The Slow Dance: A Fly for Sea Run Browns and WInter Steelhead

When flies hit the water, everyone talks about movement. "This fly moves well." "That fly has great movement on the swing." "I love how that pattern moves under the surface." As anglers and fly tyers, we've all heard (and uttered) these words, or a similar arrangement of these words at some point or another. But we haven't wasted breath; the concept of movement is important, particularly when showing flies to large, aggressive feeders.

Here's a fly designed to move well in the kind of water sea run brown trout chasers and steelheaders often face.


The Slow Dance is an impressionistic fly designed to attract, not to closely imitate. Its squid-like emu "tentacles" make it deadly on coastal steelhead water, its length and bulk through the body render it downright nasty with a greased line technique, and the dark, but contrasting color scheme has proven successful on water from Tierra del Fuego to British Columbia.


Swing it through a seam, or run it through a moderate-to-fast pool or pocket. It's great in slow water and it's wicked when stripped hard through the second half of a swing and into the hang down.


The Slow Dance gets its great movement from three materials. The primary movers in the equation are the three emu feathers that form the long, wispy tail section. These feathers are tied in convex side up and over a thick wad of dubbing to keep them from fouling about the bend of the hook. The secondary mover in the fly is the wrapped collar of purple schlappen just behind the head. The tertiary mover is the darkly colored and heavily teased Angora goat dubbing through the thick body section of the fly. Flanking feathers of guinea and golden pheasant top the fly off and impart contrast and a visual order to things, but don't do much on the movement front.


Big flies designed to move are fun to create, and even more fun to fish. Grab some material and make some moves.


Evan LeBon is a regular contributor to beyondthebug.com

Beyond The Bug | Fly Tyer Profile: Keith Westra

It was 1993 and I was a freshman at Humboldt State in Northern California. I lived in a dorm nestled beneath towering redwoods with a view of the Pacific. I learned the art of fly fishing – instead of attending freshman orientation – from Matt, another guy that lived in my dorm. We fished Coffee Creek near the Trinity River and needless to say a spark was ignited.

In that same year, I received a fly tying kit for Christmas. Like most generic fly tying kits, it lacked the appropriate materials and had really low end tools, but heck, it meant the world to me. I still remember my first fly. I tied a #14 Light Cahill, and I remember how frustrating it was trying to follow along with the book and its poorly taken black and white photos. But it was a start, a start that fueled a passion just as big and great as fly fishing itself.

Now, in 2008, I can look back and see how far I've come and how I still learn more and more each time a sit down at a vise and make the first wrap. For me tying is such a huge part of the sport and it sometimes occupies more of my time than fly fishing itself. Whether I'm tying up some Charlies for my next bonefishing trip or spinning some sweet deer hair poppers for a trip to the Sacramento River Delta, the tying drives me to become better – I don’t want to simply perfect my flies, but I want to become more imaginative and creative in my designs.

I often lie in bed, assembling materials and the elements of a new fly in my head. Sometimes I can’t sleep because I’m trying to solve the next problem or puzzle in fly tying. How do I make it float better? What can I use to make it swim better? Is this new material a more durable choice than what has been used in the past? Take more time looking in the craft store... Maybe that glue I saw in the hardware store would be better than the last stuff I tested! Piecing the puzzle together is rewarding, and probably what keeps me coming back for more time at the vise.

As a fly tyer I pride myself in continuing to hone my outside-the-box thinking. I don’t want to just add or take something away from an existing pattern, I want to make it completely different. With my own fly designs, I want to re-imagine the craft.

I've spent the last 3 years developing a new series of tube flies for steelhead. Umpqua Feather Merchants has picked them up and they'll be marketed for 2009. These tube flies are unique, something I considered getting a patent on, not just a variation on a variation of any existing pattern. Ultimately, this is what fly tying means to me, taking it to the extreme, coming up with something new, getting out a set of Prismacolor markers and sketching out the idea before I ever sit down at my vise. It means giving away patterns I spent long hard hours developing and tying. Often I'll hand off my creations just to see if they work for pike and muskie for a Leland Fly Fishing Outfitters customer in Norway. Recently I tied up some sweet crabs that helped a Yucatan-bound buddy catch his first permit on fly tackle. These are the rewards of my work and what pushes me to be a better tyer and fly designer.

Keith Westra is a regular contributor under the name "on the fly" to beyondthebug.blogspot.com

photos in this post by Ian McNemar, a regular contributor to beyondthebug.blogspot.com

Striper Fishin'

This is a Bug I originally tied up for surf fishing in Hawaii, and it worked great for jacks. The fly was brought to the west coast by a old timer form the east coast, so I'm guessing it was originally tied for stripers. This last weekend I used them in the Sacramento River Delta to catch stripers with Keith, Evan, Shunji, and Ian. No stripers were found. Though I did land a large mouth bass with this yak bunker fly.

I tied this one on a size #2 811s TMC from Tiemco. The goal of this fly is to layer white buck, white yak, white buck, blue yak, red yak, eyes, and color the side stripes with a Prismacolor marker! Then your ready to fish. I have found that this fly is a very effective patter for just about any water anywhere, and it casts great because of the low-weight materials used in its construction.

This is a Clouser with a great color combination (thanks to Josh Frazier). White buck, grey buck, and purple buck.

photos by matt "mj" jones, a regular contributor to beyondthebug.blogspot.com

Designing a Fly Tying Blog

de·sign
- verb (used with object)
to plan and fashion artistically and skillfully.
to intend for a definite purpose: a fly designed to catch FISH.

Fly tying is a millennium-old angler’s practice that weds form and function with the ultimate goal of fooling hungry fish. In the earliest times, simple flies were tied with just a few materials; fur, feathers, and silk were wrapped around a roughly cast iron hook shank to resemble the aquatic insects that grayling and trout call breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The earliest Macedonian fly fishers were probably more interested in catching their own dinner than casting their flies for sport (quite a foreign concept to us moderns, wrapped up in our own recreational pursuits of catch and release game fishing). Even so, the very oldest fly patterns served a purpose and were deliberately created and constructed to achieve a goal.

Over time, the fly angler’s ultimate goal has certainly shifted and morphed. We now tie and cast flies to just about anything that swims. The world’s now got flies for tarpon, sharks, muskie and pike, bass poppers, giant squid patterns for stripers and billfish, and funky feathered creations for steelhead and salmon. We truly have gone beyond the bug.

For all of this progress and nuance, the fly essentially remains the same: it’s a highly designed piece of functional art – yes, art – and Beyond the Bug should be thought of as an online art gallery of sorts. We’ve created a clean and modern space where the ideas behind the function and beauty of the world’s very best fly designs can shine.

As we move forward, following the trends of today’s new generation of fly tyers, we’ll show you interesting tying ideas, post reviews of materials (new and old), highlight tyers we think are “on to something good,” share step-by-step tying videos for some of our favorite flies, and above all, we’ll fill these crisp, digital walls with the angler’s art: good flies.

photos in this post by Ian McNemar, a regular contributor to beyondthebug.blogspot.com

Stripers at The End

This clever sand eel pattern is called "The End."

It borrows long, married saddle hackle wings from a Deceiver, a trim and airy profile from Ken Abrames (a la Striper Moon), and utilizes both traditional and modern materials. Stack white bucktail fibers, yak hair, and EP Fibers to create a long profile. Squeeze in some crystal flash for dimension and a bit of a lateral line. Top the fly with peacock herl and jungle cock eyes.

Building a tough epoxy head will help you get more nautical miles out of this fly. I like to use Z-Poxy from Zap Products. It's an easy-mix 1:1 product that sets in just 5 minutes.

There is a lot of length to this saltwater offering, but it's still quite cast-able. Be sure, however, to post the early layers of materials near the hook bend or stack some still bucktail fibers of a high diameter so the longer yak and EP Fibers do not foul around the hook bend during your back and forward casts.

photo by Evan LeBon, a regular contributor to beyondthebug.blogspot.com

Super Sexy Super Spey

Still playing with Paul Miller Super Spey rhea feathers.

This pair of smart Spey flies shows the material quite well. They're both topped with golden pheasant and incorporate Spirit River Diamond Brite dubbing through the body for a touch of sparkle and sheen.

Super Spey rhea feathers are a tremendous fly tying material and a fantastic resource to fly tyers of all stripes. These fibers average about 4 inches in length and are extremely durable and a joy to tie with. They provide unmatched length and profile - get them wet, and the movement they impart cannot be topped by other materials that match in toughness.

photo by Evan LeBon, a regular contributor to beyondthebug.blogspot.com

Calimari con Super Spey

This innovative Super Spey Squid incorporates Paul Miller Super Spey rhea and emu feathers from Kate Davidson and Siskiyou Aviary in Ashland, Oregon. Rhea and emu are composed of durable, yet supple fibers. White schlappen tentacles have been spotted with the help of a black Prismacolor art marker in the style of Bob Popovics. The flanking jungle cock nail feathers add a touch of tradition over a more modern bulked head of Enrico Puglisi's EP Fibers.

Swing it for steelhead or strip it for Montauk stripers, it's got lots of length and loads of potential for underwater movement.

photo by Evan LeBon, a regular contributor to beyondthebug.blogspot.com