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Isabella Speys

4K views 21 replies 16 participants last post by  speyNewbe 
#1 ·
Howdy. I'm new to the forum here, and thought I'd start off posting a few ties. I've been browsing speypages for a while now, and have been just blown away by some of the stuff people are tying up. I've been tying for a little over a year now, and I figure a little advice and criticism would help me out quite a bit. These are a couple of Isbella Speys which is a pattern by Dave Steinbaugh. I mixed a few things up, but it's essentially the same bug.
Cheers.
 

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#3 ·
That's what I call a grand entrance. I'm not familiar with the pattern your trying to duplicate here, so I cannot comment other then to say they look good to me.

Well done.

Scott.
 
#5 ·
Really nice flies !!
Proportions are spot on and dressed perfectly sparse :smokin:
Very nice body and hackle work too .

Try tapering the dubbed portion of the body thin towards the eye of the hook . That will help bring the hackle wing tips in closer to the body .

Judging from your posted flies and the amount of time that you have been tying , I'd say you are a fast learner !! Well done !!

Welcome to the forum :)






Mike
 
#8 ·
Scott - Dave Steinbaugh is a tyer/fly shop owner in Port Angeles. If I'm not mistaken, I think he uses blue eared pheasant as the collar (I subbed natural pheasant and lavender mallard for lack of BEP).

Mike - thank you for the tip... my wings do tend to stick up quite a bit, I'll try tapering the next one a bit and see what it does. I've been under the impression that the body should taper the opposite direction, so I usually end up with quite a bump in the front.

Jin - I've seen quite a few of your ties on the forum... great stuff. I definitely try to keep em sparse.

Thanks for the kind words everyone! Can't wait to swing these - waitin on the rains out here to kick some fish into the rivers.

Alyssa
 
#9 ·
Mike - thank you for the tip... my wings do tend to stick up quite a bit, I'll try tapering the next one a bit and see what it does. I've been under the impression that the body should taper the opposite direction, so I usually end up with quite a bump in the front.
Alyssa , picture the body a fine taper to the center of the shank , then tapering back down towards the eye . This shape really helps set the platform for any wing style , fashioned either of hair or feathers .

In my books , your doing awesome !! Keep at it .
Your material flow has balance and overall profile is very good . The high set wings can be an advantage during swing time in high clear water ;) Throws maximum profile , so it will grab some attention .






Mike
 
#10 ·
Hi, and welcome to the group. Although I post few flies here I do occasionally comment, your flies look like what I catch fish on regularly. I had 2 good days just past using dark patterns like you show. I think they look great,

Ard
 
#11 ·
Wow! For someone with only a year of tying under their belt, these are some excellent flies. I don't want to tell you how long I had been tying before I could put together anything like yours...

Anyway, I learned a simple little trick from someone on this forum to get a nice hump shape to the wings and have them to lie down closer to the hook shank. This will make the expert tyers on this board cringe, so I apologize to all of you in advance.

After you have finished tying in the hackle tip wings, find the stems that extend forward from the hook eye/your final thread wraps (the part that you would normally cut away as waste). Double these back over your final thread wraps and make three additional firm wraps, so that you have actually secured the hackle tips twice. With the wings secured this way, nothing is going to pull them out short of breaking the stems. But don't cut away those stems yet!

Next, with your dominant hand, place your bodkin under the wings just behind where you tied them in and hold it there. With your "off" hand, grip the very tips of the wings firmly and pull them firmly but gently backwards and down toward the hook bend. With your dominant hand, apply firm but gentle pressure upwards against the hackle tips with your bodkin. Maintaining that pressure, slide your bodkin down the hackles as far as you can toward the tips. If need be, repeat this with a little more upward pressure on the bodkin, but only do it along the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the wing closest to the head. This should set a nice curve in the wings and place them closer to the hook shank.

At this point, you can cut away the excess stem lengths that are sticking out of the head of the fly. Although it creates a slightly larger head, I like to leave them doubly secured; it makes for an extremely durable fly. If you desire that perfect, tiny head, simply unwrap the thread where you doubled over the hackle stems and clip away the hackle stems.

I used this technique on this fly:


Happy tying - and fishing!
 
#13 ·
Aldo - When talk about sliding the bodkin down the hackle tips, do you mean just an empty bodkin? After you have whip-finished the head? I like the idea of folding the stems over... I've lost too many wings to rocks and my clumsy hands in the last year.
Thank you for the detailed advice. Like that fly too!

Adrian - I've had a lot of help! I happen to have a few close friends that are excellent tiers, and I owe a lot of what I know to them. Thank you for the kind words, glad you enjoy the flies.
 
#15 ·
Aldo - When talk about sliding the bodkin down the hackle tips, do you mean just an empty bodkin?
By "bodkin" I mean a dubbing needle, like this:



I perform this step just before whip finishing. I figure there is always a chance that I'm going to move the hackle tips out of alignment when I do it. If I do mess up the wing, I can just unwrap the thread.

Here are a couple of photos from Beaucatcher Fly Fishing (http://www.beaucatcher.com/Fly_Tying_Notes.html#Feather_wing_shaping_technique) showing a one handed version of the technique. I like the two handed version because it allows me to make finer adjustments to the amount of pressure I'm applying to the wings.



 
#16 ·
Ard, glad you like the flies, and happy to hear you've been having success on flies like this. I've yet to hook anything yet on this pattern, looking forward to giving it some water time this winter.

Aldo - Ah, a bodkin. my mind was on bobbins. Your illustration clears things up for me a lot, I can see this technique has a good effect on the wings. Sometimes you get lucky and find that matching pair with that shape, but not very often. Thanks for taking the time to explain all this, it will be put to use for sure!
 
#18 ·
hoh hum - those are really nice flies. I like your personal style.

Aldo~ I have read your posts here for years yet, never really seen any of your fly's. That grizz - white marabou is awesome ! That fly would be very hot here along with the same in black / purple with red highlights!

I have always liked marabou speys because they want to just swim off the tippet in the water and work consistently well. That one you just posted, is one of THE BEST , I have ever seen here, for the haunts I fish and has class.

I have also read you swing for river smallies like me. Don't think I have to tell you that fly would be KILLER for river smallies.

I LOVE THAT FLY !

Edit- Just looked at that beauty again and if I ever seen Great Lakes Spey fly perfection that fly is it. Seriously, I could take that color combo and pattern along with purple/black and same red highlights and fish nothing but, all year. Maybe add in a olive/brown/orange at the most. I give that one a 10+++

Thanks
 
#19 ·
Thanks, Willi - you made my day. Mostly, I think I can't hold a candle to the tyers who post here!

The "Silver Crawford" was inspired by the jillions of juvenile herring, alewives, shad, and other silvery baitfish that swim up my local rivers from the sea in the spring and wash back down again the fall. I wanted something that would tempt smallmouths and also stripers. It's amazing how far upriver from the ocean those stripers will go! I also have huge confidence in any combination of red, white, and black for both smallies and stripers, so the fly more or less put itself together one day at the bench. Let me know how they do on your local chromers....I'm trying to scheme my way into a few days of Lake Ontario trib fishing next spring; it would be good to know if these work! I also tied a few in yellow to imitate yellow perch, but haven't fished those much.



Happy tying - and even better fishing!
 
#20 ·
Nice & sparse, great colours!


Mike
 
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