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Tiny Flies!

1K views 22 replies 14 participants last post by  13418 
#1 ·
Tying some little ones for fun, and also practice. It's so much easier to tie "normal" sized flies after exercising on something as small as a 28.

What are your favorite smallest flies?
 

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#4 ·
Al's Trico down to 26. Works well for both midges and tricos. I also like to palmer hackle thru the thorax are of Trico spinner. Really helps see the fly. I use Daiichi 1110, big eye hook. Last 10 yrs or so looking for dimpling trout has been what I enjoy the most. I am an old goat so seeing the fly can be tough.
 
#9 ·
At one time I could tie size 20 patterns. Then size 18. Now my limit is 16.

I'd never be able to see a parachute that small on the surface so it wouldn't do me any good to cast it out there and have it disappear. A fish could take it and I'd never see it.

VanAllen, if you're really into tying tiny dry flies, I've had great success with a size 18 Royal Coachman parachute dry.
(don't bother with a tail) When every one around me is trying to match a BWO hatch to no avail, I've had great luck casting out the tiny parachute Royal Coachman. They'll take it and ignore the patterns meant to represent a BWO.
 
#13 ·
#18 is about as small as I can go. Generalist dries, something in the gnat/mosquito pattern class. Some BWO and caddis as well. But thats it. That small stuff makes me grumpy to tie. And then losing it on the 3rd cast in the bushes makes me even grumpier :)
 
#15 ·
Now that one I can see! Just couldn't tie one anymore. Years ago, I tied some #24 Jassids for a gent from upstate NY who used them on spring creeks back east. I kept a few for myself & tried them on the Upper Big Hole for constantly-rising Grayling at the lower end of the hole above Old Man Seefield's sod-roofed cabin. While I had multiple rises on every drift, it took awhile before I finally hooked, landed, & released one. My cousin asked me what the secret was . . . "I waited for the fish to pass it, then hooked it in the butt, I think."
 
#21 ·
I've run across Caenis hatches on only a few occasions. Since the nymphs crawl ashore to hatch they are only readily available to the fish in the spinner form. The duns swarm in the late afternoon in incredible numbers, and quickly fly to almost any surface to molt into the spinner form. Mating, and oviposition by the females takes place quickly and by morning the lake surface is littered with dead spinners in the classic spent attitude. My first experience with Caenis occurred at Lake Lenice and I had nothing anywhere near small enough to imitate them. When I got home I tied up a few and then didn't encounter another such hatch for some time. Since then I have experienced a few, usually around mid-June, and at lakes differing as widely in location and altitude as Lakes Lenice and Chopaka.

Here's a picture of a Caenis molting from the dun to its spinner form.
Atmosphere Insect Arthropod Organism Sky
 
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