Archive for the ‘Fly Patterns’ Category

Flesh M.O.A.L.

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Here is a great fall flesh pattern tied in M.O.A.L. (Mother Of All Leeches) fashion. Fished on a dead drift swing or even stripped this pattern will work outside of the September flesh “hatch” elicting strikes from the trout opener through October. For step by step instructions check out this web page Strung Out MOAL Leech Tutorial. I make one variation from the norm. In place of cross cut rabbit strip I recommend straight cut rabbit strips to give the pattern more movement when dead drifted.

Flesh M.O.A.L.

Front Hook: Cheap streamer or nymph hook clipped

Back Hook: Gamakatsu C14S sz. 2-4

Thread: 6/0 White

Front Bead: Spirt River 1/4″ Hot Orange painted with 3 coats of white nail polish

Back Bead: 6mm Trout Bead

Platform: 30Lb Dacron

Body: Straight cut flesh rabbit strip

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Fluff’s Humpy

Friday, April 16th, 2010

 As many of you tiers are feverously tying for your upcoming Alaska trip ,here is a Humpy variation tied by AFA guide Levi Hohl. Tied in a Wulff fashion with long calftail wings and elongated moose body hair tail, this pattern with the addition of a foam back floats high and is easily visible.

Hook: Tiemco 100 or Daichii 1180 sz. 12

Thread: Brown 8/0

Tail: Moose Body

Dubbing: Rusty Brown Ice Dub

Back: 2mm Brown Foam

Hackle: Brown

Wing: Calftail

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Willie Nelson-the red headed stranger

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Perhaps it should have been, “Alaska on my mind”.  This pattern, which essentially is an articulated egg sucking leech, is best fished on the swing or slowly stripped through slots, holes and tailouts. I like to tie mine with a circle hook as trout generally set themselves when swinging big articulated streamers.

Hook: Gamakatsu 208408 sz. 4 ,attatched via 30lb backing material to any straight eye streamer hook with the hook bend cut off.

Thread: Black 6/0

Tail: Black Rabbit Strip

Body: Crosscut Black Rabbit

Eyes: Spirt River Real-Eyes Plus 7/32″ Nickel Pearl

Head: STS Trilobal Dub Red- tied with a dubbing loop and teased out

Flash: Flashabou Holographic Blue- 6 strands

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Preparation H

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

As the name so eloquently implies, this pattern has a bit of an irritated rear. This flyis fished exactly as you would a mouse. Shorts, erratic strips with slight pauses. Easy to tie and quite durably, the foam helps keep the pattern afloat when it becomes a little water logged.  It addition to increased boyancy, the foam also aids in keeping the hook angle ideally positioned to hook trout exploding on this fly.

Hook: size 2-4 straight eye salmon hook Daiichi 2151

Thread: Tan 6/0

Body: Spun natural deer body hair trimmed to shape

Butt: Orange Krystal Glo Ball

Head: Tan foam

Legs: Grizzly barred tan rubber legs

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The Gray Wulff

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Here is a video from theweeklyfly.com with Bob Jacklin tying the Gray Wulff. The Gray Wulff is a great pattern for rainbow trout, Arctic char and grayling in the waters we fish. Very bouyant and durable, this famous Wulff pattern is as effective today as it was decades ago.
 
The Gray Wulff

Roy Beaman of Napa, Ca with a nice July rainbow caught on a Gray Wulff

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Articulated Heavy Weight

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

This fly, as the name implies, has a bit of weight on the front. The big cone and articulation gives it a great deal of movement and it fishes extremely well out of a raft in faster water. Short casts coupled with strip-1 second pause-strip-1 second pause-strip, will pull big trout and char out from the banks and from in front of the rocks. This pattern can also be tied in olive, white and natural rabbit strip.

Hook: Gamakatsu C14s size 2.  The fly is tied on any standard streamer hook with the hook bend cut off. Attach the cut front hook to the stinger hook with 30lb backing material.

Thread: Black 8/0

Tail: Black magnum rabbit strip with the tip of the tail tied to the hook. Grizzly hackle, 1 on each side.

Collar: Palmered black rabbit strip followed by black UV ice dub

Throat: Red flashabou

Head: 3/8 oz Nickel cross-eyed cone

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Little Green Stonefly

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

This is a good early season pattern for rainbow trout and a great pattern for grayling all summer long. Little green stones will hatch throughout the season in variable numbers depending upon altitude and river substrate. Normally they are more abundant during the late spring and early summer, however I’ve seen them coming off the water in February during mid-winter warm ups. Tie up a few as occasionally trout will key in specifically to this vibrantly colored pattern.

Hook: Standard dry fly hook sz. 12

Thread:  Chartreuse 8/0

Tail: Chartreuse super hair

Wing:Underwing Cream sheer wing  Overwing Chartreuse super hair

Body: Light green or chartreuse floss

Hackle: Grizzly dyed chartreuse

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Welcome to AFA’s BLOG & Drunken Humpy/Double Foam Humpy

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

 Well here is the first post of our new BLOG. We will attempt to run the gammut here on content with posts on fishing techniques, fly patterns, trip updates, travel articles, videos, images, photographic how-to, local happenings  and anything else which comes to mind at the time of posting. As many anglers fish more localities than here in Alaska we will include posts on strategies and flies which can also be utilized on your home waters and beyond. Feel free to email ( hohljohn@yahoo.com ) and suggest topics which you like to see posted here or offer your suggestions or comments.

Drunken Humpy

 This is a great searching dry fly pattern here in Alaska. It also is a “go to” pattern when rainbows seem to refuse even the most exact hatch matching pattern. We’ve had fish refuse perfectly presented, beautiful flies  only to move 4 feet to pummel this big, gaudy pattern in one drift. It is fairly easy to tie and has fished well in many localities outside of Alaska, including Patagonia and New Zealand.

Hook:   2X long dry fly hook sz. 6

Thread: Black 8/0

Tail: Natural deer body hair

Body: Black foam pulled over Black UV Ice Dub

Hackle: Grizzly

Posts: White calf tail

Legs: Black rubber legs

  

 

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