Thursday, February 10, 2011

A new weapon

                                
                                                   Black Quill Soft-Hackle
      
                                 Hook: Mustad #10 Dry Fly Hook
                                 Thread: Black 6/0 Uni-Thread
                                 Body: Brown Superfine Dubbing
                                 Hackle: Hen Saddle Soft-Hackle


        To start things off this week, I would like to extend a big thank you to Dave Porreca of River and Riptide Anglers. Dave does weekly tying classes that cover anything and everything you can catch in the Ocean State (and surrounding states as well). Tonight's class was spring mayflies on the Wood River (our home trout water). The way Dave teaches the class is most helpful for people of every tying skill level. We concentrated on the first hatches of the fishing season which are the False Grey Drake and the Black Quill. He explained that even though the Grey Drake come off en mass, the Black Quill which hatch in with the Drake, are the ones fish key in on (this is because the Drake crawl onto the bank and hatch from there. They then swarm above the river, but never actually land on the water until evening to lay eggs. The Black Quill will hatch at the same time, and will sit on the water and the fish love em.) We progressed through all stages of this mayfly's life cycle, tying flies to represent them. We started with the Black Quill Soft Hackle (picture above). Dave explained that this is one of the best flies to throw if the fish are being finicky. The reasoning behind this is that the soft hackle can represent various stages of the mayfly's cycle. It can be a nymph rising to the surface, an emerger, a cripple, or even a stillborn fly. It can be fished wet, dry, or you can swing it. You can tie this fly as a dubbed body, or using black turkey quills and dubbing in a thorax. We then moved on to tie mahogany Compara-Dun's. Same thing here using a dubbed or quill body. We finished the evening tying rusty spinners, which represent the final stage of life. The soft-hackle and compara-dun's were tied using #10 dry fly hooks, and the spinners using #12. So once again, thank you to Dave for the great class. I strongly recommend visiting River and Riptide Anglers if you are in the area, or the website www.riverandriptide.com if you're not. Dave has great gear, and everything you need to tie, at great prices and ships anywhere. Can't wait to fish the soft-hackles...less than two months away!!!

    Cheers,
       Craig

2 comments:

  1. Craig thanks for joining us on Thursdays for our formal tying nights. In addition thanks for being a valued patron. Here's to a great fishing season this year. Thinking of the Farmington in two weeks.

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  2. Great fly!!! I just found your blog and you got a new follower

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