Scaling down

The most interesting fly tying journey I've taken over the past few years is the redevelopment of steelhead (swinging) flies, especially the scaling down in size to accommodate our local winter lake run fish. A 4" fly here will get eaten, but a 2" variant of the same fly will get a hell of a lot more takes I've figured. In terms of down sizing, there are a few considerations -

• Flies incorporating shanks and swing hooks are limited to a certain small size.
• Materials used have to be down scaled too - trimmed, or in the case of natural materials such as furs and feathers, much smaller variants used.
• For deep buckets, runs and pools, you need to get down in the weeds - or at least get your fly in the fish zone. Microspey in itself limits the size of tips that can be used, so getting weight incorporated in smaller flies needs to be thought through.

Answering the shank & swing hook challenge is easy enough. 3x and 4x long shank hooks allow for single station flies to be constructed. Upside is that flies are scaled correctly. Downside is that one of the key benefits of shank & swing hook flies is that the hook can be changed out if it dulls or is damaged. We lose that advantage. But we'll get more eats so its a win. Alternatively, trimming the shank and running the swing hook directly at the back of the shank is an option, albeit a more expensive one.

Scaling down materials is a much more difficult ask. Zonked pine squirrel and mink replace rabbit. Arctic fox & US possum can be trimmed at the butts. Synthetics require different treatments though, materials such as aqua veil can easily be trimmed back and once proportions are figured, and winging materials reduced in volume as well as length to retain proportions. Once you get the hang of it, (I write down measurements until I get the knack) its not too difficult. Tungsten dumbbells in small and medium size can be secured from tungstenbeadsplus.com. A range of tungsten beads in all sorts of sizes and colours can be sourced locally and globally relatively inexpensively. More difficult is the question of feathers such as schlappen and guinea fowl, which play an integral role in a number of patterns. Searching out and finding smaller feathers is a task in itself, but worth it when you can turn out a pattern half the size of the original. Often times it means using more of the tips of feathers than you might with larger flies, as you would if tying tiny dries.

I have to say that it helps having mates who are in this game too. It would be fair to say that between us we've scoured the globe for materials and patterns, and we've amassed a stupid amount of stuff. (I wonder if the fish appreciate the lengths to which we've gone?!). Because tying is such a small market here, and streamer/intruder/steelhead pattern tying even more niche, its really not possible to source what we want and need locally. 

It may seem a lot of bother to go to, when you could easily tie on a gold bead olive Woolly Bugger, but the fact is that the other guys swinging flies are probably doing exactly that, and in my opinion I'd rather fish a pattern that flows better, moves better, looks better - and get better results.