In this post I will let you in on some of my plans for this up coming season. Since I started spey fishing and tying flies I was instantly drawn to the classic and traditional style of fly tying. My summer box hints quite heavily on this fact.
I have added some mixed wings to my box for this summer, its a shame that this style of salmon fly has faded out of our fly boxes and into books of a past generation of anglers. I am not sure why this is, maybe because the materials are expensive? Well so is Jungle Cock, Rhea, Amherst, Temple Dog, and lots of other materials that are still used quite extensively in modern fly tying. Maybe its because they are to hard to tie? I think at first they may seem daunting and hard, but I remember when I tied my first woolly bugger I thought the same thing, and now I can whip out a bugger in less than a minute.
I will say that I have nothing against Intruders and all those fancy new Steelhead and Salmon patterns out there. I guess in time every thing gets buried in history books, and who knows maybe in a hundred years someone will be saying the same thing about Intruders, but for now I will keep some history out of the books and in my box.
This is a set of mixed wings I have in mind for some fresh Steelhead and Atlantics, the two on the far right have already been in a Steelhead's jaw, but sadly I wasn't able to land them.
Muddlers are extremely productive here in the St. Marys River. Iif your planning of coming up for some Atlantics this summer, make sure you take lots of muddlers, they get chomped up pretty fast.
I am also going to use some skaters for this season, I am going to spend alot of time looking for that one special fish that will commit to a skated fly. There is a very good chance that I won't connect with one of these fish, but there is also a tiny chance I will, and for me, that makes it a worthwhile pursuit.
Fish eye view of some Skaters.
This Ringneck Heron is fast becoming one of my favourite and most productive flies, It has proved it self with and without the Heron hackle. The above version is tied with out the Heron.
Fish eye view of the Ringneck Heron.
Here is a simple spey pattern that was the predecessor to the Ringneck Heron, this fly has always held a place in my box as a confidence fly for me.
This is a simple, sleek strip wing, I intend on using this fly in gin clear water when other patterns don't seem to be producing.
Here is my mixed wing army ready for battle, A couple flies in here were tied in hand with out a vise, I chose to tie some in hand to pay tribute to the salmon fly dressers of the past who never used a vise.
Fish eye view of the mixed wings
Feel free to comment with your opinions on why traditional salmon flies are falling out of popularity.
I hope you enjoyed this post, looking forward to showing you all some pictures of these flies in the jaws of some beautiful fish!
Chris
