Keith's Black and Blue Steelhead Fly

At first glance it may look like one of Jim Henson's Muppets gone amok, but Keith's Black and Blue is a fantastic all-purpose steelhead fly that cleans house when swung through the rich watersheds of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.


The inspiration for this cutting edge fly pattern came from a visit to Leland's San Francisco shop by Paul Miller, a professional fly tyer, fly fishing consultant, and steelhead fanatic. Over the years, Paul has mastered the art of traditional steelhead fly tying. More recently, he's become one of the world's more innovative modern steelhead fly designers, employing carefully selected materials and design principles in his flies.

The Black and Blue's success is primarily dependent on its architecture, a spun and trimmed anvil head and a whack of long, wispy tail fibers. According to Paul, the secret is in this design. He says, "You've gotta have a hard head, soft tail construction to push the water and attract that big holding steelhead. Get the fish out of its lie."

Well, pushing water and attracting big steelhead is the Black and Blue's specialty.

From Drawing Board to the River

To achieve the "hard head, soft tail" action that makes the Black and Blue such a bomber fly pattern, you've got to examine at the components of the design separately. The fly is designed to be hard and heavy up front and long and wispy in the back, so why not start from the ground up?

The Hook

The Black and Blue is constructed on a large 1/0 Tiemco TMC 7999 salmon and steelhead hook. It is a stinger-style fly, so a looped length of 50-pound Fire Wire, Power Pro, or monofilament line (in a pinch) is secured at the hook bend to accept a short Gamakatsu Octopus stinger hook. Upon completion of the fly's construction, the TMC 7999 is clipped at the hook bend, leaving just the "backbone" and trailing Octopus. Stinger flies are useful because they allow quick, pure hook sets. The added ability to quickly change out a stinger hook can also increase the life of the fly significantly, while allowing an angler to dial in the proper hook size on the river.

The Tail

So how does the Black and Blue's tail seem to explode behind with long, incredibly active fibers? Such a dramatic flowing tail is developed by tying two stacked sets of rhea feathers 360-degrees around the hook shank. Rhea fibers are quite similar to those found on ostrich plumes, but they are much more durable and typically display slightly longer fibers.

Paul Miller has teamed with Kate Davidson of Siskiyou Aviary to market a line of the very best rhea: the Paul Miller Super Spey series. The entire line is available at LelandFlyTying.com, but if rhea feathers are unobtainable, long ostrich feathers will do the trick.

The Head

The Black and Blue's water-pushing noggin is constructed by stacking and spinning hollow deer hair around a set of dumbbell or bead-chain eyes. This triangular mass at the front of the fly creates attractive disturbances in the water column that many steelhead can't resist. It also helps the fly look tough, which always satisfies a hard-working fly tyer's modern aesthetic.

Hard Head, Soft Tail, Heavy Action

Paul Miller has found great success with this fly design, especially in British Columbia, because of its ability to move lots of water and create lots of attractive motion. When swung or stripped below the surface, this fly's ability to disturb the water column and follow with tremendous undulation steals the show. Fish are attracted to this design's double-threat and will often leave their holding positions, follow the fly through the length of the swing, and slam it at the end of the run.


Evan LeBon is a regular contributor to beyondthebug.com

photo courtesy of www.flyfishingoutfitters.com and www.lelandflytying.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

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

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