Tying with the boys

My twin 7 year old boys have become more interested in flytying this winter.  They have actually started to ask to tie flies occasionally.  Usually it's some pattern they see in a picture or magazine that is so complicated and requires dozens of rare and expensive materials.  By the time we sit down to tie I can usually convince them to try something a little more simple.  Over the winter we've tied up various streamers, nymphs and foam bugs.  This weekend they saw some crease flies and gurglers I have stuck in some foam on the wall and they wanted to give them a try.  First Keegan had to tie up a foam ant since his brother tied one up a couple weeks ago and he didn't have one in his collection yet.  After we got through that I helped Kai tie up a crease fly and Keegan a gurgler.  The best part to them was tying the flies with white foam so they could color them up with permanent markers after.  We caught a few little native brook trout in a local stream on worms this weekend.  We'll have to start trying a few flies soon.

Couple of favorite pike flies

Ken at Pike Adventures asked me what's been working for me for pike flies so I threw up a few pics.  These flies might seem a little fancy and fragile compared to most pike flies but I really enjoy tying them.  I love tying with natural materials like bucktail, marabou and feathers and mixing all the different colors together...oh and they usually need to have lots of mixed flash although I noticed I cut back on flash on one of these.  These guys really swim fished fast or slow.  I try to balance them so they don't immediately dive nose down on the pause and instead sit there horizontal or slowly glide downward.  For this reason I don't normally add eyes or epoxy towards the front and try to use lighter wire hooks.  Yellow perch and other combos with orange and chartreuse have worked best for me.  I can't wait to get out there and fish them.