Happy New Year Post

Hook:  Mustad 33903 Size 2

Tail:  Spirit River Mottlebou (Brown)

Body:  Homemade Airhose Dubbing <see below>

Eyes:  Aluminum Sea Eyes/Spirit River Holographic Eyes

Weed Guard:  30# Nylon

This is my first attempt of tying something fishable for a long while.  My apologies for the roughness of this one.  To be honest I am not wild about the color scheme and the head portion the fly in the picture, but not bad for a first attempt.  The fishy elements are sure there...

Last year I caught my largest fish on something I made just like this, but in a larger size.  Had the homemade dubbing and large Sea Eyes.  The large size made it hard to cast....I am hoping this smaller size will be friendlier to cast.

I have been watching a videos from Missouriflies on YouTube over the holidays.  He really ties some nice patterns that catch fish.  Take the dubbing above, it is made out of various yarn colors blended in a container with an air hose.  Here is Missouriflies video on how to make your own dubbing:

As you can see, you can create some super buggy stuff in minutes.  The pattern above is a blend of brown, red and black yarn from Walmart.  My kids and I made bags of long(er) dubbing in an hour, it was fun to do!  Sky is the limit here...color, fiber length etc.

The other element I love is the weed guard.  His are much better than mine, but with practice mine should get more refined.  Here is Missouriflies showing how it is done:

The use of the Mustad 33903 Kink Shank hook comes from Joe Cornwall at Fly Fish Ohio.  The kink is a perfect place to park eyes and leave enough room for a head - especially if you incorporate the weed guard.  I could have wrapped the dubbing further up past the eyes and still had room to anchor and finish a guard.  If you don't have any 33903 hooks they are worth picking up for weight forward flies (like Clousers).  See below from Joe Cornwall:

Thanks again to Missouriflies and Joe Cornwall for posting all of the information and inspiration.  Missouriflies sells flies on his website if you feel like supporting his efforts.  Visit Fly Fish Ohio for more information on fly fishing and fly tying.

Happy New Year everyone!