A Jump on the Season

This weekend I started to tie up some egg flies for the upcoming Fall run. Egg flies are the one area where the economics of fly tying are in your favor. Materials are cheap, and the nature of steelhead territory means you lose lots of them. Plus, you can crank 'em out pretty fast. And, it's a nice thing to with a bit of weekend downtime.

As I suspected, once I found my groove, both my speed and quality increased. But the best part is being able to tie exactly the sizes and colors you use most. For the PM, with its clear waters and wary fish, I use a lot of subtle colors like cheese, peach, white, etc. and tie them in smaller sizes. I noticed the Manistee river guides use bigger patterns and bolder colors as the water has more stain. Sometimes my fave eggs can be hard to find in shops, so it's nice to be able to just bang out a couple dozen to fill the fly box. Another benefit  is hook quality. The good shops use good hooks, but those flies might be as much as $2 each -- not good when you're just going to lose a half dozen in a day anyway. With tying my own, I can buy top-quality Daiichi hooks for less than 20 cents each.

Also started to experiment with nuke eggs. Found that the McFly foam I usually use doesn't really work for that. I had one color of standard yarn and that worked much better. After that discovery, plus using up all my hooks, it's time to order some supplies tonight. Goal is to a boxful tied up before Labor Day.

No river antics this weekend. Strong storms throughout Michigan have all the streamflows off the charts. Perhaps in the next few days things will settle down so I can enjoy the Hex on the Huron, or maybe go float some hoppers in the PM.

-Sean-