VARick

Give this Texas forum a look... they have plenty of info on saltwater fishing.. fly as well as spin/bait. Texas Kayakers

siestafred I sure will. I'll be heading down to FL in a couple of weeks to fish for specs and reds. I have a couple of places that have worked well for me and I seem to always avoid the skunk if I hit at least one of them. Rick

FL H2O Glad I could point you to a site you enjoy. ASWF is a great site for ideas, some of the video clips have been a great source of learning for me. I get down to the Tampa area 3-4 times a year to fish the flats and hoping to hit some Pompano this June from the beach. I tie a slightly different version of the mole crab pattern and we'll see if I can entice a Pompano or two with it. Rick

Try this one.. it is a mole crab pattern.. very similar to a sand flea. At least in the pics I've seen of a Mole Crab vs Sand Flea. Holey Moley pattern Rick

Let me chime in and say well done also, nothing like a care package after work. I'm looking forward to trying a few out in FL for spec trout on the flats. Rick

I would also be interested in a saltwater swap.. tho I'm targeting inshore Florida.. redfish/spec trout/snook. rick

You can also check out Ken Abrams website for questions on flys that are productive on the Cape.. Ken Abrams Striper Moon Deep Clousers will also work. There have been some threads lately about a Tuesday night tying get together and some have pics. Rick

Mine are finished and will ship out tomorrow. Rick

Hopefully the pic will upload. All are #2's (I'm a saltwater guy) The top fly is a standard clouser (3" flourscent colors) Middle fly is tied in the hollow style not much tension to keep the flare down(4" length) Bottom fly also hollow style.. some tension to flare out (5" length) I can size down if everyone likes Rick

What size is everyone tying? I was playng around with #2's (I fish saltwater).. I can size down if needed. rick

I'm ok with 13.

I'm in

I received the flys last night. Excellent job by everyone. I don't see how you guys can even see something that small .. let alone tie. Thank you mrjim for hosting the swap, now to put all of them under a magnifier and see what I can learn for techniques. Rick

I would be interested as a beginner tyer. I know that Yahoo web cams can have mulitple viewers, and would think that MSN messenger would be similar. The drawback is bandwidth of the host/instructor and whether the "host" can support the feed. I know at times my cable will fluctuate and I can get a good feed and then it gets choppy and back to good again. The more data you put into a feed .. ie larger screen size and voice the more load you put on the hosts connection. Cable usually has it setup in blocks for bandwidth to each subscriber.. ie a neighborhood is allocated so much and the more people you have logged in within that block dictates how the feed will run. DSL is a set bandwidth for ALL subscribers and the limiting factor is the connection and distance to the main hub/feed. Something that may help is try a test .. say 6 viewers with the host and see how it goes. If it becomes choppy then have someone drop out until the feed is suitable for the class. The feed may also be limited to an individual in that somewhere along the line the student may have a high useage in their area and thus the fee may appear to be choppy and not due to the instructors feed capacity. I hope that makes sense. Another option is that an instructor just use the webcam software to make a movie and share that with those interested in the lesson being offered. Rick

I have a Waterskeeter as well and had trouble with the anchor system as configured. I ended up running the line down the middle of the boat and under my storage platform behind the seat. Not the best setup with my kayak anchor and I'll see about redoing next time I have the boat out and get some pics hopefully. Rick

I also have a kayak.. and a pontoon boat (Waterskeeter). I'm looking forward to hear how other outfit their craft .. tips etc. Rick

mrjim, Mine are in the mail today. One extra one for you as I was looking around to see what I might tie for the guys at work who are providing me with pheasant,grouse and duck feathers. This appeared to be an easy tie (it is) and looks very fishable. Rick

I printed out the instructions.. I need to redo my toe tags as I left off my real name, not a big deal.. will let me kill some time at work. I am going to re-tie some of my flies... interesting lesson learned yesterday when I had two unravel on me while trying to spread the hackle evenly. This has been a learning experience, now I wish I had smaller hands and better eyesight. I will have mine completed and mailed in the next few days. Rick

I would be interested in joining since I'm a new tyer. My interests are mostly saltwater.. tho I have two guys at work who have started supplying me with grouse and pheasant feathers in return for some trout flys. So I could do either something simple in the trout realm or saltwater. Let me know which would be more acceptable. Thanks Rick

Let me add something as a newbie. I am a very basic beginner and have not found any local classes (I checked with the local Orvis store so far). I need to check with any local clubs. I would be happy to pay for a class(s). My interests are for saltwater tying at this time. As a previous shop owner (not fishing related) I found almost the same thoughts and experiences as posted above. People will always ask for information/advice about something you have knowledge about (my early years it was electronics and electrical work). A tactic I learned as an electrician was to pose the question to a fellow worker after being approached to do something. "Hey Joe.. what would you charge to install 3 outlet boxes in a basement workshop?" This being asked in front of the person asking you to do the work. This put it out there that you don't work for free, while not directly putting your rates out there. If they were willing to pay you it was then discussed. After opening a hobby shop and now bringing what use to be my hobby into a business it really rang true about the "how do you do this?". A lot of it was just plain good practice. However when I was selling a product that I built for racing purposes I never gave away details of what I did to make something faster/better. A customer said it best once to another customer who was hounding me for information one day. "Do you work for free Charlie? Gee but you are expecting Rick to work for free". That saying quickly spread to the club members. I didn't lose any sales... the questions just decreased for the items that I personally built. I however had to make sure my club customers got the pick of the really good stuff for racing. I also became a pit crew for my customers when we attended a Regional or National race. When you help a customer bring home a trophy.. later payment is never in question for services you provide. There is never a good answer on how to handle friends/customers/clubs when it comes to being compensated for your time and knowledge. Not much more said than has already been covered. Hopefully the newbie has not worn out his welcome before it starts. Rick