Redneck Killer Bug Tutorial (an earth worm for Earth Day)

[hankaye]

Ray, Howdy;

Well that is bollocks.
Have a good look at the book I sent you and you will see I am well used to nymph patterns that have nothing more than a tuft of throat hackle- or no hackle at all.
Are they any less of a fly than a North Country spider? Less of a fly than a scud, shrimp or killer bug?

Your worm is a genuine suggestion of what a trout may find in the water and treat as food- just like most all fly patterns are.
There is an awful lot of egg yarn sold in NZ........ are egg patterns flies? Come this time of the year they catch fish better than most other patterns.....
Is there not a famous river over that side of the Pacific where a certain way of moving your feet whilst wading (shuffle) has been banned? Are there not may many patterns used to imitate than type of worm?

If you cannot post something like your "Killer Tup Worm" in the tutorial section for fear of being laughed off the forum, we might as well all become dry fly elitists!

Soft hackle, no hackle, crap, we even got some with wangs now, so why the heck not??? , , .

Jeff, Howdy, Really, we gots us a River where we can't shuffle our feets??? Which one is that??? Never heard of such foolishness

hank

[DUBBN]

Hank, that river is in your State.

[swellcat]

Dry flies are beneath me.

Excellent.

A minner . . . a worm . . . and now a dark confession that one of us has secretly longed to learn dry-tying from the likes of Bill, Carl, Hans, and Ray. The newest section of ideological impurity could be titled, "Insufficiently Moist: Stubbornly-Buoyant Flies that Don't Yet Know They're All Wet".

_____

[letumgo]

[hankaye]

DUBBN, Howdy;

Hank, that river is in your State.

Must be the San Juan, all the rest, once ya get below Albuquerque,
all you'd do is raise a dust cloud ... , , .

hank

[letumgo]

swellcat,

I went fishing this morning to do some field testing of this fly. I found that the fly itself does not have a lot of motion to it. I tied it on the line, with an open Duncan loop knot, hoping that it would allow the fly to move freely. I found that the fly hangs vertically when it drops (hook eye up, hook point at the bottom pointing straight up). Not a lot of movement, but I did confirm that it quite snag resistant. I intentionally fished it deep, along the bottom over some rough stony sections of the creek. I only managed to get in snagged twice, and both times it was easy to retrieve.

I tested the sink rate by repeatedly dropping the fly in a 34" deep section of the stream. On average, it took 6 seconds for the fly to touch the bottom. This works out to a sink rate of roughly 5.6"/second, which seemed to be a pretty gentle drop rate. After conducting this test, I could then fish different sections of the stream and do a count, as the fly dropped thru the water column, allowing me to estimate the depth of the fly.

Here's what the pattern looks like fully soaked. Even with the white under wraps, the main body darkens up quite a bit. I may try some with silver tinsel underbodies to see if I can lighten up the body somewhat.


I tested the fly on a regular fly rod, and on a Tenkara rod. Both of the rods could easily cast the fly. I think the longer tenkara rod did a better job of controlling the fly throughout the drift.

I was a little disappointed that the fly did not have more movement. I may tye some with a reversed hackle collar (tenkara-style) at the front. This may make the fly look more "alive", although less worm like.

I get a lot of pleasure out of this part of fly tying. Trying something new (to me) and seeing how the fly behaves. All good fun.

[Mataura mayfly]

Ray, sections of lead (or non-toxic) wire lashed to the top of the hook shank in various positions as you wrap the underbody would alter the sink rate and attitude of this fly in the water.
As for movement, depending on your body material wool/nylon mix, you could leave a "tail" tag of body material fore or aft and singe the end with a lighter to stop it unravelling. If too much wool not enough nylon to singe, use a dot of CA (super) glue or UV cure resin.

I think the body looks good wet, like the contrast of the two materials. Be interesting to see what a lighter underbody looks like beside the original- both wet.

[Tom Smithwick]

Hi Ray - Here's a thought from far left field. (I hang out there a bit, in case you haven't noticed.) Weight the back of the fly to make sure it does drop vertically in the water. Then add some sort of a small "parachute" to the head that will slow the rate of decent a bit, and maybe get it to sway and twist a bit in the process. I was thinking of something like a dressmaker's sequin, or maybe something cut out of a piece of plastic bubble packaging, like that stuff that made in China tools, etc. are packaged in that you practically have to bandsaw to open. If it's a bit asymmetrical, that might even be better.

[crazy4oldcars]

Ray,
As a worm drowner from way back, I see nothin' wrong with the colors in the wet picture. That looks amazing.
There is a small lake about an hour north of me, where we go to sit on the bank and catch baby catfish. Nothing we can keep, but it's still a blast. My wife will only fish with worms, and I do the same so we can spend time together. I think I'll tie up a few to try the next time we're up there.

Kirk