Post
by DOUGSDEN » Thu Feb 05, 2015 8:05 pm
Good evening friends near and far,
I wanted to give you some promised thoughts on tying this venerable pattern created by Walt Dette many years ago! It has been a hectic week for me and I wanted first thing to thank everyone for their patience.
There is really not alot to tell in the way of tying tips or some undiscovered revelations! My first bit of advice would be to get a copy of Eric Leisers great book, "The Dettes - A Catskill Legend. It is a fascinating read as well as a great guide in tying many of the great patterns that they made famous! Eric does a great job with both photo's and text to help step you through each part of the pattern.
Next, tie the pattern exactly as he suggests! I know that I am guilty of altering a pattern almost from the get-go unless some of the materials are hard or impossible to get. This pattern, the Isonychia Nymph, has the great advantage of having all of it's materials readily available. You need to be prepared to mix some dubbing to match the orig. recipe. This is the only one of the materials that I did truly substitue as we will see later. Our friend Ruard saved the day for me on this one because of a fine gift of furs that he gave to me back in 2012 when we all met in Grantsville, MD. One of the interesting colors that he gave to me was a very deep maroon color of rabbit fur that seemed to fit just right into this pattern. It was the fur used for the abdomen!
The pattern is a nymph, a very heavily weighted nymph even by todays standards. This pattern was sought out and tied for a very specific reason. I want to reach down and try and catch some deep water bruiser bluegills in some of my local lakes. Most of the nymphs that I have tied in the past have been "woefully underweighted" on purpose. On this latest round of Iso.'s, I have done just the opposite and took the advice of the patterns creator and put the lead to them! I realize that this is quite a departure from the ususal flymphs and wets and spiders and such and I still love tying and fishing these very much! Again, a very specific reason and purpose for these heavy weights!
I found that counter-winding a length of silk or tying thread to protect the fragile Ostrich herl over the abdomen is a double edged sword! No matter how hard I tried, I could not keep from matting down appx. half of the delicate fibers (gills) making the patterns look a little flat instead of fuzzy like it should be. If you choose to leave the reinforcing rib off, the herl will get bit by little trout teeth and comes unwound! If you wind with the herl, it gives the look of a really fat rib and it does mash down some of the fibers as well but not as bad as counterwinding. Ugh.....what to do? Experiment!
Winding the 2-3 wraps of partridge hackle (not too long please) at the front and then bringing the wing case (gray goose wing fibers) over the top has to be one of the most satisfying procedures in all of fly tying! The partridge behaves itself well when you pull the fibers down on each side and bring the goose fibers over and gather them right at the very head and secure. And, they (the partridge fibers) look so real as a beard or bottom hackle angling backwards gracefully!
One of my regrets in doing the research for this pattern is not finding out more about what the natural insect looked like before I started tying! Is the shade of abdomen and thorax correct? Should the tail fibers be shorter or darker or more up-swept and should there be three or four of them? But, in my case and as a general searching pattern, my speckled darlings have prob. never run across the natural in all of their meanderings and feastings! I just know that it works really well in catching them at all depths (heavy weighted or light). Forgive me Walt for not staying true to the final product but you have created a really effective killer of a nymph!
Does anyone else have some "depth charges" that they routinely use? Please share your secret patterns with us!
I think I have covered all the bases and I certainly have talked too much.....
Chatty Patty
Fish when you can, not when you should! Anything short of this is just a disaster.
