Friday, December 24, 2010

27 in 27, Days 22-23: The Yellow Sallie, and the Elk Hair Caddis

Well, here we are at day 27.  My holiday boxes for my favorite fly fishing companions are essentially finished and wrapped.  Visions of rainbows and browns are dancing through my head; then again, that's nothing really unique to Christmas Eve - more like a daily occurence.

By my count, I've got three unique flies to tie tonight in order to follow through and get it done by the midnight transition from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, which really leaves me no time to engage in any witty banter or offer any stories.  I'll just warn you in advance, the last three flies for the day could be uglier than normal, although I'm committed to doing my best work and finish strong.  Not sure what they'll be yet.

The yellow sallie is far too heavy on  the thorax, I realize.  Which I blame on the only roll of yellow thread I have; a thick, waxy thread that adds a lot of body with an undercoating of red thread for the hotspot near the tail.  Wings look good, though, I think.

















Next is simply and elk-hair caddis with a hi-vis spot of white antron.  I'm keepin' this one for mself.  I think it will be a great lead fly with a small dry trailing behind, and I really liked the way it turned out.  I'm also going to tie a couple for my older brother Chris, who has the tools for catching fish but suffers from some aging eyes and has a hard time with some of the smaller bugs on the river.  I think the white hot spot will help in that respect.


















Three left to go.  T-minus 2.5 hours and counting.  Wish me luck.
JEG

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