Sooty Olive

FIREY BROWN · Sooty Olive

the Sooty Olive

this is a wet fly pattern that is tied to represent Midge (chironomid)
also known as Duck Fly,,its one of the classics thats used on the
big loughs of Ireland and i have personally had good success on this
fly for wild browns,,i would feel confident using this on any still water
for both Browns and Rainbows especially from Spring time onwards

hook: kamasan B175 size 12#
thread: Black UNI 8.0
tail: Golden Pheasant Tippet
rib: fine Oval Gold
body: Sooty Olive dubbing (Frankie Mcphillips dubbing in this tying)
hackle: Black Hen tied beard style
Wing: Bronze Mallard Shoulder

Step 1
run the thread to along the hook shank stopping before
the bend and tie in the rib

Step 2
tie in the Golden Pheasant Tippets with 2 or 3 turns of thread
then wind forward to form an even body

Step 3
trim off the waste material

Step 4
tie down the rest of the material then run the thread back down
to the bend of the hook and Dub the thread with Sooty Olive dubbing..
try to form a THIN rope of dubbing

Step 5
wind the Dubbing forward to form an even body stopping a few
millimeters before the eye

Step 6
wind on the Rib (4 turns seems to be sufficient for a size 12#)
tie off and trim the waste

Step 7
tie in a Black Hen hackle(Beard Stlye) beard style means tying
the hackle fibers UNDERNEATH the hook,,this is very tricky and
takes some practise so in this tying i have tied the hackle on top
of the hook and simply pushed all the fibers underneath

Final Step
take a slip of Bronze Mallard Shoulder and tie in on top of the
hook to form the wing,,tie off and whip finish..remember to
Varnish the head you dont want all that good work to fall apart Laughing

The final product,,ENJOY Very Happy

All comments/questions welcome

Regards
FIREY BROWN

Straid Bumble

Nice one FB ,I had a few fish on Erne last August on a sooty olive Very Happy

fossil-fish

How do you tie the wing with bronze mallard. Matching slips from quills is a bit beyond me, but this is a much softer type of feather. I have tried it in a little bunch of fibres, but it doesn't look right, you loose the barring effect and it looks dull.

Question

FIREY BROWN · Mallard Wing

FIREY BROWN · Diagram for MALLARD

Hi Fossil

here i will try to explain how to tie in Mallard in the form of a WING,,
there are many ways to tie Mallard and as i`ve said before it is a
tricky material to use and i would say its probably down to the fact
that its such a soft Feather,,im no expert by any means and if anyone
would like to post how they tie their wings then the more the merrier
i`m always willing to learn different methods,,,so here goes

Step 1
lets take a piece of paper as if it were a piece of Mallard

Step 2
the broken line represents the middle of the feather

Step 3
we need to fold the OUTSIDE edges of the feather into the middle
shown by the arrows

Step 4
once you have folded the OUTSIDE edges into the middle the feather
begins to look like this

Step 5
all thats left now is to fold the feather in half again and you should
now have this shape

Step 6
it looks dead easy right ?
SO lets now take a real Mallard Shoulder Feather and apply the
above steps to see how it looks,,
This is the Feather,,notice how it CURVES

Step 7
what you need to do now is PULL the fibers of the feather so that
they are more or less even and not curved,,
something like this.. then cut this slip from the main feather

Step 8
once you have cut the slip from the main feather turn it over so
that the concave side is uppermost like this and ready to be folded

Step 9
lets begin to fold the OUTSIDE edges inwards just as we did in
step 4,,this is what you should now have

Step 10
fold the feather in half again as we did in step 5
and its now ready to be tied on to the hook

Step 11
if we look down on the feather between your finger and thumb
it should have this appearence

Step 12
for the purpose of being clear and concise i have prepared a larger
piece of Mallard to show how it looks side on,,and also how you should
place it on the hook ready to be tied in,,,,,,,,,, here is a bare hook to
give the best possible view,, you should place the feather on top in
this sort of fashion

Step 13
once on top of the hook shank grip the Mallard TIGHTLY dont be
afraid to squeeze the feather between your finger and thumb of
your Left hand and hold in place,,make a LOOSE wrap of thread over
the feather and pull DOWN with pressure (dont go mad lol its not the
titanic you`re trying to hold)
but look CLOSELY and see how the Feather has collapsed DOWN on itself
this is the best way to achieve a good wing and you still have that
lovely barred effect from the Mallard

I hope this is of help to everyone
All comments /questions welcome

Regards
FIREY BROWN

fossil-fish

Wow

That's what you call an answer to a question. A lot of effort involved, thank you very much. That is very clear and I will give it a go.

I had read somewhere that if you couldn't manage with soft feather wings to use a 'rolled wing', but it never explained what a rolled wing was. I had tried just pulling of a small bunch of fibres, rolling between finger and thumb and tying on. That is what it sounded like to me. It worked OKish but nothing compared to your method, which does not look (famous last words maybe) all that difficult.

Excellent
Very Happy

hogork

Thats a magic step by step Firey brown. As with fossil fish I have just been rolling the bronze mallard and tying it in (for years). From now on Ill be doing it the way you have shown as ,just from the photo ,the wing is given a "deliberate" more "natural" profile.
When you fish with this type of wing does it keep its shape / profile over the course of a few outings or does it go into a lump like a rolled wing ?
Jim

Beatnik69

Jim,

I tie my slips the same way as Harry has shown here. A well tied fly should keep its shape for some time (barring a mangling from fish teeth of course).

Gary

FIREY BROWN

hogork

Ok thanks for the replys Gary and FB . If thats the case I will be doing it the way you have shown and if it lasts a wee while its a bonus.
Laughing

The girlfriend is off on holiday for a week so the dye pots came out last night and and fired them up in the comfort of the Kitchen!
The smell was a bit eyewatering (even with extractor flat out) but I have some nice colours of bronze mallard and flank ready for dabblers / sooty variants etc...

Jim

hogork

Firey are you still talking about flies?

"PS mine dont stay in shape very long "

Laughing

Sooty Olive

Mallard Wing

Diagram for MALLARD