Morningwood Special by Charlie Craven

Designing a fly pattern rarely starts at the tying bench. For me, it most often starts with a vague idea, a spark, that glows and gets kicked around a fair bit in my head before I ever even sit down to try it. Sometimes, that spark turns out to be a complete dud, and thankfully, it usually makes itself apparent pretty quickly. Other times, the prototypes show a bit of promise and through some technique tweaks and material replacements I can come up with something that is very often, much better than what I originally imagined. The MW Special is one of those flies that traveled a lot of miles through my head before ever coming to fruition, but I am pretty proud of what it finally came to be.The premise for a new foam stone came from my good friend and former Umpqua Feather Merchants Fly Czar, Brian Schmidt, mentioning something about maybe developing a Charlie Boy Stone pattern based off of my Charlie Boy Hopper. I liked the idea and brazenly thought to myself, ‘Well, this ought to be easy!” The Charlie Boy Hopper is one of my first commercial patterns and frankly, is one of those flies that took far longer to become the simple, effective pattern it has than it really should have. My brain has a way of overcomplicating things and that dang fly took me a whole summer, fall, and winter to fine tune and polish up. Reasoning that so much of the hard work was already done, I foolishly thought that I could just sit down and tweak a few parts and have a killer stonefly adult pattern magically fall from my vise. Wrong again, Craven.As I sit here typing this, I have a rather large fly box overflowing with about seventy-five prototype flies showing the progression of what has turned into a pretty craftily designed fly pattern sitting near my right elbow.
Materials Needed:
Hook: 200R #8-12
Thread: UNI 6/0 Rusty Brown
Body: Thin Fly Foam, Gold
Legs: MFC Sexi-Legs, Golden Yellow
Wing: Umpqua Stonefly Wing
Indicator: Hot Pink over Black McFlylon
Specials: Sewing Needle, Zap-A-Gap, Copic Markers, Sepia and Black
All materials available for purchase at charliesflyboxinc.com

[@alsmith2497]

Very nicely tied 👌

[@cachi-7878]

I swear I saw it move on its own, Charlie! Morning wood...hmm... I used to experience those in my prime years, not so much anymore.

[@mikepetti]

Might be my favourite fly tying video to date

[@dannywhite7523]

Thanks for the video! I've adapted this pattern in many variations and they all work very well. Charlie your video's are my favorite!

[@mdaley3102]

Wow, a very cool looking salmon fly. Looks like a lot of work but also fun.

[@nickjonas4113]

Will you please do a video on the materials used/method of taking macrame yarn and turning it into this wing material? I’m struggling out here haha thank you for the awesome videos!

[@tylerpaquette9376]

This was a pleasure to watch thread control off the charts goodness

[@michaelogden5958]

One of the more fascinating flies I've seen tied. Thanks for sharing!

[@oldsmugglerflyfishing]

Wow! Amazing looking fly! Excellent technics!

[@jaycourant5394]

Thanks for another great video! Its very cool to see the level of creativity and technique that you employ!!

[@ronbrook5800]

One of my favorites to use...thanks for a great lesson in tying..

[@davesmith7906]

Wow Charlie great construction, love the name & all the special techniques.

[@sotacal]

Unreal skills! That's awesome brother! Thank you for the video

[@ranawayfromsanity]

Nice tie as always.The new store is great. Much improved.

[@flyingunicycle]

Awesome looking hopper! Thanks for sharing

[@mikekuczynski1552]

Great looking fly :-)

[@barneyewing2664]

This is so creative

[@sirmegallot3276]

Great job I learned some stuff the bobbin threader to slip the last legs in was clutch

[@lukebarnard11]

Great tie! I have doubts that the added marker color makes much of a difference to the fish, but it sure does look fishy. I might have tie one up myself!

[@stephennolin8129]

damn that buggy!! great tie

[@alissandronogueira4777]

Parabens,Sensacional!!show

[@varmintassassins8924]

awesome.... having trouble with the BC hopper, i would love it if you made a video. thanks charlie.

[@wyomingtrout5581]

Charlie - need one more set of legs like the Doornan's waterwalker- please show

[@martinhodell8465]

Davey McPhail got nuthin on you, man!

[@fishbeelowme245]

Greatness

[@seanfalconer7182]

😲Ooooohhh😲

[@thomasw_]

Charlie, what other colour foam & thread combinations do you recommend with this pattern? Like with a salmonfly or skawla?

[@wyomingtrout5581]

Opps - sorry - I did not wait long enough!!

[@rigginuts]

Wow, beautiful job. How long did it take you to develop this fly ?

[@tacitus7408]

Unable to find Umpqua stonefly wing material anywhere, ideas?

[@MarkEWallace]

If you add more eyes, will it catch more fish?

[@max9343]

Nice fly!

[@mikebartecki7802]

Anyone know where you can get the Umpqua Stonefly Wing material? I've done some searches via google with no luck. Barring that, what would you use as a substitution?

[@CharliesFlyBox]

Mike Bartecki I have the Umpqua wing at the shop but I’ve switched over to mixed colors of poly macrame yarn topped with up blue ripple ice fiber. It just floats so much better! Give me a call at the shop and I’ll walk you through it!

[@Equipubest]

@@CharliesFlyBox Is the macrame and blue ice available thru the store?

[@richarddvll]

you stole my fly name LOL just kidding but I tie a fly I call just Morning wood but it uses a lot of wood duck feathers nice tie you got there though have to try them

[@dominicregos4902]

Could you make a 17 year cicada out of this pattern by making it a little wider and use different colors?

[@CharliesFlyBox]

dominic regos I just may be working on something for the cicadas!

[@mikekehoe7692]

where can I get the stonefly wing

[@tinoyb9294]

Charlie, wish you and other tyers would stop with the double entendre names. It's degrading the sport. Funny names are fine, aka Chernobyl Ant.

[@mikerutkowski4565]

Jeez Grandma

[@donaldburleyson3099]

Another great video from Charlie and that's the best comment someone can come up with! Some people!

[@tinoyb9294]

@@donaldburleyson3099 sorry Don, I owe you a scotch and cigar after your latest fishing competition.

[@donaldburleyson3099]

@@tinoyb9294 I'll have to take you up on that!