Squirrel tail, yes ! Such an under utilized material. My personal favorite fly uses squirrel tail. Awesome post Adrian

 

Matt, you're awake early...even for east coast time.

What's your personal fave fly?

 

Good morning Adrian. Yes, up early. Anxiety has been eating me up and sleep is hard to come by. My personal favorite fly is the spring wiggler tied in the only color you could ever need. Chartreuse ! This fly has caught more fish than anything i’ve ever drowned in a river. Now for classics, it would be the Green Highlander or the Popham. Cheers buddy, hope you are well !

 

Maybe some river time or tying time can help with the stress, Matt. A lot of anxiety with many these days. I hope you find some peace and rest.

I'm up because of night shift ... but unfortunately it has affected my sleep pattern over the years. Aside from that, I am doing okay. Cheers, my friend. I 'd like to see a Popham from you.

 

Ex wives and unemployment can cause anxiety, this i know. I’m glad you mentioned the Popham....i haven’t tied one in a long time. I haven’t tied anything in a long time, to be honest. I have a pattern on the horizon though, that i’ve never tied and then i’ll get around to a Popham. Promise. Cheers buddy

 

What an awesome pattern! When you tied in the wing was it two separate clumps on the sides of the hook or a single on top and then divided with thread wraps ?

 

Steve, I thought about tying in 2 separate clumps but I wanted to make sure that the wings would be the same length and thickness. I opted to tie in one clump and split with thread wraps. Cheers

Such an awesome post!!
After these next T&L's I started, I'm giving this pattern a go
Squirrel is a bear in hand, I know, but it's worth the extra efforts.

Hope you guys are well
Matt, get to the river and wash away that stress and anxiety!! Come here often and break away from the daily stuff
Adrian, please remain vigilant at work, for your family and your friends


Mike

Thanks, Mike. I am training someone tonight who's pretty reliable. Speypages keeps me awake

 

Such an awesome post!!
After these next T&L's I started, I'm giving this pattern a go
Squirrel is a bear in hand, I know, but it's worth the extra efforts.

Hope you guys are well
Matt, get to the river and wash away that stress and anxiety!! Come here often and break away from the daily stuff
Adrian, please remain vigilant at work, for your family and your friends


Mike

 

It's very inspiring to read a post like this then see the flies. I love it. Thanks Adrian.

I worked 12 hour shifts for 5 years over 10 years ago and I still don't sleep right as a result. I no longer work and can sleep when I choose. Where I choose as well.

 

Thanks, Dan!

Thankfully I am off for a day after this shift and hopefully will recover some sleep. Another day closer to retirement for me
Cheers

 

I've been on swing shift for over 9 years but started first shift on Monday, I'm definitely sleeping better!

Great flies Adrian, your wet fly looks like orange and pink body, but the dry ones look like orange and claret?

 

Great flies Adrian, your wet fly looks like orange and pink body, but the dry ones look like orange and claret?

This looks like a fiery claret to me ... maybe my eyes aren't quite so there yet -


Mike

 

A terrific thread filled with a wonderful sense of community! What is it my T-Shirt says.....”The Brotherhood of the Swing?”

And, btw, the starter post is filled with some delicious artwork of the masterpiece variety. Adrian, due to the fact that the fish he now chases are holding in beautiful water just beyond the limits of our best casts, I am pretty sure Harry doesn’t mind you giving up his squirrelly secret. And I am pretty sure that he always loves the special Adrian-touch that you bring to his patterns.

As we all do.

Pretty special work. Pretty special.

I hope to get Blair on the NU when you are there; the two of you can swap graveyard shift nursing stories!

Let’s fish!

 

Thank so much, Keith. I am imagining sitting on a couple of bench-high boulders around 0700hrs. Blair and I are swapping stories as we watch her pa at the top of Burnt Ck riffle casting line as the sun behind you starts peeking over the treeline from the opposite bank.

Sigh... oh, the North...

 

Can we please keep getting posts like this? Pretty please. It has every aspect of a true fly fishing fairy tale, IMHO.

 

My fish all come high in that run...or in the mid-section...but I know you've hooked some way down low. That river shares with each of us our own special secrets. It shares them reluctantly, mind you......but that makes them all the more special.

I have sat on those Burnt Creek rocks many times, waiting for the sun to dip below the tree line.

Not once did I ever mind the wait.

How about this? I sit and watch as you show Blair a NU secret, or two. I think she tires of me as her coach more than she admits.

 

I assume that Harry Lemire would not be happy about this post. But this is an informative and brilliant pattern that needs sharing to those that appreciate the ideas behind fly construction.

Sorry, Harry...cats out the bag...chasing the squirrel

Well I tied one on a size 6 hook with an olive wing and light olive dubbed body, the hair-wing dee wing wasn't perfect but it still swam nicely.
First outing and it pulled 4 beautiful autumn rainbows (best was 25") from a backcountry pool....where upon I put it away for modelling purposes for future ties.
Never has a new fly/pattern so impressed on its maiden outing, a true fish puller....
My wing was tied using fine deer hair as this was the only material at hand, what is the trick to keeping the wing bunches together to form the V
I commend you with tying this in hand, difficult indeed, well done!

 

That is splendid reporting! Thanks for trying it out. As far as tying in the hair: I tied it in one clump at first (to keep the tips mostly even); and then I split the wing equally in half with figure 8 wraps. After separated well enough I try to wrap the base of each wing to support its V-shape. I hope that makes sense.

Cheers!

 

I agree, Adrian, Harry likely used superglue to hold that wing down. Note the tiny head. No foldback. I like yours better.

 

well gave this one a go for my after work decompression tie, well lets just say, this squirrel wing made me want to go back to work 🤣🤣🤣 this is after a third mount and twice broken thread, hence the huge head. learned a few things hoping the next one will go better, for i feel this dressing will be a hunter, cameron

 

Congrats.....Nicely proportioned and the splayed wings will give this fly some natural life like motion. This pattern is similar to an old forgotten New Brunswick favourite, the Butterfly. My Grandad liked his Butterfly’s with translucent dyed yellow bear hair or with natural Silver Fox with a prominent black band on each wing. These Butterflies were fished with a subtle twitch with the rod tip during the swing or with your wrist on the retrieve in slower currents. They also excelled in traditional spey dangle fishing when hung, and hovered, or led back into likely looking high percentage water.
Regards from the Restigouche....Jim

 

Update on this pattern, I've tried the super glue stacks, using bucktail as this is what I have, and find no real difference in getting my thread head size down.
I am tying on a size 6 standard shank hook so heads are going to always look huge, especially with my tying skills....fish aren't complaining and I think the red
head makes for a good hot spot on the pattern.
This light olive UV dub tie is still proving very effective, always extracting a player when its deployed.
There is a couple of more subdued models tied and yet to be swung, I'm pretty excited about them and look forward to swinging them on the B&W Hexagraph.

A fly to be fished.....