I love thinking about bugs and flies, on my mind as of late are the BWO’s that I’m sure I’m missing while stuck at work during the height of the day. One pattern that looks the part, easy to tie and gets great results down here is the standard WD-40 pattern. I like it for a couple reasons, the slim body, the wood duck feathers and it’s an easy, speedy tie that anyone can master quickly. With that said my box has plenty of WD-40′s in it, I’ve stuck with a #16 because it is the most representative of the full mature Baetis nymph. Thinking about bugs and flies I began to think about a WD-40 Brassie pattern that I’ve put together here, later I found that others have had the same revelation.

The WD-Brassie (W.F.F. Variant)

• Hook: 1x Short Scud #16
• Thread: Olive 70 Denier UTC
• Tail: Lt. Olive Woodduck
• Body: Hot Yellow SM Ultra Wire
• Thorax: Black Mink Fur
• Wing-Case: Lt. Olive Woodduck

Things to note: to get a truly seamless body with the wire and to get the correct proportions, tie in the SM Ultra Wire near the hook eye and have it mirror the curve of the hook along the side facing you (not on top) and secure it back to the hook barb. When tying in the woodduck tail DO NOT clip the excess wooduck free (this will result in a bump making the wire wraps one too thick at the tail), rather wrap your thread over the woodduck to the point where you begin the thorax and wing-case. Leave it sticking out here and wrap the ultra wire forward, by keeping everything even up the length of the body the wire has a seamless resting spot with no bumps from materials that were tied in and cut free and you can use the woodduck from the tail to make the wing-case without tying more in. Using Mink fur was an experiment, I see future potential. The guard hairs are excellent but this was a challenge to dub with for the first time. I like the color contrast and I think the Hot Yellow will set the trout off, alot of our Baetis nymphs are either a darker olive/black or the light, almost translucent olive color. I’m thinking that the sun hitting the wire will appear like one of the translucent olive colored nymphs.

Slide Show

That’s D-Dub for Dave Wiltshire a fly tyer from England who ties a mean looking Brassie. Planet Trout posted a bit about Dave’s site and his recent Brassie’s, with that I was hooked and immediately swung over to DW Fly Fishing & Tying which is getting added to the links list pronto. Digging a bit more I came across the article Dave wrote for Hatches magazine which details this pattern, I really enjoyed reading about this fly which is what prompted me to begin constructing a few of my own Brassies tied D-Dub (W) style. Shown here are a few of the more exotic varieties I tied up, I also tied many that mirror Dave’s patterns with a more simple look. The last creature here is a take on a black stone-fly nymph using the Brassie body. I think I’m going change it a bit to make it more natural looking by adding biot tails and a more natural wing case. Note: The soft-hackle feathers I colored with the Bic-Markit markers have held full color after being fully submerged in water for over a week. Also I apologize for the poor quality photo’s on this one. I was more concerned with tying the patterns than taking pictures I guess, the images at Dave’s site are excellent.

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I whipped this out quick while finishing the video for Fly Tying for S.E. MN Trout. I hope it better demonstrates how I attached the wire to the hook without thread. This is a different camera and I didn’t have much time to get comfortable so forgive the quality, I’m usually uptight about what I put the Winona Fly Factory name on and this is slightly more informal. Thanks to Sershen for the advice, and camera use. 

The S.H.assie:

S.H.assie Fly

The Soft-Hackle Brassie by The W.F.F.

 This is tied on a size 20 curved nymph hook. The body is made of Chartreuse Ultra Wire but my twist here is that it isn’t attached to the hook shank by the conventional means of tying it in with thread and then working the wire forward over the thread. Using this method would create a situation where the bulk of tying the wire in results in a bump or imperfection in the wrapping of the wire.

To avoid this try this on for size: Take the bare hook and a section of wire (start with 6in. at first to get the hang of it) and start wrapping it on the hook as tightly and evenly as possible making a perfect sectioned body. Use your fingernails to push forward the wire to compress the wraps together against the hook eye. Once the wraps are formed you should see two ends of wire sticking out with the body between, place this body on the shank where you want it, making sure to leave enough shank before the eye for the rest of the fly. Now, take a small, very small drop of Zap-A-Gap and cover the wire gluing the wire section to the hook, use a bodkin for this delicate application (remember this is a size 20) and try to ensure that the entire body section gets alittle glue. Let this dry for a few moments, just long enough to sip your coffee in the morning. To remove the tag ends, lightly bend back and forth pulling on the wire at the same time to cause it to break right at the hook, this is neater than having to cut the wire with scissors. After this the body should be formed and attached to the hook, start thread and in this case I used one Partridge soft-hackle feather and fly tying thread to form the rest of the fly. I’m going to use this technique to form slim bodies for midge larva as well. I’m confident that this will work for sizes 20-24.

I left the hi-res photo in so you can really zoom in and see how neatly the bodies are formed. I’m proud of these simple but excellent looking flies. I’m tooting my own horn on this one! Note: If I’m taking credit for this when I should be giving credit let me know so that I can do so, but I did develop this entirely on my own at my bench.

Today I found that tying and fishing are so much a part of my life they just seem to seep in throughout the day. This is when you become acutely aware that the hunt has taken over. So today while at work I found myself cleaning out the old equipment and came across the pile of old dimmers from the dimming system that I helped replace at the High School.

I passed by and thought of the wire and the suggestion from others that if your hard up for tying wire to cut into an old extension cord for the copper inside. I looked at the fat wires and decided to cut one out. GOLD, RED GOLD, wait COPPER!! Excellent 10″ sections of very thin red copper wire. I grabbed my wire cutters and went to work removing quite a few sections that would otherwise have gone to a recycling center when the whole lot goes out the door. They won’t miss some scrap copper.  

After work the dog had a Vet appt. this dog is a very large part of my life and hopefully after this leg heals she will be able to hit the woods and water with me again. She had to sit her pheasant hunt out this year but I’m hopeful she will be ok for next season to hunt up more tails. She had surgery in September after a bad frisbee jump, she won’t be playing disc anymore, we will stick with a ball. Her bone is just now, six months later, beginning to calcify.

After the vet appointment we happened to be driving fairly close to trout and I just couldn’t help stopping to look at a new stretch of water and if the warmer temperature had encouraged midge activity. I took few pictures but saw trout, however I didn’t see any signs of midge, it might have been alittle late in the day. 

So as I round out my day I’ve decided to try out that wire and combining it with the need for midge options, the Brassie has come to mind.

Brassie Variant:

• Hook: #18-#20 Nymph Hook
• Thread: Black 70 Denier
• Body: Red Wire
• Thorax: Peacock Ice Dub