Modern Spey Flies

Topics 
Local Spey Flies
Modern Spey Flies
Spey Fly Book
Sinking Tips

February 22, 2004, Sunday, 1:00pm - 5:00pm
Fly Tier's Round Table
"Locally Evolved Fishable Spey Flies"

Classic Spey flies have an artistic appeal that is hard to define. Each pattern employs long flowing hackles and a low set wing.  The original flies used for Atlantic Salmon in the Spey Valley in Scotland used special tail side feathers from capon roosters grown in that region. This feather is no longer available as the chickens which grew them are now extinct.  Blue Heron is currently the most sought after Spey hackle.  Flank feathers from several species of pheasants are also popular as well as hackles and schlappen from special chickens. Several styles of fishable spey flies have evolved locally.  We will explore them.

The programs and instructions are free.  
So are the coffee and snacks.
Bring snacks to share if you want to.
Bring your own tools, and materials and tie along.  Beginners are welcome.
Group Leaders: Mark Bachmann & Brian Silvey  joined by other local steelheaders.
What are Spey Flies? 
And what is this fascination that steelhead anglers have with spey flies. 
There will be an attempt to answer these questions with the help of the new book listed below.
From our perspective: Spey flies are beautifully sensuous and gracefully attractive.
But, only if they are formed with good craftsmanship.  
They are the kind of lures that our artistic sensibilities tell us that noble, aristocratic fish should favor.
Fact is they do.
There are no more noble fish than steelhead and salmon and they are attracted to spey flies.
 Spey flies are practical fish catchers.
  The originators of this tying style put a high priority on movement of materials inside the fly.
Well tied spey flies pulse with life. 
Fished broadside in slow currents the long flowing hackles swim and crawl through the water.
 Spey flies are still evolving. 
Both the Marabou Tube Fly and the Intruder could possibly be called an extension of the spey fly.
However, this presentation will pretty much stick to the more classic rendition of local spey flies.
The Modern Spey Fly patterns listed below employ turkey marabou for the palmered hackle.  
In 1867 Francis Francis in "A Book on Angling" listed very similar patterns which employed leg feathers from eagles for hackle.  We will also tie patterns which use neck hackles from chickens genetically selected by Whiting Farms.  This hackle ties very delicate shimmering flies. Other flies will be tied with blue ear pheasant rump and some with ostrich plume.  

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Rio's WindCutter is the most popular winter steelhead spey ling.  There are several reasons why. The WindCutter design has the right head length to make it easy to cast with the widest variety of spey rods and casting skill levels. It is a highly adaptable fly line may be lengthened or shortened because it has two loop to loop connections in the belly and multiple accessories that can be adapted to it.  Windcuttters come with (5) 15' tips and two mid-sections in the box.  Some very astute winter anglers have discovered that the WindCutter is even more versatile if  you add some longer sinking tips to your bag of tricks. Longer sinking tips will often penetrate deeper into the water and allow for special applications not well covered by shorter tips. A wider selection of tips can make you more versatile and productive.   Normally the front two sections are removed from the WindCutter and any tip longer thatn 15' is attached to the rear loop.  Since the stock two sections that you are removing are each approximately 15' long, about 30' will be removed from the head of your fly line.  This will leave the rear portion of the head which including rear taper is 22'.  Most tips that you will use are normally much shorter than the portion of the fly line that you have removed.  These tips can range in length from 16' to 24'.  This will result in an overall head of a much shorter length than the stock item.  On the average it will also be somewhat lighter in weight.  However the longer length of the sinking portion of the line will allow deeper penetration into the water.  Head and fly line configurations of this nature can also be also be very handy for fishing under overhanging limbs or anywhere where a shortened back cast is needed. 

The RIO Big Boy Series of 24' density-compensated  tips are handy in the 200 grain & 300 grain sizes for eight and nine weight rods.  The 400 grain tip is useable on most ten weight rods.  This is true for both single and double hand fly rods.  Longer tips get deeper than standard length tips under many circumstances.  Big Boy tips are density compensated so they tend to sink progressively faster toward the end that has the fly attached to it.  Therefore it is not advisable to trim them.

Customized sinking tips can easily be made from Rio T-14 Salmon Trolling line.  This extra fast sinking tungsten impregnated line is gaining popularity for use as raw material in making sinking tips and shooting heads.  T-14 comes in a roll and can be cut to any length.  The most popular application is with the "spey rod steelheaders set" who use T-14 to build customized sinking tips for the Rio WindCutter fly line.  If tips of more than 16' are being used, the front two sections are removed from the WindCutter and a T-14 sinking tip is attached to the rear loop.  Most popular T-14 tip lengths are 16' to 22'.