rmbrad

My tying went to heck in a hand basket over the last couple of weeks. Holidays and all. I am now fairly well snowed in, and will get back to it. I don't know if I should do this as a follow up question, or start a new thread in one of the forums. I saw a framed shadow box of flies. This was a fairly small (10" x 12") box. There was a painted ceramic rainbow trout in the center box (2"x3"), and 6 or 8 flies around the edge. The one that I saw was larger then "tie tack, or lapel pin" size. I know that I have seen these small painted ceramic fish figures in one of my catalogs. Now that I am interested in finding these things, I can't find the catalog, or listings on the internet. Do any of you know where I might find these?

I don't want to step on any toes here since I am also fairly new to the forum, and just learning the ins and outs. I can't help you with the vice since I am not familiar with these other then seeing them in the stores. Dr. Slick makes a nice set of tools that should work very well for a beginner. There are several on line stores that I use. One is Angler's Workshop http://www.anglersworkshop.com/ . They have a fairly extensive fly tying section. They are also extremely helpful if you need to call them. The people that answer the phone are very knowledgeable about the products they sell. Come to think of it, since we now have a number of stores within 25 miles of me, Angler's is the only on line store I use. Hope this helps. I am sure there will be other replies by guys with much more experiance then me.

I can't seem to get the pictures to show up on the message, so here is the direct links to them: http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e333/rmbrad/Flys/PTN3.jpg , and http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e333/rmbrad/Flys/PTN4.jpg . I really didn't know how bad the head looked until I saw it in the picture. Did I mention that I wear Bi-focals, and still can't see the thread?

I have been having computer problems over the last couple of days. I lost several of the folders in my email program, and yesterday lost another 6 months of saved email. I did get a couple of good pictures of one of my flies, and was really excited about posting them. Now I can't log into my photobucket account, and one of the folders I lost had my username and password stored in it. I will get them posted as soon as I can get back into this account. Is there a total file size, and pixel limit on this site for pictures?

This is going to be a Multi-part question. I use to tie a lot of flys, but was never good at it. The flies caught fish, but never looked as good as those I was trying to immitate. I was never able to get the proportions right. I stopped fishing about 20 years ago, even thought I have built a number of fishing rods during this time. I have recently started fishing again, and started tying again. One of the things that I always wanted to do was tie some really good flies and have them framed in a "shadow box". I have been trying to tie a decent Bead Head Pheasant Tail Nymph. I have some pictures of one that isn't too bad ( for me). I would like to send some pictures of this fly, and get some input as to what I am doing wrong. I am also thinking the framed flies should have a theme. I would like to do one that is Western wet flies, and one that is Western dry flies. I already know that 2 of the flies in the wet fly box will be the Pheasent Tail Nymph, and the Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear. I am looking at some Classic flies that will be in the 12 to 18 size. Any suggestions you can provide for the other flies would be greatly appriciated. I know that 3 of the flies in the Dry Fly box will be an Elk Hair Caddis, a Humpy, and a Musquito. These are patterns that I am familiar with. I always have trouble with wings. I started tying the Humpy with Polypro wings because it was easier. What other classic dry flies wuld you recommend for this shadow box? I don't know what the rules are for posting pictures of flies on this web site. any help with this would be greatly appreciated.