April 2019 Meeting

Southern Oregon Fly Tyers

Meeting on Tuesday, March 12, 2019

6:00 PM

8401 Old Stage Road, Gold Hill

JOHN MATTHEWS DEMONSTRATING SALMON FLY PATTERNS FOR APRIL MEETING

The Salmon Fly hatch may be a little later this year, but is on its way! Get ready for it. John Matthews has a lifetime of experience tying flies. He started tying when he was 12 years old, and hasn’t stopped. He has presented for SOFT a few times in the past, and it has always been extremely informative and entertaining. When he was working with Spirit River, he used to bring materials for donations or sale cheap. Years ago I was buying a huge tangle of black rubber leg ribbons from him for the fly tying class at SOFF, and when he learned that, he just gave them to me. In helping with the class this year, I noticed we were still using that material! He is a real supporter of fly tying and fishing. You will enjoy his enthusiasm and the program. If there are differences in these details and John’s tying, they are due to the fact that I (Ed Morphis) took down the info from our phone conversation.

The two patterns John will be tying are quite similar. They are the Sofa Pillow and the Stimulator. The materials for both are basically the same with just one difference I am aware of, and that is in the front hackles. Here is the list of materials:

            Tail: very black moose body hair, to simulate egg sack

            Body: orange to gold color yarn, dubbing or CT Fiber (this last does not absorb water)

            Body hackle: palmered brown or furnace saddle (you will like the way John ties this)

            Wing: cow elk or deer body (before thorax and front hackle)

            Front hackle: same for Sofa Pillow, grizzly for Stimulator 

            I did not think to ask John if there might be a difference in color of thorax.

            

DAN KELLOGG IS PLANNING THE TECH TABLE ALSO

He is planning to show us a large choice of feathers and their characteristics that can be used to tie soft hackle flies.

Don’t miss this meeting!

March 2019 Meeting

Southern Oregon Fly Tyers

Meeting on Tuesday, March 12, 2019

6:00 PM

8401 Old Stage Road, Gold Hill

Jim Eriser will be our demonstration tier for March.

B.C, chironimid bomber

Hook - saber 7018 klinkhammer size 8 to 16

Bead - white brass, taper drilled, size to hook

Thread - Uni 6/0 in black or red. This is the body.

Wire - UTC ultra wire. Small or brassie. Black, silver, white, red, gold.

Fly finish - Coat entire body with sally hanson's hard as nails.

Doc's Damsel

Hook - saber 7031 nymph hook (2x long, 1x hvy wire). Size 10,12, 14.

Weight - lead wire in .020 or .025.

Trailing shuck - Henry Hoffman chickabou in every color. Add 2 strands of Hareline krystal flash in the shuck, grey ghost or pearl.

Body - J. Fair short shuck in every color you can find.

Head - Thread, finish to 70%, then tye in 2 strands of krystal flash wings, whip finish, coat head with cement.

Maxine McCormick

You have to see this video.  Click the link.

Maxine McCormick

Two Items, Read Both

Item One

This year the donations for prizes and raffles have greatly diminished with businesses citing changes in the tax code.  We can help.  We need at least a dozen people to tie a minimum of 6 flies that we will put in SOFT fly boxes.  This needs to be done soon.  Contact Dave McCants 541 973 3508 or Tom Collett 541 531 8501 when they are ready.
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Item Two

It has become increasingly clear that Dave McCants cannot continue carrying the load on everything he has been trying to do for SOFT.  The February meeting got all out of whack because of guest tier illness and Dave had to fill in once again.  Dave has too many irons in the fire to be able to do it all.  We need to pitch in and help out.  Here is my suggestion for a better organization.

Dave McCants--"President"--The Organizer in Chief.

A Volunteer, this could be you--take charge of the projector, camera, and screen and bring them to every meeting.

Nine Guest Tiers--September through May.

A Volunteer, this could be you--a backup guest tier that could step in at the last minute in case of illness or other emergency.

Tom Corbiere--Raffle and Fly Boxes.

Dale Heath--Coffee, Cookies

A Volunteer, this could be you--a list keeper, sort of like a member list.  This would be a list of people who might be interested in what we do.  Keep this list up to date and available to those of us who need it to keep thing going.  Dave continually has problems contacting the demo tiers.  

Tom Collett--The Blogger and Instagrammer.

Michael Mazingo--YouTube

These are my thoughts, so lets hear yours at the next meeting.  Tom Collett

January 2019 Meeting

Southern Oregon Fly Tyers

Meeting on Tuesday, January 8, 2019

6:00 PM

8401 Old Stage Road, Gold Hill

Bill Logan will be our demonstration tier for January.  If you don't know Bill, here is what he says about himself.  

"I learned to tie flies and cast a fly rod from a family friend in 1960.  The flies were simple "bugger" styles for Bass, Crappie, and Bluegills.  Fly tying was kept as a "big secret" and there were no videos, no U-Tube, and very few books.  Herters was the only good supplier for materials.

In 1968 I tied flies for a general sporting goods store in Flagstaff  and the store on Woods Canyon Lake while  attending NAU.  Good source for beer money.

I moved to Roseburg in 1971 and tied Steelhead flies for Blacks Fly Shop for the next 3 summers.

I also did some flies for Cascade Tackle in Roseburg and Umpqua Feather Merchants in Glide.

When Joe Howell converted his garage to a shop I tied for him.  Joe eventually moved to Idleyld Park and created The Blue Heron Fly Shop.  I tied most of his Steelhead flies until the shop closed.

Since 2000 I have had the opportunity to instruct in 3 overseas factories in countries I would have probably never visited otherwise so the trips were more of a "world tour" for me."

I will probably do 2 "warm up" flies at the beginning of the presentation.  I think that technique and material handling is more important than actual patterns.

The Rogue Polar Shrimp will be tied using the "reverse wing" method with a "twist".

ROGUE POLAR SHRIMP

hook:  any good quality steelhead hook will work

thread: hot orange

tail (optional): red hackle fibers

underbody: flat silver mylar

body: hot orange Edge Bright

hackle: hot orange

wing: white polar bear, bucktail, calf tail, fox

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Callibaetis nymphs are a medium brown but for some strange reason the grey pattern works well (but so does the brown).

Callibaetis (grey)

hook:  TMC 2488/DaiRiki 125 #12

bead: 1.5 mm silver

lead wire (optional): .010" lead

tail and legs: Teal or Mallard

body: grey 6/0 thread

rib: fine silver wire

wingcase: .5 mm grey foam

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December 2018 Meeting Revisited

Southern Oregon Fly Tyers

Meeting on Tuesday, December 11, 2018

6:00 PM

8401 Old Stage Road, Gold Hill

The Brazilian is a clean design summer steelhead fly from Tom Larimer. It looks good and is simple to tie. Tom says it is a consistent producer on the Clearwater.

Directions:

Start thread and tie down the back of return wire, laying a base of thread to just short of point of hook. Prepare a natural golden pheasant shoulder/breast feather (golden red) or a dyed red golden pheasant rump feather, by trimming out the stem down from the tip. This forms a “v” in the feather. Clean sides of the feather of shorter barbs and place it concave down on the shank for a tail. Make two loose wraps on the quill next to the barbs, and over the hook point. Folding the feather and lifting it with the left hand, pull the feather forward with the right until the tail extends to or just beyond the bend, and tie down. Tie in rib wire and secure. Form a dubbing loop about 5-6 inches in length, placing dubbing in it, spinning it until you have it in the form to make light spikey body, and wrap the body. Tie off, leaving approximately two head spaces. Wind the wire to form five ribs, tie off and trim.

Stack hair for the wing and place it, extending to about midway of the tail. (I normally trim the wing before tying it in.)  Tie in the wing with about 5 tight wraps (2-3 thread widths) and place a drop of head cement on the hair ends, continue securing the wing. Secure 4 strands of Krystal Flash in front of wing tie-in, pulling them back on either side of wing, trim to length of wing and tie them in place.

Prepare the guinea feather and tie in by tip where the wing is tied. Fold feather barbs and groom them back as you wrap the collar, ending just forward of the wing tie-in.  If stem is thin enough, wrap the bare stem 1-2 times around the shank under the head and form a head that pleases you. Finish. 

Materials    

Hook: AJ or other steelhead  5

Thread:6/0 black        

Tail:Golden pheasant rump dyed red                                                

Rib:Wine colored wire                 

Body:Claret STS trilobal dub                                           

Wing:Arctic fox dyed black                                                                

Wing flash: Copper Krystal Flash                    

Tied by Ed Morphis
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GREEN BUTT PURPLE

I love tying simple clean design flies. Tying flies is just about as close as I get to fishing anymore, so I haven’t proven the effectiveness of this fly myself, but it is well attested. Also, it has two traditional steelhead attractor colors, chartreuse and purple. The pattern was developed by Tom Larimer.

Here is how I tie it. Start by laying down a base of thread from headspace to the halfway point of the shank, secure the end of the tensile underneath at that point. At the same point, tie in the chartreuse floss and form the abdomen by wrapping back to just shy of the hook point (keeping tensile under shank), then forward to the tie in point. I tie the fly on a nickel hook, so the chartreuse does not need a base. If I were to tie it on a black hook, I would want a base of white thread under it. 

After tying off the floss, form a dubbing loop about three inches long and place the rough dubbing into it, twisting it to form the dubbing as I want it, then wrap the front half of the body fairly full. I don’t need to pick it out, but you may want to. Groom the dubbing away from the back half of the body and wrap the tensile to front of the dubbing. Tie in a sparse wing with tip ending just ahead of the bend, and before wrapping fully, use a drop of head cement. Tie in a few sparse strands of angel hair on either side of wing and trim to length. Tie in by tip a purple guinea feather, fold and wrap to just beyond wing tie in. If feather shaft is small enough, flatten with thumbnail and wrap 1-2 times around hook under head. Form a head that suits and finish.

Ed Morphis

Tied by Ed Morphis

November 2018 Meeting

Southern Oregon Fly Tyers

Meeting on Tuesday, November 13, 2018

6:00 PM

8401 Old Stage Road, Gold Hill

Traditional Steelhead Flies ties with Ed Hass traditional winging method.  I will tie a Jim Pray Thor (first fly I caught a steelhead on in the Trinity River inCA ).  Then McBear’s Walnut Creek Special ( recently successfully used by Joe Knapick on lower river) and then a McBear’s Purple Walnut Creek Special. 

Thor: 

Hook: TMC 7989 or 7999 size 8-4,

Thread: Uni 8/0 black, 

Tail: Orange dyed Indian hackle,

Wing: Polar Bear Hair or white calf tail,

Body: Red medium chenille,

Hackle: Furnace softhackle, 5 turns,

Head: Black uni thread and 4 coats of varnish.

McBears Walnut Creek Special:

Hook: as above,

Thread: as above,

Tail: Red dyed Indian Hackle,

Wing: as above,

Body: Orange medium chennile,

Hackle: Light brown softhackle, 

Head: uni black thread with 5 coats of head cement.

McBears Purple Walnut Creek Special:

All as above except tail and Hackle are grizzly soft hackle and body is medium purple or claret chennile.

Please also ask the members for a list of tiers they would like to see.  Many members know who the excellent tiers in this are, however being new to the area I don’t know all these people. Just names from members would be a big help ( like who are the OR tiers of the year in southern Oregon. Thanks, Dave McCants