Good morning...bacon and fried potatoes...it's just not for breakfast. Please make the bacon crisp and likewise the potatoes. A couple of things I especially don't like are "wet" bacon and "white potatoes.
Olive silk thread makes some pretty effective fly bodies. The two patterns featured here use olive silk, suqirrel dubbed thorax and one has partridge hackle and the other woodcock.
Partridge and olive
Woodcock and olive
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| "Creamsicle" |
I love tying these flies...steelhead-salmon-trout all inclusive. While they are good for all three species I'm going to focus using them for rainbow trout. A very distant cousin to the steelhead the rainbow should take to this style of fly. While not representing any type of food that either steelhead or rainbow might find in a river, but it's that color that will draw a strike.
This simple little gray nymph has been working for me at times lately.
I've just finished my breakfast of yoghurt, banana, crunchola, buckwheat puffs and milk.Satisfying enough but not a patch on your crispy bacon and fried potatoes. That's food for the soul not just the body. There's free range bacon and eggs in our fridge. That might be dinner/supper later on today.
ReplyDeleteSeeing "Snow's A Coming...." was a fine way to start my working day. Thanks Alan.
Kindest Regards,
Steve.
Steve
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Steve I say that your breakfast is much healthier then mine. Love my bacon and potatoes. We use to get bacon in a slab with a heavy smoke and rind on.
The snow was not that bad.
Brk Trt, breakfast looks good!!!!
ReplyDeleteA little tip to cook your home fried potatoes crispy? If you peel your whole potatoes 1st, then place the desired peeled quantity of potatoes on a plate in microwave usually about 4/5 minutes or so not fully cooking them. What your looking for is to par cook and the main thing is to remove the water & dry them out and make the starch sticky ( starch almost gummy). Take them out of microware and while hot, dice them into desired size and fry them your desired method. What happens when you use this suggested method is no time wasted expelling moisture while frying and the starch is what actually crisps. Most restaurants when making french fries fry them twice which is why they crisp up. The starch is what crisps and brown. Well years and years ago, I achieved the same thing with home fried potoates kinda using this same method of twice but using the Microwave for the 1st. Try it you might like it.
DRYFLYGUY
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Phil we have baked potatoes a couple of times a week. I always make a few extra and use them for home fries. The baking keeps them dry and that enables the oil-butter to crisp them up. I like your microwave idea.
Hi Alan
ReplyDeleteBacon and fried potatoes are great at any time of the year - not just when there is snow due.........
Bacon is a real treat in our house (I am supposed to be on a reduced salt diet!), our local butcher has some fantastic home produced pancetta style 'streaky' bacon which is fabulous in a sandwich (or 'bacon butty'), on top of tomatoes and pasta or (best of all) over roast game birds to stop them drying out.......
Love the spiders and little gray nymph by the way.
Thanks
Alistair
Alistair
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Alistair I'm in the same boat when it comes to salt. There are some quality reduced salt products on the market these days. Pancetta tomatoes and pasta, now there's something tasty.
I love the Pearsall's olive silk; I don't have much left. I'm in the process of switching over to YLI. Wonderful looking flies, Alan. As for the bacon and potatoes, food for the soul.
ReplyDeletemike
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Mike the YLI is equal to Pearsalls. I now use it on most of my flies. The partridge and olive is high on the list of fish catching patterns.
Alan, I was lucky to bump into Mark at the Marlborough fly show yesterday, and we were fortunate to see a gentleman work on some gorgeous Rangely Streamers. Seeing the floss body on the fly in this post, and thinking of your streamers... got me curious. This man, Peter Simonson, used a gold leaf smoothing tool to even out the floss and even the underbody to help it look really smooth. Your body's always look so even and smooth, do you do something like that, or do you have another technique to help achieve such fine finishes on those floss body flies?
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the snow!
Will
Hibernation
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Will Mark told me he was going, glad you guys ran into one another. I know Peter, he is an awesome streamer tyer. I do not use any tool to keep my floss smooth. My way of winding floss bodies is to start my thread at the back of the hook. I'll then tie my tail in, a butt if I use one. My tinsel will be next. I then begin my thread wrap. One very important thing here and that is to keep your thread wraps close and flat. Every so many wraps take time to let the bobbin spin to allow the thread to flatten again. When you reach a point behind the eye tie in you piece of floss. Start wrapping back to the starting point making sure not to rush and keep the floss from fraying. Another good point I learned from a salmon fly tyer, Dave Goulet, he said to just apply enough pressure on your floss wraps, do not over torque. Wrap the floss back to the tie in point and tie off. It sounds like hard work but after you tie a few it's not so bad.
Very cool - thanks for that added info Alan!
DeleteHi Alan,
ReplyDeleteCrispy potatoes are great but I'll take my bacon chewy. Save the bacon fat to solidify and spread on rye toast (seasoned with more salt and pepper).
North country spiders and Atlantic salmon patterns opposite ends of the pattern spectrum. I prefer the natural look, for trout.
John Dornik
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John actually the bacon fat is what I will use to fry the potatoes. But I usually only fry a couple of pieces of bacon and that doesn't yield much fat. My mother in law would take a fresh pork shoulder season the heck out of it and pot roast it on top of the stove. After it was cooked she would let the drippings harden and they would spread the fat on rye bread and place some of the gelatin on top.
Alan
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to hit the Sipsey with some of your Soft Hackles, which might be a while. The heavy rains we're been getting is going stop fishing there until late March. So much water and no place for it to go without flooding downstream. Thanks for sharing
Bill Trussell
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Bill it's better to have to much then not enough. Come March and you'll be into trout and having a ball.
Just finished clearing 14 inches from lane and yard, and it's still snowing. I could use some of those spuds and bacon! -- Sharp looking flies as usual.
ReplyDeleteAl R.
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All 14",,now that's a snowfall. Not that bad here last night a mere 4"...hot soup tonight.
Sorry Alan, I'm a little behind. I concur with the crispy bacon and taters.
ReplyDeleteMark Kautz
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No need to apologize buddy. I'm the same way.
Your Creamsicle reminds me of my days fishing Great Lakes tributaries.
ReplyDeletebillp
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Bill I knew that fly would bring you back to the big lakes.
Oh man, a couple of over easy eggs and a piece of toast I am good to go with that bacon and home fries.
ReplyDeleteAlan, I was wondering if you could tell me again about the leader you use on small streams? I have a 7' Fenwick that I think fits the bill for what I have in mind. 2020 is going to be the year I retreat to the blue lines for the most part.
Thanks in advance, Sam
Sam
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Sam that would be a good start to your day.
First off that Fenwick is a classic and should do you well. I use a furled leader, a 3'...to that I add a 2 to 3' section of 5x tippet. Now and then I'll go with a longer tippet and use 6x. I'm happy to see you choose to fish the little streams more often.