Salmon fly kilt pin SBS

[David]

I had seen somewhere a salmon fly kilt pin and thought about doing a trout fly kilt pin. I like my trout fishing and tie my own "Clyde Style" flees; small lightly dressed patterns. A Clyde style with three turns of hackle is a heavily dressed fly. Having given it some thought I decided against this as I thought that scaling up to kilt pin size would ruin the overall effect of the fly/pin, so I reverted to the salmon fly which to me are just "lures" . i mean, who ever saw a hatch of Ally Shrimps or Dunkelds??

I decided on a nice bright hair wing pattern, they are easy to tie. Its a sort of yellow/garry dog pattern. I was fortunate in that the kilt pin fitted the jaws of my fly tying vice. If you have never tied a fly before and want to give it a go, a pair of vice grips would suffice. I'm sure its not beyond the capabilities of the average X Marker to cobble something together to do this sort of thing. so here is my SBS on how to do it:

Kit
A vice of some sort
A kilt pin
Some varnish - quick drying
Sharp fine pointed scissors

Materials
Substitute your own versions if your not a fly tyer
Black floss
Yellow floss
Silver wire/tinsel
Yellow deer hair
Orange deer hair
Blue deer hair

Method
Wind the black floss down the hook, sorry pin, to near the bend and tie in lengths of yellow floss
Wind the black floss back to the front of the pin to the point where you want the tag to be
Wind the yellow floss over the first layer of black floss up to where you stopped winding the black floss
Use a couple of turns of black to tie in the yellow, trim the yellow and tie in the silver tinsel

Should have taken more pictures. In this picture you can see the yellow tag and just see the tinsel ready to be used to form the rib once i have wound the black floss all the way back to the start
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Continue the black floss back up to the "head" of the fly. Make a rib of silver up to the head and tie in with a couple of turns of the black floss and trim the tinsel.
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The thing you can see hanging from the black floss is a bobbin holder. A peg would do the keep the tension on the floss.

Now get your hair wing material and size a pinch of it for the under hackle. Tie it in with a couple of really tight turns of floss using the "pinch and loop" method. If you are not a fly tyer, Google it, its easier to watch than explain. Trim the excess material sticking over the front of the pin
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Repeat the last step for the wing using one or more colours of material, blend them if it takes your fancy.
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Once you have the "wing" tied on, lift up the "wing" and take a turn or two of the floss behind it to make the wing stand up a bit. Then back to the front with another turn or two of the floss. I then soaked the wing material and floss that would be contained in the finished head in varnish to secure the lot. When it was nice and tacky I trimmed the excess wing material and formed a bigish head to fill the gap on the pin shank. I'm not too good at this size of fly head as I'm used to small delicate trout flies.

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The finished article
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[Chas]

That is really quite elegant and no one could ever mistake it for something else. And as a bonus it doesn't look anything like a sword.

[Jock Scot]

I, er, well, um, have seen a hatch of "Jock Scots" on occasion, but not on a river!

Well done, very well done, but perhaps a red tag of wool for the tail? It would fill that wee gap at the bottom of the pin?

[David]

I, er, well, um, have seen a hatch of "Jock Scots" on occasion, but not on a river!

Well done, very well done, but perhaps a red tag of wool for the tail? It would fill that wee gap at the bottom of the pin?

Old habits Jock. On Clyde style flees the body stops a bit short of the bend, just in front of the point of the hook. I could have added a couple of Golden Pheasant tippets for a tail but could not find the tin they are in.

[Jock Scot]

Old habits Jock. On Clyde style flees the body stops a bit short of the bend, just in front of the point of the hook. I could have added a couple of Golden Pheasant tippets for a tail but could not find the tin they are in.

Quite so, but I don't think what we up here, would call "low water" style and tyings works for the kilt pin, so if that wee gap could be filled in with something then all to the good.

[JohntheBiker]

Very creative - looks good. Well done!

[Singlemalt]

What a great idea thank you. I too tie flies and love salmon fishing on this side of the Atlantic. I know I can buy this style of pin inexpensively at the local farm supply store and I already have all the materials at home. A Blue Charm would look great on my dress tartan and maybe a Green Highlander for my hunting. This will be fun! Thanks again, just when I was thinking there is never anything new on this forum you surprised me!

[Son of the Rock]

It looks wonderful. I think you might be onto something here. One of the things that I find really appealing about it is the fact that they can be customised to the match the tartan of each kilt you have. I might have to give it a go myself, at some point.

[MNlad]

Very, very well done. Ooh, I can see a Mickey Finn streamer in my Maple Leaf's future.

[GrainReaper]

I fondly remember my father teaching me to fly fish many many years ago, we would go out on the lake on the dead calm waters of early evening and fish for bass along the shores with poppers, my fathers go to popper was a bumble bee sort of thing, it was lost to the Lilly pads in 2001, in 2002 my father made the inevitable journey to join his father and his fathers father.

I think a similar kilt pin would be a fitting tribute to my sire. Thank you for the inspiration!

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