Fly Patterns - Ron's Krystal Hare's Ear

Description

From time to time I like to feature patterns created by anglers who know how to catch fish and can tie patterns that work. This month I asked my friend and guiding associate Ron Rabun to present his version of the venerable Hare’s Ear. He calls it Ron’s Krystal Hare’s Ear. I can attest to the success of this pattern. Just take a look at Ron’s fish picture that accompanies this article. Here’s Ron’s description:

“This is a variation of the Flash Back Hare’s Ear. I first tied this Hare’s Ear variation in 1976 to fish the Callibeatis emergers at Lake Solano. The deer hair provides some flotation and the fly would move in the surface film in a bubble. As I further began to develop my short line nymphing, this fly became my first pick as the dropper because it represents both mayfly and caddis emergers.

Three things make this pattern effective. First, deer hair and weighting gives it neutral buoyancy. Second, the color and sizing simulates various stages of many emerging mayflies and caddis. Finally, the subtle flash provides a strike target.

On January 14^th, 2007 while fishing the Upper Sac Winter Season, I landed 3 fish and two were on the KHE size 18 as the dropper. The Rainbow pictured above was one of those fish. In conclusion, the KHE’s success can be directly attributed to the fact that in my short line nymphing technique, it is the first fly seen by the fish. The rest lies with the reliable response of the fish to take this pattern.”

Tying Instructions
1.  Optionally, add bead to hook and apply weight nymph style with 3-4 wraps of lead wire at the thorax. I use wine foils because I use a technique that creates a tapered body. See my explanation below. 2.  Select 8 deer hairs and tie in the tips for the tail, no longer than 1 gap of the hook. Wrap the butts half way up the hook because you will be using these on the wing case. Don’t cut the butts. 3.  Tie in one orange or green Krystal Flash strand and create a fork as part of the tail. Trim to length of the deer hair tail fibers.
4.  Select three strands of extra fine copper wire (if you don’t have extra fine just use one strand of copper wire). Take the three strands and twist tightly to form a strand that looks like it is variegated. Tie in the wire just ahead of the tail. See tip below.
5.  Select 8 Krystal Flash strands (same color as legs) and tie in on top of the abdomen just behind the wing case position.
6.  Dub the Abdomen to under the wing case with the medium dark Hare’s Ear dubbing.
7.  Wrap the copper wire 3-4 wraps to under the wing case and tie off and cut. 8.  Add final dubbing to the thorax.
9.  Take deer hair butts and tie down as the wing case. Don’t cut the butts. Leave space for the head.
10. Take the Krystal Flash strands and tie over the wing case to form a subtle flash back. 11. Cinch down both the deer hair and krystal strands. 12. Form the legs by separating three deer hairs and two krystal strands for each side of the fly and tie/cinch down holding toward the hook point. Trim remaining butts and krystal strands.
13. Trim the legs at the hook point for correct length. Finish head with Hare’s Ear dubbing and tie off thread. See below for glue/whip finish technique.
Tying Tips
Tying Tips - Ron adds the following tips: 1.   Note on cementing head: I have used super glue for head cement with resounding success. I take a drop and place it in a small container, and then take a very small amount on the needle point and place it on the thread before doing the whip finish. These never come apart. You can also use the very small drop directly on the head if it is small enough not to soak into the fly. See photos below.
2.   Wine Foil Weighting: That older ‘reserve’ wine you have been saving has now just become more valuable. So drink it. I think I have cornered the market on old lead wine foils for the purpose of weighting my flies. Everyone tries different techniques during their fly tying practice. Many of you may have tried to use old lead wine foils and found that cutting them into strips was not effective. The secret is to cut the pieces into triangles and roll them onto the hook shank. The triangles are cut to the size proper for the pattern size with the intent of creating a tapered mound on the hook shank. I secure the wine foil in two ways:  First,  by wrapping thread under the foil prior to rolling on to the shank; secondly, by cinching down the two ends of the rolled foil to keep it from rolling. I then wrap the foil with thread and then tie the fly normally. See photos below. [Editor’s note: if you don’t have wine foil, use adhesive-backed lead strips which can be found at the fly shops, or at a golf pro shop where they use it to add weight to golf clubs.]
3.   Twisting wire: See the photos at right.