New materials.

 Today i donned the usual viking outfit (yes, there is one) and went down to the local yearly mediveal market to have a few beers with a mate, play some games and have a look around.
As usual i was on the lookout for flytying materials, there's always an abundance of feathers and furs to be found in those markets and way below fishing store prices.

I payed in total 200 swedish crowns or about 20 euro for all of this.
One big piece of dark red/purple fox that turns black at the tips.
One fairly large piece of blue/black racoon.
One very dark purple whole rabbit skin.
One lepard dyed whole rabbit skin.
A whole peacock sword.

The sword is neatly cut into bits to fit my tying box.
As you know it's a versitile material used for tags, nymph bodies, dryfly torsos and also goes in classic flies like the Sunrays Shadow among other things.

Rabbit is another material i really like.
It makes a great wing for streamers and has a way to almost vibrate in the current.
To strong of a current and it will collapse though.
It still makes a good swung fly and is excellent fished in still water.
The hair also makes an excellent dubbing for nymphs.

I like those moment when you buy those odd materials in an odd place and the salesman wonder what it's for and you reply with "fly tying".
That usually sparks some conversations.

Feathers and furs.

Rabbit zonker sculpin for seatrout or large browns.

Hairwinged salmon fly quickly named "Nightmare".
Peacock tag, silver body with thick silver rib,
black rooster, fox and racoon wing and guinnea fowl hackle.

I like adding a bit of  a silver body to my salmon flies, i have a theory that states that a swung fly should in some circumstances have a bit of material that gives a bit of reflection to catch the attention of the fish.
Not that i fish for salmon and seatrout a lot but they are fun flies to tie.

Flyswap update.

I've been thinking for a while about the fly-swap i'm in atm.
I realised that i find Crazy Charlie and the Purple Zonker to both be streamers and for that reason i've swapped the CC for a no-name wetfly with more of a classical look.

So this is what i'm entering in with on the wet fly!

I'm not in any ways claiming to know classical tying but still,i thought i'd give it a try and thought up a simple pattern.

Partridge,Peacock,Blue rooster hackle, silver tinsel,silver wire and silver braid, yellow rooster cape,black rooster hackle and pheasant tippet feather.

Not the fanciest materials and as you notice i don't have the trademark jungle cock that marks many classic wet flies.

Worldwide Flyswap.

So Troutpassion is running a Worldwide Flyswap.

They've been kind enough to include me and i'll be tying 4x10 flies.

I'll be joining in with

Streamer: Purple Zonker
Dry: Lovéus lilla svarta

Nymph: Orange Attacker
Wet: No name Classic Wet

A couple of them are my own patterns (the dry and nymph) and while they all might sound extreme they have all been tested to great success on browns,grayling and rainbow trout as well as perch.

The sort of patterns you go to when the natural ones fails.

Stay tuned for pictures of the flies. 

The Streamer: Purple bunny zonker

The wet fly. A no-name classic style wet fly.

The Nymph. The Orange Attacker

The dry fly: Lovéus lilla svarta, a small midge or mosqito pattern.

I've come to realise that i, knowing or unknowing, picked some of the simplest patterns in my flybox for this swap.
Might be a good thing since i have to tie 40 flies (well, 36 as i don't have to tie for myself).
I don't really think any of them are prize winners or flies you would exhibit but they are nice effective patterns.
And as mentioned,they are all tied very quickly, you can easily fill up a box with these sorts of flies in an evening or two.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the others will contribute, so far only Flies over Nebraska have posted any pics.
I like his flies, a bit more on the experimental side, provocative patterns.

Gotta have both,natural and more imaginative.