first. fly. ever.

[Mikey]

Ok. I've been talking about trying to get a fly tying kit. Until Valentines day (I suspect one will come then) I have borrowed an old vise and bobbin from a fella I work with. He dropped it off yesterday at work while I was taking my break. It was funny, here he was trying to show me how to set the tension on the bobbin and place the fly in the vise while my "customer assistance" button was dinging on the overhead. Now, I won't incriminate myself by saying where I work...but suffice it to say nobody was helping the customers in my department and I was easily 170 yards away from my desk watching some guy try to set up my thread, bobbin, and hook.

I left him to his vise....assisted the folks needing help, and ran back to the breakroom to try my hand at tying *something*. Here are the supplies he brought for me: One inexpensive vise (but it works), 1 thread bobbin, 1 spool of olive thread, 1 spool of black thread (nearly empty), 1 tiny bit of flash and I think he said a size 14 hook.

All that being said, with my limited supplies I managed to turn out quite possibly the only nymph that comes close to looking like Lindsay Lohan; ie. VERY THIN and SPARSE. I spent about 3 minutes on it as my ding ding button was going off again. I had no beads and couldn't figure out what to use for dubbing...so yea. It's thin. I'm still gonna throw it out and who knows...maybe some equally starved trout might take it as a sickly easy to catch food source.

Here's a pic of it. I call this pattern the Hafass Nymph

Oh yea...forgot to mention I had no idea how to do any form or fashion of a whip finish. Furthermore I had no precision scissors handy so I had to trim the flash and tag with a box knife. Glued the thread to the head of the hook with loctite super glue. It's all I had...now I'll go to the store and pick up some dubbing material, some beads, and a bright color thread to throw together some Y2Ks and even try my hand at some trout crack. I've read enough on the forums I think I can handle the trout crack.

Does anyone ever tie it in a different set of colors or do you stick to the kinda cream/gray dubbing with the darker brown shellback?

Mikey

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

I bet your Hafass Nymph will catch some trout. Let us know how it works. I can remember my first attempt at fly tying. I tried the good ol' wooley bugger. Talk about nasty!

John

[Terry Beeson]

Yep, Jon, I have a similar story... My first tying was at a clinic our club in Jonesboro held. Dennis "Bear" Reed sat me down in front of his vice and helped me with a San Juan Worm. That was just to get me use to the bobbin and thread. Then on to a wooly bugger. It was as nasty looking a fly as I've ever seen... even though I tie about as nasty now as I did then...

The fellow who got me interested in fly fishing had told me "there ain't nuthin' like the feeling of catching a nice fish on a fly you tied yourself." Well, that bit of philosophy proved itself true a couple of days after tying that first wooly. I caught a nice 16 in 'Bow on it and am hooked on tying for life!

From the looks of it, I'd say you'll have a very good chance of finding that out with that fly, Mikey...

As for "whip finishing"... I hope you did give the thread a few half hitches before super gluing. Some guys don't whip finish at all... just a few half hitches and some head cement and they are done...

[Danoinark]

Mikey, I'd fish that fly. After a few casts and a bite or two they all look the same anyway my friend.

Dano

[Mikey]

Thanks for the support guys. Come payday I'll pick up some materials and give it another go. Letcha know what I come up with then. My fishin buddy at work is gonna get his tying kit out now to see what he can come up with. I will let ya know what it catches.

Mikey

[Thom]

I've been using sally's hard as nail clear glue over a couple of half hitches tied with my fingers for finishing the heads. I ran out of the standard stuff that you buy for fly heads one time at taney and borrowed (proballly more correctly stole) my wifes clear nail polish. I usually have trouble with the regular stuff that I buy at fly shops with the solvent drying up before it is all used up. The nail polish has a better threaded seal and doesn't seem to do that. I also now use the colored sally's nail polish to paint the mini jig heads. I have several bottles in my travel fly box in clear and different shades and colors. Works great.

I am sure that the fly you posted will catch fish. Most people usually go too thick instead of too skinny. I found that with midges less is more and the tapered look will create an excellent profile in or on the water to match what I have observed in the real thing. I think that looks for flys is sometimes more admired by the fisherman than the fish. I think that the profile and color is more important.

Next summer when the water is warm put your head under water and look up at an object floating or submerged in water. I have been told that fish often see their prey in with light in the background and look up into the sky so profile is most important.

Years ago I was fishing a Montauk and was admiring an older gentleman that was consistently hooking fish. I didn't disturb him but watched his technique for a long while. As he was leaving the stream he approached me and struck up a conversation. I asked him what he was using and he showed me a 1/180 ounce jig that had so little maribou on it that I thought it was just beat up. When we ended our conservation he gave me three of the jigs and they all just had that same very sparse amount of maribou on them. I tryed them the next day and after learning how to fish them properly had the same relults as he did. They flys didn't look like much to me but the fish liked them.