The Obligatory Flies

So whenever I can snatch a spare 20-30 minutes nowadays I try to sit down and tie a fly. I am getting steadily better but I still struggle with some fundamentals; in particular hackles, and occasionally the whip finish. This is a Blue-Winged Olive I tied the other day:



The first hackle looked great but when I went to tie the whip finish the thread slipped and everything unravelled, including the hackle. Well, rather than start over from scratch I tried to save what was there. It still isn't all that bad, but it did look better...honest!

Tonight I tied my first beaded fly as well:



I don't have any real fly tying beads. This is from my daughter's craft box. It is supposed to be a Peeping Caddis (a sinking nymph) but looks quite a bit different than the picture in the book. The body is supposed to have a gold wire wrapped around it to give more of a ribbed look but I decided to leave that part of it out due to lack of materials. I tried gold tinsel but it did not have the same effect. I still think it will catch a fish though!