Al Beatty

Hi Stippled Popper, Most fly tiers tie for their own fishing and sometimes for a few friends. Often that equates to a narrow focus based on area waters we have time to fish based on our busy lives. We tend to be the same often fishing in waters close to home because they are convenient. We do end up trying a lot of new flies because people often send us patterns to test or customers request flies that look like they have a lot of potential. Case-in-point was a recent order for flies that required the use of dust mop segments for the body. The flies were so fast and easy to tie we ended up replacing some of our favorite patterns with flies tied with the dust mop segments. EX: The Dusty Zonker is now our go-to streamer pattern for waters near our cabin in central Idaho. Watch Fly Tyer magazine for an in depth look at this interesting material in a future issue. Anyway, somehow I've gotten off topic. Sorry. Back to the IFFF Awards program: It's only for those people interested measuring their fly tying skills. It's definitely not for everyone and was never intended to be. Take care & ...

Hi Old Hat, Love that fly just as it is. Good job! Take care & ...

You've already gotten several good comments. The only thing we can say is "great job!" Take care & ...

Hi Stippled Popper, No realistic flies in the plans for any of the awards levels. The only flies I've seen suggested for the next two levels are fishing flies like the Parachute Adams, Deceiver or hair-wing Blue Charm. Take care & ...

Hi, All of the suggestions are good, valuable tips. Add this one to the mix if you wish. We spray our tubing with Tuff Film (from art supply store) or with Krylon clear semi gloss from Ace Hardware, Lowe's or Home Depot. They both do a good job of holding the woven braid together while tying. Take care & ...

Hi group, Clear Cure Goo is our favorite but it is farily expensive. It sets up under a UV light. Take care & ...

Hi Guys, The Mustad hooks for the different lengths discussed so far are as follows (with possible substitutes): 1. 9671 (2x long) Eagle Claw 63, Tiemco TMC 5262, Daiichi 1280 (is 2x long but dry fly weight) 2. 9672 (3x long) Eagle Claw 58, Kamasan B-830, Tiemco TMC 5263, Daiichi 1720 3. 9674 (4x long) VMC 9148, Daiichi 2220, Gamagatsu S11-4L2H There are many other options available but those are few you might look at. Also if you are interested the Mustad 38941 (3x long, sproat) and the Mustad 79580 (4x long, round) are a couple of others we noticed in our inventory. Take care & l...

We look at the program different than some of you might. No problem. It's not intended for everyone and not ment to tell you how to tie flies. The program was adopted from a similar program in the UK developed by the Fly Dresser's Guild. It is ment for those people who are interested in identifying their skill level and comparing it to other fly tiers. Whether you check the program out or not, have fun at the vise. AND winter is here and a darned good time to do so while restocking fly tying boxes. Take care & ...

Hi eide, That fly is stunning! Good job! Take care & ...

Hi pnptrapp, Yes, materials CAN be more difficult to find during some times of the years, especially items from harvested wild life. EX: Elk or deer is often less available throughout the year than calf hair might be. Blue Ribbon Flies (http://www.blue-ribbon-flies.com/) is a good source for deer, elk or moose hair especially during this time of the year. Take care & ...

Don't forget to check your local super market. Shopping bags make great scud backs or wing cases and dark green avocado bags make great caddis pupa bodies. OR Tyvek for wings is available at your local Post Office in the form of Priority Envelops. The list is almost endless and the search life consuming (well, sort of!). Take care & ...

When we tie for a customer we use what they request but when we tie for our own fishing we usually use whatever is left over or is readily available. Take care & ...

After receiving a pelt from a source outside our home, we ALWAYS freeze it for a couple of weeks. Then take it out of the freezer and let it thaw. After about 5 days put it in a microwave for about 30 seconds then freeze it again for a couple of weeks. After thawing it out a second time we put it in a zip-lock bag in a Rubber Maid box with a "no smell" moth unit inside (the kind you hang in a clothes closet). The freeze thaw process isn't so much to kill the bugs from the cold (but it does in some cases) but it is to simulate winter/spring in the bugs life so the eggs start to grow/hatch after the first freeze thaw. The microwave does in most eggs starting to hatch and the last freeze is "just because!" <G> Take care & ...

Hi guys, Here is a YouTube link to Halliday's grandson tying the Adams. It is in 3 parts; we found it quite interesting. Take care & ...

Hi, Get permission to use the photograph and when you do use the picture give credit. EX: XYZ Fly - Photo by Al Beatty (use the correct name of course). If you are unable to get permission then tie the fly and photograph it yourself. Take care & ...

Hi NHMatt, You've already gotten some great "fly-balance suggestions." Let us add one more and that is tail length and material used. If you are doing a standard grizzly/brown mixed hackle fiber tail it should be long enough to balance with the wing/hackle. Usually that length is equal to the complete hook but it does vary from tier to tier. A trick we often use on Adams tails is to mix grizzly hackle fibers with fox-squirrel tail fibers (go sparse on the squirrel tail fibers). The squirrel tail fibers are a bit heavier than hackle and also often stiffer than hackle and provide better support. As already stated, a picture would be great to get a sense of what the problem might be. Take care & ...

Looking good! Take care & ...

Hi Ed, Thanks for your kind comments. The check is in the mail! <G> Take care & ...

Looking Good! You should be pleased with the results. Take care & ...

Hi group, Just about any brand of dubbing will work on Stimulators OR you can also use strands of yarn available in many stores. The 4-strand type seems to work best for us after separating the strands of course. We use Double Magic dubbing (based on the LaFontaine Quick Fingers Dubbing) on our LaFontaine style Double Wing flies so we naturally also use it on our Stimulators because we have a good inventory of the product available. The two patterns are similar in design but we seem to have better luck fishing the Double Wings. Take care & ...

Hi group, As already stated saddles have a narrower range of sizes while capes have a wider range. We tie almost all of our commercial flies using saddles because we can purchase by size. With a cape we usually have left over sizes in the very high and low ends of the scale. If you have a use for the wider range of sizes we would recommend tying with capes but be aware you have more larger feathers than you do smaller. We think your best purchase of dry fly hackle is packets of Whiting 100s because you can select the sizes you want with no waste. We put packets of the 100s in our travel tying kits. For our day-to-day work we work right out of a saddle pelt. Take care & ...

Hi flytire, We don't think it's a violation as far as the functionality of the fly goes. From there, beauty is in the eye of the beholder though often other tiers will view a trimmed natural wing as an indicator of tying skills (or lack of skills). You have to make the choice. Take care & ...

We use two dubbing pickers, 1) a 9mm gun cleaning wire brush and 2) two short sections of 14 gage multi-stranded wire (like for lamp cords) with about a half-inch of the strands exposed. Then we tape the two sections together (to form the handle) to make a larger wire picking brush (our favorite dubbing picker). Take care & ...

Hi group, We've used Whiting Hackle since it first hit-the-market and think it is the best. In the early 2000's Al was Whiting's marketing director and an inside look at Whiting production only solidified our belief that Whiting Products are the best. Today many years later (as happy customers) we still maintain that belief. We think the best Whiting Value is their saddle hackle AND the Hebert/Miner product line. Take care & ...

Hi group, We've used the LAW rakes for many years (since the mid 90s). They are awesome! Take care & ...