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Shearing season is on at the local Alpaca farm. http://luinagreine.com/.  They were nice enough to give me some samples to experiment with my tying. I got nice assortment of red, natural beige, white and black from a juvenile Alpaca's first shearing. Alpaca from juvenile are very fine, follow fiber - could be ideal dry fly dubbing. Today I started with the beige natural Alpaca fiber from an adult. It has very long fibers that dubbing beautifully. Perfect substitute for hare's mask of Aussie possum.  I decided tie my variation of the Gold-ribbed hares ear nymph. My daughter would be happy...

Hendrickson season here on the east coast. As I have found, trout do not always go for the adults on the surface especially early in the season and emerging patterns are more effective. I like to cast down stream, just below the surface. A tip I received was to grease up the fly with floatant like a dry fly as fish become more active and begin to target the surface. Get out there! Hook: BWO 3769, Tiemco TMC 3769 or Mustad 3906B Size 14-16 Thread: 6/0 or 8/0 rusty brown. I used Danvillle 6/0 "$3 Dip" rusty brown Body:  D's...

I was in London last fall and picked up some red dyed cock pheasant tail at Farlows, a high-end fly shop in Pall Mall, established in 1840! The clerk stuck up his nose on my suggest of using it to tie nymphs - God forbid. ;) I finally broke it out and tied something with it. I was looking to create a very simple nymph pattern, similar to a Frenchie but with a peacock herl thorax and without a bead. Red Copper John's are one of my "confidence" flies - I figure I tried a red pheasant tail. Lets see...