Friday, February 26, 2016

The Purple and Starling and a Couple of Flymphs

While reading through Dave Hughes book Wet Flies I came across a couple of patterns that I thought I'd share with you. The patterns are listed but don't seem to give credit as to the origins of the flies.

The first one is a Purple and Starling...simple thread body with a few turns of Starling.

In this photo you can see what it looks like as it would be moving through water. All those hackles moving very seductively as a living insect.


The "Little Olive Flymph"...this fly represents many varieties of olive colored body mayflies. I think it makes for a nice emerger.


Tied with a sparse hackle, the fly will have the necessary movement to get a trout to take.


A "March Brown" flymph. There are many variants of this old pattern. This one uses hackle from the back of a partridge.


The March Brown, and the Little Olive Flymph will be fished in the riffled sections of the small streams I fish. The Purple and Starling will see use in those special pools on the Farmington.

26 comments:

  1. Very nicely done Alan, I love these elegantly simple flies

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    Replies
    1. Mark
      Thanks
      Mark a minimum amount of materials can produce a wonderful fly.

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  2. Beauties Alan.
    What size hook did you use?

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    1. thedeadfisher
      Thanks
      John the hook for the first fly is a Partridge Classic Spider size 14.
      The other flies are tied on Allen D102BL size 14

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  3. Replies
    1. Chris "Kiwi" Kuhlow
      Thanks
      Chris I appreciate your comment.

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  4. Alan,
    What's you leader for fishing these soft hackles?

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    Replies
    1. Brad From Potter
      Thanks
      Brad in a small stream I use a furled leader that's 3ft, and a tippet that will vary from 24-36 inches. For the Farmington River the furled leader will be 4ft, and the tippet will depend on the rivers condition.

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  5. Alan, Everything you tie says one word, Simplicity. Thanks for reminding me.
    Kurt

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  6. Great looking flies, Alan, that are simple and oh so effective. Well done. I hope the tweaked back is feeling better. Regards, Sam

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    1. Parachute Adams
      Thanks
      Sam we and myself included try to complicate things when it really is not necessary.
      The back is feeling fine.

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  7. Alan, what was the body material used on the olive? The purple and starling will be one of my new flies for this year. We have a wonderful spring creek near my home full of wild rainbows I'm thinking this might be a good fly to try. Beautiful ties and enjoyable to see more classics.

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    Replies
    1. Brad Basehore
      Thanks
      Brad the dubbing is SLF squirrel. I'd like to hear some results with those wild rainbows.

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  8. Simple and elegant Al!! Very nice indeed!

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  9. Alan
    What I like about all these patterns is the pulsating action that they all produce when moving in water pockets, seams and runs that trout live in. This type of action really attracts hits even on the slowest days on the water. Thanks for sharing

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    Replies
    1. Bill Trussell
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      Bill they can sure turn on those lazy trout.

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  10. Thanks for sharing another wonderful stream photo! Delightful.

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    1. Bill/Tully
      Thanks
      Full credit to the camera, well maybe 90%.

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  11. I'm beginning to get the message that most fly fishermen may go overboard when simply seems to work well.

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    Replies
    1. Howard Levett
      Thanks
      Howard I would agree with that...I was one of them.

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  12. BRK TRT!! They will work as have may others you have tied!! I have first hand knowledge!!

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    Replies
    1. TROUTI
      Thanks
      Pete you are my tester. I believe you could get a trout to strike at any fly, but a master at soft-hackles.

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  13. Hi Alan,
    I'm glad to see that you are still blogging.
    Great stuff as usual.
    Ed

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    Replies
    1. Ed
      Thanks
      It's good to hear from my Irish friend from Boston. I hope everything is good on your end.

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