Now for your reading pleasure: I have heard back from Chris DelPlato about his Black-nosed Dace imitation and he has been kind enough to send me a couple of photos to share with you.
About 40 years ago or more, fly tyer/innovator and author, Art Flick, developed a bucktail streamer fly to imitate the dace. This pattern was effective from the start and today it still occupies space in just about every fly fishers arsenal of patterns. Here is a photo of the original fly in all its glory - a simple tie using dyed bucktail for the wing:
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Here's the natural Black-nosed Dace.
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Then along comes master streamer tyer, Chris DelPlato, and he comes up with this beautiful imitation shown below. Look at the natural, and then look at this (the fly in the photo has been wetted and looks darker than it really is as no light is coming through from behind it as it would in the water) - what more can I say? Tie some up!! Oh, and flatten that barb, Del! : )
Hook - 5x-6x long streamer, size to match natural in particular water.
Thread - Black.
Tail - Two, trimmed light Henback, Brahma Hen (or similar) feathers, back to back.
Body - black wool, thin.
Wing - Russian squirrel tail on top of a thin bunch of smoke or tan coloredUnique Hair (to get color separation between lateral line and back). You can substitute for the squirrel with other long, fine darker hair when tying larger sizes.
Belly - Steve Farrar’s Blend 'Off White' tied in heavier than synthetic in wing to give a bulkier, translucent appearance for the belly, trimmed to taper toward hook bend.
Throat - Red hackle fibers.
Eye - Prismatic stick on, placed on body behind thread head.
Head - Overcoat front end with epoxy to slightly past eye.
Go fish!!!
Life is good. Especially when someone comes along with a bad-ass fly.
2 comments:
Thanks for the kind comments Matt. For the record, I do bend my barbs down. Just not when tying for show n' tell. ;-)
Really impressive! Leave it to CD to come up with the the most realistic imitation ever.
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