Over the last 55 years plus of tying I have tried to simplify flies to the point of almost non-existence to determine what characteristics of the flies seem to be essential to the fish’s take. This has led me to a whole series of imitations that I call the Down & Dirty Flies. They are super simple to tie, many use unconventional tying methodologies, and they all take fish readily. One of these is the D & D Midge Emerger. Jason and I first used this pattern on the Madison some 15 years ago or more, with great success. It’s proven great many other places, as well.

I use 17/0 gel-spun thread for this fly becasue this thread is incredibly strong and resists tearing by the trout's teeth far better than any other thread. Tie in a short tail of black polypropylene yarn filaments. Keep the tail on the sparce side. The tail represents the partially cast pupal husk.

Tie in a clump of 4-5 high quality pieces of peacock herl. Use 3-4 wraps of thread to secure it at the rear of the hook.

Spiral the thread forward in 3-4 wraps. As you wrap, wiggle the thread back and forth just a bit to work it down into the herl so that the barbules are not pinned down with the thread.

Tie off the thread and cut it away. Cut the front clump of herl the same length as the barbules. Clip the rear clump even with the bend of the hook. Scruffy bugger isn't it. That's the point. It's supposed to represent an adult midge in the emergence process, and they look plenty scruffy as they emerge.

Jason reshot Ulf Hagstrom’s “Still Got the Blues for You” at a different angle to better show the tail configuration. It’s well worth seeing. Thanks Jas!

Still Got the Blues for You, shot so the tail configuration is clearly visible.

Our new book, Long Flies, is getting closer. Watch for announcements about its release date and any special offers.

Long Flies is a solid look at the developmental history of bucktails, streamers, leeches, buggers, muddlers, divers, collard flies, tube flies, and more, with special attention to design parameters. In addition, it contains an in-depth look at all manner of fishing tactics with long flies, including all the stripping tactics, nymphing tactics, stream drifting, the Baitfish from L, and so much more. But I am especially proud of the incredible photos that Jason has shot of 81 of the numerous flies discussed in the text. These are flies that illustrate the design parameters of log flies.  Here’s a excerpt from the text with the fly that is discussed.

Still Got the Blues for You

Every once in a while one comes across an idea so uniquely creative that it lodges in the old gray matter in a rather permanent way. Thus , when I saw the creative design of Ulf Hagstrom’s “Still Got the Blues for You,” I immediately wanted to know more. He designed this fly to fish for sea run browns along the coast of his native Sweden. It is clearly a long fly with some wiggle room—as in a tail that actually swims. This imitation not only creates a displacement wave, it creates one that imitates the moving tail of a swimming minnow. The Fish-Skull gets it deep, and the tail keeps it rev-ing along like the real thing (Fly 10.75). As Ulf says,

“Now you might ask why I use two feathers for the tail. I haven’t seen any fish with a double tail fin like that have you? Well the answer is simple. The curving shape of any feather will make the fly rotate like a propeller if you only use one, if you use two you will have them work against each other, creating a nice vibrant movement.”

There’s a great deal of potential in this design for all sorts of additions and adaptations. This fly represents not only a creative splash of genius, but clearly indicates that long flies have not yet reached the pinnacle of their design arc.

Fly 10.75: Still Got the Blues for You; tied by Ulf Hagstrom. Photo by Jason Borger.

One of the things I love about attending the shows and symposia around the nation is the wealth of information that can be found there. At the 2011 International Fly Tying Symposium (held in Somerset, New Jersey, on November 19 and 20), my friend, Theo Bakelaar, showed me a really slick knot that he ties with the bobbin. It allows one to place a knot anywhere along the length of the hook shank. I know, the half hitch is a good knot for tying off the thread between operations, but Theo’s knot is much less cumbersome to tie on the back of a 10X long hook shank, or a standard hook shank for that matter. This is a great fly tying tip; have a look and add it to your bag of tying tricks.

First form a loop over the end of your finger—as in making a dubbing loop or spinning loop.

Then, drop the bobbin through the loop so that the thread is twisted around one leg of the loop—look closely at the leg on the right side. Wrap the thread one, two, or three times around the same leg of the loop.

Pull the knot tight, guiding it into place between the thumb and forefinger of your materials hand.

I had a great note from my friend, Ed Mueller, a.k.a. the Otter. He’s the “Otter” of Otter’s Eggs. Very interesting, indeed:

Gary:

Got back a week ago from the Clearwater. Conditions were tough- very low water, and super clear. Our guide for 2 days told us the clearest he has seen it in 18 years. We fished from a drift boat for 2 days, and then tried wading for another 5 days. My partner, Charles Chandler of Michigan, and I used our center pin reels and long float rods. Our guide had Charles use spawn roe on the first day while I used our Otter Egg patterns. We both were using 10# or 11 # tippets. After about 5 hours of nothing I went down to 6 # tippet and promptly hooked 3 fish and Charles switched to 6# and he hooked 2. Over the 2 days we hooked 8, landing 6, all on 6 # tippet. The best color was Tango/Silver which closely matches King Salmon eggs. The only way we keep these fish on such light tippet was the long float rods we used, which were 13 1/2 feet.

Our best fish was 36″ x 16#, and 34″ x 14 #. Our guide did not believe they would not hit spawn but would take our Otter Eggs!

This river is tough to wade and we only hooked 2 fish over the other 5 days. We just could not get to good holes and water by wading. I am sure you know how tough the rock is along this river and on the river beds. We should have come 6 to 8 weeks earlier when these large “B” run steelhead were chromers just in from the Pacific.

I recently received a very kind  note from Tony Watson, who lives in Africa. In it he makes reference to fishing for tiger fish in the Okavango Delta, So I’ve included a couple of photos of fish from that area. He says,

Dear Mr. Borger,

Just a short note to say how much I enjoy your articles, stories and pictures.

I live in the Kalahari Desert in the far North West of South Africa, not to far from the Border with Namibia. As you can imagine, Trout, Bass and the like are about as common as hens teeth here.  However,not far away is the G’ariep which is the Bushman name for the Orange River, the longest in the country. Being so remote, there is no fishing pressure whatsoever. In fact I am probably the only Fly fisher for a few hundred miles around. The river is stuffed with a fair variety of hard fighting fish some species of which live in the fastest, deepest and scariest rapids one can imagine. Hooking a powerful fish in such rapids is a challenge indeed.

As an old age pensioner I can no longer afford the fuel costs to reach the river so these days I tend to fish via my memories and through sites such as yours. Given that our village is so remote the antique telephone system struggles to deliver the internet on dial up (when the wires haven’t been nicked) makes looking at the pictures an exercise in patience.

As a small boy in the 1950’s I would fish for Pike on Zambia’s Kafue Riverfrom my Dads boat. It was a sort of double Decker and he would sit on top of the canopy taking pot shots at Crocs while I fished with home made spoons.  You had to watch out for Hippo, as they would now and again charge the boat The splashing and huge wake they kicked up I remember to this day.  Later I moved on to the Zambezi near the Victoria Falls for Tiger fish and to Botswana to fish the Caprivi Strip and the Okavango Delta.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences with so many people.

Kindest regards,  Tony Watson

The Okavango River. The birds are feeding on baitfsih stirred up my a giant school of catfish. Tiger fish are feeding along the outside of the catfish school.

Guy Lobjoit with a nice toger fish taken from the Okavango.

The teeth of the Tiger are something to behold, and something to be reckoned with.

After the International Fly Tying Symposium, Chuck and Ben Furinsky, and our friend from Holland, Theo Bakelaar, went searching for blues and stripers. They fished all day and finally found three large flocks of birds diving over bait. The fish were there and all of them were into both blues a stripers for they couple of hours. Theo had brought a new cane rod specifically built with blues and stripers in mind, and he had the opportunity to christen it. He used his big twister-tail eel skin flies to hook one fish after another. Wonderful.

Thoe Bakelaar with a big blue that he took on his special, striper/blue bamboo rod and ell skin sand eel imitation (see the blue's mouth).

The International Fly Tying Symposium was outstanding this year. Chuck Furimsky, founder and manager of the Symposium, invited a group of tyers from Sweden to attend and demonstrate their designs and tying skills. They received a great deal of attention from those in attendance. In addition, the crowd was large and most excited, filling the main hall and buzzing busily with all the tyers, manufacturers, and shop owners. I spent time discussing the tying process and designs with several of the tyers, and spent some time looking for new products and new materials. In addition, I gave presentations on tying and on Long Flies and Really Matching the Hatch. All-in-all the weekend went swiftly and everyone had a great time.

The opening days' crowd was strong. This is the corridor outside the main, exhibition hall.

The exhibition hall crowd was heavy, and tyers and exhibitors alike were busy all day.

My old friend, John McLain (right), has become quite the materials dyer. Atlantic salmon fly tyers, behold. See John's materials at feathersmc.com. link to the right.

Kat Rollin tying full dress Atlantic Salmon flies without a vise.

A selection of jkat's lovely work.My old friend, John McLain (right), is into dying all sorts of exotic colors. Wow, John, you like 'em bright--Altlantic salmon fly tyers, behold! see feathersmc.com

The crowd was large at the Saturday evening banquet, too. There were numerous Swedish meatballs consumed!

The steelhead and browns of the Salmon River in New York were tuned into two fly designs during the time I was fishing there. One was the Steelhead Flea. Amazing simple in design, it was amazingly effective, too. The other was the Roe Bug—basically an easy egg with a veil. On the first day, we fished a Roe Bug in chartreuse, and the steelies went crazy for it. The second day we used an Oregon Cheese color Roe Bug, and hit a few nice fish early on. Then we started using the Steelhead Flea, and found one fish after another. Mike took his big king on a size 12 Steelhead Flea, and I took my big steelhead on one, too.

The Roe Bug in chartreuse. Make a simple egg with yarn and add a wing of ultra fine material like egg yarn.

The Roe Big as it looks on the swing.

The Steelhead Flea begins with a chuck of poly yarn tied in to make a tail and forward pointing wing

Add a thin body of fluorescent red or orange yarn.

Sunday, November 13, saw me driving north and east to Pulaski New York to meet with my long-time friend, Gary Edwards, his son Jason, and their friend Mike Ringer, a well-known artist specializing in outdoor scenes in water colors.  for a two-day excursion on the lower Salmon River. The Salmon is noted for its great runs of fall-run steelhead and browns, as well as for its runs of king and coho salmon. The river is actually named from colonial times for its runs of Atlantic Salmon, a run that it still gets in the spring. In fact, the river has a naturally reproducing run of these magnificent fish.

The river was running at about 350 cfs; a bit low, but certainly well within fishable limits. We started Monday with a bit of a slow time. Mike took a brown early on, and several other fish were hooked and lost. Then later in the day as the weather warmed, the fish turned on, and we all took nice steelhead and a couple more browns. Gary E’s brown was the nicest of the day. The steelies thought a chartreuse Roe Bug was the best thing around, and chomped it with serious vigor. Their eagerness warmed us well beyond the unconventional warmth of the 60 degree day.

The second day was a bit different. We took a couple of fish right away in the morning on a Oregon cheese Roe Bug, ands then hit the doldrums for the next several hours. A couple of fish were hooked and lost during this time, but the number of casts per fish reached epic proportions. Then, just as the day before, the fish lit up, and we began experiencing take after take on a fluorescent scarlet Steelhead Flea.

Let me explain. We rigged our leaders with a 24 to 30 inch tippet of 4 or 6 pound Maxima Chameleon or fluorocarbon, and knotted the fly to the end. One end of the knot connecting the tippet to the leader was left about 3 inches long. An overhand knot was tied at the end of this dropper, and the appropriated number of shot clamped on it. The knot prevented the shot from slipping off. This rig was fish a la the Leisenring Lift—cast up and across and lift the rod tip high so only the leader was in the water. The shot could be felt dribbling down along the bottom. As the rig passed, the rod tip was lowered to the horizontal and the fly allowed to swing across stream. Most of the hits came as the fly began to swing. I know, I know, eggs don’t swing, but the fish wanted them to.

In the last hour of the day, Gary Edwards landed a brown of about 10 pounds. I hooked and landed a very fine steelhead of about 15 pounds. Mike, not to be outdone, then hooked a big something that took him downriver; his 6-weight rod was bent into a hoop, and he could do nothing with the fish. As he tussled with this giant unseen adversary, Gary and I hooked and landed a couple more steelies. Then Mike called for Gary to bring the net. Turns out he had hooked a huge, fresh king salmon, and he had it in the shallows ready to give up. It was a beautiful fish, and certainly the largest of the trip for any of us.

Gary Edwards with a very handsome brown taken on the first day.

The steelhead of day one loved the chartreuse Roe Bug.

The steelies of day two wanted a fluorescent scarlet Steelhead Flea.

My nicest steelhead of the trip.

Mike's monster king was 42 x 25 (calculated weight of 35 pounds). A great job on a 6-weight and size 10 Steelhead Flea.

The weather cooperated most admirably on the trip, and smiled on us at days' end.