More "Old School" Trout Patterns

[SST Flies]

Having a little fun filling the "retro" box... I can't be the only angler that still fishes these- am I? Nothing here obscure, but can you name them? A couple of clues are given!

Body is dark olive seal's fur:

https://i.imgur.com/rCHouic.jpg?1

Body is natural colored mink:

https://i.imgur.com/kz8Cx0x.jpg?1

Dead give-a-way here... Body is otter and natural seal's fur:

https://i.imgur.com/YC0dUxk.jpg?1

Tail fibers from a very stinky animal- dead or alive! So simple, but I'll agree with Charlie Brooks... Hard pattern to tie correctly!

https://i.imgur.com/q7lfQt3.jpg?1

Have a great week everyone!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

About 30 years ago The Fly Shop in Redding, California was really doing a lot of fishing and guiding on the Klamath River.

They had a series of "Steelhead Nymphs" they promoted that were a series of shaggy soft hackle wet flies with tails for swinging for Half-pounders.

They came in one size maybe #10. and 4 or 5 colors?

A Black one, a green/olive one, a Peacock bodied one, a Hairs Ear one and ???.

Your first 2 flies looked very much like them.....

.

[John Sv]

1st one looks like a Carey Special but I've never heard that mink is a key component

[SST Flies]

First fly is a Carey Special. Perhaps my deadliest lake pattern. I've also played around with it on Putah and did quite well!

Second fly is Doug Prince's Mink Fly.

Third fly is Ted Trueblood's Otter

Lastly, Charlie Brook's cased caddis - The Skunk Hair Caddis

[John H]

SST -

Can you talk about how you do the photos? They are book publication quality. Good lighting and perfect focus. Mine never come out that well

[SST Flies]

SST -

Can you talk about how you do the photos? They are book publication quality. Good lighting and perfect focus. Mine right my come out that well

The photo are taken in a light box that I purchased from Mike's Camera (downtown Sac). It comes with background film and two banks of LED lighting. Although I am an absolute rookie, the pro's at Mike's stress to me lighting is the key!

My camera is an old Sony point and shoot (DSC-5) that has a macro feature that I shoot in auto focus from a mini tripod. (Have to remain absolutely still for macro.)

At one time I used Photobucket for storage and cleaning up the pictures, but they are loading the heck out of their pages with advertising. Not worth the effort or time to deal with the pain of closing multiple windows to do work.. The same program is available through IMGUR (dot com) for free.

Again, I am still learning through trial and error.. Hope what little I provided helps!

[John H]

Thanks.

That light box works really well. I always get shadows even with a couple of lights. I also moved from photobucket to imgur. Photobucket stopped supporting message board embeds without a monthly fee. Imgur works pretty well so far and the uploads seem to go more smoothly. The photobucket uploads failed a lot and I would have to restart.

[koffler]

Looks like a burlap on steroids but a very nice tie!

[DLJeff]

If your light box allows a small design modification, think about drilling a tiny hole in the back and gluing in a 1/16 inch diameter tube, maybe 4 inches long. Make a long loop of 7X mono and insert it through the tube. Capture the fly you want to photo in the loop, taking care to not tie down material (a dubbing needle works to release any material grabbed by the loop). Secure the loop by inserting a needle into the back of the tube. Here's a couple photos illustrating what I'm trying to describe:
1354613547

You can use this method for any size flies, big or small:
135481354913550

You can get some small pieces of matt board of various colors, make a small hole that fits over the tube, and then slide them over the tube and you can vary the background color for your shots.

[OceanSunfish]

If your light box allows a small design modification, think about drilling a tiny hole in the back and gluing in a 1/16 inch diameter tube, maybe 4 inches long. Make a long loop of 7X mono and insert it through the tube. Capture the fly you want to photo in the loop, taking care to not tie down material (a dubbing needle works to release any material grabbed by the loop). Secure the loop by inserting a needle into the back of the tube. Here's a couple photos illustrating what I'm trying to describe:
1354613547

You can use this method for any size flies, big or small:
135481354913550

You can get some small pieces of matt board of various colors, make a small hole that fits over the tube, and then slide them over the tube and you can vary the background color for your shots.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

[DLJeff]

One other tip that really helps when shooting flies is to mount your camera on one of those small Gorilla tripods or similar. Then use the timer shutter release setting. That way, once you push the shutter button and the timer is going, you can totally release the camera and it minimizes any shake. Trying to hold your camera rock solid steady and shoot macro is difficult. If your camera can be setup with a cable release or remote shutter release that would work as well.