Autumn On The EB

Autumn On The EB

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Sharpies Work


"Midge feeders are notoriously hard nuts to crack. A popular fly pattern is the simple Griffith's Gnat.
This fly is simply a palmered version of the venerable Grey Hackle - a peacock herl body with a grizzly hackle wound palmer style through the herl. Apart from being a great all around pattern, in
small sizes the Griffith's Gnat has proven to work on very difficult trout during a midge hatch."  - Bob Wyatt, What Trout Want




I love Sharpies because they give me the color that I want and they do a good job of getting rid of the color that I don't want. Even though I go through many full partridge skins a year tying those venerable soft hackles I will always run short of the correct size in the full color that I want. A good example are the beautiful brown toned feathers, always in the size 12 to 14 range that have that annoying light tan stripe running along the stem.  Maybe the trout don't care but I do - I hate that stripe!! The photo above shows two of them. My remedy is this: pull a feather from the skin and run a brown sharpie down the stem.
The next photo shows one of the feathers WITH NO TAN STRIPE!!! This color resists water and will last a long time until you put the fly in a tree or give it to a trout.
As you see, the pictured fly has no tan mass near its thorax which you would have if you didn't color it and now you will have more hackles that are usable. In fact, you can take a light grey hackle and color it any color you want and it will work fine. (Note - sorry for the fat head on that SH. I think my fingers are cold!!)

Sharpies spruce up streamer patterns by giving you lateral lines and parr markings which have been neglected for decades on most baitfish pattern.


Today we get a blizzard and the next two days may be the coldest of the season. Maybe more snow early next week but a warming trend sets in and let's hope it lasts. We need to fish!!!!!

Ken











8 comments:

Hibernation said...

Ken
Happy New Year - and stay safe in the "Megadeath, certain doom, Todo will be blown past in a bike basket with Dorothy level snow storm" today :)

So true on sharpies. A sneaky awesome use for them is thread. Just use white thread, start the fly, then color 2-3" sections of thread as desired. Works awesome!

Love your thunder creek - those things are awesome :)

And, a super positive... Once we get through Sunday, looks like a touch of february - with daily high's in the mid to upper thirties. Shorts and T shirt weather comparably... It actually looks like maple syrup weather!

Be well
Will

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Will,

Happy New Year to you too!!!

YES, use sharpies on thread! It makes life simple!!

We have a month until the early sap lines go out - hopefully!

Ken

Anonymous said...

I live in downeast maine...I cant fly-fish until april 1st....woe is me...
but luckily I live by a pristine, clear-water 47 foot deep lake that has some surprisingly large salmon and large brook trout...and shiners are under 4 bucks a dozen, wish me luck....

Dave

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Anonymous 10:06

Hope your auger is working well!!

Ken

Anonymous said...

Ken,

Good work on that partridge feather. I myself like a darker feather. Thanks for the tip!

Brian P.

Anonymous said...

Ken,

All I can say is wow! When my son is home from NYC in the spring we are definitely going to do a day!Too bad it's a blizzard out there! Thanks,Chet

Anonymous said...

Sharpies work good on White Wulffs too.

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Anonymous 4:07,

I tie my Wulffs with snowshoe instead of calf tail and I also color the wings with a sharpie. Someone told me once that coloring the wing would damage the float qualities of the fly. NO WAY!!!!!

Ken