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Steely Don: I just noticed this morning you sent me a Private Message a few weeks ago asking about how I make my “favorite” blue/green/gold coho fly. Rather than reply just to you, I thought I’d make a general post for the benefit of any who want to give it a try.

Tools you’ll need:
Fly tying vise. Cheapest you can find. We aren’t tying Royal Coachmen on #16 hooks. I checked on eBay and found one for $16 with no shipping charges.
Bobbin: This is a tool that holds a spool of sewing thread. They are about $3.00
Small, sharp scissors

You can probably get by with a pair of vise grips and without a bobbin but come on, splurge! It’s less than twenty bucks.

Supplies you’ll need:

Three hanks of Flashabou mylar, one Green, one Gold and one Electric Blue.
One-inch long barrel swivel
Polyester sewing thread - pick a color - I like red.
Snap ring
Treble hook
Super Glue

Directions:
Clamp one of the loops of the barrel swivel in the jaws of the vise.
Assuming you have put the thread in the bobbin, peel off about 10 inches of thread, make four or five wraps between the loop held in the vise and the barrel of the swivel. Let the bobbin dangle and it will keep the thread from unraveling.
If you want a 2-inch fly cut a pinch of Flashabou four inches long. Hold the pinch of material close to the center and put the exact center right at the thread then secure it to the swivel with a few wraps of thread.
Now fold the pinch of Flashabou back over itself, doubling the thickness of the material.
If you like a skimpy fly make it a skimpy pinch, a thick fly a big pinch. Remember once you double it back, the pinch effectively doubles in size.
Make another few wraps of thread to make sure it mostly stays folded back.
Rotate the barrel swivel with the vise 1/3 turn.
Repeat the above steps to add the second color, rotate one more time and add the last color of material.
The idea is not to intermingle the strands but to have a fly with three distinct bands of color.
Hold all three colors back to form the body of the fly and wrap another 8 or 10 wraps of thread. The barrel of the swivel will cause the material to flare out.
Tie a couple of half hitches to bind the thread in place, then put a drop of Super Glue on the thread and let it dry for about five minutes.
Add a split ring and treble hook to the end of the swivel and tie a leader (I use 30# fluorocarbon) to the head end then go fish!

I probably use this blue/green/gold color 3/4 of the time. My swivel flies in early spring are about 1 ½ inches, by late April, I’m up to 2 ½ inches, still behind 6-inch dodgers. Other good colors are silver/green/gold and silver/blue. There are bajillions of colors of mylar so have fun experimenting.

Once I go to 3-inchers or larger I switch to the conventional “sliding” flies, 8-inch dodgers and rely more on green crinkles, aqua, pearl etc.

Have fun!

I have made my own arrows and bow strings for many years and in the last 10 or so I have gotten into making my own extremely accurate rifle ammunition and helping others wring every bit of accuracy out of their hunting rifles. It makes things more personal for me. Seems an individual can easily surpass "factory built" quality a lot of times. Split made some flies for me that are 100 times better than the ones I bought in both quality and catching. Making a few of these coho flies on my own I am sure would be a another way to get more enjoyment out of this sport. As I said in my message having opinions and ideas from others who know what they are doing is the best way for me to keep learning the sport in a greater depth.
I think I have even improved on Ed's design a little bit. I put an adjustable "fluffer" band on the fly body to increase the fly's profile without adding material. It might help when the coho are wanting a bigger fly in late spring.

There is some personal satisfaction in making my own flies and other gear.

It's partly that I live quite a distance from the lake and when I'm up there with my boat in tow, it's not convenient to go to the tackle shops.

Mostly I do it because I'm cheap. I've never parceled it out to see but I can buy a package of blue, green and gold tinsel, $10 for all three. That's probably enough to make 20 or 30 flies. The hardware may add another 15 cents so my flies coast me less than 50 cents, total.

Plus it's an enjoyable hobby.

Got one more question on the subject at hand. It looks like you used a tinsel flash type of flashabou. Do you, or any anybody else who would care to chime in, have a preference in using tinsel flash or the holographic type of flashabou? I know both types have worked for me.

For this particular fly, I've always used the "solid" color for lack of a better word for it. But there are holographic patterns, glow colors, crinkle, pearl-escent colors as well as some that are tiny almost hair type and others that are wider. I've used some of each at one time or another. That's part of the "hobby" part of it. Be inventive.

Still, and possibly because I use them so much, the blue/green/gold one pictured above is my #1 fly for nearshore coho in the spring. It works and I stick with it.

If I switched to some other colors and used them 80 or 90 % of the time, would they perform just as well? Perhaps, but why take the chance?

Short story: I have a group of guys that come every year who are Purdue grads (as am I) and avid followers of Boiler sports. So I put on an "Old Gold and Black" fly. It was a stud that day catching four or five of their 15 fish. I left it on the next couple trips and it may have caught one or two more. Every dog has a day. Still, each year when they hop on the boat, I make sure I have a couple of Boilermakers on the line for them and it usually catches a few for them.

If you ever get a crew of Notre Dame grads you can whip out your favorite fly tell them they are about to crush some coho on a "Golden Domer" fly.

Steelie wrote:

I think I have even improved on Ed's design a little bit. I put an adjustable "fluffer" band on the fly body to increase the fly's profile without adding material. It might help when the coho are wanting a bigger fly in late spring.

For us newbies - how do you add the "fluffer" and what do you use for it?

Ed builds flies using a hollow tube design that slides on the leader. It appears the fly starts as about a 3/4 or 7/8 inch long tube. The stranded material is tied to about the first 3/8" of the tube. That leaves about a 1/2 inch of tube left under the skirt. The tube is a 3/16 inch tube. I cut a small 1/4 long piece of 1/4 " vinyl aquarium tubing to make the band. I slid the band on to the remaining body tube and moved it forward toward the skirt. The closer the band got to the skirt the more the skirt "fluffed" out. I hope some pics help. The first pic is the fly without the band and the last one shows a maxed out fly skirt.

Cool!, Great photos. Pictures worth a thousand words

Very nice