Roscoe, NY, 1971--Beaverkill RiverThe Question:   "...and how did you do today with that new fly you tied last evening?"....The Answer:   "Not so good. Gary laughed at it..didn't catch anything on it"

With traditional Turle Knot space beind hook eye

Wing: Grizzly Rooster hackle tips

Tail:   Dark Ginger

    I ran into a guy who swears by it. Is it a fairly common practice? I dismissed the idea at first but the more I think about it maybe it makes sense for a person who ties primarily for his own fishing and hobby tying.  Are there a lot of flaws in this concept?

How important do you think color is in the overall scheem of fly design and fish catching?

It's an old fly pattern...very old, yet once common in the boxes of Catskill fly fishers. But in wet fly form, the dry version being more rare. A fly of British influence so common in the early years.

Tied with traditional Turle knot space behind the hook eye

Wings:  Gray Mallard flank

Tail:      Dark Ginger

Body:    Red Floss, ribbed with silver tinsel; palmered with brown hackle

Hackle:  Brown

Here is an old Catskill Dry Fly, inspired by the late Larry Koller's writings and his mention of its namesake.

With traditional turle knot space behind hook eye

Wings:  Wood Duck flank

Tails:     Medium-Dark ginger

Body:    Natural gray fox dubbing ribbed closely with a single strand of olive floss

Hackle:  Brown

      Very simple fly--until you get down to 20 &22 and i don't even want to think smaller.  I seem to be all thumbs on these flies, what is the best way to approach the tie in on flies this size?

There a few versions of Olive Quills. This version is tied with olive wing slips, olive tailing, natural stripped peacock, dark olive hackle. The more common version has natural grey mallard quill slips. So, let's throw it on the wall here, to show some variations; there are always different versions for a given fly pattern.  There are also versions that have dyed olive stripped peacock body--or dun hackle, too  

Wing:   Mallard quill slips, dyed olive

But here's one more--"The Beaverkil"l. It's an old trout fly name , taking us back well over a century. William Warren Cone was listing this fly name in his brochure well over a century ago, at Masonville---on the northwest fringes of the Catskills. It was very popular in decades past---and is still tied/fished today

With traditional Turle knot space behind hook eye:

Wing:  Double slip mallard duck quill

Tail:  Brown hackle

The Coachman version of this fly, the Clacka Caddis, was PFS' top producer on the Yellowstone last August, and early versions of the tan worked well too.  So I've tied it for the bins in a bunch of colors this year.  Give it a try.  There's a vid of the Coachman version on Youtube.  Search "Clacka Caddis"

Basic pattern:

Hook: Standard dry, #12-16.

Thread: 8/0 to match body.

Tail: Caddis gold or caddis amber zelon.

Body: coarse dubbing or peacock herl.