Monday, June 4, 2018

Trout Spey Flies

Trout Spey 1
Spey flies are normally associated with fishing for salmon and steelhead. The flies are beautiful and very effective. The long sweeping lines that are created by various feathers used give them a look similar to the Rangeley style of streamer fly. My experience with Spey flies is zero, having only fished for steelhead once and the Spey was not the fly of choice for me at that time.

But my experience with a salmon fly tied down to a size which enabled me to use it for trout has proved to be an over whelming success. This led me to tie a few trout sized Spey flies. I did up a few over the last couple of weeks but have not fished them. With hope I look forward to them being successful with the trout I pursue.


Trout Spey 2

The hooks used in all three are Saber Steelhead/Salmon size 8...I may change that if the hook is to large, or to heavy.



Trout Spey 3



Ready for a run.......








24 comments:

  1. Those are lovely, Alan. You are an excellent tier with a real knack for combining colors.

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    1. William Shuck
      Thanks
      Bill with these flies I tried to blend colors that tend to favor the brook trout. But the first fly does have a lot of brown trout colors. We'll see.

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  2. Bad memories of the first time I ran into Spey fishing. Bad memories.

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    1. Mark Kautz
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      Mark were you fishing for steelhead when these bad things took place?

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    2. Yes, Deschutes River in Northern Oregon.

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    3. Mark I thought so. Steelhead are found in some wild waters.

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  3. god, you've changed tact your going with the big boys...nice ties Alan.

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    1. George
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      George they are a bit large, but well within reason.

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  4. Absolutely gorgeous, Alan. I'm really looking forward to your fishing report with them. I'd love to see you tie those down even smaller.

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    1. mike
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      Mike I may give them a shot tomorrow. I have another hook which is smaller, a size 10 Partridge low water hook.

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  5. Beautiful flies, Alan. I think those would get some good attention at the Farmington as well as on small streams.
    Regards, Sam

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    1. Parachute Adams
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      Sam I'm anxious to give these some serious water time on the Farmington. Hopefully that will be soon.

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  6. I have no doubt they will be successful, beautifully done .let us know if you have success. I really like the first one, but I am fond of anything that is orange or rust. Thankyou.

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    1. Brad Basehore
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      Brad the first one is a fly that should ring the bell for brown trout. The other two have a brookie appeal to them.

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  7. We're going to have to give these irons a try. Lovely work.

    I need to order more hooks.

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    1. spike
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      They are pretty good hooks for the money. Partridge hooks are awesome but pricey.

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  8. Alan, isn't it about as much fun creating flies as it is fishing them? Photos 1 & 2 look similar to a pattern I created named Sunburst. It is tied with 1/3 fl. yellow, fl. orange, red floss body under fine oval silver rib under hard UV cure, orange hackle under yellow mallard down-wing. This is a good coastal cutthroat fly, so yours will likely be a hit, literally. The hooks are Gealic Supreme Sylvester Nemes up-eye sz 13 and Mustad 36890 sz 10. Happy Hooking.

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    1. Matt Harding
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      Matt tying them is a very big part of fly fishing. When your able to take a fish on a fly you have crafted it just adds to the experience. The Sunburst sounds interesting. I will check out the two hooks you suggested.

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  9. Alan,
    I really like what you are doing with tying smaller, trout sized spey flies especially the ones you have posted above! Simply gorgeous and as Bill said, you have a real knack for bringing the colors and just the right materials together to create flies of unbelievable beauty! Now, let's see how they do on your locals....if you haven't already! We are anxiously awaiting the results!
    Dougsden

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    1. Dougsden
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      Doug, I can say that I've tried one of the patterns the other day...Spey 2....it worked but is now in the jaw of a largemouth bass. The fish was last seen swimming in the Connecticut River. More to come.

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  10. Alan, earlier I meant photos 1 & 3, and assume you knew that. The Gaelic Supreme Sylvester Nemes up-eye hooks are listed as soft hackle hooks I order by phone from a British gent based out of PA named Grahame. The hooks and contact info can be seen from the website belvoirdale.com. I order sz.13 for no other reason other than to be unique. For me, they are expensive at $10 per 25. The Mustad hooks are something I lucked into from a local outfitter that bought to many 100 packs and weren't selling. The 36890 is a black classic salmon hook that I'm not sure they make now. Apparently, Mustad changed their Hook reference system, so if they still make them in sz 10 they will have a different ID code. I get mine for 15$ per 100, which I think is good for a quality Norwegian made hook as I understand some of their hooks are now manufactured in China. I hope this information is helpful.

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    1. Matt, I'm familiar with Gaelic Supreme, their Martinek Rangeley Streamer hooks are my choice for Rangeley streamers.
      I have come across older Mustads on ebay as well as tag sales. The newer conversions are not on the top of my list.
      What I would like to know more about is your fishing for wild coastal cutthroats. I read a magazine article years ago in Wild Steelhead and Salmon. The article was written by E. Donnall Thomas and it dealt with coastal cutts. I wish I still had it for it was very well done.

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  11. Alan,
    Coastal Cutthroat are hard fighting ambushers that like structure. A 6"-8" can put a deep bend in your 3wt. The two authors that have been inspirational for me are Steve Raymond and Les Johnson. I highly recommend Les Johnson's book Fly Fishing for Coastal Cutthroat Trout. The pattern section is very good. I found it on Amazon used. Lately, I have been fishing more downstream swinging soft-hackles and wetflies using single-hand Skagit style casting. I have been using 10' Floating spey tips 90-120gr as a shooting head and spey mono for shooting/running line. I mostly do this with 7'3-4wt glass rods. It's a fun and effective method, although my overhead cast has suffered for it.

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    1. Matt Harding, that sounds like you fish for these in a bay as opposed to a stream. They sound very much like sea-run brook trout which are awesome fish.

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