Week 1.6 of Fly Tying

Hello guys and gals.  Welcome back to the blog!

    This past week I ended up letting mother nature decide what my next step of this process would be.  If it were to warm up and melt the ice, I was going to test out my flies on the water.  If it remained cold, as it did, I planned on staying home and watching some more videos on different variations of flies. 

    So far I have really been keeping my focus on flies that will catch fish more so on the Western side of the state, such as trout.  Recently, I have been learning how to create flies for fish more native to our side of the state.  The main fish that would be targeted with these new flies would be Crappie.  As mentioned in my previous blog, I want to explore flies that will sink into the water rather than float on the surface.  These Crappie flies, which are more of a jig/fly cross, will sink to the bottom so you are able to reach the proper depth of the fish.  You start a lead headed jig for the base of the fly.  Then, much like what I have been doing, you can tie in basically whatever you want.  From the videos I watched, it seems like most people stick to the really bright and vibrant colors.  This includes colors like bright green, orange, yellow, and a lot of materials that sparkle.  I'm not really sure why the Crappie prefer this but it obviously works so I won't question it. 

    Since I have obtained, what I feel, is a very solid foundation for tying small trout flies, I think I will continue this new approach of finding new ones to tie.  This journey has been very fun and I think it is important for me to continue exploring in it.  If I really wanted to, I could probably stop now and be satisfied with what I have, but that is not something I want to do.  My hope by the end of this process is to have a wide range of knowledge for this profession that maybe one day I could share with others.  Stay tuned!