Zak
Legend
Thanks!
Wet Flies for Lakes
- Thread starter Wetswinger
- Start date
Aaron Meredith
Smolt
I have always found the six pack to work best for me during the caddis hatch fished within 10' of the surface. I tie mine mostly in olive. Both cast & retrieve and trolled have led to great results. More 20"+ caught on that than any other fly.
Intrigued by the legend of the Camo Carey, I set out to find what might be the double secret special chenille color. I don't think I found "it" but I did find some pretty cool new to me colors from a place called Barlow's Tackle in TX.
Looking forward to experimenting with these new colors, especially the olive with the red tracer...they look like just the ticket to put the hammer down on some westside stockers.
Barlow's is a good place to order things from. I like those colors.
Have bought a lot of Mustad 32833NP-BN jig hooks there for balanced leeches. I like that they go down to size 10.
SF
Islander
Life of the Party
I’ve tried many times to find the color with no results. The Leprechaun looks pretty close to it, although photo color might be a bit different than actual. With the risk of high jacking this thread I’ll include the origin story of the Camo Carey.
In my earlier days of fly tying I joined in on a lot of fly swaps, to hone my craft and try new patterns. I was tying some Carey Specials for a swap and the recipe used peacock herl as the main body material. I had used up all my herl for the swap but wanted to tie a few more to go try out at Lone (when I lived on Whidbey) the next day. At the time, the only “on island” source for fly tying materials was the Ace Hardware store up in Oak Harbor. I traveled up Island but to my dismay they didn’t carry any peacock herl as their materials area in the store was small and somewhat limited. I was looking at their chenille selection and got one that looked as close to peacock herl as I could get. I came home and was tying some up with the chenille and my wife mentioned that they were different from the ones I had previously tied. I told her about my material issue and she made the comment “That doesn’t look like peacock, it looks more like camo”, so that’s how they got the name. They worked well at Lone the next day and at Pass and several other lakes, so I went back and bought the remaining packs at Ace. As I was getting low a couple years later, I went to get more but the “fly fishing area” was being run by someone new and they had no idea how to get that color without a number or manufacturer name. I’ve looked ever since then whenever in a shop, but have never found the exact match. I was told that the guy that use to run the area would buy large spools of chenille and cut it up in to smaller packs. I even tried bringing a sample to some larger craft stores, but again, they needed a product number, name or manufacturer. I have used similar color chenille with good results, but I treasure the small remaining amount of the original material I have, using it here and there just for “old time sake”.
I also really like the looks of that Red Olive, might have to put in an order with Barlows.
Islander
Life of the Party
A quick update on the Camo Carey chenille. I ordered several colors from Barlows that looked similar to my original material. It’s difficult to match color in pictures online compared to the actual stuff so I got several different ones. Turns out their Winter Green color is pretty darn close, just the sparkle is a bit brighter, which might be even better. I’ll tie up a few and as soon as the local lakes thaw out, I’ll give them a go. I’m also going to try their Red’s Olive, it just looks fishy, lol. Big thanks to @Merle for finding a source.
I took a stab at some Careys with my new Barlow’s chenille. I did one with the Winter Green and one with the red/olive.
I used Firehole 523 jig hooks and 1/8” beads which I know isn’t true to the Carey pattern but I wanted them to ride “point up”. I also couldn’t resist adding a couple strands of KF.
I’ll try the Leprechaun next which is a little browner than the wintergreen.
These always look better in my head compared to what comes off the vise, but I think they’ll fool some stockers next month. I’m anxious to see ones from folks that are better tiers than me!
Andy
I used Firehole 523 jig hooks and 1/8” beads which I know isn’t true to the Carey pattern but I wanted them to ride “point up”. I also couldn’t resist adding a couple strands of KF.
I’ll try the Leprechaun next which is a little browner than the wintergreen.
These always look better in my head compared to what comes off the vise, but I think they’ll fool some stockers next month. I’m anxious to see ones from folks that are better tiers than me!
Andy
Zak
Legend
I ordered some of the chenille from Barlow's. In the meantime, this Hareline chenille seems close:
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Landlocked
Steelhead
Anywhere callibaetis are in the system, I’ll use the Herl May pattern. I think it’s a Rowley pattern. Works every time on the high desert lakes in the Intermountain West and I’ve had friends use it in the Seeps and Central Wa lakes with great success. Super easy tie.
