TOMMY TROUT

I know Steve Winters from "Soggy Bottoms". He has very good foam for poppers and whatever. The foam is very dense, lots of colors, and at a fair price. He also sells cutters for your drill. You can use these to drill out poppers. The foam from sandels is very good as well. You can find foam in all kinds of places if you keep your eyes open for it. Good luck!

I"ve done many of the things posted already.One thing i stupidly did was to burn the super glue off of my bodkin with my face above it. DO NOT DO THIS! My eyes burned for a very long time and i think i coated them with glue fumes! Luckly there seems to be no permant damage but i think i got lucky.

Beautifull fly sparkle minnow. Well thought out and very well tyed. Alot of fish will be making a mistake biteing on that.

First thing i would do is see if there is a fly tying class being offered close by. Usually these are taught by local experts and not only will you learn about tying different flies you will be able to get info. about the fishing and where to go. Another thing i would do is visit your local fly shops or sport shops and pick their brains. Good luck!

I just want to say "WOW". Great flies and great photography. There is a lot of talented fly tyers in this forum. One thing i would"nt have minded seeing with each fly would be the hook size and the name of the fly. Smaller hooks are harder to ty on as we all know and would consider this when chosing the best fly. I would like to see the name just because i like names of flies. Just suggesting not complaining. i think i read someone mentioning Will as the one who sets this up, Great Job!

Caddis number 1 (Because they are around the most) and HEX is number 2 (Because they can make me lose sleep just thinking about those huge fish making those loud noises slurpping them down)

Welcome I hope to share some ideas and technichs on float tubbing and warm water fishing.

There are different ways of doing this.I would say the best way for me was to get a Borger Color System. You take this along with you fishing and catch a sample of what you want to ty. You hold the insect up to the different colors to find the right match then write this down. The colors are numbered so you just write the number down. This also comes with a measuring device, so you can get the poportions correct, wing length, tail lengh, body length, and thorax. It does come with tips and dirrections and when you buy dubbing some of them have the Borger Color number on them. Capturing samles and taking them to your tying bench is another way, but colors change quickly. This is why the color system works so well. Looking at pictures is not the best way but it can give you an idea. I hope i helped you. Good Luck!

Thank you all for your replys!

Thanks Toneloc for the repy and info.. May you find great fishing sucess!

This is by far the best fly that i have ever fished with in my 20 plus years of fly fishing. I use this fly for everything, even ice fishing for gills, perch, crappies and bass. Oh, notherns love it to. All fish love this fly a lot of the time. Honestly there are times i won"t fish it because it"s to dam easy to catch fish! I know that sounds far fetched but it"s true. Be warned though like any thing the fly has to be fished correctly and where the fish are. Fish are fish and do"nt feed all the time. This is my favorite Great Lakes,warm water, cold water,lake,river or stream fly! Wow you would"nt think i fished anything else, but i do. I get bored easily fishing the same fly all the time so i fish a lot of different flys as well. Tanks for a great fly Sparkle Minnow!

Nice pictures! thanks for taking the time. How effective is this fly? How is your percentage on hook-ups? How and when do you fish this fly? These are some questions i have had about this fly that i have had scince the first time i have seen it some years ago. If you could help me out with these answers i would much appreciate it.

Hi everyone, i just wanted to let you know about my T.U. chapters Cabin Fever Day! You can get all the info. on our web site http://www.foxvalleytu.org. Craig Mathews is our main speaker. He was just voted Fly Fisherman of the year by Fly Fishing Magazine. Darrel Tolliver is our guest speaker. I also will be tying there along with about a dozen other tiers. Hope to see you there. March 19, 2005.

Nice fly. How about the (Red Adams)

The one thing i can tell you is observation! Approch this type of fishing as you would trout. smallies that live in a river system feed on the same things as the trout do. All kinds of nymps should work well. I have caught smallies when they were taking tricos on the surface. This was common as there was a hatch every morning and the smallies would pod up and cruse around sipping rafts of tricos. I have this on video as well. On another river i would see swarms of caddis flies, but it was"nt until the second year of fishing i decided to try a caddis pupa with a caddis wet combo. (WOW) they liked it. That same evening fish started to rise, previously i thought these were sheephead not smallies. I thought what the hey and put on an Elk Hair caddis. (BINGO). I hope this gets you thinking and observing, i belive this is the key, at least for me. good luck!

I have been tying flys for a lot of years and have bought a lot of diapointments with my hard earned money. I saved up for over 2 years so i could finally get a grade 1 metzs hackle. i got it from Dan Baileys in MT., it sucked! It had dandruff and the stems broke when you wound them. Now at this time metz was it, the best. I sent it back and they sent me another piece of crap! I still have most of that cape today some 15 years later. I still bought metz as they were the best, but only if i could see it first. I have a lot of metz necks today, but prefer to ty with whiting hackle mostly. The first time i saw and used whiting saddles i was in love! Ihave a lot of these! I have not bought a dissapointment yet! For a flytyer like me just handling such magnificant hackle is heaven. I can"t say enough about whiting. You may not know this but they donate a huge amount of hackle to organizations! As a member of T.U.,i have gotten hackle from them for the cost of shipping for our first cast program. This is a company that belives in our youth. Anyways, i know that everbody has there likes and dislikes, but if you have"nt tried whiting, give it a try.

Thanks for the great info.

My WebpageI AM GLAD FOR THIS FORUM BECAUSE I DO A LOT OF FLOAT TUBBING AND PONTOONING. I HAVE SOME LEAKS IN SOME OF MY TUBES. I HAVE PUT THEM IN A TUB, I HAVE BROUGHT THEM DOWN TO THE LAKE, AND I STILL HAVE TROUBLE FINDING THE LEAKS? SOMEONE MENTIONED SOAP. I DID"NT USE ANY. COULD THIS HELP FIND THE HOLES? I REMMEMBER WHEN I HAD A TIRE TUBE FIXED ONCE THE GUY PUT LIQUID DISH SOAP ON THE TIRE THEN PUT IT IN THE WATER. YOU COULD SEE THE SOAP BUBBLES CLEARLY. I COULD SURE USE SOME ROCK SOLID ADVICE ON THIS AS IT IS VERY FUSTRATING TO HAVE A LEAKY TUBE.

Has any one heard of the coffey sparkle minnow? I have heard that this fly catches anything that swims and has accounted for more trouphy size fish than any fly ever tyed.

I guess there are pros and cons of both necks and saddles. I personally perfer saddles now days. if for instance i"m tying a half dozen size 12"s, i just need one saddle hackle of that size. Also if i ty alot of a certain size range i can by a saddle with the bulk of the hackles in the size range that i"m likley to use. the quality of saddles today is unbeliveable! When you buy a cape, you get all sizes and end up not using a lot of it, at least that has been my experiance. The whiting 100 pack is a good deal, but if you ty a lot i would get a larger quantity. They sell them in quaters, halves and whole saddles. You can also specify a size range when you buy these. No, the hackles prbably all won"t be exactly in the size range, but a lot closer than a neck. JUST MY 2 CENTS. Good Luck!

The best advice given, was to get some instruction! This will shorten your learning curve and make fly tying less fustrating and more enjoyable.

[i have but one life to live, i might as well spend it getting flies out of trees] Well it looks like another web site to read and interact with. I just registered to this site. Thank god i have some thing like this in the winter. I ice fish, ty flies and teach fly tying in the winter, but having some thing like this will sure help me with the fly fishing jones. So i am looking forward to being part of this forum. I have been tying flies for around 20 years. I love to ty flies because of the purpose of their use.