Sloane's fur fly inspired

[fly_fischa]

This fly was inspired by Sloane's fur fly, a well known Tasmanian fly for fishing the highland lakes. The body of the fly is created with a cross cut rabbit strip off a winter pelt. The strip should be 3-4mm thick and 15-20mm wide. Fold the outside edges of the hide into the centre of the strip so you end up with a triangle with the fur on the outside and the hide folded in on itself. Stroke the fur back keeping hold of the folded skin, place the fur over the hook so it cloaks/veils the shank. Get the desired length and tie it in. once secure cut off the skin and clean up with thread. The original calls for a peacock herl head, I opted for a Hebert Miner hen saddle in a unique variant flav. This is my swap fly...
hook is a TMC105 sz10

[Ron Eagle Elk]

That's brilliant. I can't wait to see this in person.

[ronr]

What REE said... makes my fly look like its tied by a rookie...

[Mike62]

Wow. Look at the head on the first picture; even the thread spacing on the finish is a thing of beauty. This is where I would put my hands in the air and do the Wayne and Garth "We're not worthy!" bit.

[tie2fish]

Astonishing!

[fly_fischa]

Thank you all, you are too kind these are bushy unruly fishing flies, but purposefully so

The magic in the Sloane’s fur fly is in how it fishes. Most people don’t give it the thought or time it deserves and dismiss it as poorly tied or designed when they cast it out and it floats!

The highland lakes in Tassie are quite shallow high altitude, it’s wade polaroiding and in the early season fishing for what we call tailers. Fish that forage in the high water shallows before the sun gets up. You’ll often be kneeling in crunchy grass or ice

This fly floats and takes quite a while to become waterlogged. If you want it to sink you can speed up the process by squeezing the fly when it’s wet or holding it under water and squeezing the trapped air bubbles out. Even once water logged the fly sinks slooooowly, if tied well it’s almost neutrally buoyant. I like to find a fish cast well ahead of it and past it’s feeding lane, give it one or two short sharp strips to get it under the surface, sometimes it rises to the surface again slowly and other times it sinks ever so slowly but it is usually suspended just right for when the trout reaches the fly. Lots of movement in this one especially with the generous hackle collar...

If the fly becomes too water logged, squeeze it out of the water or give it a few false casts and your good to go...

K

[letumgo]

That's brilliant. I can't wait to see this in person.

Karsten - These are great swap flies. I can’t wait to see these in person. Your tying and photography are always first rate.


“these are bushy unruly fishing flies”

This describes most of the flies I tie and fish...

[Mike62]

If those flies are 'bushy and unruly' then mine are a Jackson Pollock painting gone terribly wrong.

[swellcat]

The photography jumps out at me here.