Theo’s Flies Long Tail Sally
Show season is always a crazy time for me, simply because I am traveling and working the shows. This activity leaves little time for me to keep up on my blog activity, and yet I want to put up new posts as often as I can. My friend, Theo Bakelaar, has come to my aid. He has a number of flies for which he has photographed the tying steps, and he has kindly agreed to share them with us.
I am particularly happy to do so for a three main reasons. (1) They allow me to make posts without too much effort. (2) They promote the use of beads not just for nymphs, but for a variety of imitations, both salt water and freshwater. (3) They allow us to peek in the window of one of Europe’s better known fly tyers and fly fishers to see what style of flies are used there.
This first one is the Long Tail Sally. Not all that much different than a Woolly Bugger, you say? Have another look. It uses a short shank hook, which give the fly a very much different action in the water. In addition, because the hook is short, the body of the imitation is short. This design would lend itself to a double egg fly with long flowing white marabou tail. Or a fluorescent orange body and hackle, with black marabou tail, and many, many other choices where the splash of color needs to be shorter than the full body length of a Woolly Bugger.
The finished fly. The short hook really makes the fly jig strongly when fished with a Strip/Tease Retrieve or other jigging retrieve.