Mark Vickers

QUOTE (sore arm @ Feb 17 2005, 10:21 AM) Mark I saw myself popping that out of a Lake Erie cromers mouth the minute I picked it up. Sore arm, let me know if you actually catch one on that. I'd be really happy to hear that. Heck, if you can catch one on it, I'd send you a few more.

Got my flies in the mail!!! Thanks mrjim for hosting this. I've been in a couple of swaps now, and I'll say that you all might be a bunch of beginners, but these are the best flies I've gotten so far in a swap. I'd be happy to swap with you all any time although I doubt you'll be able to call yourselves newbies anymore!

That was better than any book I've ever picked up on fly patterns. And just like a book, it took me almost two hours to get through all the flies and categories...

What an effort. If anyone deserves it, you've earned the cane rod.

I dropped my flies in the mailbox this morning. Okay, as for a couple of questions that mrjim asked: I've been tying since June 2004. I got a gift certificate for Angler's Workshop for Father's Day and promptly took up trying to tie flies for the salmon and steelhead fishing that I do here in the Pacific Northwest. How to fish the Red Ant: This is best fished with the standard steelhead wet fly swing. For those of you who don't know what that is, basically, you stand on one side of a river, cast 45 degrees across the river, throw in an upstream mend, and then let the current carry the fly across the river. Take two steps downstream, and repeat. The theory is to cover almost every inch of the river with the wet fly running 6-18 inches from the bottom. Often times, a sinktip line is necessary to get the fly down.

I'm not impressed with the stuff. I won't be buying it again. Its pretty sparse and flimsy. The Whiting Spey hackle is a heck of a lot cheaper than anything else out there, but my preference has been that if I need cheap spey hackle (for fishing flies), wide schlappen has fit the bill much better.

My flies are all done. I got in a groove last night and ripped out a whole bunch of 'em. I had a really good time tying this pattern. I'll probably tie a bunch more for myself to use on the local rivers for winter steelhead. Here is the recipe: Red Ant (steelhead) Hook - Gamakatsu #4 salmon steelhead Tag - Fine oval silver tinsel Tail - Brown hackle fibers Butt - Black ostrich herl Body - Red floss Hackle - Brown hackle wrapped as a collar Wing - Red squirrel tail Thread - Black Its a pretty straightforward pattern to tie. I'm a slow newbie, plus I wanted to make these nice for you folks, so it took me about 20 minutes each. After you tie a few, they go a little faster. I hope you all enjoy them. I'll pack them up and get them in the mail in the next couple of days.

I will be tying a steelhead Red Ant. I only got one tied today, but I'll be able to rip out the others this week and get 'em in the mail by this weekend.

I'm in. I need all the practice I can get. I'll think about what I'm going to tie and post on here in the next day or so. It'll probably be a steelhead fly of some sort.

Had mine just last week. Tying for the contest, I got a little burr on my finger while wrapping floss so I had a few loose floss fibers. After I had completed the fly, I held a match up to it to "melt" away the loose floss and lit the whole fly. Two hours up in smoke in less than a second.

I've packed up my five rookie flies. They go in the mail first thing tomorrow morning! I'll say this, I had to go to the fly shop more than I'd like to admit for materials and tied dozens of flies before I got some that I was happy with. If nothing else, I'm a much better tyer than I was two months ago. Thank you for putting on the contest!

Right on! My newbie flies will be mailed out this weekend!

QUOTE (atroutbum2 @ Dec 12 2004, 07:51 AM) In the steelhead catagory, what determins if it belongs in the steelhead or great lakes catagory? Good question! Just what the heck is a Great Lakes salmon/steelhead fly style? I've heard a lot of references to egg patterns. Is that it?

Got my flies in the mail yesterday! Thank you all. This was my first swap through Flytyingforum. I'll definitely sign up for another based on the success of this one.

Artimus, got all the flies yet? I'm anxiously awaiting a big pile of flies. Rumours abound that a few winter steelhead are showing up in a local river!