Orange Forked Tail
Fly of the Month
Note: this information is identical to the Yellow Forked Tail, with the exception of the color change
It’s early spring and the aquatic insect activity is ramping up. However, in the Southern Appalachians the hatches are sparse and often short lived. Our trout must be opportunistic and take any insect that is hatching just to survive. The good news is that a specific trout keyed to surface activity will take just about anything on the surface once the May-June temperatures arrive. The bad news is that most of our trout most of the time in April rely heavily on bottom feeding and are not usually looking at the surface yet. Attractor fly patterns are often more effective in March than actual attempts to match that sparse hatch.
Yellow Forked Tail
From the times past when the Cherokee Indians used the Yellarhammer or Flicker Woodpecker feather on a hook to attract trout, early fly fishermen knew that the color yellow attracted trout. Yellow material has been utilized in many fly patterns to modify a good pattern into a great pattern. A sulphur hatch in North Carolina is few and far between. It is unknown why but yellow has been proven to be a powerful color attraction for trout.
Think about the time you were watching the highway in front of you and from among the many cars and truck routinely traveling in both direction a yellow fire truck comes along to deal with an emergency. Yellow paint was applied to that truck for a reason – to get our attention. In this case yellow means pay attention, clear the way and allow the emergency to be handled. Bright colors such as yellow, orange and red have all been successfully used in this manner over the years as part of an attreactor fly pattern. Attractor fly patterns are intended to get the trout’s attention rather than match it’s food.
One of Western North Carolina’s oldest and best known patterns is the Orange Forked Tail. The fly was originally tied and sold by the Herter’s Fly Company in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The late Fred Hall of Bryson City, North Carolina who is well known as an outstanding local fly tyer is given credit for creating the Yellow Forked Tail.
The split duck wing tail provided both a silouette of a split tail mayfly as well as a very good float capability. The Yellow Forked Tail as with many original Southern Appalachian patterns was fished both as a dry fly at times and as a wet fly at times. This was before the period when many wet fly patterns were transitioning to pure dry fly patterns with stiffer hackles that were becoming available.
To fish the Yellow Forked Tail as a dry fly, use ample floatant and allow to dry before casting the fly. The split duck wing tail provides plenty of tail material to be soaked with floatant and allows the fly to make many drifts before reapplying the floatant. Should you find that trout are not responding to the Yellow Forked Tail dry fly, stop and apply sink liquid to the entire fly and fish the Yellow Forked Tail as a wet fly in the same manner you would fish a soft hackle. The wet fly approach if thought to be giving the impression of a rising emerger.
Tom is using the Orange Forked Tail fly pattern recipe from Roger Lowe’s Fly Patterns Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains and substituting yellow dubbing for the medium orange dubbing. At present we have no information as to the exact recipe that Fred Hall used to tie his Yellow Forked Tail. Some versions of the Smoky Mountain Forked Tail fly which is also called an Orange Forked Tail uses white biots for the tail in the same manner as a Prince Nymph. However, we believe that the original Yellow Forked Tail was tied very much like the pattern in Roger Lowe’s book. Fred Hall was very good at modifying a Herter’s catalog fly for local use and local sales.
Yellow Forked Tail
Orange Forked Tail
- Tom Adams, Alen Baker
Note: this information is identical to the Yellow Forked Tail, with the exception of the color change
It’s early spring and the aquatic insect activity is ramping up. However, in the Southern Appalachians the hatches are sparse and often short lived. Our trout must be opportunistic and take any insect that is hatching just to survive. The good news is that a specific trout keyed to surface activity will take just about anything on the surface once the May-June temperatures arrive. The bad news is that most of our trout most of the time in April rely heavily on bottom feeding and are not usually looking at the surface yet. Attractor fly patterns are often more effective in March than actual attempts to match that sparse hatch.
Yellow Forked Tail
From the times past when the Cherokee Indians used the Yellarhammer or Flicker Woodpecker feather on a hook to attract trout, early fly fishermen knew that the color yellow attracted trout. Yellow material has been utilized in many fly patterns to modify a good pattern into a great pattern. A sulphur hatch in North Carolina is few and far between. It is unknown why but yellow has been proven to be a powerful color attraction for trout.
Think about the time you were watching the highway in front of you and from among the many cars and truck routinely traveling in both direction a yellow fire truck comes along to deal with an emergency. Yellow paint was applied to that truck for a reason – to get our attention. In this case yellow means pay attention, clear the way and allow the emergency to be handled. Bright colors such as yellow, orange and red have all been successfully used in this manner over the years as part of an attreactor fly pattern. Attractor fly patterns are intended to get the trout’s attention rather than match it’s food.
One of Western North Carolina’s oldest and best known patterns is the Orange Forked Tail. The fly was originally tied and sold by the Herter’s Fly Company in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The late Fred Hall of Bryson City, North Carolina who is well known as an outstanding local fly tyer is given credit for creating the Yellow Forked Tail.
The split duck wing tail provided both a silouette of a split tail mayfly as well as a very good float capability. The Yellow Forked Tail as with many original Southern Appalachian patterns was fished both as a dry fly at times and as a wet fly at times. This was before the period when many wet fly patterns were transitioning to pure dry fly patterns with stiffer hackles that were becoming available.
To fish the Yellow Forked Tail as a dry fly, use ample floatant and allow to dry before casting the fly. The split duck wing tail provides plenty of tail material to be soaked with floatant and allows the fly to make many drifts before reapplying the floatant. Should you find that trout are not responding to the Yellow Forked Tail dry fly, stop and apply sink liquid to the entire fly and fish the Yellow Forked Tail as a wet fly in the same manner you would fish a soft hackle. The wet fly approach if thought to be giving the impression of a rising emerger.
Tom is using the Orange Forked Tail fly pattern recipe from Roger Lowe’s Fly Patterns Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains and substituting yellow dubbing for the medium orange dubbing. At present we have no information as to the exact recipe that Fred Hall used to tie his Yellow Forked Tail. Some versions of the Smoky Mountain Forked Tail fly which is also called an Orange Forked Tail uses white biots for the tail in the same manner as a Prince Nymph. However, we believe that the original Yellow Forked Tail was tied very much like the pattern in Roger Lowe’s book. Fred Hall was very good at modifying a Herter’s catalog fly for local use and local sales.
Yellow Forked Tail
Orange Forked Tail
- Tom Adams, Alen Baker
Orange Forked Tail
HOOK : Dry Fly, 1X long, 1X fine, perfect bend , size 12, 14,16 Tiemco 100 or equivalent
Thread : Uni-thread 8/0 black
Wings : Duck quill, matching
Tail : Duck quill, matching
Abdomen : Orange dry fly dubbing
Hackle : Grizzly rooster
NOTE: Tying in a quill can be a chore until the pinch is mastered. Take your time and do not worry if it takes several attempts and a lot of duck to get the hang of it. This is a beautiful and very useful skill to learn. Quill wings are great producers and well worth the effort. The photos show two variances, one is a yellow dub substitute and the other uses white biots for the tail.
Directions :
HOOK : Dry Fly, 1X long, 1X fine, perfect bend , size 12, 14,16 Tiemco 100 or equivalent
Thread : Uni-thread 8/0 black
Wings : Duck quill, matching
Tail : Duck quill, matching
Abdomen : Orange dry fly dubbing
Hackle : Grizzly rooster
NOTE: Tying in a quill can be a chore until the pinch is mastered. Take your time and do not worry if it takes several attempts and a lot of duck to get the hang of it. This is a beautiful and very useful skill to learn. Quill wings are great producers and well worth the effort. The photos show two variances, one is a yellow dub substitute and the other uses white biots for the tail.
Directions :
- Debarb the hook and mount in vise. Begin tight, butting thread wraps four eyelengths from eye , stopping about one third toward the hook bend. Trim away tag end. Advance the thread three or four turns back toward the eye and let the bobbin hang.
- Select a matching pair of mallard duck wings. Select a sliver of wing starting near the base of the feather. Use a bodkin to separate the sliver from the feather by inserting and sliding it away from the stem to the tip. It may want to marry back, but don’t worry, repeat the action to form a stem that is slightly wider than the finish wing. Depending on the hook size I would say the width is something in the 3/16 range. Use your fingers to pull the sliver away from the stem in one quick motion (like a band aid removal) pinching it tightly nearly the stem. Do the same process on the other feather, making sure the sliver is removed from the same spot (vertically on the feather) as the first. You will now have two curved pieces. There is usually something of a dogleg near the top as well. Hold the two pieces together and inspect the widths to make sure they are the same. If need be, using the bodkin, remove barbs one by one, adjusting them to match in width. Put the two together with the shiny sides touching. This will leave a slight curl away from each other. Make sure the curved sections match up as well. To mount them to the hook, begin by pinching them together in your left hand and holding them above the hook measure their length to be about the same as the hook shank. Still holding them tight with your left hand, pinching firmly such that your fingers are at the length to be tied into, and hold them on top of the hook shank directly above the dangling bobbin. Use your right hand to lift the thread on the opposite side of the hook shank, straight up and pull it in to where your index finger is pinching the qulls. The light pressure of the ball of you index finger will hold the thread and you will bring the thread straight down, collapsing the quill on top of the hook shank in the spot you wanted. It will take a good bit of pressure on the quill with your left hand to maintain the position on top. This is critical though, so keep trying until you get it. This is the toughest part, though. Once the quill is collapsed bring the thread back over the top and make severals wraps toward the hook bend to bind it in. After three or four wraps to bind it pull the thread parallel to the hook shank and wrap in from of the quill pulling it against the quill to make the wing go vertical. Once it is vertical, make several wrpas in front of the wing to secure it. Let the bobbin hang and trim the quill waste behind the wing. Cut the waste vertically as close to the thread as possible. Bring the thread back behind the wing in tight wraps to smooth and secure the wing tie in and wrap to the hook bend. Bring the thread back to above the hook barb and let the bobbin hang.
- Select another sliver from the two matching quills. This time it is about two thirds the width of the wing. Match these up just like the wing. This is your tail. Hold them over the shank and tie in like you did the wing only this time it is horizontal and parallel to the hook shank. The length is about the same as the hook shank. Trim the excess and wrap the tail completely stopping the bodkin at the hook bend. Wax the thread with dubbing wax and spin on a tight noodle of orange dub. Wrap in tight, touching wraps to about one third from the eye. There should be room behind the wing for several hackle wraps free of dub. Let the bobbin hang.
- Select a grizzly rooster hackle appropriate for the hook (about 1 and ½ the hook gape), pull the barbs exposing about one quarter inch of stem and tie behind the wing with the thread ending up in front of the wing. Let the bobbin hang.
- Wrap the hackle in tight, touching wraps ( three or four behind and three or four in front off) the wing. Secure with thread, trim excess and form a thread head. Do not crowd the eye. Use a half hitch or whip finish, adding cement to complete the fly.