Few Flies in Anticipation of Open Waters

With a short warm snap on the horizon I felt inspired to spend some time at the vice.  Spent most of my time tying saltwater flies but at the end I switched to ammo for local waters.  These are all variations of flies that I've seen but never tried.  On the right is a rendition if Jerry Darkes magnum meat wagon in a perch color scheme. It's tied on a 3/0 2461 Diiachi perfect bend. The wing is a series of Icelandic sheep which used in the original pattern. I used splayed bucktail underneath the sheep to give the fly the appearance of bulk. The head is olive palmer chenille. Also I added some copper flash and fire tiger flashabou to the body.

The two yellowish flies on top are Kevin Feenstra's fire detectors. The first time I saw this pattern they were being advertised as a king salmon streamer, now I'm finding that they are used for a variety of different warm and cold water species. Feenstra's designs aren't particularly pretty but the are absolute fish catchers if tied properly; function over form. These are also tied on 2461s but in sizes 1 and 2. The tail is a mix of pearl and mirage flashabou and pearl Krystal flash with pink bars. In front of the flash tie-in point I add two clumps of splayed bucktail. Then I spin a generous clump of deer belly as a collar. The head is made from ice dub, again generous clumps, in three colors. I suspect lazer yarn would be a good sub. The original pattern calls for a 4 bead string of bead chain - I did one with the bead chain and one with a small lead free db. 

Working our way down, are some synthetic Clousers (Clousers tied with synthetic streamer material) and a clouser  flash fly, which is a clouser with two chartruse hackles tied in behind the eyes in the "praying" form. The over wing and under wing are mixtures of flashabou and Krystal flash, then I lashed a clump of ice dub above the eyes.

Finally, a foxy flash tail clouser which is tied in a 60 degree Bend jig hook in size 2. The tail is pearl flashabou and the over wing is olive fox and the under wing is white fox. I used small white dbs with this one. The fox is tied in just as you would tie in bucktail for a normal clouser. 

Looking forward to swimming these along the Lake Michigan shore and some inland waters by me.

This wasn't a particularly good tutorial so let me know if you have any tying questions.

Off to work.

Tight lines.