Some hints to tie Nalle Puh right way. It is important to tie wings straight up (V-shape). Also it is important not to tie wings too close to the hook eye. Bear hair is lively material, it reflects the light a unique way. It´s excellent material for dry flies but it is a bit heavy material, if you tie wings too far ahead, fly is not stable and it will often fall down. Nalle Puh requires 2 good quality cock neck hackle; one hackle to the front and one body hackle. This fly has designed to use in fast currents, so it should be tied relatively bushy. Bear hair is nowadays in a cites list, so it might be a bit difficult to purchase. Quite good natural substitute Nalle Puh wing material is finnraccoon tail hair. From synthetic materials quite good wing substitutes are; Wapsi Polypropylene Yarn medium brown or Congo hair (Tan etc.) www.flytyersdungeon.com/Materials/synthetichair.htm Other Nalle Puh series dry flies are Honey Puh (light ginger hackles with light ginger bear wings and body) and Dark Puh (Black body, black hackles, wings; black or Brown bear). Dark Puh is one of my favorite dry flies here in Finland, also Dark Puh with white polar bear wings or white finnraccoon wings is a real killer. Here in Finland Nalle Puh is very popular dry fly which has caught huge amount of large Brown trouts up to 10 lbs, also over 3 lbs graylings and large rainbows. It can be used also for atlantic salmon in large sizes. Usually it is tied sizes #8-14 (for salmon and big trout #4-6). Sometimes it is very effective attractor dry fly for brownies when it´s tied in large sizes, 4 to 6 standard dry fly hooks, or sizes 12 to 8, or even size 6 long shank streamer hooks ! Nalle Puh has developed by Finnish flyfisher Simo Lumme in the 1960´s when he fished at Nuortti river, north-east Finland. It´s near Russian border and there are lot of bears.....: www.nationalparks.fi/nuorttihikingtrail Here Finnish professional fly tier Ariko Miettinen ties Original Nalle Puh: ua-cam.com/video/WRUGa7uQvWc/v-deo.html
Hi Realbraf, Very interesting and thanks for the very long and detailed comment! Just a little background info for you. I learned to tie the Nalle Puh in 1994 along with the S-L Puppa, from my very good and old friend Simo Lumme when visiting him in Helsinki. If you listen to the video I do mention that the more modern version uses two hackles at the front, but Simo diddn't do this with better modern genetic hackle. Simon recommended not just brown bear hair but the hair from a young brown bear! The European brown bear may be on the cites list but brown coloured black bears from North America are not, and this works just as good at Finnish karhu, but again when he first tied this pattern, in 1969 he used red squirrel for the wings which he found after a while too soft, so changed the recipe to the hair from a young brown bear. I still have the original flies from Simo, Nalle Puh, Honey Puh and Dark Puh.
Hi Barry, thanks for your reply and information. Brown coloured black bear works surely well for Nalle Puh, I have used it also. Unfortunately it is nowadays difficult to find European or Finnish brown bear from Finnish fly shops after it listed on the cites list. Though, we have large population of brown bears in this country. Last year Forest Bureau of Finland granted permission to shoot 250 bears, 230 bears were shot ! I like often to tie large Nalle Puh dries from one long saddle hackle. I have some older Metz saddles from 1990´s which have long fibers, can tie dries up to size 6 to 4. Unfortunately nowadays many genetic dry fly saddles have so short fibers that you can tie flies barely to size 10 hooks. Many fly fishers in Finland use synthetic substitutes for Nalle Puh wings. However, to be honest in my opinion this kind of dries barely can call Nalle Puh. The bottom line in this fly is that bear hair, period. Luckily I still have half of dozen Finnish bear hair pieces which I purchased before it became to cites list. Also couple old polar bear hair pieces. Well known Finnish fly fisher and writer Erkki Norell - who was friend of Simo Lumme and fished with him, designed his own variaton of Dark Nalle Puh. It has black body, black hackles, fluorescent green silk ribbing and white polar bear wings. Excellent pattern for evening and night fishing. Erkki wrote at one of his books that he have caught lot of salmonids with Nalle Puh dries from Tasmania (Australia), japan, USA, Irland, Spain, Russian, Scandinavian countries and Finland. PS. I really like your tying videos. I have got quite a lot good tips from your videos. Great tying. Thanks a lot !
Hi Jim, Finnish professional fly tyer Mr. Ariko Miettinen makes excellent high quality flies. You can make a query through his company facebook sites: facebook.com/Perhopaja/
Whoa Nellie! Gorgeous looking fly Barry, it looks like Betters Ausable Bomber, Wulff and Usual mated and this was the offspring. Similar profiles, thread, even the water type where it's fished. I wonder if the Ausable and the waters Simo fished and developed this fly are similar. Great minds think alike. A week ago today I bought some necks, and the saddle I got has that color. To round out the purchase to get a 10% discount I picked up a black bear patch! Does the under fur have similar properties of snowshoe? I've never used black bear though I know the under fur is used for dubbing. Thanks Barry, this post truly is a "🍯 honey bucket 🐻"! That winging technique and material is sweet! All puns intended;-)
The feather bender Awesome, thanks Barry for posting this. The bear looks a lot like my black Labs under fur when they're shedding, it's more of a grey brown with the "gaurd hairs" being black. lol, when they're out of coat they look ten pounds lighter! I've kept some poly-fill from one of their pillows that was dyed black, it looks very similar to this under with the addition of sparkle. It's very coarse and kinky, haven't played with it too much. I also have bags of the real stuff from the dryer when we wash the dogs bedding. Well, thanks for showing this fly with that winging technique, always learning from you! 👍😁🍺 cheers!
Fancy seeing you here Joe... five years later! Someone just sent me some cinnamon bear fur and asked if I could tie a Nalle Puh. Lo and behold, Barry already has a great one on here. And I had the same thought you did before even seeing this comment-- it looks like a few of Fran Betters' patterns. Hey, check out Rob Streeter's latest tie. He's got some background on Betters I'd never heard before. Pretty interesting stuff. :-)
@@SavageFlies Ha! Yeah you told me before I'm all over You Tube :o) Great invention this YT. Yeah I sub'd Streeter's channel recently, think he was mentioned by one of your subscribers. He had an article in one of the mags on casting streamers for Lake Trout, in Lake Champlain I think. You know Barry has a great vid on tying the Big Hole Demon. Thanks for the tip on Streeter. See ya later buddy. Thanks for the space Barry ;o)
Good try Barry😁. The original is thou more orange than this One. Also, the hackle is divided in two parts. Body hackle curves towards bend of the hook and front hackle towards the eye of the hook. Also hackle near the wing should be almost as long, as the wing. Other than that, good Job! Like ur patterns. U are one of my favourite fly tyer!
Hi Eero, Good to hear from you, I always like getting comments like this because I am always looking to perfect these important original patterns! But in this case, I am afraid that I have to disagree with you on this one. Simo was a good friend of mine, who I visited in Helsinki several times and I have many of his original flies, including ( Nalle Puh, Honey Puh, Dark Puh ) that I had to examine after your comment. I can agree somewhat with the colour perhaps, but with regard to the hackle, none of his original Nalle Puh, that I have, has the hackle the way you describe above. It's interesting though, that how over time, original patterns are metamorphosed into something else. I have an original Don Gapen Muddler minnow and it is nothing like the modern muddler, if you put it by the side of a modern muddler they are two different flies all together! But keep the comments coming. I have tied at the Finnish Fly Fair several times, maybe again next year all being well.
@@hopper1aoa15 No problem at all, but thats not the original Davie is tying. There are 3 original patterns Nalle Puh, Nalle Puh light and Nalle Puh dark. I was taught to tie them in 1994 by the originator of the pattern Simo Lumme. But as with many well known original patterns there are always many variants that are developed afterwards and along the way.
@@Thefeatherbender I know there are 3 patterns my wife is from Finland and while over there I picked up a few different types of the pattern after a search which too awhile funnily enough,I even went to one of the big outdoor hunting and fishing shows which had a marquee just for fly tyers and asked them if they could tie me up a nalle puh and most of them looked at me as if I had 2 heads, Though maybe my basic Finnish wasn't up to scratch.....eventually I asked my father in law to translate and found 1 tyer who knew the pattern and he tied up 2 variations of it....
I thought so as well. The bear is called the black bear because the guard hair is black and that is what you see. Under the hair it is nearly the same color as yours. I think the slight difference could be due to the graphics cards on our computers, although they are both Apple. Have a great day. I am not being too much a pain I hope. I do love learning from you. I love your tying and am learning a whole bunch of techniques I had not been exposed to before. I have watched all your video's numerous times. All the best, Sean
I have looked through my black bear, it does have brown underfur but is is much darker brown than the bear you have. Is there a place you know of where I could get a piece of brown bear like you have? I would like to tie the original pattern as well. I don't need much as that would be a material I would use for my own flies only. I wouldn't be tying them for others. Not selfish but some patterns are mine, and I don't share them unless I want too. I'm sure you understand. All the best, I did get the book "A man can fish and I am well into it already. Thanks for the recommendation. All the best, Sean
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Fantastic! You make all these Ty’s look so easy. Nice job! Tight lines🪲🐜🦗!!!!!!
Yes I do!
When i've been in Finland i've seen the wing tied the other way around as well and the underfur used as the dubbing for the body...
Yes many variants of the Nalle Puh.
Great pattern mate, thanks :) 👍
Thanks J!nx.
Some hints to tie Nalle Puh right way. It is important to tie wings straight up (V-shape). Also it is important not to tie wings too close to the hook eye. Bear hair is lively material, it reflects the light a unique way. It´s excellent material for dry flies but it is a bit heavy material, if you tie wings too far ahead, fly is not stable and it will often fall down.
Nalle Puh requires 2 good quality cock neck hackle; one hackle to the front and one body hackle. This fly has designed to use in fast currents, so it should be tied relatively bushy.
Bear hair is nowadays in a cites list, so it might be a bit difficult to purchase. Quite good natural substitute Nalle Puh wing material is finnraccoon tail hair. From synthetic materials quite good wing substitutes are; Wapsi Polypropylene Yarn medium brown or Congo hair (Tan etc.) www.flytyersdungeon.com/Materials/synthetichair.htm
Other Nalle Puh series dry flies are Honey Puh (light ginger hackles with light ginger bear wings and body) and Dark Puh (Black body, black hackles, wings; black or Brown bear). Dark Puh is one of my favorite dry flies here in Finland, also Dark Puh with white polar bear wings or white finnraccoon wings is a real killer. Here in Finland Nalle Puh is very popular dry fly which has caught huge amount of large Brown trouts up to 10 lbs, also over 3 lbs graylings and large rainbows. It can be used also for atlantic salmon in large sizes. Usually it is tied sizes #8-14 (for salmon and big trout #4-6).
Sometimes it is very effective attractor dry fly for brownies when it´s tied in large sizes, 4 to 6 standard dry fly hooks, or sizes 12 to 8, or even size 6 long shank streamer hooks !
Nalle Puh has developed by Finnish flyfisher Simo Lumme in the 1960´s when he fished at Nuortti river, north-east Finland. It´s near Russian border and there are lot of bears.....: www.nationalparks.fi/nuorttihikingtrail
Here Finnish professional fly tier Ariko Miettinen ties Original Nalle Puh: ua-cam.com/video/WRUGa7uQvWc/v-deo.html
Hi Realbraf, Very interesting and thanks for the very long and detailed comment! Just a little background info for you. I learned to tie the Nalle Puh in 1994 along with the S-L Puppa, from my very good and old friend Simo Lumme when visiting him in Helsinki. If you listen to the video I do mention that the more modern version uses two hackles at the front, but Simo diddn't do this with better modern genetic hackle. Simon recommended not just brown bear hair but the hair from a young brown bear! The European brown bear may be on the cites list but brown coloured black bears from North America are not, and this works just as good at Finnish karhu, but again when he first tied this pattern, in 1969 he used red squirrel for the wings which he found after a while too soft, so changed the recipe to the hair from a young brown bear. I still have the original flies from Simo, Nalle Puh, Honey Puh and Dark Puh.
Hi Barry, thanks for your reply and information. Brown coloured black bear works surely well for Nalle Puh,
I have used it also. Unfortunately it is nowadays difficult to find European or Finnish brown bear from Finnish fly shops after it listed on the cites list. Though, we have large population of brown bears in this country. Last year Forest Bureau of Finland granted permission to shoot 250 bears, 230 bears were shot !
I like often to tie large Nalle Puh dries from one long saddle hackle. I have some older Metz saddles from 1990´s which have long fibers, can tie dries up to size 6 to 4. Unfortunately nowadays many genetic dry fly saddles have so short fibers that you can tie flies barely to size 10 hooks.
Many fly fishers in Finland use synthetic substitutes for Nalle Puh wings. However, to be honest in my opinion this kind of dries barely can call Nalle Puh. The bottom line in this fly is that bear hair, period. Luckily I still have half of dozen Finnish bear hair pieces which I purchased before it became to cites list. Also couple old polar bear hair pieces.
Well known Finnish fly fisher and writer Erkki Norell - who was friend of Simo Lumme and fished with him, designed his own variaton of Dark Nalle Puh. It has black body, black hackles, fluorescent green silk ribbing and white polar bear wings. Excellent pattern for evening and night fishing. Erkki wrote at one of his books that he have caught lot of salmonids with Nalle Puh dries from Tasmania (Australia), japan, USA, Irland, Spain, Russian, Scandinavian countries and Finland.
PS. I really like your tying videos. I have got quite a lot good tips from your videos. Great tying. Thanks a lot !
realbraf can you recommend a tyer or source that can tye this fly and send it to me in the USA? Thank you
Hi Jim, Finnish professional fly tyer Mr. Ariko Miettinen makes excellent high quality flies. You can make a query through his company facebook sites: facebook.com/Perhopaja/
Is this a fly that can be used in the U.S. ?
Of course you can.
Whoa Nellie! Gorgeous looking fly Barry, it looks like Betters Ausable Bomber, Wulff and Usual mated and this was the offspring. Similar profiles, thread, even the water type where it's fished. I wonder if the Ausable and the waters Simo fished and developed this fly are similar. Great minds think alike. A week ago today I bought some necks, and the saddle I got has that color. To round out the purchase to get a 10% discount I picked up a black bear patch! Does the under fur have similar properties of snowshoe? I've never used black bear though I know the under fur is used for dubbing. Thanks Barry, this post truly is a "🍯 honey bucket 🐻"! That winging technique and material is sweet! All puns intended;-)
Yeah you are right Joe, on all points... It is similar to snow shoe but has the advantage of being longer and easier to handle.
The feather bender Awesome, thanks Barry for posting this. The bear looks a lot like my black Labs under fur when they're shedding, it's more of a grey brown with the "gaurd hairs" being black. lol, when they're out of coat they look ten pounds lighter! I've kept some poly-fill from one of their pillows that was dyed black, it looks very similar to this under with the addition of sparkle. It's very coarse and kinky, haven't played with it too much. I also have bags of the real stuff from the dryer when we wash the dogs bedding. Well, thanks for showing this fly with that winging technique, always learning from you! 👍😁🍺 cheers!
Fancy seeing you here Joe... five years later! Someone just sent me some cinnamon bear fur and asked if I could tie a Nalle Puh. Lo and behold, Barry already has a great one on here. And I had the same thought you did before even seeing this comment-- it looks like a few of Fran Betters' patterns. Hey, check out Rob Streeter's latest tie. He's got some background on Betters I'd never heard before. Pretty interesting stuff. :-)
And oh yeah... great tie Barry! I'm adding this to my fast-water boxes for here in Maryland.
@@SavageFlies Ha! Yeah you told me before I'm all over You Tube :o) Great invention this YT. Yeah I sub'd Streeter's channel recently, think he was mentioned by one of your subscribers. He had an article in one of the mags on casting streamers for Lake Trout, in Lake Champlain I think. You know Barry has a great vid on tying the Big Hole Demon. Thanks for the tip on Streeter. See ya later buddy. Thanks for the space Barry ;o)
Good try Barry😁. The original is thou more orange than this One. Also, the hackle is divided in two parts. Body hackle curves towards bend of the hook and front hackle towards the eye of the hook. Also hackle near the wing should be almost as long, as the wing. Other than that, good Job! Like ur patterns. U are one of my favourite fly tyer!
Hi Eero, Good to hear from you, I always like getting comments like this because I am always looking to perfect these important original patterns! But in this case, I am afraid that I have to disagree with you on this one. Simo was a good friend of mine, who I visited in Helsinki several times and I have many of his original flies, including ( Nalle Puh, Honey Puh, Dark Puh ) that I had to examine after your comment. I can agree somewhat with the colour perhaps, but with regard to the hackle, none of his original Nalle Puh, that I have, has the hackle the way you describe above. It's interesting though, that how over time, original patterns are metamorphosed into something else. I have an original Don Gapen Muddler minnow and it is nothing like the modern muddler, if you put it by the side of a modern muddler they are two different flies all together! But keep the comments coming. I have tied at the Finnish Fly Fair several times, maybe again next year all being well.
@@Thefeatherbender here's another version I hope you don't mind me sending you...ua-cam.com/video/DStpg1uqYDQ/v-deo.html
I hope you like.
@@hopper1aoa15 No problem at all, but thats not the original Davie is tying. There are 3 original patterns Nalle Puh, Nalle Puh light and Nalle Puh dark. I was taught to tie them in 1994 by the originator of the pattern Simo Lumme. But as with many well known original patterns there are always many variants that are developed afterwards and along the way.
@@Thefeatherbender I know there are 3 patterns my wife is from Finland and while over there I picked up a few different types of the pattern after a search which too awhile funnily enough,I even went to one of the big outdoor hunting and fishing shows which had a marquee just for fly tyers and asked them if they could tie me up a nalle puh and most of them looked at me as if I had 2 heads,
Though maybe my basic Finnish wasn't up to scratch.....eventually I asked my father in law to translate and found 1 tyer who knew the pattern and he tied up 2 variations of it....
What kind of bear? I have black, and grizzly. Looks like black bear. Great fly! All the best, Sean
Hi Sean, the original is European brown bear as is found here in Scandinavia but I am sure that you can use some 'brown' black bear also...
I thought so as well. The bear is called the black bear because the guard hair is black and that is what you see. Under the hair it is nearly the same color as yours. I think the slight difference could be due to the graphics cards on our computers, although they are both Apple.
Have a great day. I am not being too much a pain I hope. I do love learning from you. I love your tying and am learning a whole bunch of techniques I had not been exposed to before. I have watched all your video's numerous times. All the best, Sean
I have looked through my black bear, it does have brown underfur but is is much darker brown than the bear you have. Is there a place you know of where I could get a piece of brown bear like you have? I would like to tie the original pattern as well. I don't need much as that would be a material I would use for my own flies only. I wouldn't be tying them for others. Not selfish but some patterns are mine, and I don't share them unless I want too. I'm sure you understand. All the best, I did get the book "A man can fish and I am well into it already. Thanks for the recommendation. All the best, Sean
Hi Sean, you should be able to get it from Hareline dubbing I guess!
Nope they don't have it available on Hareline's site. Thanks for trying. All the best, Sean