neoFLYte

I had this idea, played with it in my head for a couple years while I built the rest of the house. Now it's time for my office space and I had to give it a shot. tied a few times with it and it seems to be working quite well. I even spun some deer hair bass bugs last night and really put it through it's paces which also showed the folly of the separator (light materials that can link together like hair and feathers will ultimately work their way out of it) so it's gone and the vac is hooked directly into the conduit. Since this video was made it has gotten it's own sound deadening box which makes it pretty unobtrusive.

 

Most people just don't understand but I know you guys will.... :drunk:

 

Central Vacuum System for your vise.

Great concept! With a little tweaking, you could probably market it!

Maybe I'm alone in this problem, but I sort of doubt it. I've been tying some beadhead zebra midges lately to stock my midge box, and floss does not seem to mix well with my beat up hands. I tie in the floss (4-strand spooled floss), and as I am wrapping it to form the body, it keeps getting stuck and frizzed by the little nicks and rough patches on my fingers. I wind up with a body that has a lot of little frizzy strands sticking off instead of a clean wrapped floss body. It's irritating the bejesus out of me! Is there any way to avoid this? Is there a better floss body material out there? Should I be wrapping the floss bodies with the floss spool on a bobbin instead of by hand? I doubt the fish will mind it too much, but they aren't looking as clean as I want them to look.

Might also try using hackle pliers... but sounds like you have a rotary vise and I think that would be the easiest way to go.

While we're at the discussion of "next to impossible" dubbings, angora goat dubbing makes me want to rip through my room's drywall...

 

I just tried some wiggle dub for the first tme the other night and had a heck of a time with the rubber in it.

 

I have been using Seal, Angora, synthetic, etc.... for years, and I tell ya, I HATE that wiggle dubbing. I have found it VERY hard to work with and have had nothing but NIGHTMARES with the stuff since I bought it.

 

One small hint for the beginner. Learning how to do dubbing if you have never been shown can be a bit tough, try doing a dubbing loop, it makes applying dubbing easier until you learn how to spin it onto thread.

 

Dubbing loops.

 

Rick

I agree with the other dubbing loops comments. With a little practice, you can loop-dub just about material. BUT... the effect is not quite the same. Stick with it, though! You'll get it all figured out!

Re dubbing loops, I did actually buy a dubbing whirler at the same time as the dubbing which is perhaps why the dealer sold me the seal fur.

 

The technique that I learned for making loops was: wax one side of the loop, distribute the dub along the waxed side (perpendicular to the thread) and twirl it. However the fibers do not lie down along the length of the thread (unlike a single thread method). Using a loop I get a much more wooley look that I have to trim back with scissors. Does this sound right?

 

PS I assume you can use a dubbing loop wherever you use normal single thread dubbed lines?

I came up with the two poppers I recently posted with the Rio Grand Cichlid to put in shadow boxes and be donated to help support my local fly fishing club during our annual conclave.

 

Here are the others I've done over the last five or so years along with a couple of others. Usually do a few of each so I have one for my own collection.

Posolutely bah-root-e-full!

Isn't this the sign of a true, authentic fly fisherman? I caught a small largemouth bass on a black woolly bugger I tied. It's a standard, run of the mill bugger, but I tied it, and the fish liked it. Sorry I don't have a picture, but I had to share this. Being new at this tying "thing", it's very satisfying.

Excellent! My first was a small bluegill on a wooly bugger. Quite a thrill!

Today I got a very confusing E-mail from JStockard. I received an E-mail about an new order which I never ordered. The "new" order ( which I never ordered) is the same as my old one that I ordered 3-4 weeks ago and have received (very pleased). It says that the "new" order is all ready in route. So my question is am I being charged for something I never ordered?

 

Has anyone ever got the same Email 4 weeks later?

I agree with the other posts here. J Stockard has always been super straight with me. J Stockard is my #1 source for anything I want/need. I go to other sites to buy only when J Stockard doesn't carry whatever it is.

Tying flies is a hobby for me. A dozen flies in a day would be a lot for me. Even so, I like for my hobby tools (toys?) to be hassle-free. I just replaced my Peak Rotary with a Griffin Mongoose. In my opinion, the biggest benefit of the Peak was the rotary function, which works quite well. My first vise, and still my alternate, was a Griffin Montana Pro. I prefer the hook holding power of the Griffin and the hook access of the Griffin over the Peak. I will say that I think the Peak's pedestal is a little better than the Mongoose pedestal. Both vises have 3/8" stems, so I use the Peak pedestal with the Mongoose. Is the Griffin the best vise ever? I have no clue. It's certainly not the prettiest. :-)

just a few i tyed up about 6 months ago sorry it took so long to post all the pics but lost my sd card.

Nice flies! I'm curious. Do you find that adding the spinners makes these more productive?

It's been a good while since I've contributed any posts to the forum. I finished school a little over a year ago and got a decent, not great, but ok job and moved in order to work there. I've since bought a house, got married, lost my job and a whole array of other misfortunes have seemed to find their way to us. . . Needless to say, it's been rather depressing with not being able to find a job and having to worry about all of the daily stresses that go along with being unemployed.

 

A couple of days ago I finally got my "office" room cleaned out and all of my tying equipment back in order and where it could be used again. I spent the whole day today tying flies and it was nice to be able to get my mind off of all this stress. I tied several poppers and got back into the hang of spinning deer hair again...it's been way too long.

 

Well, I'm turning in for the night, just thought I'd share how tying really helped me ease the stress of my life for a day.

 

R

Ditto to the other replies. I know tying a few flies takes the edge off for me. I wish you the best in the job hunt.

Here "It" is! Not the prettiest but shes a keeper! :bugeyes:

It has a cicada-looking head. I think it's great!

You have a totally unique style!

You are too kind! :-)

I just wrapped up some scraps I has sitting here for the fun of it. Call it a little humor... very little. But I do like the Mongoose - and Griffin's hook-holding ability in general.

I just got my Griffin Mongoose vice. I really like it! Here is my first fly from it.

Here is the deal I mostly tie pike and bass flies, I recently bought 4 new bobbins from Gander Mountain and they are :bs: . Each and everyone of them keeps slicing though the thread. I also bought a ceramic bobbin and it is also a P.O.S. because the tube keeps opening up and sliding onto the thread.

 

My standard Cabelas bobbins didn't last very long, any suggestions without breaking the bank.

 

I have a big gift certificate to Cabelas so I would like to get them from there...And they are gonna need to stand up to alot of spun hair, I'm not tying anything delicate over here.

 

 

Thanks in advance

I really like the Umpqua Ergonomic.

You think the Humpy, Stimulator, Lefty's Deceiver, Irresistible, Griffith's Gnat, Hare's Ear, and Pheasant Tail are immoral? <just kidding>

Good lookin' fly! Better crimp that barb, 'cause you're gonna get tired of unhooking all those catches!

Understated elegance. To me, that is every bit as awesome as some of the over-the-top show flies seen here and elsewhere. Beautiful.

Nice looking flies! My first week's flies probably looked like hooks with hairy tumors on them. :-)

One "take it or leave it" comment. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I think one can benefit greatly by spending some time trying to duplicate some of the classic patterns seen here and elsewhere. A lot of the folks on this forum tie beautiful flies - some of which look very simple. They can be deceptively challenging. Anyhow, the point is that as you get better with the classics, your homegrown "best flies ever" will look even better.

Cheers!

neoFLYte

Austin TX

I have a question I have encountered every time I have tried tying a soft hackle fly.

The tying guide that came with my kit has great color photos and my fly looks just like the photo until I use the hackle pliers to wrap the hackle forward. The hackle in the photo is nicely spread out while mine is somewhat spread out it is more clumpy. Is their a difference in the quality of hackle or is my technique the cause or perhaps both?

 

 

there are a couple of thinks you need to do when tieing in and wraping these hackles

 

tie the hackles in by the tip,

 

fold the barbs so all the hackle barbs are coming off the hackle on the same side of the hackle stem. I just wet my fingers and stroke the feather so the barbs all face the same way, this is called folding the feather. i do this after i tie in the tip, its easier for me.

 

when wraping the hackle on the hookshank,make sure the hackle wraps are side by side, not one on top of the other.

also at the same time as wraping the hackle, be stroking the barbs back toward the hook bend, so your not traping any barbs under th hackle.

 

dont try to use too many wraps.

 

heres a video showing some of the things i mentioned,this one if for a fly called the goats toe.

http://www.youtube.com/user/DavieMcPhail#p/u/22/6vI8ATG92UY

 

there are tons of other davie mcphail videos, he shows many diffrent techniques, i suggest watching them all to see how he does things

This is the first I'd seen of David McPhail. Man, that dude can wrap some thread! I'll be watching the rest of his videos. Thanks!

A fellow and myself are scouring the internet for a fly we have only read mentioned in some articles here and there but we have not been able to find pictures.

 

The fly is a Bonbright. However it is NOT the more commonly known Saltwater Tarpon Fly. It is a Midge Pupa of sorts. It has been describes as follows:

 

"It's basically a chironomid tied with stripped purple quill tied in sizes 16-20 with a greyish tan dubbed thorax and a medium grey split duck wing case."

 

Fair enough. We are just looking for a picture. I've googled the crap out of this and followed for as far as I can see every lead with no picture to be found.

 

If anyone can help us with this it would be more than greatly appreciated. This damn thing is driving us nuts.

 

Thanks guys.

 

Tony

This one maybe? http://www.ifly4trout.com/flypatterns/purple_pupa.htm

Man! What a wonderful wife! :-)

I have a pair of curved tip and the ones that fit in your palm...both have dulled over the past couple of months, how do you sharpen.

 

Thanks....dave

I use my mouse and credit card. Sorry... couldn't resist. :-)

I few months ago I did some online research on knife sharpening. I saw some scissor-sharpening info along the way. You might see what you can find with Google or something similar.

utyer yep work on it

new member run! Run! Run as far as you can

seriously a 6 year old better than you -----Please!!!!!!!!! ??????????

go some where new or stop.......

 

 

I'm sorry but this post makes little to no sense....could you please try again?

No kidding.

It would be tough to do an apples-to-apples comparison, but very interesting if one could determine if the first fly was any better (or worse) at catching fish than the second one.

Take care!

neoFLYte

Austin, TX

It could be because of your thread twist. Periodically, spin your bobbin counter-clock wise to reverse this effect. If that doesn't work, I'd say it's defenitly your pressure. Any good fly tier gets to know his/her thread after repeated use!

 

 

Interesting point. I don't use Danville very often because I think it flattens too easily and I have to spin it to keep it from fraying. I have come to prefer UNI thread, even though it breaks on me from time to time. Maybe it breaks because I let it become too tightly spun. Thanks for the insight!

 

Flattens too easy? Heck thats the whole point. Danville is a flat smooth thread on purpose.....doesn't make for alot of bulk, makes smooth underbodies, and whip finishes like a dream (especially on the really tiny sizes). The 'flatness' is on purpose, and makes it a easy thread to work with IMO.

Absolutely! Danville is great thread if you need a flat thread. I can't remember having it break on me. I guess I should have qualified my statement with "for the flies I usually tie".

Cheers!

neoFLYte

Austin, TX