The Jeremy Fly

The JEREMY FLY

David Hutton
June 16, 2018

"Happy Birthday, Poppa!"

Being told happy birthday is music to most people's ears, and I'm no exception. But, when its coming from my 6 year old grandson, well, its doubly sweet.

My 61st birthday recently passed, and I wrote a blog piece about my fishing adventures that day. You can search it here if you want (I'm told its a pretty good read).

But it was a solo birthday outing, it was mid-week, and there wasn't much of a celebration to accompany the event.
So, my grandson, Jeremy didn't really take note of my special days' passing. 

A few days later, my wife, Lori, said,
"Look here - this is a feather Jeremy found." 
She handed me a small, zip-loc baggie. 
In it was a single, red-dyed guinea feather.
"He wanted you to have it," she said, "... he figured you could use it, I guess." 

"Okay, cool. Wasn't that nice of him."

Jeremy has grown up around me, and my fly fishing pastime; I took it up when he was just a baby. 
At this point, I don't have any illusions of leaving him some grand, fly fishing legacy,... and he hasn't really expressed an interest.
Frankly, I think he sees it as something I do, but kinda boring. 

Nevertheless, he has watched me tying flies since he could walk. 
And, while he shows no desire to learn the arcane and mysterious ways of vise and thread, well, he knows exactly what I do with hooks and feathers. 

"Well, hmmmm, what am I gonna DO with a single feather... guess I'll add it to the collection."

Like all fly tyers, I have gathered many assorted feathers that just kinda hang around, without any real purpose. 
I figured it could go in there.

A couple more days passed, when Jeremy came to me and said, "Poppa, I'm sorry I missed your birthday - I didn't know it. But did you get the feather I got for you? 
I wanted you to have that for your birthday."

Hold on, people. Did you hear that?
He wanted me to have it for my birthday.
That aint just music to the ears - that's a whole symphony! 

After giving him a big hug, I said,
"Well, Thank you, buddy! I'll see what I can do with that feather.... 
Hey, what do you say I tie up a very special fly with it? 
What do you think of that?" 
I wanted to acknowledge his generosity for the gift, and make a big deal of it.

"Sure, that would be good."

"Okay, then. What should we call it, I wonder? 
How about the 'JEREMY FLY?' or the 'BUBBA BUG?'"

His family nickname is "Bubba," and his little sister, Hannah, who is now 2, is," Sissy." 
Bubba was an option.    

"Not Bubba - I like, Jeremy Fly!" 
It seems it's better to have a fly named after you, and not your nickname.

"Then that's what it will be - The Jeremy Fly. 
I'll get right on it and see what I come up with."

Decisions, Decisions
I wanted a fly that was fairly big and gaudy, something that might impress a 6 year old. As it was just one feather he gave me, I figured I'd have to add something to it. 
And I wanted it to be simple, but at least look like some kinda critter.
What else but a Woolly Bugger variation?!

In this case, I kept it even simpler. What I selected was similar to the old "Baby Doll Fly." 
Basically, I was gonna tie a Woolly Bugger, with no hackle, no extra weight, and one that would give a near surface presentation.

The General Idea - The Baby Doll Fly 

Construction
This is where it gets a little "X-Files," kinda weird.
Stay with me...

I was doing the annual fire alarm inspection at an elementary school the other day (my day job), and I found a length of white, wire-cored chenille inside one of the pull stations. 

You can buy these twisted wire chenille pieces as, "Fuzzy Sticks" at any craft store. They're as common around an elementary school as juice boxes, as they're normally used for children's craft projects.
But they work alright for flies when wrapped on larger hooks. 
I have no idea how it got IN the pull station, as they're locked, but, hey, it was kind of a cosmic moment, an omen, if you will. 
It seemed appropriate enough, anyway.

- What I did was add a white tail to a hook, from a marabou blood quill.
- Then I wound on a length of the Fuzzy Stick to form a body. 
I added no wire ribbing, or other reinforcement, as the chenille sticks have that twisted wire core holding everything together.
- Finally I added a hackle collar from Jeremy's red guinea feather. 

The end result looks like this:

The Jeremy Fly

MATERIALS
Hook - # 4 2-3xl (Aberdeen)
Thread - Black  
Tail - White marabou
Body - White chenille "Fuzzy Stick"
Hackle - Red-dyed guinea feather

What Is It?
When I showed the fly to Jeremy, he was somewhat moved, but nonchalant like only a 6 year old can be. Kids this age aren't all that critical, and the "What is it? question never materialized. 

But I had prepared an answer, and I'm not gonna waste it, so here you go:

The answer to, "What Is It?" isn't really easy - and it isn't really hard. 
I can't tell you exactly what it looks like... because it doesn't look like anything, exactly. 
But it has all the elements of classic designs that suggest it will have the desired effect.
Mostly it will look like some kind of small fish, to a bigger hungry fish.

Fishing
I expect the Jeremy Fly will have little trouble getting through the surface film, with the hook's own weight and the chenille's wire core. I picture it as a near surface fly, something described this way by Bob Clouser:

"Near Surface Flies

Another class of 'top water fly' is what I call the 'near-surface' fly. 

These run from right at the surface to a foot or two down. 

This is the suspending fly, the one that doesn't sink fast.

It kinda hovers on the drop, instead. 

You can do as well with these, and maybe better, than with top water flies. 

A favorite of mine has a three layer head of red - white - red hackle in front, with a white Deceiver-style back end."

Can we say it was influenced by the words of Bob Clouser? Not initially, no. I didn't make the connection until just now. But I'll go with that... remember you heard it here, first.

I'll cast it around structure and cover, and fish it from the surface down to about 4 feet on a floating line. While its more of a giant sized wet fly, I'm calling it a streamer at this point. This is because, 

a. That's pretty much what it is, and,

b. And well, I can

I'm gonna roll with that, anyway.

I hope to try it sooner than later, and I hope it catches something. That would be a fitting tribute to a grandsons gift of a feather.

Don't you agree?

Thanks for reading and Tight Lines,

David

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