My Peacock Bugger
I was going through my fly fishing books a year ago and pulled out a copy of an 1988 addition of The Art Of The Trout Fly by Judith Dunham. I wanted to read more about the great E.H."Polly" Rosborough and his Fuzzy Nymphs. I got more than I bargained for!!!!!
Polly's Flies
Take a look at the flies that you see to the right. Yes, there's 32+ year old bugger with a PEACOCK BODY!!!!! Polly called it a Black and Bronze Wooley Worm for the record but it's a WB all the same.
I don't feel too bad about being upstaged by Polly. He was a genius and a fly tying hero of mine.
BTW, do you like the looks of the other two flies that are shown? They are great trout flies of Polly's and I'll give the recipes on the next post.
The Stocking Report
You should have noticed by now but sometime in the middle of last week the DFW listed waters that have been stocked but not the date that the waters were stocked. This is, no doubt, to cut down on social crowding during this time of plague and that's a good thing. Now, I would mention when a certain stream that I cover was stocked but I never really liked it. Word of mouth worked fine and just chancing it worked better. I would prefer no reports at all. It will keep the crowds down!!! Let's face it, fly fishing doesn't really start until after the stocking ends.
Guiding
Even with so many people not working I can still find lonesome areas to fish. Contact me for April, May and June.
Ken
11 comments:
Ken -
Absolutely on the buggers. It's either Peacock or dubbings for me... Actually, I may prefer peacock dubbing which can be brushed out after the fly is finished so the hackle and dubbing sort of make a fuzzy mess.
The peacock, you may do this, but if not, twist it around your tying thread before palmering the body of the fly. It adds durability for sure.
Keep enjoying the outside, a rods length from others :)
Will
Will,
I love your comments, always spot on and left with something to ponder. I wrap very fine copper wire over the peacock because peacock is so fragile. It works for me. Keep up with the comments!!!
Ken
+1 on peacock dubbing. Comes in various shades and really is tough to beat for a WBugger body.
Ken and everyone -
Are you putting much lead underneath. Or prefer sink tip line? I never tied them that way, but plan to tie up afew! jr
Thanks for your posts, Ken. They lift my spirits.
Sam
Sam,
You're welcome!
Stoneflyjack,
I use lead free wire or a bead on occasion. I've been using micro shot a lot.
Ken
Stoneflyjack - Occasionally Ill double up and use tungsten wire... But mostly Ill use bronze, olive or brass beads. Even my small stream buggers, I tie them on a #12 dry fly hook thats slightly long of shank... I put a brass bead on those.
If I do the weighted underbody, I put on a bead, slide it to the eye. Drop a few specs of super glue on the shank then wrap on the amount of weighted wire ill be using, and immediately slide it up the shank so it pushes the bead up and seats it. The glue will very shortly (seconds) dry and set, and it will secure both the weight and the bead in one swoop.
I dont do that much on buggers though. I just really like the look of the bead on them, so I tend to tie them that way.
Thanks Ken, appreciate that. And back to you, thanks for sharing so much about these awesome rivers!
Or before it begins!
Apparently, being on furlough means going to every stocking point and loading up. Instead, today I spent an hour in the blue lines of the upper Ware River watershed and found plenty of 6-nch native brookies to hit my white bead-head nymph. Did not see another human.
The dyed peacock is very cool for the bugger bodies. They don’t look much different in the bag but they give off very nice hues when tied up.
Charles,
That's the way to do it.
BrianF,
People used more peacock years ago and it has sadly been replaced by ice glow shimmer shit that is a product of the oil industry. Natural materials win all of the time and just look better.
Ken
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