Don's Fly Tying - Tail End Charlie

In August, our lakes here in the Okanagan are largely in the doldrums with extra summer heat these days. Yes, you can go deep in the larger lakes, seek a high altitude lake or find a river inlet like the Mahood where the water is a bit cooler but I tend to just have a beer with friends at water's edge. Perhaps it is a good month to review a fun fly I call the Tail End Charlie! It is called that name mainly due to the fact that a silver bead serves as the tail of the fly. You can have fun by experimenting with different body colours and optional hackle at the fly head. My version does work in cooler weather so do give it a try!

The sturgeon picture below deserves some clarification. The years 2010 and 2014 featured excellent Fraser River sockeye runs in August with good Adams River returns. Late August, using a jet boat, found us fishing the far end of Spring Bar downstream from the beach where many walk on fishermen tried their luck. In 2014, almost everyone was lucking out on the huge sockeye run. Many beach fishermen were cleaning their catch and throwing entrails out in the water to be swept downstream. We found that where we fished, there were a few huge sturgeons gobbling up offerings from the beach! We hooked a couple of monsters and had to use my friend Dave Hesketh's boat to chase them downstream for release. The picture here is Dave's friend with a smaller five foot long sturgeon that he landed and released without using the boat. Of interest, there were three broken off hookups from other fishermen on this fish that we cleared before letting him go.

Below is a Fraser River August sturgeon hooked on a yarn fly, then released, just downstream of Spring Bar.

Materials

Hook--Long shank size 8 - 12
Tail--Small clear or silver bead
Body--Bottom layer, green chenille, top black chenille
Rib--Thin mono used to secure the chenille layers
Head--A few turns of black tying thread
Hackle--None
Thread--Thin monofilament

Instructions

Start by sliding on a small clear or silver bead and snug it in just at the hook bend. Next cinch in green chenille hook bend to the hook eye on the underside of the shank. Follow this with black chenille covering the top of the hook shank making sure that the bead is still open. Tie off, cement and you have finished a very easy fun fly to make!

My latest book, "Fly Tying, Proven flies for the Pacific Northwest", published by Hancock House Publishers, (www.hancockhouse.com), is now available at;
Fly Tying, Proven flies for the Pacific Northwest
This book covers my favourite chironomid, wet, dry and salmon/steelhead patterns. Clear instructions are included on how to tie these flies with minimum equipment using a hand half hitch throughout the fly construction.

Do you want to see the previous fly tying articles?

Monthly Fly Tying Articles from November 1996

Your comments are welcome at " dhaaheim at telus dot net"