This is a variation on the classic Grey Ghost streamer.  Hook - Mustad R79 9XL streamer hook or similar long shanked hook Thread - white for body, black for head Body - Yellow floss Tag and Rib - Medium silver mylar tinsel Belly - 5 or 6 strands peacock herl, then sparse white bucktail, then golden pheasant crest about half body length Wing - Pale grey bucktail then darker blue-grey bucktail Shoulder - Teal flank feather ..read more

Decades ago I bought some streamer hooks and tied up a batch of flies that have been successful. I'm running out of them now. The packaging is long gone and I wonder if there's a method to find out what hook it is, so I can duplicate them. Thanks from a casual tyer.  I did buy some hooks, but the gauge and shank weren't quite right. The flies are ok but I'm not fising them with the same confidence. Funny how that happens ..read more

A pair of simple Glass Minnows tied for the first Striper fishing day this year - We will be fishing from kayaks in Secaucus, NJ where marshes drain into a river as the tide falls. The sparkle is more visible than the photos show ..read more

Some years ago, I was given boxes of hooks with NO EYES. Just a flat area where the eye should be. There are various types; Limerick Hooks,  Carlisle Hooks, Aberdeen Hooks, American Kirby Hooks, Rount Bent Hooks and Plain Shank Hooks. There are boxes of each, in varying sizes, all brand new, the amounts vary per box, betwen 18 pieces up to 144 in others. What in the world does one do with these ..read more

One of my friends is fortunate to travel around the world on business and always manages to find a fly shop to visit.  On a recent trip to Poland he found a shop in Krakow and this was a popular fly there.  He shared photos and the recipe with me.  I did demo it at a meeting of the Penobscot Fly Fishers a couple months back.  Please excuse the dried wax on the head of the fly. Hook:  Mustad 3906B size 8, 10 or 12.  In the photo, it's a 10. Thread:  UTC 70 Black Body hackle:  Hebert Minor hen in brown Rib:  Brassie size copper wire (reinforces the du ..read more

The stripers come into the Jersey marshlands well before they make it up into Maine. Weather permitting, a group from our local TU chapter will be taking kayaks into the channels of the marshlands in a week, looking for stripers. I will take along a variety of fishy looking streamers, but since the grassy edges often hold several types of shrimp, I decided to try tying some shrimp flies using materials I already had - a bit of calf tail, brass dumbell eyes marked with black, some SF fiber, and a shrimp dubbing brush.  ..read more

Does anyone have a recipe for an Isonychia nymph they are willing to share? thanks ..read more

Do any of you have a pattern guide/recipe for tying the Ripogenus smelt. I've found various pictures of it but I am new to fly tying and this is one that i'd like to do!    ..read more

Many of you probably know Ally's Shrimp salmon fly, one of the most popular (and successful) flies for Atlantic salmon.  The two photos below are of the Cascade variation of Ally's Shrimp, which variation is apparently much followed in both Europe and our own continental east coast.  The tail and wing are similar to Ally's pattern (orange and yellow mix for the tail and orange hackle over yellow at the eye).  The body, however, is silver in the rear and black floss in front, both covered by oval silver wire.  The wing is grey squirrel topped with something black.  Tyin ..read more

Most people know this as Stewart's Black Spider, but Stewart was taught how to tie the fly by James Baillie, a ghillie and professional trout fisherman.  This fly and it's cousins, the red and yellow spiders, are about as simple as simple gets.  Thread, hook and hackle.  That's it.  I have brought more fish to the net with this fly than any other.  Fished up stream, it is deadly.  The hook is a Daiichi 1640, this one is a size 14, which I prefer for spiders.  The thread is brown Pearsall's silk waxed with dark cobbler's wax, any brown thread will do, though I ..read more