[Irvine Ross]

The half hog

So called because it is less than half a sedgehog

This is a fly designed by Norman Irvine which will hover just below the surface on a slow retrieve. It’s meant to represent a failed emerging buzzer (I think).  It is good for days when the fish are showing their dorsal fin at the surface but  refusing to take dry flies. You can also grease the wing and it will work as an emerger.

Materials

Hook : Kamasan B170 sizes 12-16
Thread and Body : black 6/0 thread or any other colour you fancy
Rib : flat pearl tinsel
Wing : deer hair
Abdomen : any dubbing you choose, I have used claret Ice Dub
Cheeks :  gold holographic flat tinsel (or any other colour you fancy)

You could also dub the body if you prefer or make it with stretch floss.



Tie on the thread and catch in the pearl tinsel rib.



Run the thread in tight touching turns all the way round the bend and back up again to the top of the thorax



Clart the thread with head cement and then wind on the rib.



Tie of the rib and clart the body with another coat of head cement. Half hitch and cut away the thread and set aside to dry while you run up another few.



When the body is dry, tie in a short piece of flat holographic tinsel on either side.



Cut a slim bunch of deer hair (this is roe deer bur coastal deer would be fine)



Pop them in the stacker to even the tips and then tie in the wing no longer than the body.



Start tying down with loose turns at the top getting tighter and you wind down. This will reduce the tendency for the hair to flare. Don’t worry too much if it does as the dubbing will bring it back under control.



Trim of the butts of the deer hair, give a dob of head cement on the roots and tie down.



Wind a slim bunch of dubbing over the butts of the deer hair stopping just behind the eye of the hook.



Bring forward the cheeks and tie off. Clip any stray deer hairs that are out of place.
Whip finish and that is it.

[Iain Goolager]

Black & Green Biot Buzzer
Materials;
Thread:       Black 8/0, Orvis
Hook:       Kamasan B110 Size 12
Head:      Black Plastic Bead,  John Lewis
Rib:      Mirage Tinsel Small
Cheeks:      Chartreuse Electric Biots, Artifly
Varnish:                S.H.  Hard as Nails

This buzzer has been a firm favourite of mine for as long as I can remember. It has also been used to good effect this Winter, fished under an indicator FLY in extreme conditions when much larger flies may have been seen as more likely to produce.



1)   Slide bead onto hook and secure in vise. Lay on thread and apply a decent taper behind the bead to secure, cut off tag.
   

2)   Tie in Mirage Tinsel and run it to the desired point on the bend using close wraps.


3)   Run the tying thread back up to the thorax area using either close wraps OR open wraps (wide enough for the tinsel to lie in the’ trough’ – this gives a slightly slimmer body )


4)   Wind the tinsel up the body in open wraps to give the desired segmentation.   Tie off and snip tinsel tag.


5)   Select two biots of required width. Offer each biot up to the thorax where it’s to be tied in and trim the widest end of the biot at an angle, this should match the angle of the bead.  Note that the natural curvature of the biot when folded should marry up with the contour of the thorax. Tie in one biot, rotate the vise & then tie in the other



6)   Run the thread down the thorax area securing the biots further. Regularly folding the nearest biot over when running the thread down the shank will give you an indication of when the thorax ‘start point’  is reached


7)   Build up a suitable sized & shaped thorax – rugby ball is nice. No need be too precious with the smooth shape of the thorax as the varnish will hide all ills. Fold over the biots and secure at the head behind the bead. Trim the tags as close as possible

 
8)   Bind down any remaining biot tags & whip finish.


9)   Apply as many coats of ‘Hard as Nails’ as you see fit – 1 or 2 suits me.

[Iain Goolager]

Another good SBS Irvine 

Iain

[Matt Henderson]

good effort chaps.  Not sure when I'm going to get near my vice with a camera this month.  Still got a few days left to go. 

[Mike Barrio]

Great step by steps guys

Thanks for posting
Best wishes
Mike

[Irvine Ross]

Nice one Ian

Great minds think alike. Swop your glass bead for my deer hair wing and you have almost the same pattern

Irvine

[Ben Dixon]

Pink Bucktails have arrived, have two in stock

Ben

[Sandy Nelson]

Pink Bucktails have arrived, have two in stock

Ben

What did the soup taste like?

Sandy

[Iain Goolager]

I don't get it?!?

 

[Irvine Ross]

It's weel seen y've never made a pot o soup chiel. Ye canna mak gweed soup withoot stock.

Saggyloops

[Alex Burnett]

I don't get it?!?

 

Apparently Sandy, it tasted a bit between Flowering Cherry   & Carnation   ....Here he is still a bit PINK aboot the Gills

Maybe Iain will get it Noo!!!

Alex

[Iain Goolager]

Oh! it lives!
 Hello Alex..................yes I got it

Where've you been hiding?

Any fishing going on or new patterns?

Iain

[Alex Burnett]

Oh! it lives!
 Hello Alex..................yes I got it

Where've you been hiding?

Any fishing going on or new patterns?

Iain

I am currently in a shipyard called Lamjana, which is near the villages of Preko & Kali, which is not far from Zadar which is in Croatia..

No new patterns yet but hoping to go fishing about the end of the Month or middle of March depending on when this project finishes, one of the locals has promised to take me

Alex

[Sandy Nelson]

All this talk of spiders got me going and with Iains abuse of the snipe and purple, i was thinking perhaps i'll share my variation on the Dark Watchett
This is the best place for the SBS's so i thocht i'd put it here. NOT an entry mind

Hook: Partridge SLD size 14
Thread: Pearsalls no.8
Hackle: The outer covert of a Coot (moorhen is too green, the original calls for jackdaw throat, if you have one , coot is as close as i get)
Body: A length of Pearsalls no.6a and some natural mole hair.

Step 1. Place hook in vice.



Step 2. Take wing and select an appropriate feather.



Step 3. Remove flue from base and Check it for length, the fibres should be the length of the plain shank of the hook.



Step 4. Start thread 1 turn back from eye and make approx 3-4 turns. Trim the tag end.



Step 5. Take the feather and stroke back the fibres and tie in the feather by the tip, again 3-4 turns and trim the tip.



Step 6. Tie in length of orange silk (6a) and wrap back to inline with the point of the hook.



Step 7. Twist the orange and purple silk together, so it is nicely varigated.



Step 8. Lightly apply a nice sticky wax, to the twisted section.



Step 9. Take a small pinch of mole hair.



Step 10. Lightly touch the waxed thread with the mole fur , keep it very sparse but even.



Step 11. Wind the dubbed thread up to about 3 turns of thread before the hackle. And trim the loose end of orange silk. You should get a nice mix of the purple and the orange showing through the mole.



Step 12. Make 2 turns of the hackle from the front, back towards the thread and tie in the hackle.



Step 13. Make two turns of thread to secure and remove the rest of the hackle stalk.



Step 14. Wind thread thread through the hackle carefully, stroking the fibres so none get trapped or folded backwards.



Step 15. Gently hold the fibres back from the eye and bring the thread forward to the head area, don't tie the fibres down, just bring the thread forward.



Step 16. Form a neat head with 3 or 4 turns of thread and then a small whip finish. Stroke the fibres forward so they are perpendicular to the hook then varnish the head carefully with a drop on the tip of a needle so it soaks into the the thread and doesn't wick up the fibres of the hackle.




There you have it the finished Dark Watchett, one of my personal favourites for the Don in spring and autumn. Its best as a middle dropper fly.



Sandy

ps. The original Dark Watchett has the silk the other way round, with the main thread being Orange and the purple is used only for the body. I fancy this as an olive imitation rather than the iron blue, but thats personal preference. Thanks for reminding me Irvine



Tell you what though, this bloody camera doesn't half show up the flaws in what look like perfect little flies

[Iain Goolager]

 

with Iains abuse of the snipe and purple

wasn't abuse Sandy just can't seem to hook anything on it
This Dark Watchett better work!


stand easy

Iain

[Irvine Ross]

Sandy

Lovely tying and excellent photography as usual.

I tied a few this winter and followed the dressing in Edmunds & Lee which uses the orange silk for the head. Is the purple head a Don speciality? and, more important will the Don trout like my orange headed ones

We will find out this summer

Irvine

[Sandy Nelson]

I tied a few this winter and followed the dressing in Edmunds & Lee which uses the orange silk for the head. Is the purple head a Don speciality? and, more important will the Don trout like my orange headed ones

We will find out this summer

Irvine

Its a personal preference, for iron blues i like it tied this way, with the orange head it strikes me as more of an olive.
I'd use it spring and autumn in purple, perhaps in orange for the summer
I'd reckon the Trout will love the orange head just as much. Variety is the spice of life.

Sandy

[Matt Henderson]

A wee parachute off the vice this afternoon whilst I was watching the snow fall outside.

Hook a  12 to 16 ( I used a size twelve so that it was easier to see!)
Thread: orange
Body: black rabbits fur
Rib: pearly tinsel (i unwrapped some pearl mylar braid because I didn't like the pearl tinsel i had)
"Wing" eutral coloured CDC
thorax: red or orange antron dubbing

Place the hook in the vice



Catch in the thread and work it down to just past the bend



Catch in the pearl tinsel



Dub on the black body



Rib the body with the pearl tinsel and trim off the excess



Select about three CDC feathers with fibres the same length as the body of the hook



Tie in the feathers so that the tips extend past the eye of the hook by about the same length as the black dubbed section



Dub on the thorax and whip off the thread and snip off the end.  I normally lift up the CDC and whip finish underneath it and put on the tiniest spot of varnish or zap a gap but be careful not to get it anywhere near the CDC!



And here's one I made earlier with a red thorax



Cheers

Matt

[Irvine Ross]

Nice one Matt

Pearl rib on black body seems to be a common theme for February.

cheers

Irvine

[Sandy Nelson]

Matt

Nice fly.
I'm interested, what type of rabbit hair did you use? and how easy was it to dub?.
Looking at the picture it has real texture like seals fur, the rabbit i have is very soft and dubs very tight.
Different dubbings are always interesting to see how they pick up the light and what properties they have in the water.
 

Sandy

[Matt Henderson]

Sandy I'll have to confess that it's antron but it should be rabbit.

However to cover my shame Ben_D still hasn't entered!

[Sandy Nelson]

Matt

That expalins that, but i'm disappointed, i thought you had found some new cool dubbing material .

As For Ben, i don't think he could take the Heat

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

I've amended the original post to show the original orange headed version that irvine mentions

Sandy

[Barry Robertson]

Nice fly sandy, i particulary like the way you use 2 pieces of thread for the nice ribb effect 
Thanks 

[Sandy Nelson]

Baz

the pattern is a classic by T. E. Pritt from his book north country flies
first published in 1885.
No such thing as new ideas

sandy