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Thread: Olive Woven Nymph

  1. #11
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    Dec 2006
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    Great fly!

    I agree it does resemble a Polystickle, though I havn't yet seen a Polystickle with a tail pointing downwards!

    The original Polystickle recipe and a bit of history around it's origins for those that perhaps didn't know:

    Hook - down eye l/s 6 or 8 with shank painted silver to give 'glitter' through the polythene.
    Thread - Black
    Body (the crimson floss was added at the third nearest the hook eye later by Ken Sinfoil to imitate the breeding males) - Polythene strip tied 'fish shape' to the eye.
    Back and tail cut to a tail shape - brown raffene (this was the colour of the local sticklebacks). Olive and green backs followed later.
    'Head' winds of black silk to a 'head shape' with a few coats of gloss varnish.

    This fly was designed by Richard Walker who was my fishing hero when I was a kid. He took 'out of the box' fishing thinking to another level. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was the development of 'specimen' carp hunting. I mentined on another thread how he caught the then British record 44lb carp calles 'Clarissa'from a famous big carp fishery, Redmire Pool. Clarissa was kept in an aquarium at London Zoo and I'd often go there just to gaze with awe at Clarissa. Those were the days before I started gazing at awe at females of another species (human, by the way...!)..

    The fly was designed to imitate a stickeback. This is a little minnow-type fish. In England we had the 3 and 10 spined, though there are lots of other species and sub-species especially in the Northern Hemisphere. I used to catch them in our local pond and keep them (3-spined) in an aquarium at home. Rather like kurper in breeding season, sticklebacks get extremely territorial and aggressive. I soon learnt stickleback and perch or roach fry did not co-habitate happily in the same space! The male takes on a reddish hue on the front underbelly, and has bright blue eyes. They have no scales which is unusual.

    I often fished at Farmoor, a rather ugly large round concrete bowl just outside Oxford. This venue was definitely not in keeping with the stunted philosophy of the local chalk stream dryfly-only pooftahs! There wasn't much mayfly activity, but buzzers and snails were the go. At the tail-end of the season, the sticklebacks would go beserk with their breeding. The trout went troppo for them. Local fishers like Ken Sinfoil and Syd Brock made variants of them as did I. I simply added a blob of metallic blue Humbrol paint with a black centre as eyes, instead of the un-natural yellow ones most guys used. It's incredible how if you keep an aquarium with insects and fish fry how you get to know them and realise how off the mark lots of imitations are.

    We'd fish the Polytickle at various depths with various weights of sinking line, the successful depth usually co-inciding with the daphnia levels and thermocline. Farmoor was very deep, and certainly could reach 40' within casting range of the shore. At these depths bloodworm on a lead-core worked a treat, with the occasional whiplash of a badly-cast lead core on one's back keeping one alert during the cold autumn days!. When you hit the target depth where the fry and therefore trout were, bingo! there were some monster 'bows there, fattened on all the stickleback fry. Jerky erratic retrieves were usually the go. The thing against the Polystickle though was it was 'rigid' without movement and several latter-day variants have taken care of that using marabou tails for example.
    The more you know, the less you need (Aboriginal Australian proverb)

    Only dead fish swim with the stream (Malcolm Muggeridge)

  2. #12
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    Dec 2006
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    By the way Tango, the body texture of your fly is stunning! The fly to me loks like a 'buggy' insect nymph or caddis pupa not a fry imitation. The variegation is something which even my favourite quick-cheating Koki markings can't replicate!

    PS - the Polystickle was one of the first flies in the 1960s to use totally synthetic materials. Whether that's a good or a bad thing I leave you all to decide!
    The more you know, the less you need (Aboriginal Australian proverb)

    Only dead fish swim with the stream (Malcolm Muggeridge)

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    Eastern Cape
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    Quote Originally Posted by chris williams View Post
    By the way Tango, the body texture of your fly is stunning! The fly to me loks like a 'buggy' insect nymph or caddis pupa not a fry imitation. The variegation is something which even my favourite quick-cheating Koki markings can't replicate!

    PS - the Polystickle was one of the first flies in the 1960s to use totally synthetic materials. Whether that's a good or a bad thing I leave you all to decide!
    Spot on Chris with both your replies. Tango tied a great fly and needs to be classed as such as least.

    Dave
    Handle every situation like a dog.- If you cant hump it, piss on it and walk away. --JASPER.

  4. #14
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    Sep 2006
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tango View Post
    Weave the body and tie off.



    Nice fly Tango, I really like the segmentation from the weave!
    “Apparently people don't like the truth, but I do like it; I like it because it upsets a lot of people. If you show them enough times that their arguments are bullshit, then maybe just once, one of them will say, 'Oh! Wait a minute - I was wrong.' I live for that happening. Rare, I assure you” ― Lemmy Kilmister

    Reap the Whirlwind - WM

    Paradise = A 3wt Rod & a fist full of someone else's #32 parachutes

  5. #15
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    Mar 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by poppernel View Post
    Spot on Chris with both your replies. Tango tied a great fly and needs to be classed as such as least.

    Dave
    One of the polystickle patterns. Hang, gonna weave one of these.
    Handle every situation like a dog.- If you cant hump it, piss on it and walk away. --JASPER.

  6. #16
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    Yeah, that's the Polystickle. The original had a slightly shorter tail 'cleft in twain' with brown raffene back. The orange throat hackle was a tad shorter and as I mentioned the crimson male mating 'blush' was only added after.

    This weaving thing would make me go more dizzy than I already am!!!
    The more you know, the less you need (Aboriginal Australian proverb)

    Only dead fish swim with the stream (Malcolm Muggeridge)

  7. #17
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    Mar 2008
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    Eastern Cape
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    Quote Originally Posted by chris williams View Post
    Yeah, that's the Polystickle. The original had a slightly shorter tail 'cleft in twain' with brown raffene back. The orange throat hackle was a tad shorter and as I mentioned the crimson male mating 'blush' was only added after.

    This weaving thing would make me go more dizzy than I already am!!!
    And the patterns tied with transparent bodies are awesome. Dizzy!!!! you got that right, tried weaving a dry fly on a no: 18, no: 16, till down to a no: 10. Tried using duck feather shaft, ostrich shaft, hen and cock hackle shafts, but they ''kink'' and get pointed body segments which I am not happy with. Maybe if one first soakes them in water or vinegar they will become more flexible. If anybody can suggest something, feel free to do so.

    Dave
    Handle every situation like a dog.- If you cant hump it, piss on it and walk away. --JASPER.

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Perth
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    Tango

    Very nicely tied woven fly, the body profile and weave is perfect, great photo's as well.
    Fly-fishing surpasses the need to actually catch a fish, it becomes a mindset, and with time, an obsession.

    Lord,grant that I may catch a fish so big that even I,
    When speaking afterwards,
    May have no need to lie.
    Amen

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