Never quite satisfied by what works, and always succumbing to base instincts, artistic flair, and some esoteric material ill suited for whatever you should be tying.

I had a live sample for the #20 Blue Wing Olives, complements of the Trout Undergrounds precise photography. Modified to give me more to see, as old eyes and tiny dries are not a good match.

I needed some standard searching patterns for the traditional midday grind, simple nymphs to replace those left imbedded in brownline shrubbery; Olive AP nymphs in size 14, and some Hare’s Ear’s in size 12.

Not having to give them all away is a first, normally all the fishing pals show up at my door with their hand out. No matter how many I tie up I am left with two after the feeding frenzy.

Until all of the sewage and wastewater effluent is washed off the waders it’s best I fish alone. I figure the fish downstream will be too busy complaining to notice the hook until it’s too late.

October Caddis in case they’re needed, if not these will make a nice carp fly, heavy wire hook and ribbed with Angelina to add a dab of flash.

I tied some Elk Hair Caddis which always receive a warm welcome, and added some #18 Pale Morning Duns to give me something visible and a color change. With the odd scraps already in my fly box, it will give me added versatility, and should any prove tasty, I have a dozen or more of every pattern.

The Pale Olive Paraduns were spared my fiddling with the recipe, in large part because in my youth I had to tie 200-300 dozen of them per year. It’s quite possible I was asleep when I tied these, as were the only pattern that escaped augmentation.

I managed to repair the significant holes in my fly box for this weekends expedition, I carry so few flies that I am quite practiced at forcefeeding something to a trout. In a pinch – that’s why God made rocks. 

Domestic bliss shattered by my failure to iron shirts, but as it was for  Science, it’s a worthy martyrdom.

Angelina fibers are available in a heat fusible flavor,  insert a pinch of fibers into a paper napkin, pass an iron over them a couple times and the of fibers fuse flatly to each other, yielding a “Tyvek” style mesh cloth.

This fabric is only as strong as the volume of fibers used and the degree of their overlap. Additional experimentation is required to find the best pattern to melt; parallel fibers, cross-hatched, further testing is needed to  determine what proves strongest.

One look at the result and about 75 different uses pop into your head, so allocate some time to fiddle.

Mayfly wings was the first thing I saw – the opalescent hue looks just like a shiny spinner wing. I trimmed a set for a #18 hook and managed to secure it without too much trouble. They are light and flexible wings – they will bend in flight rather than remain rigid and “helicopter” the tippet.

The photo shows what happened after I gave it a good yank. The direction of the original fibers when fused will have to be tinkered with so they don’t tear out. A #18 hook doesn’t give much area to tie down, the wing frayed badly when abused.

The intact wing shows the effect of the fabric trimmed to a shape, I folded the material and cut both wings at the same time, leaving a narrow adjoining section to tie to the hook. That was my mistake, as the narrow “neck” between the wings did not have many fibers secured. When pulled, the wing slowly fragmented into oblivion. Visually it’s a nice wing effect, but durability requires us to test further.

My next attempt was to roll up some fabric into a cigar shape then trim to the proper length once attached – exactly as a polypropylene yarn spinner is tied. I figured more fibers would be secured in the small tie down area and the wing should hold together much better.

The result is depicted above, after I mauled them badly trying to pull them apart. The fibers separated a little bit but that was the only evidence of damage. Like all good flies the more it’s eaten – the better it looks.

The above pattern is what we used on Fall River and Hat Creek for the Trico spinner falls, when the solid black flavor didn’t yield any fish we switched to this variant – it went by many names, mostly we called it a “female Trico.”

Now I just call it “too damn small for me to see” – along with every other fly smaller than an #8.. I will debut these this weekend on the foam line just for the fun of it – assuming I get out of the Doghouse by then.

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