Howcomzit #4 -- "do it all" flies suck

[TurbineBlade]

Hey -- You know those patterns that claim to be great fished in any conceivable way?  I mean patterns like the hornberg, picket pin, etc.?  I have an affinity for old stuff in general, but just can't come around to those things.  They don't float very well as a dry, they resist sinking for good use as a wet (due to palmered hackle and/or huge hunk of mallard feather), and don't exactly pull through the water very well use as a streamer.  I prefer my streamers not to spin around like a 1-legged duck when stripped in.  Not that I dislike 1-legged ducks.  There was a really cute one a buddy's lake house that couldn't manage a straight swimming line, but did pretty well with a "serrated" swim pattern that generally went in one direction (toward bread). 

So while I enjoy looking at them ("dot it all" flies) and respect their "ancientness" similarly to way I respect an old abandoned lighthouse with invasive ivy growing up the side, I just can't make myself use them.  Should I just pretend to like them?  Maybe that's what it is--   Everyone is just pretending! 

Gene ("Howcomzit") TB

[GSFeder]

The guy who blogs at SmallStreamReflections.com loves the picket pin and seems to have lots of success with it. I plan to tie some this winter and will let you know what I think. 

Cheers, 

-- Greg

Sent from my iPhone

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[GSFeder]

http://smallstreamreflections.blogspot.com/

Cheers, 

-- Greg

Sent from my iPhone

[namfos]

hahahahahahahhahahahahaha!

Mark

On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 12:57:31 PM UTC-5, TurbineBlade wrote:

Hey -- You know those patterns that claim to be great fished in any conceivable way? ..., I just can't make myself use them.  Should I just pretend to like them?  Maybe that's what it is--   Everyone is just pretending! 

[TurbineBlade]

Greg -- Not that squirrel tails are prohibitively expensive by any means, but it you want a grey and/or fox squirrel tail just drop by sometime.  I have a bag of tails from each species (fresh from Missouri) on my back deck.  it would take me years to use a single tail, and I have enough now for 6 generations of fly fisherman to use. 

Gene

On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 1:20:23 PM UTC-5, Gs Feder wrote:

http://smallstreamreflections.blogspot.com/

Cheers, 

-- Greg

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 16, 2016, at 1:08 PM, GSFeder <gsf...@yahoo.com> wrote:

The guy who blogs at SmallStreamReflections.com loves the picket pin and seems to have lots of success with it. I plan to tie some this winter and will let you know what I think. 

Cheers, 

-- Greg

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 16, 2016, at 12:57 PM, TurbineBlade <doubl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey -- You know those patterns that claim to be great fished in any conceivable way?  I mean patterns like the hornberg, picket pin, etc.?  I have an affinity for old stuff in general, but just can't come around to those things.  They don't float very well as a dry, they resist sinking for good use as a wet (due to palmered hackle and/or huge hunk of mallard feather), and don't exactly pull through the water very well use as a streamer.  I prefer my streamers not to spin around like a 1-legged duck when stripped in.  Not that I dislike 1-legged ducks.  There was a really cute one a buddy's lake house that couldn't manage a straight swimming line, but did pretty well with a "serrated" swim pattern that generally went in one direction (toward bread). 

So while I enjoy looking at them ("dot it all" flies) and respect their "ancientness" similarly to way I respect an old abandoned lighthouse with invasive ivy growing up the side, I just can't make myself use them.  Should I just pretend to like them?  Maybe that's what it is--   Everyone is just pretending! 

Gene ("Howcomzit") TB

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[TurbineBlade]

Add -- if there's one person who would love to love these things, it's me.  I see picket pins tied as dries, wets, and streamers by a lot of people. 

I guess I've found that similar flies to the picket pin, tied slightly differently, seem to work better at each task:

1.  Herl soft hackle - wet

2.  Griffith's gnat - dry

3.  Squirrel bucktail with tinsel body - streamer

Question -- do you use brown dry fly hackle to palmer, or some generic feather with a lot of web?

[Greg Feder]

Gene --

To your point, I've seen the picket pin tied both with a peacock herl body and a tinsel body. I'm planning to go with brown hackle tail, herl, body gray squirrel wing, and palmered brown dry fly hackle for floatation. That's how Alan Petrucci of Small Stream Reflections does it.

Here's a tutorial with a tinsel body, which would be more of a streamer, obviously. http://www.utahsflycorner.com/2012/07/picket-pin-tutorial.html

I'd attach photos, but I'm at work and can't upload anything to the Interwebs.

Cheers,

-- Greg


--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 2/16/16, TurbineBlade <doubl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Subject: Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Howcomzit #4 -- "do it all" flies suck
To: "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" <tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, February 16, 2016, 2:11 PM

from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-...@googlegroups.com.

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[namfos]

Try substituting squirrel for wood chuck in the Chuck Caddis pattern.  Less webby gives a better float, but you hardly need to buy Grade #1 necks or saddles, IMO..

Mark

[TurbineBlade]

Oh, I don't need dry fly hackle period.  I have some, but seldom use it.  I just tend to like other stuff better. 

I use some small grizzly cape (#3) for tiny Al's tricos, for that one trico hatch I'm planning to fish for 15 minutes sometime before 2030.  It has the same value as the integrated shooting head (teeny BS 100) I use when I want to drag a black-colored line along jagged rocks and then get a streamer stuck in my wading boot when rolling it up to recast. 

Gene

[TurbineBlade]

Now I have caught many fish on a small streamer with a tinsel body and fox squirrel wing -- which is quite similar to the "streamer" picket pin.  No doubt it works fine. 

I would probably use dry fly hackle for flotation too if I thought I'd mostly be fishing it on small streams.  I have some other random orangish-brown hackles from this mean rooster my brother-in-law shot a few years ago out of his chicken coop.  They're webby though. 

Gene

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[namfos]

Tricos were a big deal in the Lehigh Valley when I lived there. Bob Miller wrote a pretty decent book, Tricos. I gave up on tying them due to small size (22, 26, 28) and good ole presbyopia and fishing them dry: tying them on the leader, untangling ceaseless wind knots. I'd rather high stick #22 WD-40s and Al's Rats or swing woolly buggers

Mark

[Carl Z.]

On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 12:57 PM, TurbineBlade <doubl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey -- You know those patterns that claim to be great fished in any conceivable way?

Like the Black Woolly Bugger.  It can be fished on the swing, stripped fast or stripped slow.

[TurbineBlade]

I almost pounced and said "but not on the surface" but that's not really true.  I had some unweighted ones with thick chenille that I kind of did drift out there on top once and they did catch some sunfish, so I guess that wouldn't be a true statement ;). 

Marabou jigs are great ;). 

Gene