spey flies

[laurie]

A good friend of mine from Toronto tried out wire woven patterns last year and had great success,he contacted me to do a selection of spey flies for the steel heads.
Here are a few he is going to field test for me this year

 

[HuronRiverDan]

Beautiful work, Laurie...

Dan

 

[Ard]

Laurie,

Those are very nice flies! The big orange one (next to bottom) is on the par with what works well here for about everything that swims. If you send your friend some tied sparse and some made rather full then he can find out which will work where he is fishing.

Ard

 

[laurie]

Ard
thanks for the tip Ian will appreciate that

 

[wovenstonefly]

Those are sweet! well done, The top one and the second form the bottom are my favorite :teef:

What id you use to finish the head? it looks all glittery.

 

[Pocono]

Nice flies, Laurie!

I agree with Wovenstonefly, the second from the top and the second from the bottom strike a particularly good note for me.

The wire weaving look interesting.

What type of feather are you using for the hackle/throat?

Pocono

 

[laurie]

Hi Pocono i use a grade A saddle from a guy in Tipperary Pat Nolan,he is one of the top suppliers in Ireland.

 

[madjoni]

I dont use this kind of flies but after seeing this above I must try it

 

[Guest1]

Great flies. Very original ideas for an old design. The 4th one down is really a pretty fly, but I love them all.

 

[darwin]

Laurie,
Beautiful flies.

 

[laurie]

Hi Guys
the heads are finished with twinkle over the tying thread, it is sometimes used over here for sea trout flies,it catches the evening light and triggers the fish,but sometimes it can have the opposite effect and scare the hell out of the fish, i have seen 3lb sea trout gobble the flies up like mad yet a 9lb sea trout has been spooked and run 50 metres from the fly.
Just starting some new patterns with Bronze Mallard and real polar bear dyed in Picric acid, it is fantastic you get an olive colored bronze mallard with a hint of fiery Brown, and the Polar bear has to be seen to believe, it comes out translucent i used this last year for Dabblers and under wing on green Peters on the Irish Loughs and it worked a treat .

 

[Pocono]

Laurie,

I've had the same experience with Polar Bear. I tied up an Alaska Mary Ann pattern about a year ago and found that in the water, the PB hairs are naturally translucent. I'm assuming that your picric acid treatment takes out whatever small amount of pigment is present in the natural PB hairs and renders them even more so.

My 3 favorite fly tying materials are: Peacock herl, because of its natural iridescence, Marabou, because of it's action in the water and PB hair, because of its translucence.

I can't wait to see what your picric/PB flies look like!

Pocono