Mustad C49S #26

The fishing tackle industry thrives on our lust for the new, the latest and the now improved. It's a lust I have resisted to date, not least for reasons of simple economics. So I was comforted when I read Don Holbrook's chapter "Fishing The Midge" in Midge Magic (which he co-authored with Ed Koch). He makes the point that he "...never had much interest in acquiring new rods, there always being some fly-tying purchase to be made." I do get kind of excited when I see a Hardy Flyweight reel, and I would love to join the ranks of the boo-mafia but I'm more than happy to make do with my affordable 7' two weight and 6 1/2 foot 3wt rods and simple reels. I will invest good money in a good line, if it's a Scientific Anglers XPS DTF in heron grey... beyond this, I'm set up just fine.

Hooks are a somewhat different matter. If I can admit to being seduced by the tackle industry then without doubt I'm well and truly hooked. Where others may scan the glossy pages of brochures and catalogues at the rods and reels in stunning settings, I'll stare, at times mesmerised by my growing collection of hook charts. TMC has one of the best I've come across with accurate size charts by pattern when printed A4. Mustad is less slick, but does include size charts and some wonderful wee flies tied by Hans Weilenmann.

If I lived Stateside, such an obsession should be less of an issue - small flies and the hooks we tie them on are more widely available and a greater part of the fly fishing fabric. Things are very different in the UK... frustratingly so from a supply perspective - less so if you enjoy skirting on the fringes of your chosen sport, as I do.

I've been aware of Mustad hooks most of my fishing life - and fondly recall being among the first to fish #22's and #24's in the early 1980's when the Continental style of fixed line, long pole fishing first arrived from France. Like fly fishing, this was all about presentation, albeit the means of achieving this were very different to casting a fly line. I've used the TMC 200R widely in #20 and #22 for a couple of years, and the Varivas 2200 and 2210 more recently. The Mustad C49S sits somewhere between the two in profile but is only available to #16 in the UK.

Phil Holding is aware of my hook vice (groan...) so I made a call to him in search of the C49S in #24 through #28. Phil has an enviable network of contacts across the globe - makes sense, he ties for a living. A return call soon followed, with assurance that he could source #26's and #28's, but #24's were likely to prove difficult. So an order was immediately placed and the hooks commenced their journey to Ireland from the source in Germany, via Phil's place in N. Yorkshire. The hooks arrived a couple of days ago - now I understand why my kids appear to lose all self-control when they set upon opening presents on Christmas morning. I would have been embarrassed but for an empty house at the time.

I immediately emailed Phil to thank him, with assurances that I would share some images as soon as I got tying. This is a very special hook, just perfect for tying parachute hackled emergers and Roy's RPE - two patterns that cover a lot of my small stream fishing.

Simple emerger and a Roy Christie RPE on Mustad C49S #26

I'll have to make this batch of hooks last - possibly a lifetime. Mustad have discontinued production of the #26 and #28, with plans to top the range out at #20. Not sure what plans exist for the smaller R50's and R30's. Seems Mustad's future lies more in the saltwater market.

So, if you can get them, get them quick and stock up.

TMC 518 #32

Sooner or later, a blog that focuses solely on small flies has to discuss the smallest "useable" fly available. This is how Ed Engle describes the 518 and it's hard to disagree with this assessment. There are smaller hooks out there. Hans Weilenmann has challenged me to tie a fly on a Mustad 277 #32. Have yet to rise to this challenge, suffice to say that the 277 looks less than "useable" to my eyes, and Ed knows his stuff.

I first learnt about the 518 series of hooks reading "Tying Small Flies" which includes a chapter dedicated to #32's (the pattern is also available in #28 and #30). The chapter also mentions "Midge Magic" by Don Holbrook and Ed Koch, another book with a #32 only chapter. Pretty soon, the 518 had attained legendary status to my mind - a status reinforced when I started to try and source some. Until very recently, these hooks simply were not available in the UK. Fortunately this situation has changed, with both the Fly Tying Boutique and Deer Creek offering 518's at a lower price than you can import them from the States. I may regret sharing my reliable sources of 518's but there's real fun to be had tying and fishing these hooks, and we're a small community of small fly fanatics, right?



I now tie just one pattern on the #32, a spent spinner. With an extended, split tail (Whisper Tails reduce bulk, they are apparently 40% finer than standard microfibbets), and Niche Midge Wing it makes for a pretty, and entirely useable fly. Fished on 7X or 8X (ideally) tippet it can be fished dry or drowned, so we have some options when on the stream. The fly is constructed entirely from thread (Sheer 14/0 or Gudebrod 10/0) with a darker thorax made by colouring the thread with permanent marker. On the close-up pictured below, I even ribbed the fly with six turns of Spiderweb which you may just about make out if your viewing this on a 17" plus monitor (forgive the low-fi photography). An unnecesary embellishment but hey, this is how I get my kicks.


So I set out on Wednesday evening with the set-up above, this was a pre-determined mission so I geared up at home. I headed to Roy's Burn to fish below a road bridge where the water breaks over a shallow weir of small boulders then runs smooth. It's full of small trout, thanks to the vigilant work carried out by Roy as a boy, back in the sixties. A real gem of a micro-fishery - and almost completely unfished, aside from my regular trips. A 7' rod and 2wt SA XPS DTF line (I love this line...) provides a really balanced approach, partnered with 7X Varivas tippet.

There's great hatches of small and medium olives on this stream, the bed is alive with small shrimp, and tiny sherry and pale olive spinners come off in droves at last light this late in the season.

This isn't a technical water, but there is always an element of challenge trying to catch using a #32

As the sun dropped below the horizon and the light started to fade, so I started to fish. Maybe a dozen casts without a strike failed to put these eager trout down. A #32 is no attractor, even a small trout is unlikely to swim any great distance for such a small snack but I was able to drop the drowned spinner two foot above a rising trout. The strike was obvious and a clean lift resulted in a hook-up. This is thrilling stuff in my world - the combination of small water, short rod, light line and tiny flies all converge. A 7" trout was brought to hand, carefully unhooked and released. There was no need to fish on, rather I just sat back against the steep bank of the stream, taking it all in.

John Gireach wrote in "Fly Fishing Small Streams"...

"... let me introduce an idea - just something to kick around: Maybe your stature as a fly fisherman isn't determined by how big a trout you can catch, but by how small a trout you can catch without being disappointed, and, of course, without losing the faith that there's a bigger one in there." -

I got this philosophy as soon as I read it, and I can't imagine another writer articulating this in a more meaningful way than John Gierach. So much of what I do on the water is about trying to catch trout with as small a fly as possible - often at the expense of catching more and potentially larger fish. To this end, tying pretty wee spinners on #32's and catching on them, even just that one magical fish, is pretty much as wholesome a pursuit as any I've found in this sport.

If that makes me one of the "eccentrics, crazies, crackpots, and weirdos" Ed Engle describes in his introduction to "Tying Small Flies", then it's a badge of honour I'll wear with genuine pride and great satisfaction.

A 7" wild brown trout (pushing 8"...) taken on a #32 spent spinner last Wednesday

#20 Quill March Brown

I've been reading lot's of good books this last week, well re-reading, not least as I've been travelling with work.

A favourite is John Gierach's "Good Flies", in fact I'd forgotten just how good a book this is. Everyone should read the introduction at least once a season (so much of this feels familiar, reassuringly so), if only to identify how similar many tyers are as they evolve from absolute beginner, through competent and in time, pretty good.

A few achieve brilliance... Ed Engle, AK Best and Roy Christie being favourites.

They are also increasingly unique within the contemporary fly tying spectrum, in that they almost exclusively favour natural materials, and the few synthetic materials they do use are always sympathetically selected for form and function. Where Ed Engle incorporates zelon for trailing shucks, AK Best opts for natural duck flank fibres. Gierach's book reinforces this philosophy of approach, yet never sounds dogmatic or preaching. Form and function aside, the aesthetic value of flies tied with natural materials is hard to doubt. That said, Mick Hall uses synthetics widely and likely more effectively than any one else I've come across to date.

I use my fair share of synthetics for wing-posts, tailing and trailing shucks, and use Fly-rite poly dubbing widely. But revisiting Gierach's "Good Flies" got me thinking that maybe I'd forgotten the beauty of natural materials, not least as I like my flies to look like... well, flies!



Hook: Mustad R50 #20
Thread: Gudebrod 10/0
Tails: Ginger spade hackle
Abdomen: Stripped peacock herl
Thorax: Fly-rite March Brown (yeah, yeah, I know...)
Wing post: Duck flank feathers
Hackle: Whiting midge saddle, brown

Varivas 2200 BL

I picked these hooks up last year and... kind of forgot about them. Foolish really. They are readily available, good value at about £3.50 for thirty hooks (this is good value at a time when TMC have increased prices whilst reducing numbers from 25 to 20 per packet, a net increase of about 30%) and they are a really sweet hook.

There is also a light weight 2210 that goes down to a #30 for the hardcore, small fly freaks...
To date I've only tied simple thread midges on these and they make a nice addition to the fly box. Size 30 Klinkhamers are not for the feint hearted, but Hans Weilenmann shows how it's done.

There seems to be a trend towards shorter shank, curved hooks to tie emerger patterns. I only recently discovered the new TMC 212Y which is the latest design in this style.

And I love that the Varivas 2200BL is a barbless hook. Sure, they are also available with a micro-barb but why would you? Even a pinched barb can catch on the mouth of a trout. Removing barbless hooks couldn't be simpler, or faster - preservation of wild trout stocks through careful handling is central to sound fishing philosophy.

To date, I've only used this pattern to tie micro-klinks. This is a quick and simple pattern:


Hook: Varivas 2200BL #24
Thread: Gudebrod 10/0 tan
Body: Fly-rite poly dubbing to match hatch/natural. Aim for a smooth taper and visibly bulbed abdomen. Feel free to darken the thorax with permanent marker - this can be done streamside to increase options.
Hackle: Light and medium dun Whiting midge saddle
Wing post: Niche Siliconised polypropylene yarn in grey and white, Tiemco Aero Dry Wing in flouro pink for last light fishing (you can add a strand of pearl micro-Krystalflash for an extra fizz). A tip from Phil Holding is to leave the post long - again adding to the options streamside.

The colour options are massive, match to your requirements and taste.




The fluoro pink post is a life saver during last light, otherwise more subdued colours provide a very natural wing with enticing Krystalflash providing a little sparkle.



The fly rides the smoothest curents and choppiest riffle equally well - and the sharp curvature sits the flies body deep - which seems to reinforce stability on the water. The eye of the hook readily takes 6X tippet, I'll tend to fish them with 7X more because a 12" trout is a good trout on my local water and matched with a 7' rod and 2 weight line, the whole set-up just feels very balanced and natural. It's also worth pinch wetting the body after you've ginked the parachute hackle to ensure the fly sits right first cast.

Right now, this is one of my favourite small hook patterns... but I'm fickle as hell when it comes to small hooks, and a batch of Mustad C49S's in #26 and #28 are en route so, watch this space.