Fly Fish Ohio gets a surprising amount of
reader mail. Every week the inbox sees a dozen or so notes, many of
them are to let us know that a technique or fly we've posted has hit the
proverbial nail on the head in a creek or pond distant or nearby.
Every now and then we get ideas for new articles and flies and once in a
while we get emails with neat new patterns attached, like this one from
reader David Clunk of Ada, Michigan. When a fly looks as good as the
IcyHot we just have to show it off. David wrote:
Joe,
Glad you liked the flies. Not too bad for a displaced Ohio boy. ( Moved
up here
15 years ago, but I'm still a Buckeye at heart. )
The IcyHot fly is very simple to tie & can be used for a variety of
fish. My main
target for this one is Trout, but I'm sure Panfish would nail it as
well. I had ordered
a special box of tying supplies from Fly Tyers Dungeon right before last
Christmas &
the H20 Twist was in the box. So I played around at the vise one night &
built this fly.
The color & flash in this material will sparkle under the surface. I use
this as the
dropper fly with maybe a Stimulator on the surface, or add a split shot
several inches
above the fly, along with a small bobber on the leader & take home a
sack of Bluegill.
IcyHot
-DaiRiki 3135 Size 10 Scud hook
-Fly Tyers Dungeon H2O Twist (Flash material)
-Peacock Ice Dubbing
-White Marabou
-White 6/0 thread or Clear mono thread (either works) The fly in the
picture used the Mono Thread
With hook in Vise, start
thread at the eye, cover w/thread back to however far you'd prefer (I
cover with light coat of head cement). Grasp 4-5 strands of H20
Twist & tie in with the long end forward (toward the eye) to make the
tail. Tail can be maybe 1/4" to 3/8" long depending on hook size, or
preference. Bring thread up toward eye, & make several half hitches.
Take all the strands of the H20 twist in your hackle pliers & begin to
twist a rope. Once the rope is fairly tight begin to wrap around shank
tightly, stop the rope so that the eye is not crowded & that there is
enough room for the Marabou & Dubbing. Tie off the Twist.
Take a Marabou
feather & gather it close to the end to form a "wing". (The feather can
be used for multiple flies. No need to waste a full feather on just one
little fly.) Tie in the feather to extend over the back of the fly &
trim off excess. Touch the thread lightly with dubbing wax, or don't
it's tyers/user preference. Add Peacock Dubbing & dub small head. Whip
finish & add head cement. The second to last step is optional, but I do
it to make it last a little longer & be more durable. Keep the fly in
the vise, pull feather forward & cover the Twist body with Head Cement.
Release the feather carefully so not to glue feather to fly body. Once
the cement is dry I use a Dubbing brush or Velcro on a short pencil to
tease out Dubbing for legs, etc. Fish on a drift, or maybe with a little
twitching motion to instill some action.
If you have a fly or
story that you'd like to share, we'd love to publish it! Right at
the bottom of every page is a link to send email to the Webmaster.
Go ahead and send us your best, we'll do what we can to splash some
Internet ink your way. Keep in mind that Fly Fish Ohio isn't a big
corporation with a marketing department and customer service center.
We're just a couple of fishermen, like you, who work hard to share what we
see and what we learn. Sometimes it takes us a while to respond to
inquiries, but rest assured we read them all. Many thanks to David
for sharing this killer pattern!
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