'Just Emerged PMD' ~ Bill Shuck Definitions Regional Fly: A fly pattern based on a recognizably local/regional style or type, its composition informed by the dictates of regional conditions. Or, as Bill Shuck defines it: “A design/pattern that evolved in a geographical area as a result of the water type & insect life that predominate there.” Indigenous Fly: A rarer form of the regional fly, in our time. Defined the same as a regional fly, yet, one might say a purer form, constructed of materials native to the region of its origin. Many of the old designs were such. The Hare’s Ear & Muskrat Nymph, for examples. The Allgrouse featured in my last post is a more recent example. Those of you old hands who came up before the internet might find those definitions (labels) redundant & serving no real purpose. And to those I would say the definitions are meant to evoke an interesting & entertaining fundamental of our game, for what that’s worth. I’m not dogmatic. It’s all about fun. But, guiding, I meet a lot of anglers who are ardent about improving their skills & enjoyment of our sport, yet seeming to take their cues, for the most part, from: fly fishing shows, online videos, media & the marketing forces which seek to popularize, & I’m hoping the definitions will serve to remind those anglers where the creative stream of our game actually springs from & what deeper benefit there might be in drawing creative water there. Most who read SHJ are probably aware the soft-hackle approach was developed to a high art in the British Isles before being transplanted into North America in the days of wooden rods. Neil Norman’s fine online journal, Soft Hackles, Tight Lines – A Soft Hackle Pattern Book http://softhacklepatternbook.blogspot.com/ is devoted to the early flies; & in those designs we see tying techniques & material choices developed to sophistication. Those who came before us were as intent & canny as any angler today. The earliest fly fishers into the Northeast & Mid-Atlantic region, armed with English flies, met trout streams & trout stream insects very similar to those of England, particularly in the area that is now Pennsylvania. The fly patterns they brought with them worked so well they featured considerably in the decimation of Northeastern brook trout populations, & some of these are still in use today, the dressings unchanged for 200 years, while others morphed slightly or radically to meet regional dictates. And of course, along the fertile streams of the New World, as new fly designers were born, new patterns were born, & those, more & more, informed by local conditions. In the mid-Atlantic, as in the British Isles, a regional school developed, exemplified in the designs of Pennsylvanian, Jim Leisenring, & from these some purely indigenous patterns developed as well. Though our palette of materials is only limited by imagination, there are three unchanging elements of wet fly design: size, profile, motion. Barring nuclear mutations, the size & shape of those insects we seek to simulate remains constant. ‘Profile’ is the frame in which we create. Perhaps, Leisenring’s greatest contribution to soft-hackle design was his emphasis on profile – & that articulated in he & Pete Hidy’s ‘flymph’ imitations displaying the prominent thorax we see as a characteristic of natural mayflies, particularly. ‘Tradition’ is, simply, The Living Archive Of What Worked. To my mind any definition beyond that is merely construct, the jingle-jangle of individual perception. The authentic tradition at the core of our game is not static but a continuous stream wherein there is no old or new, no East or West. And the hallmark of a good fly design is its universal effectiveness. A good fly travels well. There are far too many examples to list here. We’ve noted how effective the British designs worked in the Northeast. Though trends may carry some of us far from our regional forebears, profile, & what the trout are saying, remains much the same. Though my own home water, the upper Columbia River, is unique & vastly different in character from the educated streams of Pennsylvania, much that works on Brodhead Creek works here equally as well. Each trout stream teaches universal lessons to be taken away, while at the same time functioning as a unique creative crucible, & that is why there will always be regional anglers tying & fishing flies informed by their home waters & the nuanced demands of the trout inhabiting them. That is where we meet Bill Shuck, a “man of the country”, to borrow from Cormac McCarthy. Bill is standing in the stream. He fishes the same water that Leisenring fished & his fly designs reveal direct lineage. Bill does not promote himself. Doesn’t write a blog. Doesn’t sell books or videos or a special purpose rod bearing his name. You won’t find his flies in any catalog. Yet, though he is far too humble to say it of himself, I would list Bill Shuck as one of the modern masters of the wetfly. And Bill is in fine company, hanging with a talented group of regional angler/designers that includes Ray Tucker & twist-body magician, William Anderson http://www.williamsfavorite.com/. There is no dogma in these guys' game. Though they are rooted in the authentic tradition of their region, like Leisenring, bottom line, they are bait-makers looking for a fish count. For his love of the game, Bill generously shares his work with SHJ. Some of these are his own designs, & some are patterns that have caught his eye. Though chances are we haven’t seen them before, looking at Bill’s flies we see something at once familiar, ‘classic’, one might say, while at the same time, we see, they are fresh – an evolved re-shuffling of classic elements resonant to the core of our flyfishing brains. We might ask ourselves: “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?” There are some who might define Bill Shuck as a ‘neoclassicist’, & I would agree that is fair, in the most positive sense, yet most apt to describe the appearance of his flies. Like the rest of us, through media he is up on things, though it is obvious he doesn't dive in indiscriminately composing fanciful designs of the latest 'hot' materials. He is discerning & pragmatic. He understands that it is still hard to beat natural materials. As a soft-hackler, I see Bill Shuck’s level of craft as a bar to aspire to. As an angler/guide fortunate to spend a lot of time peering into water, as well as a variety of other folk’s fly boxes, Bill’s flies reveal to me that his time on the water is well-spent – I see regional influences, function & form coalesce to graceful syncopation. These are not fanciful, but informed designs, well done. Bill has an eye for a killing bait. Plain & simple, these are soft-hackle flies meant to be fished. Thanks for sharing your work with us, Bill. And thanks for keeping your hand to what is truly authentic, worthwhile & integral in our game. Biot & Plover March Brown ~ Bill Shuck

Long forgotten is fishing wet flies – probably one of the oldest presentations and, at times, most effective in certain circumstances. Swinging soft hackle flies is a fun and effective way of…

Hook: Partridge Sproat Wet Thread: Black 8/0 Uni 8/0Superthread 8/0 Body: Polish Quill - Brown Hackle: Dark Mottled Partridge Feather Dubbing: Dark Brown Nymph Dubbing mixed w/ Pink Ice Dub Hareline Dubbin Sybai Nymph Dubbing Hareline Ice Dub Sybai Fine UV Ice Dubbing Sybai Lite Brite Begin by securing your hook in the vise and starting your thread one hook eye length behind the eye. Take touching turns down the shank, stopping your thread across from the barb. Select a brown polish quill from the package; and since this may be your first time working with them, we will give it a quick once-over. What you will notice is that the quill itself has a dark stripe running down one side of it. What this means is that depending on which way you tie them in and wrap them forward, you will either have a segmented body or more of a solid colored body. You will also notice that there is a piece of peacock herl at one end; this is the end that we will prep and tie in from. Prep your quill by snipping off the peacock herl and positioning it in on the side closest to you above the barb so that you can give it a once over before tying it in. Position the quill with the black stripe facing up, as shown in the photo. Now hold that same position, stripe on the top and move the quill to the top of the hook shank and take one or two wraps to secure it in place. Rule of thumb (bear with me now) Is that If you tie them in with the black stripe positioned on the top of the quill and wrap forward, you will have a segmented body- simply because the black stripe is in the same position on the back side of the quill as well. One way to check this is to take one or two wraps to secure your quill into position, and then bend the quill over as if you were going to tie. Take a look at it. If you were to hold it vertical, is the stripe on the left now? If so you are ready to go. If not, and you found it to be on the bottom, then untie it and tie in again in the upside down position to see if that fixes it. Once you have secured your quill in the correct position you are going to create a uniform underbody. This is the most important step when it comes to tying with quill bodies. All of the neatly placed quill wraps in the world won’t do your fly justice if you have a miss-shapen and lumpy underbody. With that being said; use steady pressure and begin to compress the waste ends of the quill. Now begin taking wraps forward with the thread, keeping it flat so as not to twist. If you notice that your thread has gone from looking like smooth flat thread to this twisted rope; give the bobbin a counter-clockwise spin to untwist it. One way to achieve a uniform underbody Is by varying the direction of your thread wraps. For example wrapping towards the hook eye for 4 or 5 wraps, then back towards the bend for 2 or 3 and repeating this with different numbers of wraps as you move towards the eye. This will vary the wraps and help to build up in one direction while keeping the other direction down in size. Continue tapering the body until you have reached the place where you initially started your thread behind the eye, and stop. With the underbody tapered, carefully grasp the quill with your hackle pliers and bring it up and over the hook. Taking evenly overlapped turns, and being careful not to hit the hook point as this will break the quill; wrap forward and begin creating the segmented body. Continue wrapping the quill up the hook shank, stopping it where the tapered body begins. If you find you don't have enough material to reach the exact point, simply tie off where you ended as you should be pretty close. Before trimming your waste ends, I highly suggest taking a one turn whip finish to lock the quill in place before trimming the waste ends Protecting the quill body Quill bodies are very fragile and will benefit a great deal from using a UV coating over top of them. Use your favorite thin UV product to coat and cure the body before continuing. If you don’t have any UV you can simply add a drop or two of head cement and spread it out with the bodkin. Hackle and Dubbing Before dubbing the thorax you will prep and tie in your hackle. Select a properly sized feather from the partridge skin. You will want the fibers to extend slightly past the hook point when finished and one way to eyeball this quickly; is by separating the feather on one side and holding it over the eye like so. Once you have selected and sized your feather, hold it by the tip in your ‘non-tying’ hand and brush back the fibers with the other. This will give you a clear tie in point. While continuing to hold the feather by the tip, bring it over the hook shank (shiny/mottled side down) and tie it in between the end of the tapered body and the hook eye. This will leave you just enough room to wrap the hackle and create a head later. Pull the stem back to ensure that you are not too close to the eye and then cut the tip of the feather off. The tip will be the end that is over the quill body but Don't cut it too close to the thread wraps as you want to make sure it is secure as you bring the hackle around. Take a small pinch of the SLF squirrel and pink ice dubbing and mix them together in your fingers. I like to do this by stacking two small amounts of dubbing on top of each other and then pulling them apart together. I then repeat this process until I have achieved the mixture I desire. Create a small dubbing noodle and dub the thorax. With the thorax dubbed, bring your thread to the front of the hackle and take one wrap.\ Wrapping the hackleHolding the feather vertical with your hackle pliers, use your “non tying

Pattern Description:Traditional soft hackled flies have experienced a resurgence over the past few years here in the West. Syl Nemes is a name that comes to mind when the subject is brought up, and his pattern books are must read material for tyers interested in these effective flies. In this tutorial, I will (attempt)

Left to right, top to bottom: Hare's Lug, Starling & Claret, Little Dark Watchet, March Brown Flymph, Hendrickson Flymph, Baetis Flymph, Sulphur Flymph, Starling & Pheasant, Snipe & Purple, Partridge & Orange, Light Snipe & Yellow, Starling & Red (wire body)

Hook: #6 TMC 200R; Thread: rust-brown UNI 8/0; Hackle: rust-brown brahma hen; Body: ginger antron with a pinch of orange trilobal; Wing: gadwall, dyed with orange marker, wound as a collar, fibers on top painted with a black marker. Gary LaFontaine held the opinion that October Caddis (Dicosmocus) is the most important “big fish insect” of the West, & I agree, insofar as it reflects my own experience. For what that’s worth. I’ve been fortunate to have lived for a long time beside a river where that is certainly a truth. Not only does the big fall sedge bring up some of the best trout of the year, its emergence occurs during my favorite time of year, September & October, in Northeast Washington; its russet coloration true to autumn’s palette & begging simulation. It's size, coloration & habits seem to leave October Caddis wide open to interpretation. Hook: #6 TMC 200R; Thread: rust-brown UNI 8/0; Body: ginger antron with a pinch of orange trilobal; Wing: turkey tail fibers, rolled; Hackle: rust-brown brahma hen fronted with guinea hen. Though the cased larvae might be an important food source to trout in some streams, particularly streams with finer gravels, they aren’t generally available to trout in streams with heavy rubble bottoms that afford larvae sheltering crevices. On my home water, with a bottom mostly composed of rounded, skull-sized glacial till, it’s the uncased pupa & winged adult stages that get the important play. Dropper Pupa - Hook: #4 Gamakatsu octopus; Thread: rust-brown UNI 8/0; Rib: gold wire; Body: ginger antron with a pinch of orange trilobal; Antennae: turkey tail fibers; Hackle: tannish-orange brahma hen. The heavy hook sinks this one without dragging the dryfly under. And swims better than a beadhead. Of its many desirable attributes, the giant fall sedge lends itself to the spectrum of presentations – as a dropper fished under a dryfly or bobber, as a dryfly, or a wetfly, either winged or wingless. Designs meant to be swung or skated are often effective when OC are present, providing a good opportunity for trout spey.

Earlier this year, we published a blog post titled Classic Flies are Classic for a Reason. The gist of that post was that the patterns that have stood the test of time have done so for a reason and given such should likely have a place in your fly box. Soft hackle flies are one of those classics. I have met many fly fishermen for which they are an absolute staple, employed on the stream as often as a pheasant tail nymph or parachute adams. But, I've met many more that don't fish them at all or only rarely do so, considering them sort of an oddity. The Sparkle Soft Hackle Fly. The truth is, however, that soft hackles are one of the most effective styles of flies ever created, and one that should have a home in virtually every angler's arsenal. Soft hackle fly patterns date back over half a millennia. Think about that. What are the chances that a pattern that has persisted for over 500 years doesn't deserve some significant real estate in your fly box? In their simplest form, soft hackle flies are little more than thread or herl wrapped around the hook shank with a sparsely palmered hackle at the front. There are more elaborate versions that extend this basic design concept, but even the most feature-packed soft hackle flies are relatively feature-less.

“What to do with too much hackle and too little hook.” Part 2 Last week we discussed two ways you can utilize an oversized feather when it comes to tying with soft hackles, and today we…

Partridge & Pheasant Soft Hackle Guest Blogger: Mike Cline, Bozeman, MT The traditional soft hackle fly has been with us for a long time. Sylvester Nemes in

A blog devoted to Trout Spey, swinging flies, tying and fishing soft-hackle flies & flyfishing.

A blog devoted to Trout Spey, swinging flies, tying and fishing soft-hackle flies & flyfishing.

Anyone who has spoken to me during a presentation, while tying at a show or on the water, knows that I love tying, fishing and talking; soft hackles. If they didn’t know it at first, they lea…

Many anglers tout the effectiveness of using red hooks in their fly patterns. While there appears to be some science behind it, I'm not a red hook fanatic; nor am I a foe. I don't know if or why red hooks add some attractor qualities to flies or not. I've caught fish on them

There are few better feelings for an angler than hooking a fish with a homemade lure. The soft hackle fly is one of the oldest and most varied patterns; tie your own orange and pheasant breast fly in minutes with these simple steps.

From classic patterns of yore to more modern creations, here are 10 flies that fool fish with the allure of soft hackle

A blog devoted to Trout Spey, swinging flies, tying and fishing soft-hackle flies & flyfishing.

Hook: Partridge Sproat Wet Thread: Black 8/0 Uni 8/0Superthread 8/0 Body: Polish Quill - Brown Hackle: Dark Mottled Partridge Feather Dubbing: Dark Brown Nymph Dubbing mixed w/ Pink Ice Dub Hareline Dubbin Sybai Nymph Dubbing Hareline Ice Dub Sybai Fine UV Ice Dubbing Sybai Lite Brite Begin by securing your hook in the vise and starting your thread one hook eye length behind the eye. Take touching turns down the shank, stopping your thread across from the barb. Select a brown polish quill from the package; and since this may be your first time working with them, we will give it a quick once-over. What you will notice is that the quill itself has a dark stripe running down one side of it. What this means is that depending on which way you tie them in and wrap them forward, you will either have a segmented body or more of a solid colored body. You will also notice that there is a piece of peacock herl at one end; this is the end that we will prep and tie in from. Prep your quill by snipping off the peacock herl and positioning it in on the side closest to you above the barb so that you can give it a once over before tying it in. Position the quill with the black stripe facing up, as shown in the photo. Now hold that same position, stripe on the top and move the quill to the top of the hook shank and take one or two wraps to secure it in place. Rule of thumb (bear with me now) Is that If you tie them in with the black stripe positioned on the top of the quill and wrap forward, you will have a segmented body- simply because the black stripe is in the same position on the back side of the quill as well. One way to check this is to take one or two wraps to secure your quill into position, and then bend the quill over as if you were going to tie. Take a look at it. If you were to hold it vertical, is the stripe on the left now? If so you are ready to go. If not, and you found it to be on the bottom, then untie it and tie in again in the upside down position to see if that fixes it. Once you have secured your quill in the correct position you are going to create a uniform underbody. This is the most important step when it comes to tying with quill bodies. All of the neatly placed quill wraps in the world won’t do your fly justice if you have a miss-shapen and lumpy underbody. With that being said; use steady pressure and begin to compress the waste ends of the quill. Now begin taking wraps forward with the thread, keeping it flat so as not to twist. If you notice that your thread has gone from looking like smooth flat thread to this twisted rope; give the bobbin a counter-clockwise spin to untwist it. One way to achieve a uniform underbody Is by varying the direction of your thread wraps. For example wrapping towards the hook eye for 4 or 5 wraps, then back towards the bend for 2 or 3 and repeating this with different numbers of wraps as you move towards the eye. This will vary the wraps and help to build up in one direction while keeping the other direction down in size. Continue tapering the body until you have reached the place where you initially started your thread behind the eye, and stop. With the underbody tapered, carefully grasp the quill with your hackle pliers and bring it up and over the hook. Taking evenly overlapped turns, and being careful not to hit the hook point as this will break the quill; wrap forward and begin creating the segmented body. Continue wrapping the quill up the hook shank, stopping it where the tapered body begins. If you find you don't have enough material to reach the exact point, simply tie off where you ended as you should be pretty close. Before trimming your waste ends, I highly suggest taking a one turn whip finish to lock the quill in place before trimming the waste ends Protecting the quill body Quill bodies are very fragile and will benefit a great deal from using a UV coating over top of them. Use your favorite thin UV product to coat and cure the body before continuing. If you don’t have any UV you can simply add a drop or two of head cement and spread it out with the bodkin. Hackle and Dubbing Before dubbing the thorax you will prep and tie in your hackle. Select a properly sized feather from the partridge skin. You will want the fibers to extend slightly past the hook point when finished and one way to eyeball this quickly; is by separating the feather on one side and holding it over the eye like so. Once you have selected and sized your feather, hold it by the tip in your ‘non-tying’ hand and brush back the fibers with the other. This will give you a clear tie in point. While continuing to hold the feather by the tip, bring it over the hook shank (shiny/mottled side down) and tie it in between the end of the tapered body and the hook eye. This will leave you just enough room to wrap the hackle and create a head later. Pull the stem back to ensure that you are not too close to the eye and then cut the tip of the feather off. The tip will be the end that is over the quill body but Don't cut it too close to the thread wraps as you want to make sure it is secure as you bring the hackle around. Take a small pinch of the SLF squirrel and pink ice dubbing and mix them together in your fingers. I like to do this by stacking two small amounts of dubbing on top of each other and then pulling them apart together. I then repeat this process until I have achieved the mixture I desire. Create a small dubbing noodle and dub the thorax. With the thorax dubbed, bring your thread to the front of the hackle and take one wrap.\ Wrapping the hackleHolding the feather vertical with your hackle pliers, use your “non tying

Hook: Partridge Sproat Wet Thread: Black 8/0 Uni 8/0Superthread 8/0 Body: Polish Quill - Brown Hackle: Dark Mottled Partridge Feather Dubbing: Dark Brown Nymph Dubbing mixed w/ Pink Ice Dub Hareline Dubbin Sybai Nymph Dubbing Hareline Ice Dub Sybai Fine UV Ice Dubbing Sybai Lite Brite Begin by securing your hook in the vise and starting your thread one hook eye length behind the eye. Take touching turns down the shank, stopping your thread across from the barb. Select a brown polish quill from the package; and since this may be your first time working with them, we will give it a quick once-over. What you will notice is that the quill itself has a dark stripe running down one side of it. What this means is that depending on which way you tie them in and wrap them forward, you will either have a segmented body or more of a solid colored body. You will also notice that there is a piece of peacock herl at one end; this is the end that we will prep and tie in from. Prep your quill by snipping off the peacock herl and positioning it in on the side closest to you above the barb so that you can give it a once over before tying it in. Position the quill with the black stripe facing up, as shown in the photo. Now hold that same position, stripe on the top and move the quill to the top of the hook shank and take one or two wraps to secure it in place. Rule of thumb (bear with me now) Is that If you tie them in with the black stripe positioned on the top of the quill and wrap forward, you will have a segmented body- simply because the black stripe is in the same position on the back side of the quill as well. One way to check this is to take one or two wraps to secure your quill into position, and then bend the quill over as if you were going to tie. Take a look at it. If you were to hold it vertical, is the stripe on the left now? If so you are ready to go. If not, and you found it to be on the bottom, then untie it and tie in again in the upside down position to see if that fixes it. Once you have secured your quill in the correct position you are going to create a uniform underbody. This is the most important step when it comes to tying with quill bodies. All of the neatly placed quill wraps in the world won’t do your fly justice if you have a miss-shapen and lumpy underbody. With that being said; use steady pressure and begin to compress the waste ends of the quill. Now begin taking wraps forward with the thread, keeping it flat so as not to twist. If you notice that your thread has gone from looking like smooth flat thread to this twisted rope; give the bobbin a counter-clockwise spin to untwist it. One way to achieve a uniform underbody Is by varying the direction of your thread wraps. For example wrapping towards the hook eye for 4 or 5 wraps, then back towards the bend for 2 or 3 and repeating this with different numbers of wraps as you move towards the eye. This will vary the wraps and help to build up in one direction while keeping the other direction down in size. Continue tapering the body until you have reached the place where you initially started your thread behind the eye, and stop. With the underbody tapered, carefully grasp the quill with your hackle pliers and bring it up and over the hook. Taking evenly overlapped turns, and being careful not to hit the hook point as this will break the quill; wrap forward and begin creating the segmented body. Continue wrapping the quill up the hook shank, stopping it where the tapered body begins. If you find you don't have enough material to reach the exact point, simply tie off where you ended as you should be pretty close. Before trimming your waste ends, I highly suggest taking a one turn whip finish to lock the quill in place before trimming the waste ends Protecting the quill body Quill bodies are very fragile and will benefit a great deal from using a UV coating over top of them. Use your favorite thin UV product to coat and cure the body before continuing. If you don’t have any UV you can simply add a drop or two of head cement and spread it out with the bodkin. Hackle and Dubbing Before dubbing the thorax you will prep and tie in your hackle. Select a properly sized feather from the partridge skin. You will want the fibers to extend slightly past the hook point when finished and one way to eyeball this quickly; is by separating the feather on one side and holding it over the eye like so. Once you have selected and sized your feather, hold it by the tip in your ‘non-tying’ hand and brush back the fibers with the other. This will give you a clear tie in point. While continuing to hold the feather by the tip, bring it over the hook shank (shiny/mottled side down) and tie it in between the end of the tapered body and the hook eye. This will leave you just enough room to wrap the hackle and create a head later. Pull the stem back to ensure that you are not too close to the eye and then cut the tip of the feather off. The tip will be the end that is over the quill body but Don't cut it too close to the thread wraps as you want to make sure it is secure as you bring the hackle around. Take a small pinch of the SLF squirrel and pink ice dubbing and mix them together in your fingers. I like to do this by stacking two small amounts of dubbing on top of each other and then pulling them apart together. I then repeat this process until I have achieved the mixture I desire. Create a small dubbing noodle and dub the thorax. With the thorax dubbed, bring your thread to the front of the hackle and take one wrap.\ Wrapping the hackleHolding the feather vertical with your hackle pliers, use your “non tying

I've been tying lots of flies lately. I'm asking myself, what flies to tie next. Here is a list of the most popular flies I tied in 2018.

Autumn River ~ Doris Loiseau Transitions September is the month of the ambiguous hero. Transient. Melancholic. At the beginning of the month Autumn sneaks up in the cool of the night & lingers into the chilly morning until the conquering sun of high summer tops the ridge. Yet even the sun, still winning at midday, can’t defeat the ever tilting parallax. The hubcap bright heat of summer inevitably gives way to slanting rose light & ripened pumpkins, & the hatchless dog days of August slowly give way to Fall insect hatches, October caddis, binge-feeding trout fattening for winter. The months pass too swiftly & seem to accelerate with each year. You hear it said that “time is money” but I don’t think so. Like money, there’s just never enough time. Funny thing: time spends quicker, yet can buy more than money. And all the money in the world can’t buy a single minute. You may know that Peter Fonda passed away in August. SHJ reader & friend, John Tobin, shares a personal recollection of crossing paths. A Recollection of Peter Fonda At the news of the death of Peter Fonda I was reminded of once having greeted this “Easy Rider” and avid fly fisher. It was in the early morning of a summer day in 1981 or ’82 on an overlook above Paradise Valley, near Livingston, Montana. My friend Randy and I had just departed our tent trailer at Pine Creek campground high in the Absaroka Range, on our way down for a day’s fishing the coveted, private water of Nelson’s Spring Creek. As was our habit on the first day of this annual event, we stopped at a little overlook 500 feet above the valley. There lay the expanse of ranch and field and forest, transected by the north flowing Yellowstone River, bathed in morning light. Then, tranquility was suddenly broken when half a dozen bikers came roaring up the slope and pulled in. Out of courtesy, or maybe awe, they shut down their hogs. I glanced out of my open window to see, parked next to me, Peter Fonda, astride not the film’s iconic “Captain America” chopper, but a respectable Harley. He was unmistakable: hatless, windswept hair, aviator shades. I called out to him, a little showy, “Hey Peter, how’s fishing been? We have rods on Nelson’s today!” Randy rolled his eyes. Peter turned to us with his unmistakable, trademark grin and nodded politely. Then we continued on our way. I learned later from Helen Nelson that Fonda had a ranch close by, on Suce Creek road, and sometimes fished their creek when he could get a rod. It seems now it could not have been a better instance of life imitating art than if Jack Nicholson had been riding pillion on Fonda’s bike that morning. John Tobin The Confluence Comes a time we travel to meet new rivers and the confluences of rivers, and the compelling mystery of the journey and that first meeting is what excites us the most. Arrived at the smaller river, about a mile above its confluence with the big river, Reverend James and I stand surveying the flow unskeining down over smoothed glacial till. Late autumn and the rivers are low. Still, there is a lot of water, the major portion drained from the northern West Slope passes by us. The river is about one hundred yards across at its widest, maybe six feet deep in places. For the most part it is a three to five foot deep glide terminating in an intriguing set of riffles just above the confluence. The entire mile down to the confluence looks fishable. The glide is slow in places, a steelheader might pass some of it up, but this is trout water. Trout live here and are eating, not single-mindedly passing through to some upstream spawning destination, so they might be anywhere. Even the slowest water down the glide appears to have enough velocity to swing our gear. We’ve come with light Spey rods, rigged with short sink-tips and 8-foot leaders. The leader is longer than most steelheaders like, but this is trouting, the longer leader gets more takes and also helps prevent the sink tip from dragging the fly into the bottom in shallower water. Our flies aren’t weighted. And if the water’s too slow to swing, we’ll fish through anyway – cast and strip. An eagle drifts across the long sky, head tilting. The river basin is wide and rimmed with mountain peaks holding a skiff of fresh snow. It’s early and the day is already warming, the mountains releasing their night gathered clouds. Down the bank I note a few adult October Caddis crawling among the rocks. Lots of empty nymph shucks on the river stones. Good sign. We were hoping there’d be October Caddis. We start beneath a high bridge where the river breaks from a deep, slow pool in a narrow passage and opens, the elevation suddenly dropping to hurry the flow to a short riffle section. Under the bridge a rock formation rises midstream to split the riffle. The deep water slot is on the near side of the rock and it is too deep to wade so the enticing water on the far side can’t be reached. James is ready. I’m not ready yet. Selecting an October Caddis wetfly from my box, I nod toward the slot, unleashing James. He ghosts toward a position while considering the flow. Reverend James fishes with the intensity of a hound yet moves like a heron. He is observant, staying back from the stream until settling on a post, then quietly slipping in where he can best cover the run while remaining unobtrusive. I decide to fish the water below James, where the riffle thickens into the long glide extending downriver. I’m not to the spot yet and hear the startled scraw of a fully activated click-pawl and turn to observe James’ rod bent deep to the grip. It’s a good fish. I stop to watch him fight it. At the other end of the line, the trout chooses the ‘flight’ option, and I think it odd that we say the fish is ‘fighting’, as if mute fish deliberately seek to challenge and beat us at this contrived game wherein we win no matter what and can only beat ourselves. The trout is only trying to get away, it rips upstream and then across above the midstream rock island, and then turns and heads downstream again – horse-shoeing James’ line around the rock – and comes unbuttoned. It happens quick. James smiles and shakes his head, fishes a thin cigar from his pocket. “See that? Schooled me,” he says. “Yup. Saw it. ‘At one was an evil-doer.” James, suspecting there’s another fish in the slot, sits on a rock and smokes the cigar while resting it. I come away empty on the tail-out and start working down the glide. Trout could be anywhere in this so I want to cover it thoroughly. Working down, I take three steps between each casting position. The bank is fairly open, gravel, smooth footing. I make a short cast then place my steps, giving the fly an extra moment to sink while I move down to finish the swing at the new position. There, I make another short cast and fish it out, then make a long cast, then another short cast which I fish while slipping down to the next position. A whoop from under the bridge signals James is on again. The trout is neither as big or canny as the first one he hooked. He brings it to net. A nice redband just the same. Some places it might be considered a wall-hanger but here it is average. James leaves it in the water and releases it quickly. I stick to the routine; the #4 Spey covers the water. We’re trouting, so James and I are both using 15’ heads backed with 30 pound test, low-memory mono shooting line. We like mono for trout, as it allows maximum distance with the lighter, short heads, and a relatively low-cost spool supplies a lot of shooting line. The 15’ heads will carry tips up to 15’ in length. My line is rigged with a 5’ fast-sinking poly leader, and James is fishing a 10’ poly leader with a slower sink rate. The 15’ heads with interchangeable tips give us a 20’ to 30’ casting line, depending on the length of tip used. The day is warming but the low sun still weak, the slanted autumn light won’t penetrate the river to create a mid-day doldrum as in summer. I step and cast, taking in the day. A steelheader might angle the cast more downstream but, old school, I quarter casts to place the fly slightly upstream. I’m not big on mending a lot. Generally one mend at the completion of a cast, if I need to. I just want to get in contact with the fly. Whatever it takes. In faster water, if necessary, a single upstream mend; slow water, a downstream mend to speed the fly up. Quartering across or upstream allows the fly to sink and present dead-drift for a ways before accelerating down into the swing phase of the cast. Trout will often take during the initial dead-drift phase of the quartered upstream cast. If the fish indicate they are liking it dead-drift, I’ll angle my casts more upstream to achieve a longer drift, as in the classic wetfly presentation. The water here has some velocity and depth. The fly drifts downstream of my position, picking up speed dropping down the current. I let line slip through the fingers of my rod hand, six inches, then stop, six inches, stop, slowing the fly’s drift some while activating the fly. Trout like it jiggling. At the end of the swing the fly is still in likely water, so I fish the dangle, lifting the rod, then lowering it. I do that a few times, raising the fly then letting it drop back, then holding the rod tip close to the water and sweeping it slowly side to side, swimming the fly back and forth – and doing that brings a take and I pull the hook into a good fish. James, done with the slot under the bridge, hound-dogging down the bank, arrives to net the trout for me. We admire it laid out like a newborn in the net bag. It’s a boy. A buck redband well over 20 inches. Big kype on him, leopard-spotted and colored-up, three inch wide stripes down its flanks vermillion as the final blood meridian of day. I slip the hook from its jaw, it gathers strength, rights itself and fins away. We watch the water absorb its light and it is gone. “What time is it?” I ask. Reverend James looks at me, surprised, secretly amused, says: “It’s hustle time.” With that he turns and heads to a position about a cast downstream of me, as is our custom when swinging a long run together. Catch a fish, the other guy leapfrogs to the lead position. James is thorough and as fishy as they come. Fishing behind him is pretty much just exercise. I’m not sweating it. Entertaining a selfish motive, I’m counting on James scoring a fish before we get down to that gravy riffle section just above the confluence, putting me in position to be first at the riffle. Selfish? Nah. Given the chance, James would have no problem getting the first shot at that riffle. It’s new water to us and we’re already on the boards, so we’re charged and stoked. Basking in the afterglow of my recent battle with Mr. Buck, I take a seat on a nearby boulder, have a drink of water and roll a smoke while watching Reverend James work down the slowest portion of the run. He is methodical, solemnly self-possessed, each cast placed as a gesture of offering. I amuse myself carrying on an imaginary conversation with the trout: Be careful. Rev James is not offering absolution. He’s tricky. There’s a hook inside that imitation food item he wants you to eat. The only salvation in this comes when he’s done with you, and that’s no sure thing. There’s always the possibility you will become the chosen one and he will hit you over the head with a rock, drop you into his pack, then grill you over hot coals later. Last supper. The trout aren’t listening and James receives a grab, yet fails to set iron. He turns in my direction and nods toward the water letting me know he had a grab, then makes a few more casts before stepping along. James is at the slowest portion of the run now, not far above the enticing riffle section. He’s mending downstream with each cast, creating a downstream line belly to gather flow and swing the fly. But there’s not enough velocity to the flow and he hangs the bottom. He jiggles the fly free then places another cast – this time opting not to swing, instead, after placing the cast, mending to get direct contact with the fly, letting it sink for a five-count, then retrieving with quick, short strips. A few strips and James’ October Caddis softie gets nailed and he is on. The fish stays deep and puts up a bulldogging fight. I arrive on time to net it, a 17 inch brook trout in full autumn color. We take pictures of the brookie, then I get along down the bank. I don’t feel guilty leaving James the rest of the slow section. Maybe he’ll catch another char. We love char, especially the larger models. The riffle, with good fish-holding depth, proves as good as it looks. Barely into it, I take a nice redband. Plenty of water left for Reverend James, who leapfrogs ahead and takes another good redband farther down the riffle. We can go no further down the smaller river, so we stop for a smoke. The fishing is good, we both agree. We consider the spine of low hills entrained in reclining-woman profile between us and the big river. The riffle section relaxes to a broad, deep pool of conflicted currents at the confluence of the two rivers. The headland abruptly breaks to a cliff dropping into the deep water of the confluence, barring passage down the bank from our side of the river. It’s well past noon. Could be a mile hike over that hill to the big river. Might be farther. We don’t know. It’s new country to us, and the main vein waiting beyond that hill is a mystery newly minted and fresh. We check the position of the sun. Scan the sky for weather. A raven calls from the woods somewhere on the hill, between us and the big river. The agreement is tacit, we hitch our packs and pass over the river stones, moving swiftly toward the raven’s call. American Wetfly Masters ~ James Fish James Fish is one of a handful of talented upper Columbia locals. His name says it all, James is a fishy dude (with impeccable tastes in literature & music). He is a master carpenter & builder of fine cabinetry, as well as an accomplished fly tyer. James & I share a love of trout spey & the music of Van Morrison. Last time we fished I picked his box, & he kindly agreed to share his patterns with SHJ. The UC begs a downstream swing approach & we see that reflected in James’s designs, particularly the long-shanked hooks he prefers on patterns meant to be swung (short-biters beware). Olive Sedge Emerger ~ James Fish Green Butt Partridge & Peacock ~ James Fish October Caddis ~ James Fish Spotted Sedge ~ James Fish The Reel News Facing the inevitable & changing gears. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending This article is a bit cheeky but this technology should be taken seriously. This simple, portable device might make it possible to move sea-runs & smolts over the dams. https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-nihilistic-euphoria-of-the-fish-tube?utm_source=pocket-newtab If you’re reading this, then you probably understand the importance of ‘story’. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-desirability-of-storytellers?utm_source=pocket-newtab October Caddis Pupa October Caddis For those of us afflicted with melancholus habitus, autumn is the most exquisitely melancholic season of the year. Life has emerged from summer’s oven & cooled to a glorious apple cake that will, swiftly, become a sweet memory in winter. Gary LaFontaine wrote that October caddis (Dicosmocus) are the most important ‘big fish’ hatch of the West, & I agree. True, this opinion isn’t shared by everybody. Based on my own experience, reasons for a negative review may have arisen from having spent too much time presenting “big, bushy” dry flies without great success. Or, perhaps, some confusion about how October caddis actually look & act at emergence, & how important that stage really is. Once we’re able to envision how the stage trout want looks & moves, we’re able to abstract a killing simulation, the keying characteristics of the natural enhanced, accentuated, or exaggerated, to produce movement, obfuscation & light. Adults are strong flyers, seldom stranded on the water during the early hatch season. On my home water, October caddis emerge early-September through October, mid-day to dark. Dryflies tend to work best morning & dusk, & later in the season when a lot of adults have accumulated & colder weather knocks them down. That’s not to say dismiss any notion of fishing dries except during those times I say. Good to try a dryfly on them. Keep ‘em honest. Yet, in my own experience, most of the time, wet imitations produce better. October caddis are adaptable, able to utilize two emergence strategies depending on conditions which might include: stream depth, bottom composition, water & air temperatures. Cased larvae accumulate near the edge of the river in July, where they seal off the case until pupae are ready to emerge. Yet, if temps are too warm in the shallows, larvae will accumulate in deeper water, as they did in my home water in 2015. That summer, places where they usually are, I saw none, & feared there’d be no hatch. Then, in early September, on schedule, they appeared, busting from the river over deeper water. The naked pupae are active clamberers & strong swimmers (I suspect the swimming habit gets a lot of them in trouble). Many crawl clear of the flow to complete a final molt to adult on shoreline rocks & vegetation, but also a number emerging from the stream. Like I said, they are adaptable. Air. Water. It’s all the same to OC, whichever is more favorable when the alarm goes off. On my home water in 2015, with record high air temps well into September, October caddis utilized the latter strategy, emerging from the stream, & I found few empty shucks on streamside rocks to indicate the usual number had employed the crawl-out mode. As pupae mature the wing buds expand & unfurl until, at maturity, they are an outstanding feature of the nymph, about half the size of the full wing. On final molt the adult wings fully emerge, whether at streamside or on the bottom of the stream. Emergers are strong swimmers & the waxy, water-repellant wings aid in sailing them to the surface, so winged patterns are effective when October caddis are present. October Caddis October Caddis Speyed UC Hen October Reach The Tying Bench As October Caddis is the main dish in Fall where I live, I'm always experimenting with patterns for meeting them. I tie them both winged & wingless. Cold weather knocks a lot of the adults down onto the water, & that's when the winged patts get the nod. Pupae & adults exhibit similar coloration over the abdomen. Adults are pumpkin-orange when newly emerged, hardening to rust-orange. I use the same basic dubbing mixture for all of these: a mix of rust-brown rabbit, burnt-orange & orange SST dubbing. Less rabbit will give a more orange tone. Dark squirrel tail makes a good wing on the wets. Moose & deer hair winging on the floaters. Hackles include natural & dyed guinea, brahma hen, dyed orange hen, & gadwall. Antennae are turkey tail swords. Support free flyfishing. Crush tyranny. Win prizes. Donate to SHJ.

Hook: Partridge Sproat Wet Thread: Black 8/0 Uni 8/0Superthread 8/0 Body: Polish Quill - Brown Hackle: Dark Mottled Partridge Feather Dubbing: Dark Brown Nymph Dubbing mixed w/ Pink Ice Dub Hareline Dubbin Sybai Nymph Dubbing Hareline Ice Dub Sybai Fine UV Ice Dubbing Sybai Lite Brite Begin by securing your hook in the vise and starting your thread one hook eye length behind the eye. Take touching turns down the shank, stopping your thread across from the barb. Select a brown polish quill from the package; and since this may be your first time working with them, we will give it a quick once-over. What you will notice is that the quill itself has a dark stripe running down one side of it. What this means is that depending on which way you tie them in and wrap them forward, you will either have a segmented body or more of a solid colored body. You will also notice that there is a piece of peacock herl at one end; this is the end that we will prep and tie in from. Prep your quill by snipping off the peacock herl and positioning it in on the side closest to you above the barb so that you can give it a once over before tying it in. Position the quill with the black stripe facing up, as shown in the photo. Now hold that same position, stripe on the top and move the quill to the top of the hook shank and take one or two wraps to secure it in place. Rule of thumb (bear with me now) Is that If you tie them in with the black stripe positioned on the top of the quill and wrap forward, you will have a segmented body- simply because the black stripe is in the same position on the back side of the quill as well. One way to check this is to take one or two wraps to secure your quill into position, and then bend the quill over as if you were going to tie. Take a look at it. If you were to hold it vertical, is the stripe on the left now? If so you are ready to go. If not, and you found it to be on the bottom, then untie it and tie in again in the upside down position to see if that fixes it. Once you have secured your quill in the correct position you are going to create a uniform underbody. This is the most important step when it comes to tying with quill bodies. All of the neatly placed quill wraps in the world won’t do your fly justice if you have a miss-shapen and lumpy underbody. With that being said; use steady pressure and begin to compress the waste ends of the quill. Now begin taking wraps forward with the thread, keeping it flat so as not to twist. If you notice that your thread has gone from looking like smooth flat thread to this twisted rope; give the bobbin a counter-clockwise spin to untwist it. One way to achieve a uniform underbody Is by varying the direction of your thread wraps. For example wrapping towards the hook eye for 4 or 5 wraps, then back towards the bend for 2 or 3 and repeating this with different numbers of wraps as you move towards the eye. This will vary the wraps and help to build up in one direction while keeping the other direction down in size. Continue tapering the body until you have reached the place where you initially started your thread behind the eye, and stop. With the underbody tapered, carefully grasp the quill with your hackle pliers and bring it up and over the hook. Taking evenly overlapped turns, and being careful not to hit the hook point as this will break the quill; wrap forward and begin creating the segmented body. Continue wrapping the quill up the hook shank, stopping it where the tapered body begins. If you find you don't have enough material to reach the exact point, simply tie off where you ended as you should be pretty close. Before trimming your waste ends, I highly suggest taking a one turn whip finish to lock the quill in place before trimming the waste ends Protecting the quill body Quill bodies are very fragile and will benefit a great deal from using a UV coating over top of them. Use your favorite thin UV product to coat and cure the body before continuing. If you don’t have any UV you can simply add a drop or two of head cement and spread it out with the bodkin. Hackle and Dubbing Before dubbing the thorax you will prep and tie in your hackle. Select a properly sized feather from the partridge skin. You will want the fibers to extend slightly past the hook point when finished and one way to eyeball this quickly; is by separating the feather on one side and holding it over the eye like so. Once you have selected and sized your feather, hold it by the tip in your ‘non-tying’ hand and brush back the fibers with the other. This will give you a clear tie in point. While continuing to hold the feather by the tip, bring it over the hook shank (shiny/mottled side down) and tie it in between the end of the tapered body and the hook eye. This will leave you just enough room to wrap the hackle and create a head later. Pull the stem back to ensure that you are not too close to the eye and then cut the tip of the feather off. The tip will be the end that is over the quill body but Don't cut it too close to the thread wraps as you want to make sure it is secure as you bring the hackle around. Take a small pinch of the SLF squirrel and pink ice dubbing and mix them together in your fingers. I like to do this by stacking two small amounts of dubbing on top of each other and then pulling them apart together. I then repeat this process until I have achieved the mixture I desire. Create a small dubbing noodle and dub the thorax. With the thorax dubbed, bring your thread to the front of the hackle and take one wrap.\ Wrapping the hackleHolding the feather vertical with your hackle pliers, use your “non tying

Hook: Partridge Sproat Wet Thread: Black 8/0 Uni 8/0Superthread 8/0 Body: Polish Quill - Brown Hackle: Dark Mottled Partridge Feather Dubbing: Dark Brown Nymph Dubbing mixed w/ Pink Ice Dub Hareline Dubbin Sybai Nymph Dubbing Hareline Ice Dub Sybai Fine UV Ice Dubbing Sybai Lite Brite Begin by securing your hook in the vise and starting your thread one hook eye length behind the eye. Take touching turns down the shank, stopping your thread across from the barb. Select a brown polish quill from the package; and since this may be your first time working with them, we will give it a quick once-over. What you will notice is that the quill itself has a dark stripe running down one side of it. What this means is that depending on which way you tie them in and wrap them forward, you will either have a segmented body or more of a solid colored body. You will also notice that there is a piece of peacock herl at one end; this is the end that we will prep and tie in from. Prep your quill by snipping off the peacock herl and positioning it in on the side closest to you above the barb so that you can give it a once over before tying it in. Position the quill with the black stripe facing up, as shown in the photo. Now hold that same position, stripe on the top and move the quill to the top of the hook shank and take one or two wraps to secure it in place. Rule of thumb (bear with me now) Is that If you tie them in with the black stripe positioned on the top of the quill and wrap forward, you will have a segmented body- simply because the black stripe is in the same position on the back side of the quill as well. One way to check this is to take one or two wraps to secure your quill into position, and then bend the quill over as if you were going to tie. Take a look at it. If you were to hold it vertical, is the stripe on the left now? If so you are ready to go. If not, and you found it to be on the bottom, then untie it and tie in again in the upside down position to see if that fixes it. Once you have secured your quill in the correct position you are going to create a uniform underbody. This is the most important step when it comes to tying with quill bodies. All of the neatly placed quill wraps in the world won’t do your fly justice if you have a miss-shapen and lumpy underbody. With that being said; use steady pressure and begin to compress the waste ends of the quill. Now begin taking wraps forward with the thread, keeping it flat so as not to twist. If you notice that your thread has gone from looking like smooth flat thread to this twisted rope; give the bobbin a counter-clockwise spin to untwist it. One way to achieve a uniform underbody Is by varying the direction of your thread wraps. For example wrapping towards the hook eye for 4 or 5 wraps, then back towards the bend for 2 or 3 and repeating this with different numbers of wraps as you move towards the eye. This will vary the wraps and help to build up in one direction while keeping the other direction down in size. Continue tapering the body until you have reached the place where you initially started your thread behind the eye, and stop. With the underbody tapered, carefully grasp the quill with your hackle pliers and bring it up and over the hook. Taking evenly overlapped turns, and being careful not to hit the hook point as this will break the quill; wrap forward and begin creating the segmented body. Continue wrapping the quill up the hook shank, stopping it where the tapered body begins. If you find you don't have enough material to reach the exact point, simply tie off where you ended as you should be pretty close. Before trimming your waste ends, I highly suggest taking a one turn whip finish to lock the quill in place before trimming the waste ends Protecting the quill body Quill bodies are very fragile and will benefit a great deal from using a UV coating over top of them. Use your favorite thin UV product to coat and cure the body before continuing. If you don’t have any UV you can simply add a drop or two of head cement and spread it out with the bodkin. Hackle and Dubbing Before dubbing the thorax you will prep and tie in your hackle. Select a properly sized feather from the partridge skin. You will want the fibers to extend slightly past the hook point when finished and one way to eyeball this quickly; is by separating the feather on one side and holding it over the eye like so. Once you have selected and sized your feather, hold it by the tip in your ‘non-tying’ hand and brush back the fibers with the other. This will give you a clear tie in point. While continuing to hold the feather by the tip, bring it over the hook shank (shiny/mottled side down) and tie it in between the end of the tapered body and the hook eye. This will leave you just enough room to wrap the hackle and create a head later. Pull the stem back to ensure that you are not too close to the eye and then cut the tip of the feather off. The tip will be the end that is over the quill body but Don't cut it too close to the thread wraps as you want to make sure it is secure as you bring the hackle around. Take a small pinch of the SLF squirrel and pink ice dubbing and mix them together in your fingers. I like to do this by stacking two small amounts of dubbing on top of each other and then pulling them apart together. I then repeat this process until I have achieved the mixture I desire. Create a small dubbing noodle and dub the thorax. With the thorax dubbed, bring your thread to the front of the hackle and take one wrap.\ Wrapping the hackleHolding the feather vertical with your hackle pliers, use your “non tying

Hook: Partridge Sproat Wet Thread: Black 8/0 Uni 8/0Superthread 8/0 Body: Polish Quill - Brown Hackle: Dark Mottled Partridge Feather Dubbing: Dark Brown Nymph Dubbing mixed w/ Pink Ice Dub Hareline Dubbin Sybai Nymph Dubbing Hareline Ice Dub Sybai Fine UV Ice Dubbing Sybai Lite Brite Begin by securing your hook in the vise and starting your thread one hook eye length behind the eye. Take touching turns down the shank, stopping your thread across from the barb. Select a brown polish quill from the package; and since this may be your first time working with them, we will give it a quick once-over. What you will notice is that the quill itself has a dark stripe running down one side of it. What this means is that depending on which way you tie them in and wrap them forward, you will either have a segmented body or more of a solid colored body. You will also notice that there is a piece of peacock herl at one end; this is the end that we will prep and tie in from. Prep your quill by snipping off the peacock herl and positioning it in on the side closest to you above the barb so that you can give it a once over before tying it in. Position the quill with the black stripe facing up, as shown in the photo. Now hold that same position, stripe on the top and move the quill to the top of the hook shank and take one or two wraps to secure it in place. Rule of thumb (bear with me now) Is that If you tie them in with the black stripe positioned on the top of the quill and wrap forward, you will have a segmented body- simply because the black stripe is in the same position on the back side of the quill as well. One way to check this is to take one or two wraps to secure your quill into position, and then bend the quill over as if you were going to tie. Take a look at it. If you were to hold it vertical, is the stripe on the left now? If so you are ready to go. If not, and you found it to be on the bottom, then untie it and tie in again in the upside down position to see if that fixes it. Once you have secured your quill in the correct position you are going to create a uniform underbody. This is the most important step when it comes to tying with quill bodies. All of the neatly placed quill wraps in the world won’t do your fly justice if you have a miss-shapen and lumpy underbody. With that being said; use steady pressure and begin to compress the waste ends of the quill. Now begin taking wraps forward with the thread, keeping it flat so as not to twist. If you notice that your thread has gone from looking like smooth flat thread to this twisted rope; give the bobbin a counter-clockwise spin to untwist it. One way to achieve a uniform underbody Is by varying the direction of your thread wraps. For example wrapping towards the hook eye for 4 or 5 wraps, then back towards the bend for 2 or 3 and repeating this with different numbers of wraps as you move towards the eye. This will vary the wraps and help to build up in one direction while keeping the other direction down in size. Continue tapering the body until you have reached the place where you initially started your thread behind the eye, and stop. With the underbody tapered, carefully grasp the quill with your hackle pliers and bring it up and over the hook. Taking evenly overlapped turns, and being careful not to hit the hook point as this will break the quill; wrap forward and begin creating the segmented body. Continue wrapping the quill up the hook shank, stopping it where the tapered body begins. If you find you don't have enough material to reach the exact point, simply tie off where you ended as you should be pretty close. Before trimming your waste ends, I highly suggest taking a one turn whip finish to lock the quill in place before trimming the waste ends Protecting the quill body Quill bodies are very fragile and will benefit a great deal from using a UV coating over top of them. Use your favorite thin UV product to coat and cure the body before continuing. If you don’t have any UV you can simply add a drop or two of head cement and spread it out with the bodkin. Hackle and Dubbing Before dubbing the thorax you will prep and tie in your hackle. Select a properly sized feather from the partridge skin. You will want the fibers to extend slightly past the hook point when finished and one way to eyeball this quickly; is by separating the feather on one side and holding it over the eye like so. Once you have selected and sized your feather, hold it by the tip in your ‘non-tying’ hand and brush back the fibers with the other. This will give you a clear tie in point. While continuing to hold the feather by the tip, bring it over the hook shank (shiny/mottled side down) and tie it in between the end of the tapered body and the hook eye. This will leave you just enough room to wrap the hackle and create a head later. Pull the stem back to ensure that you are not too close to the eye and then cut the tip of the feather off. The tip will be the end that is over the quill body but Don't cut it too close to the thread wraps as you want to make sure it is secure as you bring the hackle around. Take a small pinch of the SLF squirrel and pink ice dubbing and mix them together in your fingers. I like to do this by stacking two small amounts of dubbing on top of each other and then pulling them apart together. I then repeat this process until I have achieved the mixture I desire. Create a small dubbing noodle and dub the thorax. With the thorax dubbed, bring your thread to the front of the hackle and take one wrap.\ Wrapping the hackleHolding the feather vertical with your hackle pliers, use your “non tying

Hook: Partridge Sproat Wet Thread: Black 8/0 Uni 8/0Superthread 8/0 Body: Polish Quill - Brown Hackle: Dark Mottled Partridge Feather Dubbing: Dark Brown Nymph Dubbing mixed w/ Pink Ice Dub Hareline Dubbin Sybai Nymph Dubbing Hareline Ice Dub Sybai Fine UV Ice Dubbing Sybai Lite Brite Begin by securing your hook in the vise and starting your thread one hook eye length behind the eye. Take touching turns down the shank, stopping your thread across from the barb. Select a brown polish quill from the package; and since this may be your first time working with them, we will give it a quick once-over. What you will notice is that the quill itself has a dark stripe running down one side of it. What this means is that depending on which way you tie them in and wrap them forward, you will either have a segmented body or more of a solid colored body. You will also notice that there is a piece of peacock herl at one end; this is the end that we will prep and tie in from. Prep your quill by snipping off the peacock herl and positioning it in on the side closest to you above the barb so that you can give it a once over before tying it in. Position the quill with the black stripe facing up, as shown in the photo. Now hold that same position, stripe on the top and move the quill to the top of the hook shank and take one or two wraps to secure it in place. Rule of thumb (bear with me now) Is that If you tie them in with the black stripe positioned on the top of the quill and wrap forward, you will have a segmented body- simply because the black stripe is in the same position on the back side of the quill as well. One way to check this is to take one or two wraps to secure your quill into position, and then bend the quill over as if you were going to tie. Take a look at it. If you were to hold it vertical, is the stripe on the left now? If so you are ready to go. If not, and you found it to be on the bottom, then untie it and tie in again in the upside down position to see if that fixes it. Once you have secured your quill in the correct position you are going to create a uniform underbody. This is the most important step when it comes to tying with quill bodies. All of the neatly placed quill wraps in the world won’t do your fly justice if you have a miss-shapen and lumpy underbody. With that being said; use steady pressure and begin to compress the waste ends of the quill. Now begin taking wraps forward with the thread, keeping it flat so as not to twist. If you notice that your thread has gone from looking like smooth flat thread to this twisted rope; give the bobbin a counter-clockwise spin to untwist it. One way to achieve a uniform underbody Is by varying the direction of your thread wraps. For example wrapping towards the hook eye for 4 or 5 wraps, then back towards the bend for 2 or 3 and repeating this with different numbers of wraps as you move towards the eye. This will vary the wraps and help to build up in one direction while keeping the other direction down in size. Continue tapering the body until you have reached the place where you initially started your thread behind the eye, and stop. With the underbody tapered, carefully grasp the quill with your hackle pliers and bring it up and over the hook. Taking evenly overlapped turns, and being careful not to hit the hook point as this will break the quill; wrap forward and begin creating the segmented body. Continue wrapping the quill up the hook shank, stopping it where the tapered body begins. If you find you don't have enough material to reach the exact point, simply tie off where you ended as you should be pretty close. Before trimming your waste ends, I highly suggest taking a one turn whip finish to lock the quill in place before trimming the waste ends Protecting the quill body Quill bodies are very fragile and will benefit a great deal from using a UV coating over top of them. Use your favorite thin UV product to coat and cure the body before continuing. If you don’t have any UV you can simply add a drop or two of head cement and spread it out with the bodkin. Hackle and Dubbing Before dubbing the thorax you will prep and tie in your hackle. Select a properly sized feather from the partridge skin. You will want the fibers to extend slightly past the hook point when finished and one way to eyeball this quickly; is by separating the feather on one side and holding it over the eye like so. Once you have selected and sized your feather, hold it by the tip in your ‘non-tying’ hand and brush back the fibers with the other. This will give you a clear tie in point. While continuing to hold the feather by the tip, bring it over the hook shank (shiny/mottled side down) and tie it in between the end of the tapered body and the hook eye. This will leave you just enough room to wrap the hackle and create a head later. Pull the stem back to ensure that you are not too close to the eye and then cut the tip of the feather off. The tip will be the end that is over the quill body but Don't cut it too close to the thread wraps as you want to make sure it is secure as you bring the hackle around. Take a small pinch of the SLF squirrel and pink ice dubbing and mix them together in your fingers. I like to do this by stacking two small amounts of dubbing on top of each other and then pulling them apart together. I then repeat this process until I have achieved the mixture I desire. Create a small dubbing noodle and dub the thorax. With the thorax dubbed, bring your thread to the front of the hackle and take one wrap.\ Wrapping the hackleHolding the feather vertical with your hackle pliers, use your “non tying

Hook: Partridge Sproat Wet Thread: Black 8/0 Uni 8/0Superthread 8/0 Body: Polish Quill - Brown Hackle: Dark Mottled Partridge Feather Dubbing: Dark Brown Nymph Dubbing mixed w/ Pink Ice Dub Hareline Dubbin Sybai Nymph Dubbing Hareline Ice Dub Sybai Fine UV Ice Dubbing Sybai Lite Brite Begin by securing your hook in the vise and starting your thread one hook eye length behind the eye. Take touching turns down the shank, stopping your thread across from the barb. Select a brown polish quill from the package; and since this may be your first time working with them, we will give it a quick once-over. What you will notice is that the quill itself has a dark stripe running down one side of it. What this means is that depending on which way you tie them in and wrap them forward, you will either have a segmented body or more of a solid colored body. You will also notice that there is a piece of peacock herl at one end; this is the end that we will prep and tie in from. Prep your quill by snipping off the peacock herl and positioning it in on the side closest to you above the barb so that you can give it a once over before tying it in. Position the quill with the black stripe facing up, as shown in the photo. Now hold that same position, stripe on the top and move the quill to the top of the hook shank and take one or two wraps to secure it in place. Rule of thumb (bear with me now) Is that If you tie them in with the black stripe positioned on the top of the quill and wrap forward, you will have a segmented body- simply because the black stripe is in the same position on the back side of the quill as well. One way to check this is to take one or two wraps to secure your quill into position, and then bend the quill over as if you were going to tie. Take a look at it. If you were to hold it vertical, is the stripe on the left now? If so you are ready to go. If not, and you found it to be on the bottom, then untie it and tie in again in the upside down position to see if that fixes it. Once you have secured your quill in the correct position you are going to create a uniform underbody. This is the most important step when it comes to tying with quill bodies. All of the neatly placed quill wraps in the world won’t do your fly justice if you have a miss-shapen and lumpy underbody. With that being said; use steady pressure and begin to compress the waste ends of the quill. Now begin taking wraps forward with the thread, keeping it flat so as not to twist. If you notice that your thread has gone from looking like smooth flat thread to this twisted rope; give the bobbin a counter-clockwise spin to untwist it. One way to achieve a uniform underbody Is by varying the direction of your thread wraps. For example wrapping towards the hook eye for 4 or 5 wraps, then back towards the bend for 2 or 3 and repeating this with different numbers of wraps as you move towards the eye. This will vary the wraps and help to build up in one direction while keeping the other direction down in size. Continue tapering the body until you have reached the place where you initially started your thread behind the eye, and stop. With the underbody tapered, carefully grasp the quill with your hackle pliers and bring it up and over the hook. Taking evenly overlapped turns, and being careful not to hit the hook point as this will break the quill; wrap forward and begin creating the segmented body. Continue wrapping the quill up the hook shank, stopping it where the tapered body begins. If you find you don't have enough material to reach the exact point, simply tie off where you ended as you should be pretty close. Before trimming your waste ends, I highly suggest taking a one turn whip finish to lock the quill in place before trimming the waste ends Protecting the quill body Quill bodies are very fragile and will benefit a great deal from using a UV coating over top of them. Use your favorite thin UV product to coat and cure the body before continuing. If you don’t have any UV you can simply add a drop or two of head cement and spread it out with the bodkin. Hackle and Dubbing Before dubbing the thorax you will prep and tie in your hackle. Select a properly sized feather from the partridge skin. You will want the fibers to extend slightly past the hook point when finished and one way to eyeball this quickly; is by separating the feather on one side and holding it over the eye like so. Once you have selected and sized your feather, hold it by the tip in your ‘non-tying’ hand and brush back the fibers with the other. This will give you a clear tie in point. While continuing to hold the feather by the tip, bring it over the hook shank (shiny/mottled side down) and tie it in between the end of the tapered body and the hook eye. This will leave you just enough room to wrap the hackle and create a head later. Pull the stem back to ensure that you are not too close to the eye and then cut the tip of the feather off. The tip will be the end that is over the quill body but Don't cut it too close to the thread wraps as you want to make sure it is secure as you bring the hackle around. Take a small pinch of the SLF squirrel and pink ice dubbing and mix them together in your fingers. I like to do this by stacking two small amounts of dubbing on top of each other and then pulling them apart together. I then repeat this process until I have achieved the mixture I desire. Create a small dubbing noodle and dub the thorax. With the thorax dubbed, bring your thread to the front of the hackle and take one wrap.\ Wrapping the hackleHolding the feather vertical with your hackle pliers, use your “non tying

The Killer Kebari is a killer bug with a soft hackle. It seems to work quite well as a caddis pupa pattern. I generally tie it in a size 14.

Why not Soft Hackle today.