Stewart Denton
AKA: Gandolf - Borger, Texas
I
fished a great deal as a kid but had not fly fished much. Watching Curt
Gowdy and Lee Wulff fly fishing on TV was a high point while in grade and high
school, and of course I read every article on fly fishing in Sports Afield, with
fly tying as a part of that interest. But, I never got a chance to do any
serious fly fishing until about about 8 or 9 years ago. An old
friend got me even more active about 3 or 4 years ago and I'm paying him back
for his treachery by getting him interested in fly tying.
Of course, I had wanted to tie flies as a kid, and realized a couple of years
ago that I wasn't getting any younger, so asked around until a couple of friends
told me a little about tying, and loaned me some catalogs. I borrowed and
read a couple of books, got a few low dollar tools, and started
tying.
Currently I enjoy tying streamers, nymphs, and hair wing flies, and have
recently started tying more wet flies. Of special interest is trying to
work with materials that are obtained locally. Quail, pheasant, duck, and
goose feathers, and hair from local game animals is used whenever possible.
I play with my own patterns a little, but fundamentally tie standard patterns,
modifying them slightly to use what I have on hand, or to use what I enjoy tying
with.
This picture is in the Colorado Rockies at our camp at near 10,000 feet where I
am tying on a picnic table in a screened tent. At the time I was tying a
"Dead Chicken." It's a fly that amounts to a large Griffin's
Gnat.
Select One of Stew's Flies:
Be
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Stewart Denton
Note:
The leech colors that I seem to see most often are black, brown, olive, and
purple. The # 4 brown leech is one of the favorite flies of friend
Scott, who uses it when after nice size trout, and he also uses it for bass.
He doesn't see it available in brown very often, so I tie him some when up in
his neck of the woods. Last time there, I tied a couple while
visiting. The next morning we visited at church. He had been
out in his canoe that morning before church and had caught a 2 lb. bass on one
of the brown leeches. He really likes the pattern. Select
One of Stew's Flies: Return to Stewart's
Introduction. Tier:
Stewart Denton
Tying
Instructions 1. Start the
thread, wrap forward to the eye, back to the bend, back forward to about
5/16" behind the eye, and then head cement the shank and thread. Select
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Introduction. Tier:
Stewart Denton
The cow dung was
my the first effort in that vein. It is an old pattern. The cow dung
of course represents cattle flies, and will be a choice to try where flies are
found, especially cattle flies. At this point I have only tied a few classic
wets, although I have tied quite a few of Sylvester Nemes "Partridge
and..." type soft hackles, and hope to add a lot more to the box. The Alder is also
on my list to tie and fish. There are alders on many streams in Colorado
and New Mexico where we fish, and so the Alder, which is a fly tiers Select
One of Stew's Flies: Return to Stewart's
Introduction.
Tier: Stewart Denton
Note:
This was the favorite fly of a friend who fished it more than any other fly, and
was fairly successful with it. He passed away a couple of months ago.
I intend to keep a couple in my fly box to remind me of how short life can be.
Friend Scott and my younger brother Stan also fished a quill wing McGinty this
summer and did well with it.
The pattern
that I am most familiar with calls for mallard quill wings, blue with white
tips, but I tie the hair wing version as shown here. Woodchuck guard hair
has white tips, and thus gives the wing a somewhat similar appearance to the
common tying. I think hair wings hold their appearance better than the
quill wings when fished. Woodchuck is my favorite winging hair for down
wings, it ties in well, does not flair, is not slick and thus does not come out
of the fly, stacks reasonably easily, and looks good. I prefer the
3906B instead of the more commonly used 3906, as its slightly greater length
gives more room for a slightly longer body. Select
One of Stew's Flies: Return to Stewart's
Introduction. Tier:
Stewart Denton
Select
One of Stew's Flies: Return to Stewart's
Introduction. Be
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for your tying needs.
Hook:
Mustad 9672 4-12.
Thread: Brown.
Weight: Several wraps of lead wire.
Tail: Brown marabou.
Body: Brown chenille.
Wing: Brown marabou, alternated between wraps of chenille.
Hook:
Mustad 94831, #10.
Thread: Black.
Tail: Red hackle under, light elk over.
Underbody: Yellow closed cell foam.
Body: Yellow chenille.
Rib: Peacock herl.
Wing: Woodchuck guard hair.
Hackle: 1 black and 1 barred ginger.
2. Tie in the under tail, the over tail, and then add a small amount of head
cement on top of the base of the tail.
3. Tie in the chenille followed by 5 or 6 peacock herls for the rib.
Form what amounts to a dubbing loop of thread along the herl.
4. Cut a 3" strip of foam about 1/16" by 1/16" to
3/32" or so, and tie it in in front of the tail, wrapping it down with
thread back to the tail. Wrap the foam forward forming an under
body, and tie off about 5/16" behind the eye.
5. Wrap the chenille forward over the foam under body to form the body,
tying off about 5/16" behind the eye.
6. Twist the peacock and thread loop together to form a herl rope and rib the
body with the rope. Pull the herl rope tightly enough to imbed it in
the chenille. Tie off at the front of the chenille, and form a tapered
thread base for tying in the wing.
7. Cut the woodchuck hair, clean out the under fur as much as is easily
possible, stack, and tie in the wing.
8. Tie in the two hackle feathers, hackle, form a thread head, and head cement.
Hook:
Mustad 3906 10 - 14.
Thread: Black or olive.
Body: Olive floss.
Hackle: Brown or mottled brown/black wet.
Wing: Mallard quill.
Note: Wet flies are a growing group of flies in my box.
I have started to tie and to fish them, poorly at this point, but there is
always hope.
representation of the alder fly, may turn out to be a good choice.
Hook:
Mustad 3906 or 3906B, 8 - 12.
Thread: Black.
Tail: Red hackle fibers under, grizzly hackle or teal flank
over.
Weighting: None or several wraps of lead wire.
Body: Alternating black and yellow chenille.
Hackle: Brown or black mottled wet fly hackle (I
use quail).
Wings: Woodchuck guard hairs.
Hook:
Mustad 94840, #14 and #16.
Thread: 6/0 Gray.
Wing: Very light tan elk.
Tail: Very light tan elk.
Body: Muskrat or other gray dubbing.
Hackle: Medium or dark dun.
I have seen a description of this fly, but have never seen it listed as a named
fly. It is mentioned in a single sentence in one of my fly tying
manuals, ie: that light tan elk is sometimes used instead of brown
bucktail to tie a pattern somewhat similar to the Gray Wulff, so the pattern is
certainly not a new pattern by any means, although I had tied and used the
pattern before reading about it. I have been calling the pattern the Tan
Wulff, so as to have a name to use when discussing the fly.
The fly has done very well on some alpine lakes and ponds in the southern
Rockies in late June to late July. At times it has readily taken browns in
those lakes and ponds when no other pattern, in a heavily fished area, was doing
very well at all. Friend SRP has advised me that the trout may be taking
it for a callibaetis. At any rate, I keep only the two sizes in my
fly box, and those two have been quite successful at times in the limited
application described.
for your tying needs.