Fly Tying a Yellow Hammer Dry Fly
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2021
- Vaguely reminiscent of the popular Yellerhammer nymph created in the Great Smoky Mountains, the origin of this dry fly variant has been lost to history. Despite its unknown provenance, this can be an effective attractor pattern for any number of trout.
Hook: #12-16 dry fly
Thread: Black
Tail: Yellow hackle fibers
Body: Grizzly dyed yellow, palmered tightly and clipped short
Wing: Mallard flank, split
Hackle: White, cream or light ginger
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** Some of the popular books used on this channel: **
Dave Hughes, "Essential Trout Flies," 2017, amzn.to/3lbCZYX
Dave Hughes, "Wet Flies," 2015, amzn.to/33ac3lQ
John Shewey, "Classic Steelhead Flies," 2015, amzn.to/2RywHcP
David Klausmeyer's "Favorite Flies," 2020, amzn.to/3oeSNMa
Morgan Lyle's "Simple Flies," 2015, amzn.to/3qB1zW1
Fly Pattern Encyclopedia: amzn.to/34U0rUe
Mike Valla's "Tying the Founding Flies," 2015, amzn.to/354oSir
Mike Valla's "Classic Streamer Fly Box," 2020, amzn.to/3n3Vakf
Randle Scott Stetzer's "Flies, the Best One Thousand," 1992, amzn.to/34Q15mp
Terry Hellekson's "Popular Fly Patterns," 1976, amzn.to/2L4IyvS
Dick Stewart's, "Flies for Bass and Panfish," 1992, amzn.to/3aGpFs1
Fly Pattern Encyclopedia: amzn.to/34U0rUe
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Great fly good morning everybody good morning Matt
Matt what a novel idea for a body without using dubbing!
I like this version of the Yellow Hammer. Awesome pattern.
Thank you! If you note the spelling on this one, it's not Yellerhammer as the original flicker nymphs were. I'd say this is in the general Yellow Hammer series, of which there are several styles and types of flies these days. :-)
I really like the looks of this dry fly. Thank you Sir Matt
Hey Matt good morning,
I like that bug but most of all I just enjoy your channel. I will definitely have to try this one. ☕️☕️
Absolutely!
Good morning Matt. I like this fly cant wait to try it here in Upstate NY. Thank you.
Interesting. I might leave the wings a little taller, but that's just me tying! Thanks, Matt. 👍
You make all these flies look pretty easy to tie.
Ha! Thanks for that vote of confidence, but wait until you see Saturday's tie. I believe I made all kinds of mistakes on that one. And no time to redo it as I'm heading out of town this weekend. :-)
MAN, I wish there were trout streams near me! Between my wife and I both working full-time, and my son, I don't get to travel for fishing.
Good Morning Matt, great looking fly thank you.
@@SavageFlies sorry for such a short reply I was still in shock about some bad news my wife and I received this morning, we lost a very close and dear friend to covid delta variant, the virus took him at 4:23 am central time. Have a great evening Sir Matt.
@@SavageFlies 👍❤ thank you
This is a really cool fly. Good video. Thanks Matt
Appreciate it James!
This looks like a great GSMNP spring pattern. As always Bravo Zulu
Appreciate it Arthur!
Nice new technique..As Always, thanks Matt.
Thanks Chad! Always appreciate you watching my friend. :-)
Hi Matt, nice tie! This fly is a companion dry fly to the "Yallar" Hammer nymph you speak of at the beginning of this video, in my opinion. In Don Howell's "Tying & Fishing Southern Appalachian Trout Flies" this dry fly is one of the "Yallar" Hammer series of flies. Although a general but very basic history of the "Yallar" Hammer pattern(s) is given, chapter one of this book is titled "Yallar" Hammer Series. The series includes three flies the "Yallar" Hammer Wolly Worm, which Mr. Howell states is the original "Yallar" Hammer pattern, the "Yallar" Hammer Nymph, and the "Yallar" Hammer Dry Fly. Thanks for sharing and I enjoy your Savage Flies channel immensely. Best wishes, Gordon
Thanks so much for the kind words Gordon. I do have Don Howell's book but couldn't find it when researching this fly last night. I believe I left it up at my farm. Don Kirk's book also has a yellerhammer dry, but it definitely wasn't this one. And I do recall Howell's dry used the split feather for a palmered hackle (similar to the nymph), but oh boy, splitting that feather, or even dying a starling yellow to look like this feather isn't something I've been successful at doing yet. But I will. Someday. :-)
I love grizzly feathers. They are my go to for most things.
Same with me Ryan. You should have been watching last year when I went through about 40 Smoky Mountain patterns. It seems like every one of those things use grizzly hackle. :-)
@@SavageFlies That's probably where I get it from. That series is actually how I found your channel to begin with.
Great little dry fly. Thx Matt!
Appreciate it Clyde!
That is one slick fly. I got the FFF book and Tim's book. Great!! I found 3 different styles, uses of Clark's Golden Stone by Mr. Clark in the FFF book. I had no idea. Thanks again!!!!
Thanks Bob! And yes, there are tons of flies to explore in the FFF encyclopedia. I don't think I'll ever get to all the ones I want to tie out of there. :-)
Cool fly! Never heard of it before. But I have a dyed yellow grizzly dry fly neck I could never figure out what to do with... I'll try some of these! Thanks Matt.
Second try at a response- thanks Pete! Maybe this one will come through and stay. I guess there are still some glitches in TH-cam sometimes. Have a great weekend! I'm about to hit the road for GA/TN. Will be driving right through the Great Smoky Mountains so I'll try to hit a stream or two while down there. :-)
That is a cool looking fly Matt
Never thought about trimming a hackle, does make a cool body
Will definitely have to try this one out
Thanks for the video
Cool Dave; it was indeed kind of fun so I hope you give it a try. :-)
Great job Matt! Love this pattern.looks very cool thanks for sharing this one with us!!!!
Appreciate it Mike!
That is a great little fly and a fantastic book.. I've tied them on a 16 and they work very well. Last weekend was fishing them in very skinny water and "Hammered" the trout. Thanks Matt for sharing 👍
Cool pattern, thanks for sharing Matt!!
You bet Franky, thanks for watching!
Good morning, Matt. Thanks for sharing...you keep this up and I won't have to buy the book. 😎
@@SavageFlies 🤣🤣🤣
Great looking fly . You did a good job thanks for sharing. Have a good day Matt.
Appreciate it Butch! Have a great evening. :-)
cool fly matt thanks ... see ya joe .
Thank you Matt, I really like the clipped hackle technique. It looks like a bee and I think this could be used for pan fish. I really like seeing new techniques. Thank you for all you do have an awesome day.
Appreciate it Donald, and I agree 100%... this would be a great panfish fly. :-)
Good morning Matt. That’s a well feathered dry fly. Having my morning coffee and enjoying your video. By the way thanks for recommending that book and I did pick up both books you recommended for travel tying.
Excellent! Just don't get like me and keep buying more books than you'll ever be able to read. I've got to slow down!!!
I've considered clipping hackles like this when I don't have small enough feathers. I usually use cheap supplies, so I try to make it work. I have decent grizzly, furnace, and badger hackles, but my straight white, black, and chartreuse are cheap strung hackles.
Unique and Fun Buddy ..... GOOD for YOU !!!!
✨🎣💫
I feel like Ive seen the trimmed hackle body in older books... "The Water Cricket," is one pattern that comes to mind. However, you're - right it has never been common
I like the look it gives, though
And someone else mentioned a cased caddis using this technique. And I do think I recall seeing that one somewhere as well. (It was kind of fun so I might try it with a few other colors as well!)
That is a brilliant idea for the body. Why didn't I think of that 🤔
Tip - You can take a yellow sharpie and color a grizzlies Hackle if you don’t have yellow.
Yep, absolutely Gary. I think I should make a video on dyeing and coloring one-off feathers with a marker. Thanks for the tip. :-)
Great tie. I have a request tie a salt water fly. Ken
Thanks Ken. I do have a couple of saltwater flies on my to-do list, but I just haven't gotten around to doing any as I won't likely ever get to fish them!
Hey Matt, check out the fly, Spirit of Pittsford Mills for similar technique. I've seen a couple versions of the SPM, most differing in color. Locally, it's tied in a white color. Other versions I've seen were ginger color. Either way, they use the clipped hackle technique you show here. Was apparently a popular Catskill style fly years ago. You can check out the local version from Murray Fly Shop.
You know Rick, I've heard of that fly from somewhere but couldn't place it. But I just looked it up and I think it might have been in Mike Valla's Catskill book. I certainly did not recall that it was a palmered and clipped hackle over the body. I'm definitely adding this to my to-do list. Of course, my to-do list is growing faster than I can tie, but I'll get there someday. Thanks for the note my friend. :-)
Great tie Matt, should be a great floater. Looks like a good substitute for the Goddard caddis fly, which is pretty hard to tie. If you have an easier way 🤔to tie the Goddard, can you do a video on it. 😉
Awesome Matt! Yallerhammer, state bird of Alabama. I was all primed for you to be pulling out some wing quills to split and wrap, parlmer, spiral, or in touching turns for the body - why isn't there a dictionary of standard tying terms? - but this method of tying the body is pretty cool. I've seen a cased caddis pattern use that technique for the case, 3 or 4 hackles of different earth tone colors wrapped in touching turns then trimmed to case shape. I don't remember the source, D Hughes maybe or Barry Clarke. Those Yellowhammer, Breadcrust, Tellico nymph patterns are cool looking and give a great sense of accomplishment when you tie them, but to prep the original type of materials used takes time, and frustrating when they break while wrapping. Thanks for this tutorial, made me realize that wrap & trim can be used on other patterns. That Northern Flicker is an awesome bird with beautiful plumage, I look forward to their appearance in my backyard every year.
No kidding Joe! Since we're never going to get to use the yellow flicker feathers anymore, I think the old timers recommend dying a starling skin for the yellerhammer nymphs. I tried that not too long ago and the yellow didn't really take at all. It just went from a gray, to an ugly gray. Now the breadcrust... that's another challenging one that I've come across in many books. Regarding the cased caddis, now that you mention it, I actually DO recall seeing one of these tied with a palmered hackle clipped short. I can't remember where either, but I'm thinking one of Dave Hughes' books. But don't fret my friend, I'm going to get a proper yellerhammer nymph tied sometime this year. I've gotten at least six people ask me about it over the last year and I keep telling them it's too @#$% hard for me!
@@SavageFlies Ha ha, @#$% -a right Matt! Interesting discussion on the flytyingforum.com when I googled Yallerhammer recipe. They mentioned different subs for the wing quill : pigeon or dove wing quills (white, mourning, rock) or duck dyed "yaller" ;o) Some didn't realize that the Flicker quill was split and the leading edge was wrapped for the bottle brush like body. The photos on google images look amazing. They also mentioned the dry fly that you tied here. Supposedly it imitates a yellow sally, but it's a great attracter pattern. Very good forum. Yup, Breadcrust is another "pith scraping" pain. The tier from the older "in the riffle" channel did a tutorial on it.
One of my more adventurous ties came from Leiser's Complete Book of Fly Tying, 2nd edition, pg 161, Ted's Quill Stone (I have the older hardcover too, its in that edition also). The stripped quill from the center stem of a mallard pointer feather is used for the abdomen after tying an under body of side weighted lead and tapered poly yarn. It looks amazing if it doesn't break while wrapping. You have to soak the quill enough though to prevent that from happening. It's probably easier to use a thin synthetic type material for the over wrap but probably not has much fun. I don't know if you have this book but it would be great for a review, everything from "soup to nuts", it taught me a lot when starting to tie flies. Thanks Matt!
That is one of the most bristly looking flies I’ve seen.
One dragonfly to another: You see that yellow & white bug? That looks dangerous. I’m not going near it!
Trout: I don’t care what that thing is. I want it out of my pool now!
Ha! I thought you were starting with a bad dad joke here. :-)
@@SavageFlies Well, after seeing that trim job you did on the body hackle, I was going to ask if you could give me a haircut.
Using an un-dyed hackle, could you color it with a marker? Maybe fluorescent? Might be a sneaky hack for those of us too lazy to go to the fly shop.
Lots of people do that Eddie. Just make sure it's a permanent marker! And probably let it dry for a few minutes before using it. :-)
Cool fly Matt - any recommendations for substituting the yellow grizzly?
For a one off, you can dye a regular grizzly hackle pretty easily. Soak a feather in a mixture of hot water, vinegar, and yellow food coloring (or turmeric) until it turns yellow. If it’s stubborn, use more dye and/or you can microwave it carefully, but don’t boil it.
@@mungobaggins8197 many thanks for the helpful advice
Yep Neil, great advice from Mungo! And this is a great tip even if you want to dye a half dozen feathers. If you just need one, I'd go with a permanent marker. A good ol' Marks-a-lot in red or yellow can make some cool feathers. :-)
I'm wondering why that fly has a wing, it seems to get lost in the hackle. I think if you don't have yellow dyed grizzly you could color a yellow feather with a marker. Keep the good stuff coming,
Thanks! And I've often wondered the same thing. Can a fish really see this wing? Some folks say yes, but I've never been too sure.
“ CAN’T T O U C H THIS ..... !!!!!!! “
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Okay, slow down there MC Hammer. Now I've got that song in my head. Thanks man. :-)
Thanks, Matt My first effort with this fly wasn't too bad until the hook broke in the vise as I was whip finishing (of course!) I had to make some yellow grizzly with my trusty black permanent marker, but oh well... Unless a wing seems to me to be essential, I usually omit them. Tell me if my thinking is wrong here, but I really wonder whether a fish can discern a wing buried with hackle on top of the fly. Cheers, Tom (I'd include a picture, but I don't know how to add it.)
Tom- you bring up a great question, and one that I have asked before as well. A lot of flies with thick hackle and sparse wings... you're right and they're probably barely visible if at all. But also, and what others have told me, is that fish see the fly differently than we do, and what might look like a thick hackle to us won't appear as bushy from under the water. And in those cases a wing made out of something that is thicker than dry fly hackle barbs might indeed be visible to a fish. Now I'm not sure if I completely buy this but there has to be some truth to it or we would have eventually started omitting the wings from dry flies altogether. But who knows? And honestly, I skip wings a lot anyway. :-)
@@SavageFlies Thanks for your thoughtful reply, Matt. Tom
A good floater and easy to see. Maybe the wings are not really needed? :-)
I always thought that too Terry. Lots of dry fly patterns, particularly the Catskill style have these tiny slivers of mallard for wings, that we can't really see after we put a big bushy hackle on. But what someone told me once, is that the fish don't see too much of the hackle, and it mainly helps it float. But the wings inside the hackle (that we can't really see), the fish will see something a bit darker, giving the impression of wings. How much truth is there to this? I don't know. I guess we'll have to ask the fish. :-)
Oops; Happy Labor Day!
Chunky lil guy
Yep, when I watched this video (while editing and too late to redo it), I realized I should have trimmed this body a little shorter. Oh well. We can call it the Chunky Yellow Hammer. :-)