Week 4....Terrestrial...

Tie your best terrestrial and post it here. It can be any type of terrestrial...An ant, hopper, beetle, inchworm, etc...

We will start now and continue through Monday evening.

Here's a couple in honor of warmer days ahead.

Turk's Tarantula is a generic attractor fly. Works as a hopper or caddis among others.



Hook: #10 Kink Shank
Tail: Golden Pheasant
Wing: Krystal Flash, Poly Yarn, and Deer Hair
Head: Spun Deer Hair
Body: Green Poly Yarn
Legs: Centipede Legs

Here's a smallish hopper loosely based on the Thunder Style and Madam X



Hook: #10 Dry Fly Hook 2x
Body: Poly Yarn White
Wing: Deer Body Hair
Head: Deer Body Hair
Legs: Silly Legs

Jay 'Fishy' Fuller's Hopper
This is the pattern that I tie for trout, bass, and bluegill the most to imitate a hopper. It is simple once you learn the tricks. Very effective and basically two materials.



Hook: #10 Kink Shank
Body: Closed Cell Foam colored Sharpe and Nail Polish
Legs: Silly Legs

I looked at some terrestrials and figured this one would be easy to tie. I didn't follow anyone's recipe this time, I just looked at a picture of one and tried to figure it out.



Hook: #8 4x long streamer hook
Body: Green 2mm foam
Thread: 6/0 Yellow for body with 3/0 black head
Indicator: Orange dyed calf tail
Tail: 50lb Mono-filament

I tied the mono onto a thread base to help hold up the tail section of the body. Followed by securing the foam to the thread and mono tail. Then I wrapped the thread back and tied in the indicator post using the only technique I could figure out. I tied off the head in black because I thought a lot of inchworms and caterpillars I saw had a blackish head. I like the pattern but when I do it again I am going to make the tail shorter and maybe try and get the foam a little thicker by making the strip wider. I think it would be easier to buy a pre-formed inchworm body and tie it to a hook but where would the fun be in that?



This was round two this morning when I didn't have my 3 year old tying assistant there unspooling my thread. Same ingredients just a lot shorter and I decided to sandwich 2 pieces of foam together so that the underside has a similar appearance to the top. I also got slappy and thought it would look cool with some spots on it. Maybe a trout would think they looked like little legs or whatever. I also substituted the calf hair post with a small piece of pink chenille. I am a LOT happier with this result than my earlier bull whip inchworm.

Can't wait till summer to throw this up under some brush and see what takes hold of it.

Brad, your Tarantula looks like it would just get down there and kick some trout butt! It's just an angry looking fly. I like the spun deer hair on that fly. I have been wanting to try that, looks cool. I have seen the Irresistible fly that I want to try with the spun deer hair body. Then there are the multitudes of bass flies.... so many flies to try, so little time to do it.

The hopper looks really simple. I am assuming it is effective on trout? I like simple and effective. Seems like it would be a good fly to run a dropper off of since it is foam and not apt to get waterlogged.

Nice flies all around.

Brad- Good looking terrestrials!! Can't wait until terrestrial season arrives!! I really like Tarantulas. They're excellent brook trout flies.

Les-- Nice inchworms!! They are very effective in the middle of the summer. Just toss them under overhanging rhododendron and watch them become annhilated by the fish. Both look great... Try trimming the calf hair indicator on the first one back down a bit. When the fly hits the water, the weight of the wing will cause it to float on it's side. The last looks VERY nice!! Can't find a single thing wrong with it!!


Discussing summer time fishing in the winter is driving me insane!!

Les a inch worm is a great trout pattern in the warmer months. Your on to some good stuff there. I might add that a inch worm pattern on a clear stream shows up extremely well without a indicator on top. Also a mighty powerful bluegill pattern on moving and still water alike.

I figured that calf tail post was a little scary. I might refine my design on the second one and leave out the black thread for some yellow antron on the head with bit of yellow along the side of the sandwich. The more I look at inchworm pictures they seem to be green with yellow bands. I also will leave out the indicator since it is very visible in that green shade.