Corey's Calftail - Fly Tying Appalachian/Great Smoky Mountain Trout Patterns

Created by Ralph Corey in the 1920s, this pattern originated in the North but has been a popular trout fly in the Smoky Mountains for the last 90 or so years. A highly visible, high floater, this is a great pattern for some of the region's fast riffled water.
Hook: #12-18 Dry fly
Thread: Rusty brown or brown
Tail: White calftail
Body: Cream dubbing
Hackle: Brown or ginger dry fly
Wing: White calftail, tied upright and divided
Savage Flies is a project with the mission of encouraging and teaching fly tying to as many people as possible. The channel is named after one of my western Maryland homewaters, the Savage River. I've been uploading at least three new videos a week (usually Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday).
Thanks for stopping by. Please let me know in the comments if you have any tips or tricks that could help me or anyone else watching.

[@johnbates2921]

Going to add this one to the fly box for my next trip to Smokies. Looks good.

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks John! Tomorrow's is another easy GSM pattern. A Miller Nymph. Thanks for watching!

[@mikeney5113]

Great tie Matt! Thanks for sharing!!.

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Mike! I found a lot of these heavily hackled, bushy flies did great for me out west last week.

[@rcbarrettjr]

Thanks, Matt. I'm tying this pattern for the first time tonight in Muskegon (Muh-SKEE-gun :-), MI, for some brookies next spring.

[@SavageFlies]

Awesome Robert! Good luck with it. It's certainly a cool looking pattern. :-)

[@tannerpeavy3356]

I definitely will try this one. Looks great.

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Tanner! Make sure to keep an eye out for the next vise giveaway. I'm only about 15 subscribers away from 600 so I'll have something cool soon.

[@ColinD0131]

Reminds me of a hex fly. Great fly and info, keep thouse videos coming

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Collin! I'll have to check out a hex fly.

[@jasonarrowood3349]

Great tie Matt, love a more visible fly. I started tying my Adams flies with antron wings instead of hackle tips for that very reason.

[@SavageFlies]

I hear you! I've thought about making some parachute Adams with a orange or hot pink Antron for the wing post. Maybe I'll make a video of that and call it a Hi-viz Parachute Adams. (It's probably already been done, but who knows.) Thanks for watching Jason. :-)

[@allenaviation5746]

New subscriber here> Thanks for the great content. Many enjoyable hours watching tying videos while I'm (supposed to be) working from home during the Kung Flu. I've lived within walking distance of Spring Creek in PA for the past 23 years but truth is, I'm a bit of a workaholic - or else I would be fishing on company time!

[@SavageFlies]

Ha! If I lived within walking distance of trout water I don't know if I'd ever get any work done. I've also been teleworking since March which has given me a lot more time to make videos. Thanks for the nice comment my friend; really appreciate you watching!

[@PreppingWithSarge]

First! (Edit: second) Seems like so many great flys get their headwind down in NC/TN area. Such a pretty part of our country. I love driving those roads when I am traveling between SC and KY

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Sarge! It only seems that way if you watch my channel with all the GSM flies I've been doing for these last few months. A lot of these flies are relatively unknown out of the region. But that's one of my goals with the series, to maybe help them get some visibility elsewhere! And yes, that is a beautiful area. :-) One other note, I'll try to make a quick video for you of the O-light I got last week. I'll post it private to you if you ever want to review it or a similar light on your channel. I'm pretty impressed with it. I have an archery target about 90 meters off my back porch and this thing lights it up like you wouldn't believe. Of course, on high power, the battery only lasts seven minutes, but it is like a laser when on.

[@PreppingWithSarge]

Savage Flies i’d definitely love to see it! But why not make it public? I am betting it is a good light for early morning fishers to get in and out of their spots? Up to you of course. Does it get hot on turbo mode? It is supposed to have safety shut offs if getting hot I think. On medium should give you several hours of light I think? But yeah, turbo will run down the charge fast. The price we pay for having the power of sunlight at night 🤣

[@SavageFlies]

I haven't noticed any significant heat, but the longest I've had it on high was about a minute. It has a sequence of vibrations that tell you the power levels so that was pretty cool. And even on the lower power setting, it's still plenty bright. I agree that fishermen might be interested in the light, and if I had a fishing channel I might review it. But I'm sticking to all fly tying and fly tying equipment right now. Maybe in the future I'll add a separate fishing channel. (Just a lot more work and editing, and I wouldn't be able to do videos but maybe once a month. Definitely thinking about that though!)

[@PreppingWithSarge]

Savage Flies roger that 👊

[@ericrollins4607]

I've never seen this fly fished in the Smokies, but it would totally work.

[@SavageFlies]

Yeah, I'm guessing so too. (And Don Kirk must have thought it was a good enough GSM pattern to put in his book.) I'll definitely be giving it a try up here in Maryland!

[@OttoJulian_]

Hey Matt, this fly looks badass!! I was wondering, if Bigger flies will attract bigger fishes? Matt, you are almost at 600. Just curious but how are you doing on the minutes/hours watch time total?

[@SavageFlies]

Yep, generally speaking the bigger fish will chase bigger flies. But even big fish will eat the little bugs too. I'm at 2,100 hours. But most of those have been in last 3 months. My first three months were poopy. I'm trending to hit the 1000 subs/4000 hours maybe mid December. I'll email you the spreadsheet I use for tracking my stats...

[@OttoJulian_]

@@SavageFlies sounds good!!! Feeling very happy for you hitting both milestones!!! December sounds great!

[@SavageFlies]

@@OttoJulian_ -- Oh, I forgot to answer, I use opensource editing software on Linux. It's called Olive. I tried a copy of Premiere but couldn't get it to run right on my machine. Olive is not as polished but it's pretty solid.

[@rogerschneidt4853]

From a person who lives in Michigan on the Muskegon River the correct pronunciation is Mus key 🔑 gon.

[@SavageFlies]

Thank you Roger; great to know! So the second syllable gets the heavy accent? Like Muss KEY gon? Hopefully I'll get up there someday and experience it in person. :-)

[@jamesvatter5729]

Those trimmed calf tail wings kind of make it look like a poly wing fly. Certainly is one that should be a visible, high floater.

[@SavageFlies]

You know, I didn't even think about that, but they do look like something synthetic. I've tied so many flies the last couple of months that I don't know when I'll get to use them. But these buoyant, high floaters... I definitely want to try these. Thanks for watching Jim!