SBS - San Juan Bomb

This is a pattern I saw somewhere...cannot remember exactly where or exactly how it was tied but basically it was a San Juan worm pattern with added weight and an egg as an all around attractor nymph. I in no way am trying to take credit for creating this pattern and if I ever come across the name or creator of this fly I will certainly change its title and call it a variation, but until that time, the San Juan Bomb!

Recipe

Hook: Size 8-14 Egg or Scud Hook

Thread: Red

Body: Glo Bug Yarn and ultra chenille

Weight: 1/8th Tungsten bead

Step 1: Place the bead on your hook and secure in the vise. Here I am using Allen's Egg hook in size 10 as these flies are meant for steelhead. If you are fishing trout you can go with a less robust hook.

Step 2: Attach your thread behind the bead and run back to the end of the hook. Here I am using 10/0 veevus thread in red. Once at the end of the hook tie in some ultra chenille with the tag end hanging as long as you want your tail.

Step 3: Next cut an inch or so of glo bug yarn from the hank and fluff it apart in your fingers so the fibers all separate. Use this as dubbing to form a dubbing noodle on your thread and create an egg shaped ball ahead of the tie in point of the chenille.

 

Step 4: Bring your thread over to in front of the bead and secure the chenille down over top of the glo bug yarn egg and bead. Cut the tag end of the chenille to your desired length and whip finish the fly behind the eye of the hook. To finish the fly singe the ends of the chenille with a lighter to create a small taper.

This pattern I think offers a little bit of everything, a super attractor pattern that has the weight to get down fast. The proof is in the pudding, this beast was caught nymphing a San Juan Bomb through a run. If you look closely you can see the fly hanging out of the top of her mouth.

Double Standard

Double Standard tied on Hanak Wet Fly Competition hooks in size 10 with Heavy Metal tungsten beads

For a long time now I have been watching the video series produce by Tight Line Productions known as Practical Patterns. Looking through all of their videos I am amazed at the how clear and well done the videos are and have used many of them to copy patterns to stock my fly boxes with.

I wanted to share here with you guys a simple but deadly nymph pattern that I fell in love with immediately after seeing this video. A cross between a pheasant tail nymph and a hares ear nymph this pattern is just dynamite. Since finding this pattern I have tied and fished it for trout, pan fish and more recently suckers and the fish seem to find it irresistible. By varying the material used for your bead (Tungsten, brass, glass) and the amount of lead wraps used as the under body you can change the weight and characteristics of this pattern. I prefer a heavily weighted tungsten bead used to get the fly down in faster currents which works wonders on dropper rigs. This is a very versatile pattern and I tie it in many different sizes and weights to cover all of my nymphing needs.

Hammer Creek's Rubber Leg Copper John II

When tying flies I have always seemed to have had a few patterns that I just HATE tying. It might be because I have problems or issues with certain materials or techniques, because I do not like to look or style of the fly,  or sometimes I have no reason at all. Copper Johns have been on that list for a long time. I always have had issues with getting biots to sit the way that I like and have a hard time wrapping my head around the benefits of a biot versus say hen or dry fly hackle or something that moves in the water with the different currents. Also getting a nice clean head with beads, shell cases, flash and all of those things going on at the same time near the head of the fly has given me problems in the past but as I have grown as a tyer things have started to get easier.

For whatever reason the second that I saw the video of the Rubber Leg Copper John II tied by Hammer Creek Fly Fishing I was captivated and knew that I needed a few dozen for my box. The only substitution that I have made with the pattern is changing from a biot tail to some speckled hen because I simply believe that motion is always better then a stiff biot.

I tied up 2 dozen of this pattern to get a feel for it, starting with size 10 and working down to size 16. I cannot wait to get out and try this pattern once trout has opened here in Ontario and have a feeling that it will be deadly effective for not only trout but pan fish and other species as well.

  

Please check out Hammer Creeks website and here is the tying video for this pattern

SBS - Bead Head Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle

 

Materials

 Hook: Allen W502 Wet Fly Hook #12

Bead: Canadian Llama Brass Bead (Copper) 7/64th

Rib: Copper wire

Tail/Body: Pheasant Tail Fibers

Hackle: Metz Grizzly Hen

 *Materials Note: This pattern is very versatile and is more a style of tying then an actual pattern. Feel free to experiment with hook styles and sizes, beads and materials.

Step 1 - Place your bead on the hook small hole first and secure firmly in your vise. 

Step 2 - Start your thread behind the bead and wrap back to behind the hooks barb careful not to nick your thread on the hook point. 

Step 3 -  Measure out your pheasant tail fibers for the length of your tail and tie in. I like to tie the tail in and then bring the thread forward slightly and fold the remaining fibers back and make a few securing wraps as shown in the picture below.

Step 4 - Attach some copper wire starting behind the bead and secure back to the tail. Bring your tying thread back to behind the bead.

Step 5 - Wrap the butt ends of the pheasant tail fibers forward in touching wraps. Stop slightly behind the bead and secure with a few wraps of thread. Clip the excess fibers off as close as possible as you will want room for the bead to slip back and butt up against the end of the body.

Step 6 - Counter rib the pheasant tail with your copper wire. Give a few tight wraps of thread once you have reached the end of the body and then helicopter the wire off. In this photo you can see it did not break off cleanly, likely due to loose thread wraps. I went in and clipped the tip of the wire off with some old scissors.

Step 7 - Whip finish behind the body and apply a drop of head cement or crazy glue. At this point push the bead back over your whip finish and up tight against the pheasant tail body.

Step 8 -  Reattach your thread in front of the bead. At this point you can add a hot spot if you like by using a brightly colored thread such as chartreuse or florescent orange.

Step 9 - Select an appropriately sized grizzly hen hackle (or other hen/soft hackle feather) and strip the webby fibers from the base. Pull back 1-2cm of fibers and tie in and cut off the excess. At this point pull the feather up by the stem and brush the fibers backwards so they are all facing towards the tail of the fly. Take one or two wraps depending upon how sparse or thick you want your hackle to be and then tie off at the head. Carefully snip off the stem as close as possible, whip finish and apply a drop of head cement for added durability.

The Finished Fly

As mentioned in the notes this fly is more of a style then a pattern and offers many different options when tying. You can change the look of the fly easily be adjusting the style of hook that you are using, the type of bead, hackle feather and thread. Below is a variation of the pattern tied on curved nymph hooks, with a brass bead, different color hen hackle fibers and a red hot spot on the head. Do not be afraid to experiment with different materials for the body as well, this pattern opens itself up well to experimentation. You can use these variable to match the local hatches, create an attractor pattern or a new hot fly that will take your rivers by storm.

SBS - Bead Head Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle

This fly was originally sent to me as part of the FTF bluegill swap last year. It worked wonders on my local waters for both pan fish and trout and after using it I just had to tie a few more up. At the same time I figured I would share this pattern with others and take my first crack at making a tying video.

SBS - Bead Head Mirage Back Scud

Materials

Hook: Size 14 Scud Hook

Head: 3/32nd Brass Bead 

Rib: Small Copper Wire

Shell Back: Opal Mirage Tinsel (Medium or Large)

Body: Custom Scud Dubbing (Made from Australian opossum, brown, grey, orange antron fibers and a pinch or two of rust ice dub)

 I created the bead head mirage back scud when I was looking for a very simple and quick to tie scud pattern. It is nothing new or innovative but I have found it to be very deadly for both pan fish and trout. Tied from sizes 8-16 I never leave home without these flies. When I fish these for pan fish I find that the slow rate of descent caused by the brass bead is a big trigger for the fish to strike. When I tied this fly with a tungstun bead the rate of descent seemed a little to fast for the pan fish I was targeting but they worked great for trout.

 

Special Dubbing Notes: The dubbing used for this fly is a custom blend that I put together to try and match local sow bugs. The main component is both underfur and guard hairs from an Australian opossum pelt. To this I add a few pinches of brown, tan and white antron fibers and a few pinches of rust ice dub. This create a very nice buggy blend.

Step 1: Secure your hook into the vise with a properly sized bead. Here we have a size 14 scud hook matched with a 3/32nd brass bead.

Step 2: Start your tying thread on the hook and work your way down to the bend. Snip off the tag end and then return your thread to just behind the bead. Tie in some small copper wire on the near side of the hook and wrap back to the bend.

Optional Step: Before tying in the copper wire sometimes I will tie in a tuft of dubbing as a tail after wrapping my thread back to the hook bend.

Step 3: Take a piece of either medium or large opal mirage tinsel and tie it in starting behind the bead. Try to keep the tinsel centered on the top of the hook, when you reach the bend you can bring the tinsel forward to make sure things are centered and lined up.

 Step 4: Make a tapered dubbing noodle and start at the bend of the hook wrapping forward and creating a nicely tapered body.

Step 5:Pull your tinsel forward over the top of the dubbing and make sure it is centered. Take a loose wrap behind the bead and when you are happy with the placement of the tinsel pull it forward and make a few tight wraps. Once secured I like to pull the tinsel back and make a few more wraps in front of it before clipping off the excess tinsel.

 Step 6: With your copper wire start wrapping over the dubbing to create a segmented body on the fly. I find if you go slow and carefully wrap forward most of the time you will not disturb the tinsel along the top. If you find it moves a slight bit and is aligned on the far side of the hook this is still ok as you can always move it back while brushing out the dubbing. Once you have the body ribbed take a few tight wraps to secure the copper and helicopter off the remaining wire.

 Step 7: Make a very sparse dubbing noodle, just enough to color the thread really and whip finish with the dubbing noodle to cover your thread wraps.

Step 8: With a dubbing brush tease out the fibers on both sides of the fly downwards. If a lot of fibers extend down past the hook point you can trim them off. Also at this time if your tinsel has migrated from the top of the fly you can gently use your brush to realign it even under the copper rib.

The top row is an assortment of bead head mirage back scuds tied with tails on sizes 14, 12, and 10 scud hooks.

 This pattern when used for gills can be fished in a variety of ways, dead drifted, left alone to sink, stripped in, jigged, as mentioned before the slow descent rate caused by the size of the fly and the smaller brass bead seems to be crappie and blue gill crack. You will watch as the fly slowly sinks only to be devoured from below by a ravenous mouth. The pattern is very durable often able to catch 50-100 fish on a single fly, and it seems the rattier and more torn up the fly becomes, the more the fish will love it.

I would be very interested to hear how this pattern works for other anglers on panfish, if you tie a few up please do let me know how it goes.

Tight Lines!