Work has been hectic and I’ve been putting in a lot of extra time at the office. Free time has been in short supply, but I’ve still been squeezing in a little time at the vise. Tying a fly or two is a great way to get grounded and clear my mind after a stressful day. It keeps me sane.
Over the last week I’ve been building up a nice pile of Stuart Foxall’s Steelie Pot Bellied Pig, which is covered in detail here. It’s a fun pattern and looks killer. Rounding up boar bristles took some searching; they’re not off-the-shelf items at the local fly shops, but, as it typically does in these situations, ebay came through for me.
I’ve made some slight variations from Stuart’s original… I substituted arctic fox tail for the bucktail, just because I had it handy and enjoy working with it, and I used silver wire instead of oval tinsel. I have plenty of wire and figured it would hold up better to a good brushing and, hopefully, a toothy mouth. These are tied on HMH poly tubes with Hareline 1/4″ tube cone heads. I’ve messed around varying the number of boar bristle from just a couple to a sizeable clump; in the end I think less is more.
Looking forward to swinging them for some anadromous fish later this year. In the meantime, I might have to take them for a swim on the upper Kenai River for some winter/spring rainbows.
Frostbite Flies 