Claude is tying up flies ready for a NZ trip and has chanced on this tie. I’m not sure if it will supplant the classic parachute Adams as one comment stated, but for sure much easier to tie.

https://youtu.be/v9lbMit905A

Omitting feathers for wings makes things simpler. Lyall offered some advice “Don’t forget that Mayflys can also be brown and it might be good to have a couple with bright coloured posts.” Different light coloured posts will assist visibility in different lighting conditions.

Most material is easily identified, but the wing/post is poly yarn.

Happy tying.

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Nathan led the class via Zoom. Claude provided this:

Recipe:

Hook: curved hook:  sizes 12 – 18

Thread: black, brown, olive, red or anything you have

Body: thread with either silver or copper wire

Thorax: Dubbing, peacock hearl or just thread. Coloured tinsel for the cheeks if you are keen.

Bead: Small or lead wire

Notes: There are so many variations

Those who are not up with midge fishing techniques are seriously missing out. Some will say midge fishing is just for lakes; how wrong they are. Midge are found everywhere, from fast flowing mountain streams to lowland rivers and lakes and swamps. There are around 200 species of Chironomid in Australia.

Midges can vary from pale olive green to black with every shade in between. A point to note is that in many instances the colour of the adult flying midge will be similar to that of the emerging midge. The key colours to carry in your fly box are pale olive, olive, black and blood red. To find some midge samples check the leaves on overhanging bushes or trees and you will see them there.

When is the best time to try fishing a midge pattern? Midge come off all year round, with late spring and all through summer being the best. But remember, it is the week leading up to a full moon when they prefer to hatch on mass. Midge on lakes can produce some of the most intense fishing that can be found on a stillwater. The best fishing times are from daylight to mid-morning, and again at last light.

After the early morning calm a breeze will normally come up and wind lanes will start to form; that is when the fishing gets really interesting. Wind lanes are like highways for feeding fish. As they form the floating food matter is compacted within these lanes and it is common to find a number of fish feeding at any one time. Keep your eye on the edges of these wind lanes as trout often cruise along the outside, using the rough area as cover and moving into the lane to feed whenever they so choose. On clear sunny days the trout will generally feed along the lane with the sun at their backs, as they have no eyelids so it is difficult for them to look into the sun, especially for fish feeding on the surf

From <https://vffa.com.au/fly-of-the-month-april-2013/>

you can listen to:

Advanced Stillwater Techniques, with Phil Rowley – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/advanced-stillwater-techniques-with-phil-rowley/id278930814?i=1000447539666
Anchored Podcast Ep. 188: Phil Rowley on Chironomids, Stillwater Fishing and Going Pro – https://play.acast.com/s/anchoredwithaprilvokeyfishingpodcast/3baed2b4-2b64-48ca-b983-b293f8d4a2ce
FLY FISHING WITH CHIRONOMIDS PART 1 WITH PHIL ROWLEY – https://toflyfish.com/fly-fishing-chironomids/

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As we start to see the yellow flowers of the wattle bloom, we know that native fishing around Canberra is just about to start. Please join some of your fellow CAA members, to tie or just chat, on Wednesday 24 August at 7:30 PM on Zoom. Invite sent separately to members.

Our mates at Boss Outdoors/previously known as Compleat Angler (ie Nathan) have assembled material kit. The kits have all the materials required to tie 4 flies in 2 colour variations.

• Purple Head, Olive & Chartreuse Tail
• Red Head, Olive & Chartreuse Tail

The kits are $20 each to purchase for members.

There are 12 kits available, but more can be made on request.

Notes from Claude:

If you love fly fishing for Australian native fish and are looking for a good fly this spring, look no further than the Donnie Brasco Fly. This is a great all-rounder fly for species such as golden perch, bass and the ever prized target Murray Cod (yet to catch one on the fly).

This fly can be tied in a variety of sizes. A good starting point for bass and golden perch would be to tie on a 1/0 hook. Larger hooks up to 4/0 would be ideal for Murray cod when summer rolls around. Both the body and tail of the Donnie Brasco Fly consist of rabbit fur. This material is well known for its fish enticing action. Cast these into the weed pockets, weed facing , rocky points and standing timber. When retrieving the fly with short sharp strips, rabbit fur tends to pulsate in the water, closely resembling the movement of a fishes fins.

Black and purple are proven colours when it comes to attracting Australian native fish. By tying on a purple tail and a black body you have a very versatile fly for both clear and turbid water. The fly can include a weed guard too. By tying a double loop weed guard you can work the fly right in among the structure without snagging up too often. The weed guard shown in the video offers good snag resistance whilst collapsing easily when a fish bites.

(Source: Ozfish)

Recipe:

Hook: 1/0 Gamakatsu O’Shaughnessy hook (or equivalent)

Thread: Veevus 6/0 thread (or equivalent)

Body:

Purple (other colour) rabbit strip
Black (other colour) crosscut rabbit strip
Red (other colour) crystal flash
Craft fur for body (optional)
Eyes: Lead or other of your choice

Weed Guard: 40lb monofilament nylon

Extra Tools (optional): Small hair clip

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About the Klink n Dink Trout Fly

Thank you Shaun for bringing this interesting design to our attention. This fly is particularly useful for those of us that use barbless hooks and get frustrated when we lose our droppers.

The Klink n Dink is one of the Klinkhammer patterns that are excellent at bringing fish up, designed to be used as a dropper fly to be fished in conjunction with additional patterns on the same rig. The ring tied securely to the curve on the hook makes this easy to tie a tippet to, keeping the tippet away from the hook itself, thus preventing problems when hooking fish.

When fishing in tandem, this dry fly can be used as an indicator when fishing alongside a weighted or beaded nymph, and has the ability to catch fish on either of the fishing flies used, making it an increasingly popular method of fishing on either rivers or still water fisheries.

This is a great way to tempt fish that are feeding on nymphs higher in the water to rise to a dry fishing fly.

Creator of this trout fly: Malcom Anderson (?)

Country of origin for this trout fly: Scotland

This trout fly is designed to be fished on Dams & Reservoirs, Rivers & Streams, Still Water

Recipe:

• Hook: Klinkhammer style hook #12, #14, #16 (if you are game)
• Extras: 2mm tippet ring, 4X tippet. If you don’t have tippet ring you could use just the tippet
• Body: any dubbing, pheasant tail that you have and normally use for the klinkhammer
• Thorax: peacock herl, sparkle dubbing – normally dark colour
• Post: your choice of colour and type. You can even use some foam cut into a post
• Hackle: I’m not picky…what you have in your tying kit.

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Lyall was part of a Fly Fishers International Fly Tying Group member tying session where a Sunfish fly was tied …. not ever seen this fly pattern myself. Moreover Lyall said it was using coloured deerhair with a technique he’d never seen before.

We found the session was recorded and on YouTube

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BJ led. “The Bredbo – first fly of the Monaro?”

BJ said that it’s like a March Brown Wet but slightly different. It’s a hopper pattern which may still be relevant this season. Special bits are mottled wing slips (hen or turkey or partridge brown) and Golden Pheasant tippets plus partridge beard hackle. Everything is infinitely variable.

BJ wrote that a very good description of the fly can be found at http://www.fishingwithflies.com/Bredbo.htm

BJ Provided some hints in this scan.

After the tying session he provided an image of his flies having a test swim. Saying “Should have shown this before camera off. The tented wing helps them sit in the still water film for quite a while”

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Jaime has slipped some secret instructions to me, maybe a photo sometime. I can attest to the value of this fly after watching Jaime use it on a river that shall not be named.

MICRO-CADDIS FLY

This fly has become my favorite dry fly since last season. The main reason is because it just works very well for picky fish, those that refuse almost everything, that’s where it shines! 

It’s also a very simple and easy fly to tie. Basically only one material: CDC feathers (if we skip the obligatory hook and thread). But here is a better description of all you will need:

HOOK:

Original recipe asks for #20, better if it’s a dry fly hook. However, I have been tying it in #18 and has worked well. I will try to avoid going smaller than that. I mean, you can tie it as big as you want and will catch fish but as I said above, it really shines when you find picky fish and that commonly (although not always) implies small flies. I love the Hanak 130 BL because the bent-in point. I want to emphasize the use of a dry-fly hook because is ligther. This fly doesn’t have too much material to keep it floating so the less weigth we put in it the better. Besides, the feathers tends to wear-off fast (however, and surprising, it floats very good cast after cast even after lossing many of the feather fibers).

BODY & WING:

2-3 CDC feathers. For the body, I normally choose tan or natural feather color. For the wing is better to use ligther color (ligth gray or white) to increase visibility. As said before, the fly does’nt have too much material and wears-off fast so ligth color helps to keep track of your fly, specially in choppy water.

THREAD:

I use 30D or 50D because it doesn’t need anything stronger. Also helps to keep the fly ligther. Use the thinner you have/feel comfortable with. Match the color with the body CDC.

OPTIONAL:  any material to create a trailing shuck – examples: clear color ice dubbing, antron yarn.

TOOLS:

Besides the vice, bobbin and the whip finisher you will need a hackle plier.

TIPS:

Apply floatant liquid as soon as you tie it to your tippet. It keeps it floating cast after cast. Use the floatant powder if starts sinking. In general, this fly dries very easy just with a couple of false casts.

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Claude hosted on Wednesday 24 November demonstrating a Royal Wulff Variant.

 

 

Claude was particularly keen to tie some Royal Wulffs after seeing one of our new club members, Al, catch double digit (numbers of) rainbows on one Royal Wulff fly on a recent Cotter River outing. Not having time to go down the fancy white calf tail route (if you can find it) and wanting to do some quick ties, Claude decided to experiment with a not so complicated “Royal Like Wulff’ dry fly pattern, not using any calf tail or hackle and just going for a Elk Hair wing…and while he was there….he wondered if not having a tail matters? He tied a number of versions that were tested the following weekend. Well it was successful…with fish being caught on multiple variants – EH tail, Crystal flash tail, and no tail….the fish were not monsters but still fun to catch.

 

Ingredients:

 

Dry fly hook of size that you feel comfortable tying

Dark thread – 8

Peacock herl or dub

Red thread, dub or floss

Elk Hair

The three flies tied by Claude on the night. (Ed: I’m ashamed to say mine are very poor and not available for viewing by the public )

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Via Zoom.

We will be tying the Daddy Longlegs.  It is useful for loch style fishing dapping or as a dry fly or as a wet fly attached to a gang of three.  It is equally useful on moving water or still in our region.

Materials

Hook: Size 10 dry fly hook

Body: Pheasant tail and a brown hackle to palmer around a gape and a half length, fine gold wire

Legs: knotted pheasant tail

Wings (optional): grizzle hackle points

Hackle (optional): same brown hackle

The legs are fiddly to tie so you may wish to tie six of them in advance. See https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+make+knotted+pheasant+tail+legs+for+flies&oq=how+to+make+knotted+pheasant+tail+legs+for+flies&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i61.838611394j0j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

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Evan Jardine, a former club member who has moved down to Victoria, led the fly tying session on Wednesday 22 Sep 21. The flash belly bunny can be used on a number of species and Evan has used it in different sizes for heaps of different fish from Yellas, reddies, flatties, bream, EP to bass.

We were privileged to have Evan leading the tie. Follow him on https://www.createafly.com.au/ .

The materials aren’t expensive and should be available from Compleat Angler.

Recipe:

– hook (#4-#1)

– dumbbell eyes

– regular zonker strip

– Palmer chenille

– dubbing underneath that can be teased out

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