Alexandra (Streamer)

I am sure you've seen a few variations of the famous Alexandra pattern adorned with a heavy peacock sword.  But have you ever seen the Alexandra streamer?   This pattern was adapted from the famous English pattern around 1929 by  Frier Guilline in Montreal, Canada, and described as "One the best flies for trout and bass in Canada."  Frankly, it is one of the best streamers patterns period.  Anyone that ties flies knows the magic of peacock, but so few know the hypnotic movement of herl in the water as a wing.  Couple this two attributes and you have one heck of a streamer pattern!

There are a coupe of patterns that utilize peacock herl for the entire wing.  Most have taken a back seat to time and advancements in tying materials. However, the most recognized and still in use today are variations of the Beauly Snow Fly (noted Atlantic salmon pattern), especially in the Pacific Northwest, where tiers have taken steelhead flies to a whole new level. 

You may wish to tie the Demon streamer, too.  The pattern itself is obscure to history.  It is nearly identical to the Alexandra except the tail is red wool vice slips of goose or swan and utilizes light blue hackle for the throat hackle vice black.

Tying Notes:

(1)  The wing can be as thin or thick as desired.  I find approximately 40 to 50 herls perfect for a proportionate wing
(2)  The wing is much easier than it appears. The pattern calls for green (not bronze) fine herl and selecting/aligning those herls directly on the eye stem saves a lot of time of tying this pattern.
(3)  I have substituted the medium embossed tinsel with flat silver as well as the hackle.  Pictured below is an example of rabbit spun in a dubbing loop for the throat.  This provides additional movement in the water.
(4)  Tie the wing a little longer than normal.  This will allow the fibers to breath better in the water.

Materials

Hook:  4XL to 10XL , Sizes 2 to 8 (Pictured is a TMC 9395 Size 4)
Thread:  UTC 70, Black
Tail:  Red goose or swan.  Fairly thin and slightly long.  Tip down.
Body:  Medium embossed silver tinsel
Ribbing:  Medium oval, silver tinsel
Throat:  Black hackle tied in as a collar then separated evenly and pulled down.
Wing:  Green fine peacock herl.

Black Nose Dace

The late Art Flick, a Catskill legend, is credited with devising the Black Nose Dace.   While his pattern was tied to imitate the Eastern black nose dace many anglers, including myself, find his pattern works well in any waters containing different species of dace and roach.  Even if your waters lack these species, the Black Nose Dace is an excellent all around baitfish pattern to offer fish!

The original pattern called for polar bear (white) or bucktail under skunk or black bear under brown bucktail.  Here I have decided to switch things around for a lot more movement in the water.  The wing is comprised of brown Arctic over a thin layer of black temple dog over a dynamite polar bear substitute- skunk taken just aft of the head.  I have also substituted red silk floss for the wool tail. Additionally, depending the source, the pattern may call for a ribbing of oval silver tinsel.  I don't find this an absolute necessity unless you choose to use flat silver mylar tinsel.  In which case the ribbing will reinforce the body.  Pictured below is medium silver Lagartun tinsel for the body.  Optional are eyes painted yellow with a black dot centered.  All the pictures I've seen of the Black Nose Dace tied by Flick lacked eyes.

Materials

Hook:  4XL to 7 XL, Sizes 4 to 10 (Pictured TMC 9395 size 4)
Thread:  UTC 70, black
Tail:  Red wool (original) or silk floss (pictured)
Body:  Lagartun tinsel, medium silver
Wing:  White bucktail or skunk (pictured) over which is a small band of (black) bear or bucltail (pictured is temple dog) over which is brown bucktail (Arctic fox pictured)

Using the original recipe and materials

Alaska Mary Ann

The legendary Alaska Mary Ann is the official fly of the Alaska Flyfishers and comes with quite a pedigree.  If you're up to a little research about the pattern there is plenty to be found on the internet.  However, you will find different variations of the story- depending on the website  It is claimed that  even the originator, Frank Dufresne,  told various stories of it's origination.

Don't let the name fool you into thinking this is strictly an Alaskan pattern.  This late 1920's pattern made it's way into the Pacific Northwest steelhead fame where it remained popular into the 1970's.  While popularity has waned significantly the Alaska Mary Ann maintains a small following today.  Lesser known is it's effectiveness as a trout streamer.  And you should in be in the know!

The Alaska Mary Ann doesn't represent any specific baitfish, but it does mimic minnow profiles perfectly.  It is slender, pulsates (depending the the winging material) and the predominately white profile, with a touch of red, provides plenty of visibility even in off colored water.  Some veteran anglers claim the Alaskan Mary Ann may work effectively as a flesh fly pattern, too. I've have used it successfully for winter steelhead, dolly varden, bull trout, cutthroat and rainbow.  If in doubt- use white!  There is something about the color white that can really trigger the fish into hard strikes. 

I carry a small cache of the Alaskan Mary Ann's in various sizes in for late fall and after the spawn fishing.  The key to fishing this pattern after the spawn is to start with smaller patterns and work your way up to larger sizes keying in on the size of the baitfish in the water.

Materials

Hook:  3XL to 6XL.  Sizes 2-12 (TMC 9395, Size 4 pictured)

Thread:  UTC 70, White for the layering the underbody.  UTC 70 black for completion.

Tail:  Red hackle fibers (Schlappen pictured)

Body:  White floss or chenille.  (White silk pictured)

Ribbing:  Lagartun, silver, medium.  5 turns minimum.

Wing:  Bucktail, temple dog, or choice.  Polar bear was used on the original.  (Pictured is Arctic fox)  Wing should be slightly longer than the tail.

Eyes:  Jungle cock

Bear Trap

With the introduction of the Bear Trap comes a great story and one of the reason I started tying flies. 

It was the summer of 1975 when I asked for and received a fly tying kit for my birthday.  And as I reflect back to my preteen days I am really surprised my parents allowed me to navigate the river in big, heavy, rubber hip boots on my own at such an young age.

Our family had a little summer cabin on the banks of Washington's Deschutes River.   It is here where I took the many hours of reading in bed (when I should have been asleep on school nights) learning from books on fly fishing and attempted to turn this knowledge into practical, hands on success; which, proved to be painful for the quite a few months.  It was fun none the less.

A good dozen or so trips were taken every year as travel time was just under an hour from the house to cabin.  The upper reaches could be called classic freestone water with a lot of beautiful wild rainbows as well as some rather large cutthroat.  I rarely encountered other anglers however, one older gentleman named Roy, lived in a gorgeous, well manicured house along the banks a few cabins upstream from us.  He would occasionally come out and stand on his bulkhead and yell out casting instructions and the direction of where he wanted me to cast (to fish below him).  Despite what seemed like hours of his directions I remained skunked.

Walking back to the cabin at dusk one evening Roy was out watering his front yard.  He stopped me and asked about fishing.  Of course it was uneventful of me.  He asked to see what flies I was using and looked surprised when I showed him my assortment of brightly colored flies (the common Taiwan assortment) from the local Kmart in town.  I remember a couple of Muddler Minnows and hare's ear thrown in the mix, but the brightly colored ones were far more numerous.  (After spending hours of looking at the color plates in Ray Bergman's, "Trout," I assumed all flies should be brightly colored.)  Roy excused himself asked me to stay for a moment.  He came back to his fence and handed me a Sucret's tin with about two dozen different patterns and took a few minutes to explain the each of the flies.  The first one to catch my eye was a pattern called the Bear Trap.  This streamer style pattern had body was gold mylar tubing and fairly heavy wing with a little red underneath the hook.   Roy told me he named the pattern due to using grizzly bear hair for the wing and it was a very good fly for the larger fish and probably imitated the numerous small bullheads (sculpin) in the river.  

As the next few seasons progressed I saw less and less of Roy, but he would make sure to come out of the house and wave as I fished the waters in front of his place.   One evening on my walk back we chatted a bit at his fence.  I mentioned that I started tying a couple years back and couldn't find grizzly for the wing of his pattern.  He said to use the center portion of a white bucktail to get good brown colored winging material and not to be afraid of using olive.  Just then Roy asked to me stay  put for a second as he went inside the house and came back with a rather large patch of grizzly bear and handed it to me.  "Now you found it," he said.  He told me to use it wisely and heard the story of his hunt some 25-plus years early.  I  remember that evening well.  It was my 13th birthday.  (The large patch of grizzly Roy gave me is pictured above.) 

The last time I saw Roy was the early morning of 18 May, 1980.  As I finished fishing the water in front place of his place I could hear the family shouting my name.  And then I saw my aunt.    She was on the opposite bank yelling, "Mount Saint Helens just erupted..."  "We've got to go now!"  By the time I made it across the river and to dirt road all the cars were packed and ready.  Away we went - waders and all - to higher ground.   Once on top of the hill we stopped to take a few pictures and get me out of my waders.   Although the eruption was over 60-miles away the sight of the ash plume was impressive.   Thankfully the direction of the blast was away from us that day, but I still ponder the possibilities today.

Fourteen years would pass before I fished the upper reaches of the Deschutes again.  The selling of the cabin didn't bode well with me and my enthusiasm for trout fishing waned.  I became obsessed with salmon, steelhead and searun cutthroat.  The hour drive to catch 14-inch trout was longer for me.   I would rather drive a little further and fish for 20-pound wild steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula  or cast big flies for the returning coho on the beaches of Puget Sound.     

Grass, shrubs and saplings were as tall as the windows of the cabin. The roof was in dire need of repair and looked as if it was ready to go at a any moment.   Even the wrap around deck was covered with moss and appeared dilapidated.  The sight was quite unsettling.   The memories of my youth soon erased the thought of the cabin as I entered the water.   

Every so often I wondered about Roy and if he knew how he changed a 10-year old's life with a small tin of flies.

The original Bear Trap pattern was dressed quite heavily compared to most hairwing streamer patterns of the time.  It probably fell into the anadromous steelhead hairwing catagory more so than a trout fly.  The mylar tubing would provide for a thick, visible body and the bear hair would boost a bigger silhouette in the wing.  Not to mention grizzly hair has very translucent silvery tips.  It is awesome material but incredible difficult to find these days.  Make sure you check local, state and federal laws before possessing, transporting or selling any bear parts.  I have use the grizzly patch sparingly over the years.  Mainly for a handful of working steelhead or display flies.

Old Roy said the pattern probably matched the small bullheads in the Deschutes River. (There are a lot of them!)   I can see that in the coloration and movement despite lacking todays' sculpin fly shapes and sizes.  

Bucktail (the brown center section), as Roy mentioned, is a solid substitute for the grizzly bear hair and various shade of brown and olive or brownish olive are available.  The only downfall to bucktail eventually becomes brittle sooner than other hairs.  In the pattern below I opted to use Arctic fox for the winging material.

The Bear Trap became one of my all time favorites!  In addition to a solid performing trout streamer it has produced wonderfully for summer steelhead on Washington's Kalama and Cowlitz rivers. I have changed the pattern a little for aesthetic purposes, but I am sure Roy would be proud!

Materials

Hook:  Mustad 3665A or TMC 9395, Sizes 2 to 10 (TMC size 4 pictured)

Thread:  UTC 70 or 6/0, black

Body:  Lagartun tinsel, gold, medium

Wing:  Artic fox, brown (leave a little underfur)

Throat:  Schlappen or hackle fibers, red.  Should be tied long.

Eyes:  (Optional) Jungle cock tied short

Black Ghost

Herbert "Herbie" Welch is credited with devising the Black Ghost for the lakes of Maine sometime around 1927.   Despite the instant regional success of Welch's pattern the Black Ghost adorns many fly boxes through the world nearly 100-years later.

I will list the original recipe below, but keep in mind you have different options for the wing,   Welch tied his patterns on long 8x or 10x shank hooks and utilized four white feathers for the wing.  More often than not you'll encounter the pattern tied with marabou or hair vice the feather wings.  Not only does marabou or hair provide more action in the water, but these two materials are easier easier to tie in than four perfectly match feathers.

Just because the Black Ghost isn't the "latest and greatest" streamer doesn't mean it won't catch fish.  Fishing the traditional streamer technique of down and across produces excellent results.  It is also a good pattern to tow around the lake when the fishing is slow.

Materials

Hook:  Choice.  3X to 10X , sizes 2 - 12 (Pictured is TMC 9395 size 4)
Thread:  UTC 70, black. 
Tag:  Not part of the original dressing (optional). (Pictured fine silver Lagartun.)
Tail:  Hackle fibers, yellow.  (Pictured is schlappen.)
Body:  Floss (Black silk pictured).  You may deviate and use wool or chenille
Ribbing:  Medium silver Lagartun  (I prefer 5 turns for the TMC 9395)
Throat:  Hackle fibers, yellow (Pictured is schlappen.)
Wing:  Original wing is 4-white feathers matched.   Any white winging material can be used as a substitute and marabou is perhaps the number one choice.  I elected to use skunk hair near the neck area.  This patch of hair is generally very transparent and is the best polar bear substitute out there.
Eyes:  Jungle cock if you desire to maintain the original recipe.  Some tiers will enlarge the head and paint eyes.

Llama

The Llama is a dynamite traditional streamer.   It's fame started in mid 1973 when Eric Leiser's article, "Tying the Llama and Why" graced the pages of Fly Fisherman Magazine.

While Leiser gets credit for popularizing the pattern it is believed Miles Tourellot, a Wisconsin Menominee Native American, originated the pattern sometime in the 1940's.

There are a few different variations of the pattern.  The main two are utilizing wool vice floss for the body and/or changing out the silver tinsel for gold.  However, you can also consider chenille for the body.  Choosing wool for the body is an excellent choice strictly for longevity as floss tend to frays too easily.  Other variations include changing body colors.  The Golden Llama utilizes yellow floss for the body ribbed with gold tinsel.

When is a good time to fish the Llama?  Anytime you want to fish a streamer.  However, it is hard to beat fishing the Llama just prior to the spawn.  There is something about the color red that drives the fish to strike this pattern hard!

My variation (below) utilizes Australian opossum vice grizzly hackle or the collar.   I've been doing this for years on my steelhead Llamas simply due to the fact it was hard (at one time) to find hackle long enough to properly proportion big steelhead irons.    So I have stuck with this variations on smaller patterns.  The mottled effect couple with the pulsating action give the pattern a little extra when stripping through the water.

Here is the original recipe for the Llama:

Materials

Hook:  Mustad 3665A sizes 4-12  (Pictured is Tiemco 9395 size 4)

Thread:  UTC 70, Black (Use white if you intend to utilize floss for the body without an underbody of tinsel.)  

Tail:  Grizzly, hen (soft)

Body,  Red floss, wool or chenille (Wool pictured,)

Ribbing:  Lagartun, silver, five turns (Medium size pictured.) 

Wing:  Woodchuck.  Leave underfur in place.

Collar:  Grizzly, hen (soft)  You can also utilize Australian opossum (pictured) or rabbit (chinchilla).

Head:  Originally built up and eyes painted on.

Organza Ribbon

The summer has been beyond busy for me.   Little in the way of fishing or golf yet a lot of time at work.  Even with the air conditioner going when I get home the house is still a little too warm to sit down to tie with the evening sun beating on the tying room window.  To even things out I've spent a lot of after work hours splashing around in the pool and enjoying adult beverages.

Today I was able to catch up a little on some much needed sleep.  Then I found myself with nothing to do.   So I decided to unpack the last of my boxes containing fly tying materials. (That's only took 2/12 years!)  Inside one of the boxes were a couple of large patches of beautiful white Australian sheep (from seat covers), various fox tails and 8-rolls of organza ribbon.  I had plum forgot all about the ribbon, but grabbing the first roll immediately made me think of quite a few patterns that I use to tie with this sparkling material.  

It should come at no surprise that Organza is an awesome winging material for various patterns.  One of favorite uses was cutting a small patch and utilizing wing burners to create caddis wings.  I still use it quite a bit for wings and gills on midge patterns

While organza is still a viable tying option I don't see it used very often these days.  I imagine with a whole host of new materials Organza gets lost in the shuffle of the "latest and greatest" that catches the tier's eye.

In addition to winging material organza ribbon makes for an awesome effect when used as a ribbing on caddis, stonefly, damsel and dragon patterns.  I sat down and decided to toy with adding organza to one of my euro patterns.   It looks pretty darn good.  If I was a fish...

You can purchase organza ribbon at any notions/craft store.  More than likely it will not be marked "organza," but look for the bright sheen/sheer and you'll be in business.  If you have a little patience to wait on overseas shipping from China, where organza originates, I recommend Amazon.  You find a ton of different colors and widths to utilize.

Materials

Hook:  Fulling Mill Czech Nymph, Sizes 10-14 (size 10 pictured)

Bead:  Tungsten, Fl Orange, size appropriate to hook (3.5MM pictured)

Thread:  6/0 UTC, Dark Brown, or color to match body materials

Underbody:  Uni-stretch, white, to build up taper.

Ribbing:  Organza, Lt Brown, cut in a taper.

Body:  Perdigone tinsel, #223 Dark Brown

Collar:  Hends Spectra Dubbing #335 Dark Brown