trailryder

It's possible that you got bad jaws. I had a similar problem with a Dyna-King Barracuda that I bought in the early 2000's. I fought with that vise for about 5-6 years including sending it back twice. This was the standard jaws and I had the majority of my problems when tying on size 8-12 hooks. The hooks were too small to fit in one of the pockets and the tips of the jaw would not hold tight. May not apply but just a thought as it was a problem I went through a number of years ago. Jamie

I was around 20 years old, mid 90's, and found out I had an uncle who lived in Coeur d'Alene who fly fished. We were going on a family vacation with around 30 or 40 of the family all descending on Jackson Hole and I decided that it was something I would love to try. I went and bought a beginners fly rod and reel outfit by South Bend and went ahead and purchased a fly tying kit along with a book. Alas, there was no fishing on that trip as there was no time but the damage was done. After cutting my teeth on the local bass and sunfish population in Northeast Kansas I have fished exclusively with the fly rod ever since. I started tying because where I live, if you want a fly, you either have it mailed to you or tie it yourself. I like gear and immersing myself in whatever hobby I am into at the time so this seemed a natural extension. I enjoyed tying but it was a means to an end to support my fishing hobby. As I have gotten older I find myself enjoying tying more and more. I particularly enjoy tying trout flies. Something about the size and materials trying to imitate bugs fascinates me. I least enjoy tying large warmwater flies, which is a problem because that is 100% of the fishing anywhere near me. Hence my trout boxes which are used maybe a couple of times a year are overstuffed while my warmwater boxes are continually running low. Jamie

I have worked for a class 1 railroad for the last 15 years. First 10 as a conductor/trainman and the last 5 as a locomotive engineer. Also, spent almost 4 years prior to this as a clerk for another railroad.

I have tied and used this pattern before and it worked well for me on bass and panfish. If I remember I tied them smaller in black as just a trial, size 6 or 8 something like that, with a black foam body and if I remember right just bucktail and a little flash for the tail. They basically act as a Dahlberg Diver without the time commitment to tie them, so if you lose one tossing into cover it's no big deal. Now that I have seen this post I plan on tying some more cause I had forgot about them but I did enjoy fishing them and for a bonus they are easy and quick to tie and modify. Jamie