I recently started tying these flies. Thought i'd share a few by way of an introduction.
I live in Philly, and fish the local streams and ponds, mostly for trout.
Regularly fish the upper Delaware during prime dry fly season, as well as Salmon River NY for steelhead.
Very handsome flys and tyes.
Do you have a particular source that you would be willing to share for well died or natural black feathers suitable for throat hackles on these and similar flies?
Thanks in advance. Please feel free to respond via PM
TC
For throat hackles i typically use schlappen fibers, or sometimes hen hackles from a cape wound full and tied down to form the throat.
I've been getting schlappen from various sources, but lately I'm getting it from John McLain at feathersmc.com. Whiting is always a good source of hen capes and they are usually readily available since the feathers are too small for hair extensions.
I have purchased a lot of tying materials from feathersmc for atlantic salmon flies, John has some really nice materials. The photos of your flies are awesome,
how do you photograph them? If you don't mind telling us, I'd really like to know how you do it. Thanks in advance.
no worries about telling, in fact, i'll show you a couple of photos of my set up.
First i suppose the camera. I use my cell phone, a Motorola Droid Razr. The camera is either 6MP or 8MP(widscreen). All the photos are taken with 6MP setting aand macro option.
The set up is shown below. Rather primitive. Half styrofoam cup, some spools and a fly clip. The room is pretty well lit, and i use a spot lamp we had lying around the house to increase the intensity over the styrofoam cup. The background is just some black foam sheets (2mm) that i use for foam flies.
Thats pretty much it. I rest the camera on a fly box or something to get the necessary stability, supporting it with one hand, and pressing the screen to take the image with my other hand.
The white paper underneath the fly helps reflect light up from below. I put the fly clips the in the hole in the center of the spool so they dont fall over.
Wow! You tie very beautiful flies. Thanks for sharing. That Irish Grouse in your first post would absolutely slay the Costal Cutthroat around here. I would be reluctant to subject those nice wings on the others to the ravages of a cutthroat, though.
Just want to say a quick thanks to everyone who has viewed and commented on this thread.
I'm quite passionate about these flies, and while i believe there are still a few flaws here and there in my tying, i'm trying to improve as much and as quickly as possible in the hope of progressing to classic married wing salmon flies (and still tie the winged wet flies)
I'll add images to this tread as i tie different flies. It good to know folks enjoy and admire your work.
I've tied atlantic salmon flies for a number of years and the most difficult part, IMO is mounting the wings, it looks to me that you already have the skills to do
that, that said, as long as you can afford the feathers you shouldn't have any problems. You could also post your flies in the gallery, anyway you're a very
talented tier and I look forward to more of your flies.
Never thought of the gallery. I'll have a look and see how it works. Thanks for the kind word too.
I've actually already tied a couple of salmon flies, albeit, badly. Dimemsionally poor and not very much attention to detail.
The classic wets were actually a progression, or regression, from the salmon fly experience, in order to refine my skills and be able to go back to the salmon flies.
You're right about materials, they can be expensive, but reasonable and acceptable substitutes are available and much less espensive - that the route i've been taking at least until i get to the point where i HAVE TO HAVE the original materials listed in the classic books by Blacker, Kelson etc. I dont think that will be any time soon though.
Yellow Jay - theres not many good jay quills in two pairs of wings, and i think i've used the best two pairs for this and the blue jay I tied the other day!
Irish Turkey (variant - tail should be quill, not hackle fibers, though the hackle looks good I think)
Way too cool to fish these. Also, how in the hell do you keep your tying bench looking that neat and orderly? Mine is an absolute wreck even after I do a clean-up
You only see half the bench, where i take the photos, the other half looks like a tornado hit it.
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