robow7

A good friend of mine was fortunate enough to harvest a larger buck a few days ago and was kind enough to pass along the tail. Unlike so many buck tails that you purchase commercially, this one has really long hair and will allow for some very nice length Clousers, Thunder Creeks, and other bass and pike streamers. Hopefully my buddies who like to trap will come thru for me as well. Ha

I can feel your pain as I tie a lot of streamers and there is no substitute for having the actual hook in hand. May I just interject one thought, somewhat related and that is, many feel, including Kelly Galloup, that any hook longer than 3x often has reduced hook holding power as the shank becomes long enough so as to increase leverage and can be more easily pulled out. YMMV

I fish mostly smallmouth but in clearer water, I start with with more natural and earth tone colors along with white (too many baitfish are white). More stained water, definitely white, chartreuse, or black which show up better. But.... if I see them hitting short in clear water or putting on a bump and flash show, I won't hesitate to tie on a really bright fly, chartreuse, yellow, etc. which at times will trigger more takes.

Oh how I wish I could get 12 years out of a pair of wading boots. If I can get 3 years of hard use, I'm happy. Like you, I'm trying to get this current pair to last a few more weeks and then they can see the trash. Shoe Goo is another thing I've repaired boots with to get a little more use but tough to beat JB Weld if it will hold to the materials.

Also, a friend of mine who used to target very large bluegill swore by a large Prince Nymph in size 10 or 8.

Two of my very favorites, excellent for so many species http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns4.asp?page=2 http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns4.asp?page=19

I can't believe no one hasn't posted one of the many fly tying "Materials clip or dubbing loop clips" from Stonfo et al vs a snack bag clip at a few cents

I like the fly. Do the mallard feathers get fouled up very often with either hook ?

Well I tied up one of the pine squirrel snakes and it fished quite well today. Short 2" continuous strips and that tail demonstrates a nice snake like movement that stays on top. I didn't fish it long but caught several with the largest of the day, a fat 18.5" that sucked it down. Thanks for the inspiration.

I like your creations and want to hear how you do with that segmented cut circle foam snake. What about a foam popper body head and a thin piece of pine squirrel tied in the rear ? Yes, I know the pine squirrel will sink but if moved quickly enough, it might slide around near the top. It might be worth a try for the smallies.

There are a million different ideas on what constitutes an ideal bass leader (and I've probably tried most of them) but basically what I've found that works for me after chasing smallies for a few decades is shown below. This keeps it relatively simple and doesn't contain too many knots. Like Lefty, I use Berkley Big Game for most of my leaders. 4 ft of 30 lb test 3 ft of 20 lb test 2 - 2.5 ft of 10 lb test

Simple but oh so effective. Well done

A Road Runner : )

Should have saved that beauty for the 17th

I'm so glad smallmouth aren't that picky.

Oh yea, stealing the above foam wing divider for sure.

Mark, take a look at the handle, whether it is straight or bent. By far most have the standard head.

Do any of you Regal vise owners have the Big Game vise head and do you feel it could replace the more standard jaws if you spent most of your time tying size 1/0 to 12 with the majority of the work in the size 1 to 4 range. I know what Regal's recommendations are for each head but wonder what your feelings are on the Big Game head and can it really pull off the range that they state, 5/0 to 22. As always, thank you for your input.

Thanks Silver Creek for that wonderful tip, one of those "why didn't I think of that". And yea, love my Renzetti tool caddy. And above, nice out of the box thinking on that bobbin hanger !

Are you thinking Shabbona ?

I too have owned my Regal for over 20 years and exactly one time did it "spit" a hook on me, and of course it was my fault for not seating the hook properly. I'm not saying it's the best vise out there but I do think this gets way over played. Now, I will admit that I spend most of my time tying on larger hooks and rarely smaller than 14's so maybe that's why I have been so lucky. As for me, a vise that I will never buy again, was an older HMH, it wouldn't hold larger hooks worth a poop though I was working within their stated acceptable range. It was great for smaller hooks and I know others that never had a problem with their larger hooks slipping but I was not that fortunate. As far as true rotary, you need not spend more than a Peak IMO.

In opposition to Jack, I have noticed on many utube videos of people tying flies, that some will just continue to wrap and wrap and wrap and then wrap some more when only a couple turns of well placed thread would have been more than adequate to accomplish the task at hand.

When I was a small boy we fly fished for bull heads in our local waters using a Mcginty pattern wet fly. But like others here, I no longer fish for them specifically but not infrequently I do catch them while fishing for .other species.

Yea, some of the bucktails were nice and full but the hair was too short for the wing I needed. Others had had the length but were really sparse and were not going to allow for very many flies. Some were as you mentioned, all the hair extremely crinkly and some were just total garbage that should never have made into a bag unless noted as a "second" quality. Hate to buy natural materials online.

Couldn't agree more. Normally I would have a chance to go thru all the capes in stock (or any natural material for that matter) and select the one most suited to my needs but our normal supplier isn't allowing that to happen at this time due to covid. Yesterday I was at both Bass Pro and Cabelas, looking for a certain colored bucktail and luckily they had a bunch that I could go thru until I found one that was suitable. As I went thru them, I was thinking to myself, thank God I didn't have to go mail order for this because my chance of being satisfied with that tail would have been minimal.