As I’ve written before, fly tying has really changed the game for me. I’ve caught more fish and bigger fish since making my own flies, and it has been much more fun and satisfying. A key part of tying for me involves tinkering.

I think George Daniel really captures it when he says that he will trying something new, and if he catches fish, do something else. The goal is to learn and not just to catch fish. He keeps tinkering.

One of the things a vise lets you do is to play around with patterns. Recently, I was motivated to focus on segmentation, a strike trigger.

So, here are two recent inventions. One is a size 20 fly with a stripped peacock quill for the body. I use the Tiemco 2488, one of my favorite hooks due to its 3x gape. I take a herl and use a pencil eraser to rub it down to a bare stem. A few turns of peacock herl constitue the thorax. Flies like this have done very well for me at the Swift River.

The other is a size 16 fly with a goose biot. More herl for that thorax, too. There’s a small tungsten bead, and this is a fly that I will use with my micro-thin Euronymphing leader.

I use Loon UV Flow on both bodies to give the flies durability and a bit of sheen.

I don’t know if the flies will work. But, it is worth tinkering.