The idea of an all black wang has been previously suggested to me by the likes of James Reid (Canecaster) and Josh Browning, but a prototype black wang never came to fruition until just recently. Adrian Cortes (Fshnazn), Steve Turner and I were making the marathon drive home from Skeena country a couple weeks ago and I had my tying kit on my lap, as usual, during Steve's driving shift. I was tying more of my foam contraptions when Steve requested that I tie an all black wang for his immediate upcoming trip to the Deschutes. I got to work and Steve provided the specfics: size 8 hook, two strands of black krystal flash on each side along the tail and behind the wings, black wool body, black krystal flash rib, black cactus chenielle thorax, black foam lip, and black foam wang posts. When the first prototype emerged from my vise, it was passed around and we felt like the fly had fishy written all over it so I tied another one to provide Steve with a backup, just in case the Deschutes steelhead tried to take one away from him. Steve immediately came up with a name for the new fly: The Ninja. Adrian (hold the foam!) even requested a Ninja for himself as well, but he wanted his tied on a size 10 hook. I have been experimenting with tiny versions of my fly this year and along with the occasional trout, I had a 30" range steelhead grab my yellow #10 Stimuwaker the day before we left for our BC trip. When the tiny black wang came off my vise we again agreed that the wee wang looked pretty tasty. I tied another one for Adrian to have a back up and I also tied a couple more for Steve to take with him on his D trip. A couple days after returning home from paradise and re-entering real life, Adrian reports of getting two aggressive surface grabs to the Ninja, landing a nice hen. (post a pic, will ya Adrian??) I had a local float planned with Tony Torrence (Riverman) last friday and I realized that I did not tie up any Ninjas for myself. I tied up a couple each for Tony and me the evening before our float, again size 10. During our day of fishing, Tony had 3 aggressive rises to the Ninja, landing a spirited hen in soft shallow water. I fished my local flow a couple mornings ago and had a small wild Willamette hen come up for my #10 Ninja with a confident gulp and the little hook held nicely in the roof of the mouth of my valiant little prize. This has been the season of the wee wang. I have been tying these little flies on Mustad 3906Bs (S82) #8 and #10 and on the Mustad 3906 (s80) #8 and #6. It's funny to think that I used to tie gold ribbed hare's ears and the like on these hooks.
Happy Fall Surface Steelheading to all - now is the time to fish flies on top!
Todd
BTW: I found that the all black posts are most visible in the mirror like glare on overcast days and the silvery glare of early morning and evening. At those times, literally nothing else shows up against the reflective surface textures.
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