Fly Tying Club

Instead of meeting at Earthlogic tomorrow evening, some of the castaway fly tying crew will be heading to the Jericho Cafe and Tavern. I’ve been going there for years for there amazing food and spirits, so it will be nice to do that and twist up some flies with friends.

At JCaT I will be tying up a pattern that goes back over 25 years when Paul”Brown Dog” Brown Jr. was my fly tying mentor. We would get out of work Wednesday morning, go to his house and tie up flies that Brownie thought were “got ta have” flies or something we saw in a magazine. One week he told me we were going to tie a fly he saw in a book from a tyer out of Maine. Brownie liked it because it was said to work well on brookies. The author said “1st time I used it I caught 88 fish”, so he called it the 88. We sat down to tie it when Brownie realized he didn’t have some of the correct materials. What we wound up tying didn’t look much like the picture in the book.

The first time either of us gave the fly some water time was on a trip to the NE Kingdom with a couple of friends. By the end of day one all four of us were using the fly. By day 4 we wished we had more. The following weekend, I entered it as one of my two flies in the Winooksi River Duel fly duel. I was the only angler with that fly (Obviously). I wound up in 3rd and actually couldn’t believe anyone caught more because that fly crushed it.

We never gave the fly another name because we felt that it was equally as productive as the original was touted to be. They are easy to tie and even easier to fish.  This fly is a “got ta have” in sizes 12 and 10, 14 optional. I’ve caught fish trying to change some of the materials but the recipe I give you is all you need.

88

Hook: Mustad 9671 #12 & #10

Thread: uni Camel

Abdomen: med gold wire

Thorax: uni stretch green

Wing: Mallard flank

Hackle: couple turn of 2x Grizzly

{ 0 comments }