My Fly Repertoire

Nymphs

That's right. This fly only uses one feather. I can tie a dozen of these in no time. The hardest part is wrapping the pheasant tail body. Pheasant tail doesn't wrap easily like peacock herl.

I haven't named this one yet. It's just an experiment with woven nymph bodies. I didn't tie it from a pattern. I just mixed some things together that I thought looked "buggy."

This is the Dave Whitlock fly with an additional gold bead head, rubber legs, and flashabou replacing the wire ribbing. I also substituted quail flank for partridge. I've had pretty good luck with this fly for catfish and bream.

Streamers

This is the standard Woolly Bugger with a couple of additions; the bead head and the Krystal Flash in the tail. Another good catfish fly. They seem to like it best when it's lying still on the bottom.

A fly version of the classic weedless jelly worm. This can be tied in chartreuse or pumpkin, depending on your local water conditions.

I learned how to tie this fly from Spencer Johnson at the Fairhope Fly shop. He said it's popular on the streams of Virginia. I like the emu hackle. It's naturally soft and when swept back in a wet hackle style like this, it has a very natural bug or minnow look. The wood duck flank tail is tied in perpendicular to the direction of travel, so it acts like a rudder to give the fly a little side-to-side motion. Spencer says this fly, tied on a 2x long hook, is a "bass killer."

Dry Flies

My first dry fly. The hardest part about tying this fly seems to be ribbing the body without knocking down all of your hackles.

Terrestrial

This is a horsefly imitation that I'm still working on. I've been experimenting with different wing materials. This one worked fairly well, but I'm looking for something I can imitate the black wings of a real horsefly with. The highlight of this fly is the faceted eye, made of bead chain covered with a thin layer of metallic fabric. I got the idea from Graham Owen's ultra-realistic flies.

Another horsefly imitation, but with a foam wing replacing the plastic wing.

I got the basic idea for this fly from Harrison Steeves' book Tying Flies With Foam, Fur, and Feathers. The eye is a cylinder of pink foam wrapped in the body material. Wing is made of a plastic CD sleeve, cut into a chevron shape.

Not sure what you'd call this: I guess it could be a nymph or a terrestrial. Either way, it's an interesting fly. I assume it's named for Prince George county in Virginia or Prince George, British Columbia. Either location would be a fly fishing destination. This one I learned from Melanie at the Fairhope Fly Shop. Can also be tied in all black.

This is loosely based upon a pattern I found in Harrison Steeves' book Tying Flies With Foam, Fur, and Feathers. I believe it was originally a Japanese Beetle.

Saltwater

This is my own variation on the Prince George fly above. I tie it on a heavier, saltwater hook and changed the colors to something a little more "flamboyant."

Saltwater Streamer

This is Bob Clouser's classic minnow. I tie it a little more sparse than Bob ties it. There probably aren't any more than thirty bucktail fibers on this fly.

Lastly, if you're really good at tying realistic flies, you may attract a spider or two to your fly tying bench. This one was convinced he'd found the motherload.