Big, ugly palmer wets

[Roadkill]

Have you tried any of the Whiting Bugger Packs?

[BrkTrt]

Great looking flies. I tie large #8 hooks palmered wets and fish them in small streams. Both wild browns and brookies take them with gusto.

Alan

[Boarmountain]

If anyone knows a good source for long, soft skinny feathers for tying big, upgly palmer wet flies I would love to knw.


John

Try schlappen. Starts small and tapers nicely. Very soft also.

[driftless]

John,

You could also use two different sizes of hen hackle.

The rear hackle could be one size smaller than the hook size, the front hackle could be the designated hook size. Tie in the rear hackle, then dub the body halfway up the hook. Wind the hackle forward to where the dubbing stops. Then tie in the second hackle, dub the body, wind the second hackle forward & whip finish. I tie soft-hackle wooly worms this way.

The woolies are like miniature wooly buggers, tied on size 16 and 14 3X long heavy hooks. Wisconsin tier and guide Rich Osthoff originated the idea. These smaller versions work really well on our spring creeks. You can also add weight to the hook if you want.

FWIW,

Paul

[BrkTrt]

Palmered wet.JPG (255.88 KiB) Viewed 4183 times

Alan

[Theroe]

John

You are in “night fly” territory, which is a big thing in eastern and central Pennsylvania.....
George Harvey even developed a series of pusher flies, which work quite well. Do you ever stay late when the fish are feeding at dusk??
Very nice flies by the way!
Dana

[Theroe]

oh BOY - thats a nice FAT fish !!

[Old Hat]

I can certainly see why that would be a great twilight fly, especially for drakes. I will have to add a couple of these to my tying.

[bocast]

I strongly recommend the Whiting Coq de Leon hen saddles and capes for this. The speckled brown Coq de Leon hen feathers are soft and strong and spectacular, even if the flies I tie aren't yet.

Example: body hackle on this fly

LadyCarolinesStepsister_20201118.jpg (270.06 KiB) Viewed 4122 times

[bocast]

ForumGhillie,

If you want the pronounced taper, I agree the Coq de Leon capes don't have that. For " brahma-muddler type" ties and for long soft body hackle without a taper they are great.

I might try using the Swiss CDC clamp to spin up an angled sampling of the CdL hen feather to see if that works. The dubbing would have to match the barb color. I'll give that a try to see if I can get a pronounced taper.