The club holds some of the specialty required materials in the Gambrill bequest. ie.
Tan Antron
Orange striped rubber legs
3mm yellow (not tan) foam rolls
Elk or Deer Hair
BJ has offered to buy some tan foam if Boss has any. He would then take to the 14 Feb club meeting and dispense samples to those who say they will tie.
Anyone who wants to tie the Commonwealth Hopper, can come to the next meeting and BJ will provide a sample.
Registration of interest in receiving the material would be appreciated.
People have expressed concern that the links to Flystream ask for signup/signin. On my phone I go straight in but I’ve discovered that my phone is routinely in “incognito” or “private” mode. Look to see how you can do it with your PC
Great for rivers and lakes.
From mid-December to mid-March, my go-to fly up here the Hi-vis Black Spinner. Spinners are particularly important on lakes as the predominant form of mayfly. Unlike lakes where dun hatches are the feature, on many waters up here, the nymphs crawl out of the water to hatch, so the dun hatch as such, is missing. As a result, the duns are less available to the trout, while the spinners become more important. Have a look for nymph shucks clinging to rocks protruding out of the water. When they are present, a black spinner pattern is always a good bet. Usually fished in bright sun, which helps in polaroiding the fish. However, the combination of bright sun and clear water can make a standard black spinner very hard to see. To overcome this, tie with a fluorescent orange post. This spinner stands out a lot better on the water, and the trout don’t seem to mind the bright post. In fact, I sometimes think the orange makes the fly a more obvious target for them.
Releasing a black spinner feeder.
Usually fish this fly on its own. A recommendation is to use a 9ft nylon leader with a fast taper, with 1.2 metres of .18mm fluorocarbon tippet. The line loads up quickly and will punch into the wind, which is important to consider when polaroiding if you are fishing the Lakes. It is equally effective anywhere black spinners are found.
Tying Materials Hook – Gamakatsu S10-B, size 12 Thread – Black 8/0 Tail – Black Micro Fibets Body – Fine fur dubbing Post – Hi-vis orange Antron Hackle – Black cock hackle
Tying instructions
Tie in three to four black Micro Fibets the same length as the hook shank to make the tail.
I put a turn of thread between the Fibets and the hook to fan out the tail.
Next, create a smooth, slim body with the black thread.
Then tie in post using the orange Antron.
Tie in the black hackle, dub in a small body, and wind in three to four turns of hackle in an anti-clockwise direction to create the parachute.
Tie off and whip finish.
Finally, cut the post to length: approximately two-thirds the length of the hook is about right. I put the finished fly in liquid floatant and leave to dry. It might be winter right now, but before we know it, summer will be here again and the spinners will be flying. I recommend you use the long winter evenings to tie up a good stock of this pattern in anticipation.
Would welcome any feedback, eg how many entries on each page … not sure if I can have no limit.
Also, are you aware that our blog has a search function … only works if you have correct spelling. At the very bottom of any post (including this post) and the bottom of our main blog page.
Lachy is in the lead. Zoom invite sent out via email.
Hook – Hanak 470 size 16 (can use Hanak 450 or 400 and sizes 12-18 as desired). It is a general nymphing jig hook.
Bead – Silver slotted tungsten bead 3.0mm. Also works well in copper and sizes 2.5 – 3.5mm to give you options to match water conditions.
Thread – Black UTC 70 or Uni Thread 8/0.
Collar – Fluro Orange UTC 70 or Glo-Brite No 7 (fluro orange).
Tail – Coq de Leon in Flora de Escoba (Brown-mottled) colour. You can also use dark or medium pardo.
Body – Hareline Krystal Flash Peacock. Alternate is Hends 233 Krystal Flash Dark Brown (actually has a green shine). Or any green coloured Krystal Flash, Tinsel or even Flashabou (if nothing else).
UV Resin – Solarez Bone-dry or any thin, clear UV resin eg. Loon UV Clear Fly Finish – Flow.
Wing Case Resin – Solarez UV Cure Color Resin (Black) or Loon UV Fly Finish Black. Can be difficult to source locally so black nail polish will also do. Note that I have seen perdigons done with and without a wing case, so this is optional.
Given the Perdigon Nymph is a very easy and quick pattern to tie, Lachy is happy to do the Blue Collar Worker on the same night
Hook – Dohiku 302 size 14 (can use Hanak 280 and sizes 10-18 as desired).
Bead – Silver countersunk tungsten bead 3.0mm. Plus some thin (0.2-0.3mm) lead wire to wrap behind the bead.
Thread – Brown (or Olive or Tan) 220 Denier 3/0 Uni-Thread to cover lead (optional), Camel (or Brown) Uni-Thread 8/0 for tying the fly, and Glo-Brite No. 14 (fluro blue) for the hot collar.
Tail – Pheasant tail fibres. Natural colour.
Body – Pheasant tail fibres. Natural colour.
Ribbing – Small Tinsel (UTC Pearl Tinsel is ideal) furled with 6X or 7X tippet
Collar – CDC in Dun or mid-dark grey colour. And Fluro blue thread for the hot collar as described above.
Claude was called away at the last minute and Ryan stood in, admirably leading the team tying the scintilla caddis. Some really good tips, especially for using the cigarette lighter!
The original link I found now seems to require signing up. Try this one instead. (Thanks Mike for spotting this error)
Ryan has been experimenting with a number of patterns. For July’s flytying he’ll lead us tying a wiggly damsel. A good choice for the Bondi Forest trip?
Hooks- main body- #14-16 wet/nymph hook (Tiemco 3769 for example).
Articulated shank- any hook of the same size with a straight eye will do, as the bend will be cut off it doesn’t need to be a good quality one, but a hook that works well is a Tiemco 101 #14-16.
Tail and body- olive marabou.
Ribbing (optional)- copper wire.
Eyes- black or gold bead chain. Extra small.
And finally some mono line. 3x tippet works well.
Zoom details will be provided closer to the event.
You may have recently heard about the passing of Shaun Gambrill. Shaun was a super keen fly fisherman and has always been keen to share his knowledge with all – starters to experienced folk – from the casting days to presenting to the club on loch style techniques. One of my earliest memories of Shaun was on a trip to Bondi Forest for some early season fishing. Part of the activity included fly tying where Shaun introduced us to the ‘Gambugger’…which is a Woolly Bugger with Shaun’s secret sauce body dubbing. Not only did he share the tie with us, but he also caught a swag of fish on it.
I will be leading the tie of the Gambugger on Wednesday evening. Please come along to have a chator do the tying – whether you knew Shaun or not.
If you are interested in participating let me know and we will explore how we can share around enough ‘secret sauce’ to allow you to tie two buggers. The ingredients you will need to get are:
Bugger wet fly hook – #14 to 10 (can be any wet fly or jig hook)
Bead – 2-3.5, or no bead at all
Marabou – black or olive
Secret sauce – can be sourced from Claude (substitute – rubber leggy dubbing)
Thread to suit your colour – or just black 6/0 to 8/0
