I’ll be at the Caddis Fly Shop on December 10th to present a tutorial on the basic approach to tying traditional style flies on tubes. By traditional flies I’m referring to patterns like the Polar Shrimp, Green Butt Skunk, and Thor.
Here are three traditional winter steelhead patterns that I tied on tubes – examples of the flies I will be tying at the shop on December 10th.
These three fly patterns are time-tested and proven effective when fished for winter fish under a wide variety of conditions across steelhead territory. Many tyers remain insecure, confused, or otherwise deterred from tying on tubes. This tutorial session will show how simple it can be to tie steelhead-catching flies on tubes with a minimum ecnomic investment and minimum of confusion too.
I will set aside some time throughout the day to show you the entire variey of tube fly tying products that we carry at the shop, and this is a very extensive array of tubes, weights, hook guides, junction tube, cones, disks and so forth. The most important concept I’d like to convey is the fact that the basic components of tube flies are very simple and the flies I’ll show off require only a tube, a mandrel to hold the tube, one weight, and one cone to cover the thread at the head of the fly (plus adding a little motion and weight).
This is just how simple it can be to tie traditional steelhead flies on tubes. This photo shows the mandrel to hold the tube, a tube that includes a hook holder, two versions of tube weights, and two colors of cones to finish the head of the fly. Yes, it can be this simple.
I will tie using only the items pictured here, namely a flexi needle, a flexitube, a tungsten raw weight, a flexiweight, and an ultra sonic disk. Of course I’ll also use feathers, thread, body material, but the point I want to emphasize here is that the few items I’ve mentioned here are the basics needed to tie a great winter steelhead fly on a tube.
Mark your calendar for December 10th from 11 to 3, because I’ll be at the Shop to help any aspiring tube fly tyers who are able to join me.
Of course I’ll also be prepared to tie a Possum Leech and an Intruder on a tube, but first priority will be placed on de-mystifying and simplifying the process of tying on tubes.
I hope you can join me!
Jay Nicholas
