Tying The Cluster Midge Jig with Kelly Galloup

In this video, Kelly will tie the first of three dry flies he has been working on over the last couple of years that are tied on Jig Hooks. While we thought this was an entirely new concept it seems that Nick Thomas of South Wales beat him to the punch over 5 years ago as you can see here: eat-sleep-fish.co.uk/content/... . Enjoy.
Cluster Midge Jig Recipe:
Thread: Black Danville 6/0 - www.slideinn.com/product/danv...
Hook: Firehole 516 Stick - www.slideinn.com/product/fire...
Body: Black Super Fine Dubbing - www.slideinn.com/product/supe...
Hackle: Grizzly - www.slideinn.com/product/whit...
Underwing: Pearlescent Krinkle Flash - www.slideinn.com/product/krin...
Wing: Pale Morning Dun EP Trigger Point Fibers - www.slideinn.com/product/ep-t...

[@ronkreed]

Thanks Kelly. I appreciate the extra time you spend on the background on your flies. I learn so much from your experience observing the bugs on the water, the "why" behind your fly patterns.

[@jzrusty1]

I enjoy the long videos and you explaining different aspects of fly tying and find your stories entertaining, don't change a thing!

[@RVRRUN00]

Same here!!

[@marcfoutz9049]

thanks for sharing a new concept in dry flies Kelly! It totally makes sense. Gonna tie some up, and try it out this year! Cheers!

[@jamesshanley913]

loving the new closeup camera work by Johnny and Jeremy. Also the shout out to whip finish tool.

[@mikelundrigan2285]

Been tying for 54 years, watch your videos and the tiers you mentioned plus a bunch of others! Still learning new stuff and that keeps it interesting! Learned more thru the internet in the past 15 or so years then all the previous years! Self taught and all these videos add to my skills! One thing I concentrate on is being frugal when using my materials and minimizing waste! That is one thing most of us can improve on! Keep safe and tight lines!

[@patdemarte5236]

I have grappled with different methods to break the surface film for many years. Never thought of using a gig style hook. This innovation is the obvious answer for this problem. Thanks, very creative. Can’t wait to try it.

[@paulebennett9342]

Looks like a killer pattern to try down here in Helena. On the Missouri. Gonna be a warm week can't wait to try it. Thanks for sharing your wisdom Kelly

[@pauljames650]

Hey Kelly, this was one of your best tutorials ever. I have a habit of when someone does a lot of talking, I fast forward to a point where the "useless" chatter goes in sinc with what is being taught. But this time you did a great job of presenting everything and especially about looking what some of the other tiers (like Davie Mcphail) among others who all help any and all tiers to give their best efforts at tying the best flies. In my opinion you fall into that group as well and thanks for all the times you help my efforts.

[@debpaskall]

Fantastic tie and looks like a deadly pattern. Very cool idea with the jig hook, I'm going to tie some dries on them and try it out. Thank you Kelly.

[@NickThomasFlyTying]

Thanks for the historical update guys...

[@joutdoorsmen23]

That’s so awesome cool I really enjoy your work and knowledge keep up the awesome job thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!!!

[@johnnylightning1491]

Neat little fly Kelly. Keep the good stuff coming.

[@RVRRUN00]

Great info. and I appreciate all your thoughts. Thanks!!

[@comodave5]

This fly will occupy a space in my fly box next to Gary LaFontaine's buzzball. Thanks for all these videos, I've really learned a lot from you.

[@jerryg957]

So glad I found your channel !

[@LetortAngler]

Absolutely brilliant. Very innovative Kelley. I have some very fine-wire Dohimutu (something like that) jig hooks that I bought and don’t use because they are way too flimsy for being a nymph hook. Might have to dig them out and try this technique out and tie some dries.

[@gregbelcamino7239]

Take a look at the Bear Back Rider, a golden stonefly dry by Ken Burkholder (there's a KZbin video). That's tied on a 90-degree jig hook, and if you believe Burkholder, he started tying it around 2006. His rationale for the jig hook is that the under-the-surface eye causes the fly to land upright every time. And here, Kelly's saying that it's important because it sinks the leader. But perhaps the most important reason to tie dry flies this way is that it will give better hook penetration. The hook gape in not really compromised much, but the pull from the tippet (especially with a loop knot) will be more nearly in line with the hook point, which will want to penetrate rather than slide across the trout's mouth tissue and cartilage. (And this is improved when the jig has an in-turned point like the new Umpqua competition jigs.) Datus Proper offered that idea about hook shape in What the Trout Said in 1982, although he wasn't talking about jig hooks, but was more focused on gape and its effect on hook penetration. So, although this is not original, Kelly's doing an important thing by suggesting that a jig-style hook can be used for a wide range of dry flies. Excellent video, even if the idea's not new.

[@garydrummond568]

Love the concept, definitely giving it a try👍🏻

[@deankrueger7178]

The master does it again!! Amazing thread control and I dig the new camera angle!!!👍👍. Being a 53 year old that's a rookie to fly tying, I've learned so much. Thank you and your staff again!! I like to send Kelly a thank you could you give me a address to mail to? Again Bravo!!!!🍻🍻🍻

[@tonysobina8390]

Really liked the discussion on the tippet . Sometimes I'll take a brown crayon and color up the tippet to help kill reflection..Got the idea from looking at Maxima Chameleon. I dont use it in normal conditions but low water and glassy pools I think it helps..I also think it helps sink the tippet a bit, ..! Great fly and nice tribute to all those great tiers out there! i'm a junkie too watching You all those guys too!

[@michaelmcnulty3097]

Brilliant design.

[@michaelmcnulty3097]

Amen to the whip finisher. I can't tie without it.

[@MarcTelesha]

I learned to do it by hand. Then I went to a fly tying class with the best in the 80s and he made me learn it before we went over different flies. I didn't really use it exclusively till a few decades over and he was right. It makes for much more precise whipe finish.

[@gregb8824]

Now that's more like it. That's what I would expect Kelly to use a jig hook for.

[@jimlees8234]

There's a guy in Scotland called Neil Sinclair, not a social media type of guy but a competition angler for many years a good angler and very much like yourself a "thinking" angler, he's the original creator of the Foam Dun in the Fulling Mill catalogue as well as a few other flies that are very popular over here. For the last 4 or 5 years he's been tying his Foam Duns on a jig hook for the same reasons you talk about. As well as that he also ties his Dun wings on the angle down to the eye as an easy way to get the wing set to stay at the angle he wants it to fish at. I reckon you guys would get on well.

[@mwcarl2004]

A dry on a jig hook and Kelly using a whip finisher, has hell frozen over?

[@imaxfli]

Yea...love WFer.....can make such a perfect head and avoid trapped fibers......

[@stevenkemp5387]

Cool where you showed how it had been done before, but if you read the article it was for a different reason. In my eyes, this is still an original concept. Looking forward to the other videos for sure.

[@magnuskarlsson7600]

Love your videos. Learnt a lot.

[@sputnick66]

Enjoyed that. Never thought of tying on a jig hook. As you say learn something new every day. I love FH hooks, you might also try a 551 with an even wider gape.

[@andrewnelson3338]

I’m tying a lot on the 551. Great hook.

[@Oholisfliesandfishing]

Tmc 108 sp bl is the hook you are looking for. Several years ago i used jig hook but just the opposite of what u did... I wanted to lift the tippet above the water.... I like ur way more. In one of my videos i was using hook i mentioned above.. Its good hook.

[@ryanalderaen8358]

I know kelly isn't the only guy that "gets it" but its clear to me at least that he does. Without a doubt. I'd happily tolerate another 20 minutes with the amount of gold scattered throughout that video. I learn to tie flies from other guys. From kelly I learn why flys work and how they work and so many subtle things about how to fish them and the story of a pattern's evolution and it's free, anytime I want. The influence these long winded videos has had on my tying and fishing is hard to overstate. If you like this kind of stuff, and you wanna really understand some shit, check out Gunnar Brammer's streamer videos. Might be an hour or more but SO much gold there! There are tens of thousands of hours of fly tying content online but there can't ever be enough of this stuff. Thanks Kelly, for everything, keep to talking!

[@foragefarmer1300]

This.

[@myrlstone8904]

Yes, hell has frozen over. Great video.

[@cormacsmall9442]

Awesome! This is one of those ideas that make you wonder how nobody thought of it before now. I want to go tie one so I might just try bending a hook to make it work.

[@TheSlideinn]

Cormac, we thought it was an original idea too but Nick Thomas came up with it in 2016: eat-sleep-fish.co.uk/content/2016/05/dancing-jig

[@gourmetsportsman]

@@TheSlideinn Unless you come up with a new tying material or technique everything probably has been done already by someone. You think you come up with a great new concept, you then promote it. Then you look like an asshole when some says Blah Blah did that 10 years ago! I guess that's the way it goes. At any rate it's a cool idea no matter who came up with it. Keep up the good work guys.

[@brianfeeney9493]

Look forward to the tie and Fishing 🎣 this on the AU SABLE here in NW MI this Season ✨

[@mohameddocrat4393]

Very interesting fly. I will have to tie up some and try them out. As an aside, it is the first time I have ever heard an American talk about metric measurements as in millimeters! There is hope! lol

[@gourmetsportsman]

Have you look into the dolphin shanked TMC 108SPBL? It's a pretty obscure hook from Tiemco. I had to special order them as no one seemed to carry it in the States. I initially bought them to tie some of Ken Shimazaki's flies after visiting Japan a few years ago. But after tying a few of his patterns with it I stopped as they were too much effort to tie I rarely fished them because I didn't want to lose them and retie more. I've messed around with emergers using the hook with but for several years now they've been sitting in my hook stash. Now I've got a use for them now. I think they may float better as its a thinner wire than jig hooks.

[@michaelmcnulty3097]

How about elevating the leader out of the water? An upeye hook using a turle knot. What knot do you use?

[@mikebarrett7412]

tie the fly backwards on the same hook, tail by the eye wings at the bend of the hook? not sure if you tried

[@jasonwalker1959]

atta boy KG. Love the embrace of technology.

[@sigurdurmarolafsson4183]

This is a GREAT video. Just wandering...have you done "the F-fly" in this way??

[@georgehyker]

Nice straightforward fly. Will be getting some of the jig hooks and ... wax! As and idea for you: Make up a couple kits for us, before shooting the video(s) and put kit name/link in the description. I have bought some kits from SlideInn and like it. I am kinda one and done guy and would prefer to buy it all in one shot. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@dpatch777]

straight forward? He took 42 minutes to tie a 3 minute to tie a double ant pattern.

[@boydgravesvlogs2562]

can use a dry fly hook on the them

[@CvS2016]

Have you tried this for bigger stuff with foam? Also aren't the jig hooks you use too heavy? Isn't that why you show bending a more traditional dry fly hook to get the same result. Perhaps missing something.

[@TheSlideinn]

I bent the first ones because I wanted a longer portion of the hook underwater and most of the gig hooks seem to have to be to short to break thru the surface. I don't find the jig hooks to be to heavy, if you go back in time about 30 years ago most of the dry fly hooks were about the same weight as the gig hooks are now, but of course if I have the choice to use lighter hooks I do. I have not done any bigger than a 12 flying ant which worked great, again I made bent my own hooks. If this style takes off I will have hooks made for it but it is still yet to be seen how it will be go. Super easy to bend your own though I have been bending hooks for 30 years to get what I want. Thanks, KG

[@johnwanderin3872]

I had a similar idea last year but for a different reason because it’s for larger terrestrials

[@imaxfli]

Don't midges usually mate rear to rear???

[@TheSlideinn]

Yes, Always

[@imaxfli]

@@TheSlideinn Why tied face to face??

[@academicmailbox7798]

This is actually. A huge part. Of the reason why. Hans Klinkhammers 'emerger' flies. Worked as well. As they did.

[@academicmailbox7798]

However, looking at the flies. That were used more. In the western rivers. In the United States. Jack Dennis had a way. That he demonstrated. How he would. Tie the parachute flies. That he did. The wing post. Was more exaggerated. That you would. Tend to find. In many flies. That are described as having. What is called. A parachute post (around which the hackle is wound).

[@academicmailbox7798]

In other words. the effect of that. Was that the dry fly. Would hang quite low. In the water surface. Underneath the parachute wound hackle. Where the 'hook'. The eye of the hook. The leader attached. To the eye of the hook. It would all. Happen at a lower plane. Underneath. The dry fly proper.

[@academicmailbox7798]

I remember that. Jack would use some materials. Such as 'foam' parachute post. In order to create. The vertical parachute post. Around which. The dry fly hackle was wound. It created a fly. That was even more exaggerated. In that effect. Than the Klinkhammer dry fly emerger patterns. Were.

[@academicmailbox7798]

That was the big advantage. When I noticed how Jack Dennis. Had made some of those dry flies. I noticed how. It would result in a dry fly. That would require. The leader. The 'tippet' to the dry fly. To break underneath the surface fly. To attach to the fly. From underneath.

[@academicmailbox7798]

There is absolutely no doubt about it. There is a huge problem. With a fly. Where the 'leader tippet'. Has to make it's way. Out of the surface film. And slant upwards again. In order to connect. To some hook eye. That happens to be. Suspended by some manner (owing to traditional wound hackle or whatever it was). Above the surface film. It's a dead 'give away'. To any self respecting fish. That might take it.

[@jeffnotti9932]

this might work for you Cobblers wax..... 6.5 parts Rosin (pine resin not sap) 2.5 parts Bees wax and 1 part olive oil... that will make you classic wax, reall great fly ... gonna try one J

[@3000waterman]

It seems we need a light wire jig hook.

[@TheSlideinn]

seems so, by the way Duofold I loved your comments on the Hares Ear video . KG

[@3000waterman]

@@TheSlideinn Good of you to say, rather than take offence. Not having any jig hooks in stock, but being taken by your idea, I've today tied a row of Duofold 'Nose Divers' on Fulling Mill CZ Nymph hooks #16 and #18. They look plausible in midge patterns (which look better with a pair of trailing legs) and as variations on the Dynamite Harry (which is a great fly, by the way). In my head I'm toying with the idea of a 'Nose Diver' with a closed cell foam lifebelt as a post, and parachute hackle. It would help in rougher water that might sink the basic pattern. 'D'

[@youmanskids]

you need to start talking like Davie, love his accent!

[@MarcTelesha]

It's an ant. A flying ant

[@harryhthenorwegian476]

Hi Kelly.... This looks more like an ant than a midge...?😄

[@michielvanrooy7931]

Form follows function....

[@creagan2003]

42 minutes to tie a cluster midge?

[@robertperman8967]

Way too much talking. Need to just see the fly tied . Tight lines🐜🕷️🐛!!!!

[@keithr4224]

Hahahahaha... 42 minutes?

[@skjohnson1961]

You talk waaaaay too much. A 41 min video? Seriously? Stop the incessant, non relevant chatter and make the fly.

[@TheSlideinn]

Simple fix...hit the fast forward button or don't watch

[@keithr4224]

26 minutes and you just started tying?