Drawing Flies 52 Brassie (gold beadhead). I grew up fishing Brassies, and they were a staple midge pattern for me in spring creeks all over the Rocky Mountain West.

The flies I fished as a kid (well, the flies I still often fish) were/are simpler than this. They use the same skinny wire body, but are tied with only a pheasant-tail fiber throat and a head of red thread. I wanted to go a bit beyond that for this fly, so kept the dull copper-wire body, but added a herl collar and gold beadhead.

I also went with a straight-shank hook, versus a curved, larva-style bend. The old Mustads I used to tie on were straight, so I kept that going here. I also remember one day when I was I down to my last worn-out Brassie, and had to keep re-bending the hook after each fish. Eventually the hook could take no more, but a fair number of fish came to hand before it failed. The re-bent hook can be seen in the drawing, too.

Notes: This fly was drawn with a loose hand using my #005 Pigma pen on an old Academie sketch pad. And by old, I mean a pad that I have had for close to 30 years and only recently found in a box. It still works just fine.

The pen drawing went really fast—just a few minutes. Most of the paint went fast, too, except that I got muddy on the copper wire and had to rescue it. There is still some mud visible, but a bit of careful water-work got the structure more-or-less back in place. Tossed on some blue and purple for a contrasting background and done.

Tech info: Pen on paper with watercolor.

Jeff’s Brassie is here. Some more really nice work with that bamboo pen (I need to get one of those!), the blocky background, and Jeff’s always-gleaming reflections.