the world.  Several of my favorite local streams have a very large amount of stone flies, with many different species of stones.  The biggest reason why stone fly imitations are so effective is because many stone fly species take years to mature from a nymph till they are ready to hatch into the wing adults. What does that mean to the fly fisherman?  It means the trout have stones to eat year round and they are very familiar with them.
   Stone fly imitations, while they will work all year round, they become even more effective in hatch time. At this time the mature nymphs become quit active and by doing so they become more available for the trout to gobble up. The vast majority of stone flies crawl to the edge of streams or in streams debri structures to climb out of the water to hatch. What does this mean to fly fisherman? This means trout will stage along banks and structures waiting for the nymphs come to them.  Next time your on the stream, pay close attention to sand bars and work those banks.
  It is now January, and the little black stones and the tiny black stones are making there presence known.  For the little aka early black stone I use my willow stone imitation but as of late I have been nymphing with an fly pattern I know call the my simple stone.  It is designed to imitate the tiny black stones found on many streams in the area.  Many winter fly fisherman fail to notice them and many mistakenly call a flying adult a midge. After all, they are tiny.
  I am a firm believer that simple is best when it comes to effective flies for trout, and the simple stone fits that bill.  All you need is thread, midge ice braid, and very small rubber, for the legs.  So lets twist  one up already!

Hook- Daiichi 1550 #16 

Thread- Montana fly co Midge body thread black

Abdomen- Tying thread

Thorax- Tying thread

Wing case- Midge ice braid, root beer

Legs- micro rubber, senyo's shaggy dub works great, black

Start the thread back two hook eye lengths from the eye and wind back to the barb and then back to where you started.

Take the midge ice braid and pull the braid apart, dont worry, the materials are bonded together and by pulling it apart you are simply flattening the braid out.  Once you have this done,  fold the braid around the thread and bring the thread around the shank placing the braid on top of the shank. Wrap back over braid tying it in to the middle of the shank.

Wrap the thread forward and back till you even out the thorax. Dont worry if its kinda bumpy at this point.

Take a single piece of rubber and fold it around the thread and bring the thread around placing the rubber on the far side of the shank. Do the same with another piece of rubber for the near side. Then hold the back legs back and wind over them tying them back to about where the braid is tied in. Bring the thread forward  tying the front legs forward to about a hook eyes length back from the eye, then wrap in front of the legs to make them flare out.  In the photo i pulled the front leg out of the way of camera.

Now bring the braid over the top, and give a good pull as you bring it over to flatten it out. Tie it down with two turns on and one in front. Snipe the excess and wipe finish.

Now trim the legs, I like to trim the back legs to just past the abdomen, and the front legs I trim just beyond the eye of the hook.  You dont want long legs as they will just get tangled in the bend of the hook.

You now have a simple little stone fly.  Fish them slow on the bottom and be sure to cast them near banks, and be ready for some hard strikes!  But pay close attention cause some of those strikes are super light.

This 18" brown took the simple stone, no doubt this brown grew as large as he has by eating many stone flies over the coarse of his life.