Well, those of you that wondered who Bud Guidry was, finally get to see a picture of him and his lovely wife Darla. Bud and Darla don't usually dress like this but they are the reigning Mardis Gras King and Queen of their Parish. What that means is all Bud has to do for the next year is just tell one of the people in his Parish that he wants something and it will be done. I don't think asking for a few dozen Indian Crow patches is out of line but we will see if they can deliver as promised.

One must remember that Bud has only been at this fly tying thing for less than a year when reading his comments pertaining to the photographed stages. His close-up photography lets you see just how ornate and unique his flies are. His methods and tips are quite helpful Hopefully this is only the first installment of many flies in stages from Bud.

The fly Bud shows us is one of his own design and creation called Elegant Simplicity. Click on the thumbnails below to see a larger image:



1 You know the routine, I wrap the thread edge to edge to get a smooth base for the coming work.

2 Once my tag is on I bring the thread forward then back to the rear of the tail end to tie in tinsel or floss.

3 I tie in a strand of fine oval silver, floss then another strand of fine oval to dress the tag end of the fly once the silk is wrapped.

4 I tie in the silk using five wraps then snip the excess, when wrapping the thread I always spin the bobbin making sure to thread remains flat to create the flat surface for the silk.




5 Here the silk has been wrapped rearward then forward again and burnished with a polished stone. Notice the glassy look of the silk once it?s burnished with the stone. I?m trying to figure out why I have that red line between the first tinsel wrap forward of the tag and the second wrap. sheeesh. That?s got me puzzled because there?s no floss below the tinsel. I know how it happened. Can you figure out how that happened?

6 The floss then both tinsels are wrapped forward, notice the spacing between the wraps how they increase in distance from each other, I do this to create an illusion of the tag end getting larger as it moves forward. I use this only on the tags to make it seem like it get larger to match the size of the first body section. pretty smooth and glassy looking ain?t it. This is a technique I learned in art class called prospective and it?s a illusion that fools the eye.

7 In this photo I?ve added two imitation toucan feathers to enhance the colors of the tinsels and floss I?ve used for the tag. Also notice the under tail section. i try to apply the feathers in a way that the shorter of the feather or feathers are always closest to the floss to give the tail end flow. these fibers are peacock corona fibers and add some iridescence to the tail section.

8 Here I?ve added a pair of love bird feathers back to back to finish off the tail again paying attention to colors so they compliment the rest of the tail end of the fly. at this point I?ve tapered the body section by wrapping forward to back a few times with only the thread. once wrapped I again hit it with the polished stone rubbing really hard to smooth out the thread for the next step , applying the floss for the first body section.




9 I begin by tying two strands of oval tinsel in the center of the hook, I tie these on the bottom of the hook, it gives me a mark for center to begin applying the other elements. I then tie a strand of floss on each side then border by another stand of tinsel outside the strands of floss. I always use floss that?s been split in two.

10 I move forward with my thread then tie in the floss with five wraps then snip the excess to remove material because it gets in my way when I?m tying in so much stuff. On the first photo I didn?t mention, once I tie the silk and tinsels forward I snip then at intervals to gradually reduce materials not to create a bulge. Once wrapped with thread I then compress the tinsel into the thread by gently squeezing with the needle nose pliers. You can see there?s no sign of any bump in this picture.

11 After wrapping the body floss back to the butt then forward. I then move forward with my materials, the first strand of floss and two strands of tinsel are wrapped in the normal clockwise manner. The second sets are wrapped in a counter clockwise manner. You have to pay attention here because when wrapping counter clock you unwrap what you have applied before so you have to advance your thread forward and make five wraps. this way when you use your vise if you have a rotary, you won?t get to a point where you?ll release the materials you?ve wrapped before. When doing this a rotary vise is a blessing.

12 Here I?ve tied in imitation toucan or whatever you call it. Sad huh? Been at this so short a time I haven?t learned the lingo yet!!!!!!




13 Shown from the top of the fly. I?ll tie a divider with black ostrich and then do the next body section in the same manner. I always do a simple tinsel floss combination on the last or forward section not to create too much bulk to try keeping my heads small. This fly is three section so another crazy ones coming up before something simple. One other thing, it looks like the tinsel doesn?t follow the floss in the pics but you don?t see this with your eyes. the flash of the camera must dilute some of the edges of the floss color making it look like it doesn?t extend to the tinsel but after viewing the photos I said , hey, I didn?t do that and went and looked closely, even had Darla come look and you don?t see any gaps so I thinks it?s the camera diluting the color unless it?s really thick in the center of the floss, I can send you the fly when completed to have a look yourself, bet you can?t find a gap. I?ll bet a Porsche 911 turbo on that.

14 Notice how all the colors accent each other in this pic. Should be a great looking fly when completed.

Elegant Simplicity is the name of this fly. That is also a suitable description of it. This is the completed fly and Bud was right it is a great looking fly. It sure must be nice to have both skill and talent! I sure do wish I had the pictures of the rest of the fly?s construction.