Tuesday, June 10, 2014

At the VIce

Been workin' some of those longer
hours at work lately, ahhh the day job,
nothin' like consistent 50+hr weeks, but
I'm finding the groove, for what it is.

Leaves me pretty drained during the
week after punching the clock from 6 'til 5.
Been unwinding with some light chores
around the house, mowing my fresh little yard
with my fresh little electric mower, rewarding
in its own right. And of course sneaking out
to fish when the sleep schedule and those
chores allow. (Do still pedal a bike on occasion,
you shoulda seen Jill bunny hoppin' those Swatara
logs on Sunday!)

But sometimes it's daunting to gear up for
post workday activity, motivation can be
lacking when the eyes are heavy, ya know?

So I've been passing an evening here or there
sitting at the vice, tinkering with patterns, filling
already full boxes. Whatchya gonna do?

Have never tied with golden pheasant, turns out
that that's the tail of the original Adams from 1922,
one of my favorites (and also used in the uber classique
Royal Coachman series). The Adam's has evolved into
the modern standard, now a Catskill style tie w/ blended
hackle fibres for the tail & upright hackle tip wings, which
is what I tie for the CVTU Youth Camp we host. Three
dozen size 16's with a half dozen or so rejects will really
help ya dial it in...

I bought a golden pheasant head a little while back,
so may as well use it.  The original pattern calls for
hackle tip wings, tied in forward and semi-spent for
the wings, then split those tails (or not) with a bump
of thread, the dubbing aint the ideal grey wool, but
close enough for now...I imagine some hungry trouts
will find these delectable.

And then on Saturday the fellas were talkin' about a
pattern they'd slayed 'em on in Montana last fall, the
'Purple Haze.'

'Just an Adams, but purple...' they said.

So I figured I'd try my hand at it and whipped up a
couple of 14's & a couple of 16's with what I had
laying about. I imagine a brookie will eat it, hell
they'll eat just about anything if you can feed it
to 'em just right...only one way to find out  guess.

Swapped out the Pearsall's black silk for purple, dubbed
with cinnamon ice uv instead of the grey, fun fly to tie.




No comments:

Post a Comment